One More 9/11 Documentary

 

With the 25th anniversary just past, there were a variety of new documentaries on the subject.  And replays of some old ones.   For me, the newest one might just be the best.   I was crying throughout, largely because "When America Took the Field" connected that horrific tragedy with a love of my life...baseball fandom.

Now there have been other films that covered how Major League Baseball helped our country heal in those first weeks after 9/11.  HBO did one that was very good about 15 years ago.  Indeed, some of the same children who were spotlighted by HBO have their lives updated in this new movie on the MLB Network.   But, indeed. the tone set by this new doc, executive produced by former baseball star Todd Zeile, would move emotionally impact the most casual of fans.

The usual tales are covered.   The kids who lost their dads and moms who are baseball fans.  The first game in NY after 9/11 when Mike Piazza hits a game winning homerun that just be the greatest moment of the sports ever.  Fan connections with the likes of Ken Griffey Jr. and Derek Jeter.  Community outreach by managers Joe Torre and Bobby Valentine who secretly arranged to have one dad's ashes scattered at Shea Stadium's home plate.

Believe me, this movie pulls at your heart strings as if it was a symphony violin. And, as I watched, memories washed over me.   It made me miss Shea Stadium.  It made me recall how strong my love was for the NY Mets during my childhood.  And it made me realize how baseball was the basis of so many of my longtime friends.  

And I thought about my own parents, gone due to illness and not because a building fell on them.  My dad introduced me to the game.  I myself introduced the game to my mother in her later years, largely because she loved both Dwight Gooden and Met announcer Tim McCarver.

This film has it all.   Memories of a grateful nation.  And mine.

LEN'S RATING:  Four stars.

Dinner last night:  Hamburger.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - September 14, 2026

 The super under-appreciated Don Knotts.

Dinner last night:  Ribeye steak and roasted cherry tomatoes.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - Like Yesterday

 

Certainly not 25 years.

We're several days after the annual remembrance of 9/11...the day that changed our nation forever.  In the circles I travel in, we still talk about it.  Just as we had 25 years earlier.  The memory touchstone for several generations.  As I was talking on the phone with someone on the East Coast last Friday, a steady ambulance siren could be heard in the background.   It bothered me.

The wounds are still fresh even now.

I am heartened to see friends still take to social media and commemorate it all anew.   There was one friend's post, however, that essentially took task to George Bush one more time for being the sole reason why 9/11 happened.  Seriously?  No X post was more inappropriate than that one.  Trust me, our foreign relations over the past several decades has suffered and there is plenty of blame to go around on both sides of the aisle, including the ones currently in charge.

But I digress...

That post reminded me of the toxic bi-polarity we reside in these days.   But, it wasn't in 2001.   We were one.   Our nation had come together.  It sadly didn't last for long.   But it was possible for the States of America to be...well...United.

I've written before about my world on that day.  The transplanted New Yorker watching the dust clouds from 3000 miles away and longing to be there for the comfort and hugs of my friends there.  Driving the empty streets of Los Angeles.   Seeing soldiers standing in front of the Federal Building in Westwood with rifles pointed to the air.  My writing partner and I finding the only place open to eat was Nate and Al's in Beverly Hills.   Seated in the booth next to us was Rodney Dangerfield, dressed in pajamas and bedhead.

It all stays with me and as well it should.

But, this year, I recall an earlier part of the day.   Driving home after a truncated workday, I saw those aforementioned soldiers.  Ready to fight whoever and wherever.   It was chilling.   I had a sensation come over me.

I called my pastor and left her a voice mail.   Since I was the church treasurer at the time, I had a complete set of keys to the building (pictured above).   I told her that I was going over to the church to open the doors.   I had this feeling people would seek it out.

I opened the front doors wide.  I took the American Flag and hung it outside.   I didn't care if anybody stole stuff.   It was more important for that place to be available.

I went back later in the day.   My thought process had been correct.  Inside there were four or five folks.   All sitting quietly.  Staring at the altar.  Or with heads bowed solemnly.

Looking for answers to unanswerable questions.  

I was moved by the silence as I stood quietly in the background.  My small act of simply turning a key in a church door had perhaps touched some or many.  

In our own congregation the following Sunday, we had our own catharsis.  Our pastor closed the service by having us all stand in the aisle with our hands joined together.   We sang "God Bless America."

And cried.   Every single one of us.

These days, religion get knocked around.  Thanks to over-politicizing some beliefs or issues, you're almost ashamed to practice what you hear preached.   Now there are more and more people who proclaim that they're "spiritual, not religious."   I think that's code for "I'm sleeping in until the Broncos kick off."

Yet, a quarter century ago, it was a touchstone for folks looking for comfort, solace, and the belief that there is meaning to this world.  

More importantly, my church and your church or house of worship can be that conduit for us to get through days like 9/11.   A reminder that communities can thrive.   And make a difference.

Dinner last night:   Lasagna from my freezer.

Classic Newsreel of the Month - September 2026

 Back in the day, this was clockwork every September.

