NEW YORK -- Aaron Boone had been to the site of the World Trade Center before, standing near the intersection of Liberty and Greenwich Streets to gaze into the deep reflecting pools, which sit atop the site of the former Twin Towers and offer a sense of their enormous scale.
It wasn’t until Wednesday, when Boone accompanied many of his players and coaches on a guided tour of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, that the Yankees manager truly experienced the emotional weight and lasting legacies of a tragedy that reshaped the city.
“It was emotional, eerie, amazing,” Boone said on Thursday. “The thought that went into so many of the exhibits there was really impressive. It’s something I’m glad I got to do, and I actually plan on going back at some point. What they’ve done there is truly remarkable.”
Boone recalls the events of that afternoon vividly. He was in Chicago as an active player with the Reds, waking up for a game at Wrigley Field that would be postponed.
Many of Boone’s players were either in grade school -- Aaron Judge recalls seeing the events on television as he ate cereal in the kitchen of his Linden, Calif., home -- or not yet born.
Yankees rookie shortstop George Lombard Jr., who was born in 2005, said that understanding the stories behind Sept. 11 “gives you more to play for.”
“You feel a different connection to the city after,” Lombard said, “learning about some of that stuff and learning through the experience that so many people had to live through.”
Added left-hander Carlos Rodón: “That was my first time down there. It’s fairly heavy, especially in the moment, but beautiful as well.”
The Yankees began this year’s commemoration of Sept. 11 with visits to four FDNY firehouses: FDNY Engine 22 / Ladder 13 / Battalion 10 on the Upper East Side, FDNY Engine 4 / Ladder 15 in Lower Manhattan, FDNY Squad 18 in the West Village and FDNY Engine 54 / Ladder 4 / Battalion 9 in Midtown.
Subsequent events included a kit-packing with volunteers from Tuesday’s Promise, a blood drive at the New York Blood Center and a Sports Management Mentoring program with the NYPD Explorers youth group.
MLB will mark the 25th anniversary with a variety of tributes at each of the league’s 15 games on Friday, including a moment of silence, special in-game caps bearing a “We Shall Never Forget” side patch and a rendition of “God Bless America” during the seventh-inning stretch.
MLB Network will also premiere a new documentary, "When America Took the Field," on Thursday night at 10 p.m. ET.
“Twenty-five years ago, that’s a long time. That’s a generation,” said Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre, the Yankees’ skipper in 2001. “All of a sudden, baseball being a big part of my life, it was on the back burner. I realized that baseball had a job here, had a responsibility. The ‘NY’ on the cap was more than the Yankees. It represented more than the Yankees.”
The Yankees will host the Mets in the Bronx on Friday night, with pregame ceremonies scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Select alumni from the 2001 Yankees team are scheduled to participate in pregame ceremonies, which will recognize members of the NYPD, FDNY, Port Authority Police Department, Tunnel to Towers Foundation and Tuesday’s Promise (formerly known as Tuesday’s Children).
Current Yankees players will place a wreath beside the Sept. 11 monument in Monument Park. Internationally acclaimed opera tenor James Valenti will perform the National Anthem, and country recording artist Lee Greenwood will perform “God Bless the U.S.A.”
The ceremonial first pitches will be thrown by Brielle Saracini and her husband, Sean McGuire. Saracini’s father, Victor, was the captain of United Flight 175, which was directed into the South Tower, where McGuire’s father, Patrick, was working on the 84th floor.
The couple met two years later at Camp Better Days, which was established to provide support for children who lost a parent in the tragedy. They were married in September 2017.
“It’s going to be special,” Judge said. “It’s going to be a big day. It’s something that impacted not only a lot of New Yorkers, but the whole world and our whole country.”