What I remember after the events of 9/11 is what happened at the New York Mets game on September 21, 2001 and on May 1st, 2011. Mike Piazza hit an iconic homerun in the first sporting event since the attacks. The fact that the game took place at Shea Stadium in New York makes what had happened that much more special. It was the bottom of the 8th inning, the Mets were down 2-1 against the braves in what had been an uneventful game until that point.  With the trying run on first, Piazza stepped up to the plate. The energy was low when Piazza got his pitch and hit a missile to left-center field, and the crowd went into a frenzy. As Piazza rounded the bases there were fans jumping up and down from both teams and some were crying tears of joy. That two run homer in the bottom of the 8th gave hope to not only the people in attendance that night, it gave hope to the entire country. After that night, the American people knew that we were going to be ok, and that we would come out of this horrific tragedy as a stronger America, a United America. 

Fast forward to ten years later. It is May 1st, 2011, also known as the date that U.S. Marines from SEAL Team 6 successfully conducted a mission to capture and kill Osama Bin Laden. Osama Bin Laden was the leader of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda and was the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It also just so happens that the New York Mets are playing their division rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies. It had been a relatively, uneventful game, just as it was ten years prior, up until the 6th inning. As the Phillies came up to bat in the bottom of the 6th, fans in Citizens Ban Park began to receive tons of notifications from numerous different news sources on their phones that all read the same thing; Osama Bin Laden has been killed. At first, people didn’t believe it, but as they started to read more into it, President Barack Obama had announced that he was to make a statement to the nation shortly after the news had spread to the public. THe President made his way down the halls in the White House, stepped up to his podium, just how Piazza stepped up to the plate 10 years prior, and addressed the nation: ‘Good Evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people, and to the world, that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda.” The news that millions of Americans were receiving n their phones had been confirmed. We got him. We had finally avenged the deaths of those who had been killed on September 11, 2001. After the confirmation had been heard by fans inside of Citizens Bank Park, chants of “USA!” rang throughout the stadium, in front of the White House Lawn, and everyone else around the country. The baseball game became secondary to what was going on that night as the thought that was going through everybody’s minds rang true- We had survived. American had survived.