Nine years ago, the entire world changed as 19 terrorists boarded four commercial jets and committed one of the works acts of violence in the world’s history.
On tragic day, those terrorists flew two planes into the Twin Tower in New York City, another plane into the Pentagon and the final plane in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania that was believed to be targeted at hitting the Capitol Building in Washington DC.
As a result of the attacks, 2,977 innocent lives were lost on this day, and the entire world went into mourning.
Americans became more united than ever by going to massive candle light vigils, massive memorials were held and ordinary Americans contributed anyway they could to help out at the sights where the terrorist attacks took place.
The attacks brought Americans together as America became a more unified nation with these acts of kindness as the word’s “We Will Never Forget” as a common theme.
With everyone being impacted from the attacks, the personal that helped to rescue the people during the attacks became everyone’s heroes.
And as a result, professional athletes became all but forgotten due to the terrorist attacks and tried to contribute any way that they could.
From the New York Mets making Shea Stadium into a rescue area to hold supplies that would be transported to Ground Zero to members of the New York Yankees visiting New York City firehouses to assist anyway that they could, professional athletes did what was right in order to help raise morale’s after the terrorist attacks.
Five days after the terrorist attacks, baseball returned as America’s Pastime became a vital part of the nation trying to re-adapt to normal life.
Ten days after September 11 (Friday, September 21), the New York Mets became the first sports team to play in New York since the terrorist attacks as they faced the Atlanta Braves at Shea Stadium.
Before the game, both teams decided to dedicate their entire game salaries to the families that lost their lives in this game and there was an overwhelming patriotic attitude for that game.
In what was the biggest baseball game of these players lives, the Mets were able to win 3-2 after catcher Mike Piazza hit a moonshot off of New York resident Steve Karsay that hit the camera tower in center field in the eighth inning to give the Mets the lead.
And in the World Series that year, the Mets nearby neighbor, the Yankees, faced the Arizona Diamondbacks in one of the greatest World Series of all-time.
Even though the Yankees failed to win, they provided dramatics that were greater than a Hollywood thriller, as Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius hit two out home runs in the ninth inning off of Arizona reliever Byung-Hyun Kim to tie and eventually win both games for the Yankees.
Even though the Yankees did not win, the World Series helped to end a great postseason and gave many Americans hope as we moved forward as a nation.
Also, the NFL helped to help America heal during the winter, as after canceling Week Two due to 9-11, they were able to help Americans feel united as NFL games helped to unite the largest groups of people after 9-11 for a non-memorial service.
And ironically enough, the New England Patriots were able to prove themselves to be a true American story that year, as they overcame all the odds with a rookie quarterback in Tom Brady to win their first Super Bowl over the heavily favored St. Louis Rams.
The Patriots were also able to win the Super Bowl with a lack of big name players and were able to get the winning points on a late drive with a game-winning field goal of 48 yards as time expired to give the Patriots the title.
But now, nine years later, these moments of sporting greatness will always be linked to the aftermath of September 11 and how they helped to reestablish normal life to American lives.
However, an event such as September 11, 2001 should stand as a reminder to us that sport’s are not that important, but it is life, friends and family that are the most important things that should be the most important things in our lives.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com