Dinner last night:  Korean pork.

No Words Today As Always

 

25 Years Ago Tonight.

 All is quiet.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

This Date in History - September 9

 

Happy birthday to Angela Cartwright.  Boy, did I have a crush on her during those "Lost In Space" days.

9:  ARMINIUS' ALLIANCE OF SIX GERMANIC TRIBES AMBUSHES AND ANNIHILATES THREE ROMAN LEGIONS OF PUBLIUS QUINCTILIUS VARUS IN THE BATTLE OF THE TEUTOBURG FOREST.

The only thing I care about here is the fact that this was the last single digit year we ever had.

337:  CONSTANTINE II, CONSTANTIUS II, AND CONSTANS SUCCEED THEIR FATHER CONSTANTINE I AS CO-EMPERORS.

Naming your kids all the same thing?  Tacky.

1087:  WILLIAM RUFUS BECOMES KING OF ENGLAND, TAKING THE TITLE OF WILLIAM II.

Clever.  How did he ever come up with that?

1488:  ANNE BECOMES SOVEREIGN DUCHESS OF BRITTANY, BECOMING A CENTRAL FIGURE IN THE STRUGGLE FOR INFLUENCE THAT LEADS TO THE UNION OF BRITTANY AND FRANCE.

I see London, I see France, I see Brittany's underpants.

1543:  MARY STUART, AT NINE MONTHS OLD, IS CROWNED "QUEEN OF SCOTS."  

Well, don't expect her to do much yet.

1776:  THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS OFFICIALLY NAMES ITS NEW UNION THE UNITED STATES.

Back when we really were united.

1791:  WASHINGTON DC, THE CAPITAL OF THE US, IS NAMED AFTER PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON.

I guess they never bothered to change it under Obama.

1850:  CALIFORNIA IS ADMITTED AS THE THIRTY-FIRST US STATE.

Mexico became the thirty-third.

1850:  THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 TRANSFERS A THIRD OF TEXAS' CLAIMED TERRITORY (NOW PARTS OF COLORADO, KANSAS, NEW MEXICO, OKLAHOMA, AND WYOMING) TO FEDERAL CONTROL IN RETURN FOR THE US GOVERNMENT ASSUMING 10 MILLION DOLLARS OF TEXAS'S PRE-ANNEXATION DEBT.

And, in 2015, they still want to be their own country.

1890:  KFC FOUNDER COLONEL SANDERS IS BORN.

From which side of the rat do you get dark meat?

1914:  DURING WORLD WAR I, THE CREATION OF THE CANADIAN AUTOMOBILE MACHINE GUN BRIGADE AS PART OF THE BRITISH ARMY.

Later to be sold to Elliot Ness and the Untouchables.

1926:  THE NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY IS FORMED.

Bum bum bum.

1932:  ACTRESS SYLVIA MILES IS BORN.

She looked old when she was young.

1940:  GEORGE STIBITZ PIONEERS THE FIRST REMOTE OPERATION OF A COMPUTER.

Where's the control-alt-delete function?

1941:  SINGER OTIS REDDING IS BORN.

Sittin' on the dock...oh, never mind.

1942:  DURING WORLD WAR II, A JAPANESE FLOATPLANE DROPS INCENDIARY BOMBS ON OREGON.

Oregon???  How did they get that far?

1947:  FIRST CASE OF  A COMPUTER BUG BEING FOUND - A MOTH LODGES IN A RELAY OF A HARVARD MARK II COMPUTER AT HARVARD.

So the first computer bug was really a bug.

1952:  ACTRESS ANGELA CARTWRIGHT IS BORN.

National holiday in my house.

1956:  ELVIS PRESLEY APPEARS ON THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW FOR THE FIRST TIME.

From the waist up.

1965:  THE US DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT OPENS.

Yeah, a fat lot of good they've done.

1971:  THE FOUR-DAY ATTICA PRISON RIOT BEGINS, EVENTUALLY RESULTING IN 39 DEAD, MOST KILLED BY STATE TROOPERS RETAKING THE PRISON.

1975:  ACTOR JOHN MCGIVER DIES.

A fellow Fordham graduate.

1993:  THE PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZES ISRAEL AS A STATE.

Sure they do.

1997:  BASEBALL STAR RICHIE ASHBURN DIES.

An original Met.

1999:  ACTRESS RUTH ROMAN DIES.

If I'm not mistaken, she was a survivor of the Andrea Dorea shipwreck.

2009:  THE DUBAI METRO, THE FIRST URBAN TRAIN NETWORK IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA, IS CEREMONIALLY INAUGURATED.

Now there's a train I will never ever be on.

2012:  A WAVE OF ATTACKS KILL MORE THAN 100 PEOPLE AND INJURE 350 OTHERS ACROSS IRAQ.

What kind of attacks?  Terrorist?  Gall bladder?  More info please.

2024:  ACTOR JAMES EARL JONES DIES.

I wonder if the helmet fit into the coffin.

Dinner last night:   Grilled beef sausage.