When the Subway Series opened Friday night, the Yankees and Mets arrived in very different places on the standings sheet. The Yankees were close to locking up their third straight playoff berth and eighth in the last decade. The Mets were headed home for a second straight October, this time without the nerve-racking elimination drama they faced a year ago.
But the game carried a weight that went well beyond the usual Bronx bragging rights. On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the matchup became something bigger than a division rivalry - a shared moment for a city that still measures certain dates differently than the rest of the calendar.
That tone was set before the first pitch, during a pregame ceremony that featured seven members of the 2001 Yankees, with Derek Jeter among them. For a few minutes, the night belonged to memory, not to the scoreboard.
Then the baseball part took over, and the crowd made its feelings clear. The Mets were booed during introductions, and Juan Soto - who finished third in MVP voting in his lone season in pinstripes and helped the Yankees reach the World Series in 2024 - was jeered hard in his first at-bat.
His only breather came when the crowd broke into “U-S-A!” chants before Carlos Rodon struck him out, prompting another burst of cheers.
On the field, Cody Bellinger changed the mood quickly. With the game tied 1-1 in the second inning, he launched a three-run homer into the right-field seats and put the Yankees back in control.
The bigger picture, though, is how much has changed since 2001. Ground Zero has been rebuilt, and the World Trade Center’s footprints are now a memorial. Most of the players on both rosters were either not born yet or were too young to remember 9/11 beyond clips and videos.
That left the managers to carry the historical weight. In the years right after the attacks, the city could lean on the people who lived through that moment directly - Bobby Valentine, Joe Torre, Todd Zeile, Mike Piazza, Bernie Williams, John Franco, Derek Jeter, Robin Ventura, Al Leiter. Twenty-five years later, the current players know the meaning of “Never Forget,” but they’re one step removed from the day itself.
Aaron Boone put it plainly Friday afternoon: “We understand playing here, what the Yankees, what the Mets, mean to the people in this city,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Friday afternoon.
There were reminders everywhere of that old October. The video board showed highlights from the Yankees’ run to the World Series and Mike Piazza’s home run at Shea Stadium in the first game back in New York. It all felt like a snapshot from another era, even though the memory remains central to the city’s baseball story.
There’s always a rivalry argument about where this kind of game should have been played. Some would say Flushing made more sense, since baseball’s return after 9/11 happened there first, and Shea’s parking lots were used as a triage center and for relief-supply distribution.
But Yankee Stadium has its own place in the story, thanks to President George W. Bush’s ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 of the 2001 World Series, a strike delivered from the mound after Jeter urged him to throw it from there.
That’s the rivalry talking. The point on Friday was simpler: putting the Yankees and Mets together on this date gave New York something rare, a shared field and a shared remembrance.
Andy Green, now the Mets’ interim manager after replacing Carlos Mendoza in late June, was playing for Class A South Bend when he learned the news on the morning of 9/11. On Friday, he was the one trying to explain the day’s meaning to a younger roster in the Bronx.
“It’s an opportunity just to have some kind of cathartic moments in your life where you step back and think about what really matters and what some people have been through,” Green said Friday afternoon. “It centers you, it re-centers you, it keeps you going. And it also gives you an immense amount of gratitude for what we get to do for a living, because this game has played a part in this country’s healing from that.”
For one night, the Yankees and Mets did exactly that. And whether it’s 25 years or the next 100, we’ll never forget that.
In Other News...
Mets Yankees Game Took A Disturbing Turn Fans Wont Forget
A Subway Series night at Yankee Stadium already carried unusual weight, landing on the 25th anniversary of September 11. Then the game was interrupted when a fan ran onto the field carrying a Palestinian flag and wearing a No Kings jersey, turning what should have been a routine September matchup into a tense scene in front of a packed crowd.
Security quickly tackled the man, later identified as 38-year-old Kelly Marcucci, and he was charged with trespassing and a local ordinance violation. The delay was brief, but the moment lingered after play resumed, with the crowd reacting in chants as the game moved on. [Read more 🡒]
Mets Spent This Rivalry Night Chasing An Early Mistake
The Mets spent a rivalry night trying to climb out of an early hole in the Bronx, with the Yankees building their edge behind a steady start from Carlos Rodn and a rough outing from Nolan McLean. On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the game had the kind of back-and-forth feel that can turn tense quickly, but New Yorks side of the scoreboard was chasing from the start after McLean was tagged for five runs over five innings.
A late push gave the Mets a chance to make things interesting, and they kept pressing against their crosstown rival deep into the game. Still, the deficit they created early proved too much to erase in a 6-4 loss, another reminder that against the Yankees, one bad stretch can shape the whole night even when the closing moments offer a flicker of life. [Read more 🡒]
Mets Face A Costly Clay Holmes Question All Over Again
Clay Holmes is back in the kind of free-agent conversation that can make a front office pause. Spotrac pegs the relievers market at roughly $22.9 million a year, with a deal that could climb into the $68 million to $70 million range over three years, and that price tag naturally forces the Mets to weigh how much they want to commit to a pitcher who could help in more than one role. The appeal is obvious: Holmes would give New York another arm to consider for the bullpen or even the starting rotation, which adds flexibility to a staff that still needs quality innings.
The financial picture may get even trickier depending on how the next collective bargaining agreement shapes the market, since timing can move free-agent salaries in either direction. For the Mets, the question is not simply whether Holmes fits, but whether he fits as part of a larger pitching plan that might also include other additions. Sean Manaea and Tarik Skubal enter the broader conversation as benchmarks for value and impact, but Holmes remains the name that could force New York to decide how aggressively it wants to buy stability on the mound. [Read more 🡒]