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.



