NEW YORK — Twenty-five years after Mike Piazza's home run helped heal a city, the police chief who watched it from a hospital bed met the Mets legend for the first time as MLB Network premiered its new documentary "When America Took the Field" at Citi Field on Thursday night. Chief Terri Tobin of the New York Police Department, a Queens-born Mets fan who spent over an hour evacuating survivors from Ground Zero before the South Tower fell and was hospitalized with injuries from the collapse, watched from her hospital bed ten days later as the Mets returned to Shea Stadium and Piazza went deep.
The film chronicles the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and how Major League Baseball stepped forward to help heal the nation. "We have those memories seared into our brains," Tobin said, seated alongside Piazza and other members of the 2001 Mets at the premiere. "But I will say, the glimmer of hope really came when Mike hit that home run." Executive produced by 2001 Mets first baseman Todd Zeile alongside Mark Leinweaver and Chris Wax, the documentary will air on MLB Network and stream on MLB.TV and MLB+ on Friday, Sept. 11 at 10 p.m. ET, Saturday, Sept. 12 at 10 a.m. ET and Sunday, Sept. 13 at 8 p.m. ET.
"When America Took the Field" features interviews with players including Ken Griffey Jr., Bernie Williams, Chipper Jones, Roger Clemens and Craig Biggio, managers Bobby Valentine and Joe Torre, former MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, and broadcasters Bob Costas, Joe Buck and Tom Verducci, plus extensive excerpts from a conversation between Zeile, Piazza, Al Leiter and John Franco. David Wright, who attended the premiere, was only 18 on Sept. 11 and had just finished his first Minor League season. "Putting that Minor League jersey on from then on, it felt different," he said. "Even though I had very little experience in New York, putting New York across my chest just meant more."
Beyond Piazza's home run and the Yankees' run to the World Series — which includes a memorable interview with Ray Sturm, the Secret Service agent who went undercover as an umpire during the World Series — director Andrew Brenner focused on families who looked to baseball for solace. Kenny Marino of Rescue 1, a specialized unit of the New York Fire Department, was one of the 343 firefighters who never made it home, and his wife Katrina sought comfort through his favorite player, Ken Griffey Jr. Brielle Saracini, whose father Victor was captain of United Airlines Flight 175 which struck the South Tower, wrote to her favorite player Derek Jeter days after his death and was photographed two weeks later beaming when Jeter responded. Chris Quackenbush, a Mets fanatic who worked on the 104th floor of the South Tower, was lost that day, and his son C.J. was in the stands at Shea when Piazza homered. "Part of what we wanted to do in this film is beyond just the baseball stories, we wanted to find some family stories that we could tell," said director Andrew Brenner. "We really wanted to tell the story that baseball played in helping people heal a little bit."
Zeile said he attends a ceremony at one of New York City's 200-plus firehouses every year on Sept. 11 to remember the 343 firefighters lost. "That is the simple mission that we have," he said. "To make sure that nobody ever forgets."