By Scott Barancik, editor
It took 10 days after the horrific events of 9/11/2001 for baseball to resume in New York City.
On Sept. 21, the hometown New York Mets’ Bruce Chen faced off against the Atlanta Braves’ Jason Marquis, a 23-year-old righthander from Staten Island. Before the game, Marquis was asked how he felt about pitching that night.
“It’s nice being from New York to get the opportunity to do that,” he told the New York Post. “Maybe it’ll help a little. Hopefully people won’t be shy about coming. Hopefully it’ll be like an old Mets-Braves game.”
After a lengthy and emotional pre-game ceremony, the game was underway. (A video of the entire game is shown below.)
The starting pitchers proved well-matched. Marquis lasted six innings, giving up one earned run on 7 hits, no walks and 4 strikeouts. Chen stuck around 7 innings, yielding one earned run on 6 hits, a walk and 5 strikeouts.
The score stayed 1-1 until the 8th inning. RF Brian Jordan of the first-place Braves stroked an RBI double in the top half of the frame for a short-lived lead. C Mike Piazza followed in the bottom half with a 2-run HR to give the third-place Mets a 3-2 lead that stuck.
It was a much-needed win, and not just because the playoffs were nearing.
Want our daily updates sent free to your e-mailbox? Click here
