September 11th posed one of the biggest American tragedies of all time. In the precautionary world (we still somewhat live in), it became hard for America to forgive and eventually heal after such loss. Sport undoubtedly played a big role on healing American's in wake of the struggle, and a big moment I will never forget is Mike Piazza slamming one home against his rivals in the Atlanta Braves!
Baseball returning 10 days post the attack was a huge thing at my school and for everyone. Sports were so crucial in that latter part of 2001 and early 2002 as the country took a long time to recover and rebuild... people needed baseball and basketball to remove some of that anxiety that came with such a shock to the psyche.
It almost became America vs. the world at many points through the early 2k era, and any spark of human character was appreciated to the 'nth' degree.
Piazza was always one of the baseball players I knew grewing up as a kid.
I was never a Mets fan, but I loved his playstyle and thought his run on the Dodgers was awesome (although it didn't live up to expectation).
He was at 2 outs with 2 men on and his team was 2 down... so Mike slams that thing home and captures the lead and the eventual win for a Mets team playing against a rival at home!
It was America vs. the world at many points through the early 2k era, and any type of rivalry or human character shown by the hometeam seemed to be somehow correlated to American's internal struggle after the terrorist attacks.
Mike spoke once on the Home Run and September 11th saying:
"Many of you give me praise for the two-run home run on the first game back on Sept. 21 to push us ahead of the rival Braves. But the true praise belongs to police, firefighters, first responders, who knew they were going to die, but went forward anyway."
Can this be seen as Mike Piazza's greatest player moment? Do you have a sports story in a Post 9/11 world? Let's commemorate this day with inspiring sports moments. September 11th is a prime example of how sports helps people on their darkest days.
Looking forward to your shares, and thanks again for coming by!
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