Friday marks 25 years since the devastating terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
New York City, Washington D.C. and the country as a whole haven’t been the same since, but in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, it was baseball that played a key role in soothing a hurting nation.
The 2001 Fall Classic lived up to its name
The 2001 World Series featuring the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Yankees was a lasting moment in the sport, and not just because the city that suffered the most in the attacks was competing for what would have been a fourth straight World Series title and the fifth in six years.
The series was hotly contested all the way until Luis Gonzalez’s walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 gave the Diamondbacks the state of Arizona’s first title in any major professional sport.
But more than the action on the field, the country rallied around the World Series as a unifying force.
President George W. Bush even threw out the first pitch before Game 3, the first game of the Fall Classic played that year in New York City.
That series and the rest of the post-9/11 2001 season are the subject of MLB Network’s new documentary “When America Took the Field,” which debuted Thursday night and features former Dodgers like Joe Torre and Mike Piazza.
Dodgers fans, though, are likely to remember most the poignant remarks of the late, great Vin Scully, who directly addressed the tragedy when LA baseball resumed on Sept. 17, 2001, with the Dodgers facing off with the San Diego Padres.
Vin Scully encapsulates a national mood
Just six days after perhaps the worst moment in American history, Scully took time to address Dodgers fans and Americans as a whole.
“Good evening and welcome to Dodger Stadium. All of us have experienced a litany of emotions whether it would be shock, disbelief, and horror, followed by grief, mourning, and anger. All of us indeed have lost a lot. We’ve lost thousands of lives. We have lost some of our self confidence. We have lost some of our freedom and certainly, we have lost a way of life. The president of the United States has said it is time to go back to work and so, despite a heavy heart, baseball gets up out of the dirt, brushes itself off, and will follow his command, hoping in some small way to inspire the nation to do the same. All of the ball players in the major leagues are wearing the American flag. Out of patriotism, yes, out of love of country, yes, but more so out of duty and of courage and to pronounce a national firmness of will. God bless us in our efforts. God bless America.”
A quarter century later, Scully’s words still ring true.
The world has irrevocably changed since 2001, but whenever we face unimaginable hardship, we can still look to the diamond to find the strength to get back up out of the dirt.
