It was the kind of late summer night that makes you wonder why anyone would ever want to leave New York. As Saturday afternoon melded into Saturday evening under a cloudless sky, the Big Apple teemed with possibilities. Outdoor concerts, al fresco dining, strolls through the park -- they all beckoned in every borough.

For sports fans, the weekend was even more enticing. Sunday would feature the first week of NFL games along with the men’s tennis final at the U.S. Open. On Saturday, a historic women’s final was on tap at Arthur Ashe Stadium, and just a stone’s throw from that event, at Citi Field in Queens, the city’s two Major League teams were set to face off in the middle game of a three-game interleague series.

Both the Yankees and Mets were ravenous for a win. The Yanks, after winning 13 straight games in August, had gone 2-11 immediately afterward -- their worst 13-game stretch since the end of the 2000 regular season. The Mets, who had led the NL East for much of the first half, sat at .500, and like the Yankees, were now in third place in their division.

With both teams fighting tooth-and-nail to keep their postseason hopes alive, there was much at stake.

And yet, there was a palpable sense that baseball, for one night, was secondary. There was an emotional undercurrent to the evening that tamped down the usual high-wattage electricity of a Subway Series game on national television, but that made it all the more special.

On the second Saturday in September, New York City’s two big league teams played in front of a packed house. But it was clear from the get-go that this event was about something more than baseball.

Much more.

“Our players really felt the emotion of the day,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone after the Yanks faced the Mets on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. “It was a beautiful night; it was a perfect night with the two New York teams playing it out. I think everyone in that room was honored to be a part of the evening.”

“This,” said Aaron Judge, “was for the city.”

***

As cars streamed toward Citi Field from throughout the tri-state area that afternoon, thoughts were tuned not to baseball heroes such as Aaron Judge, but to real life heroes like Father Mychal Judge. The FDNY chaplain was in the lobby of the North Tower administering aid and prayers to the victims of the terrorist attack when debris from the collapsing South Tower struck and killed him. His body was quickly pulled from the scene, and he was designated as the first certified fatality of 9/11.

He was one of 2,977 innocent people who lost their lives that day, and thousands more have died in the years since due to injuries or illnesses related to the attacks. For anyone who lived through the tragedy, it cannot and will not be forgotten.

“Most of the players are old enough to remember where we were when that happened,” said Yankees veteran outfielder Brett Gardner. “I wasn’t a resident of New York growing up; I lived a long ways away from here. Once I got drafted and made it to the Major Leagues and spent a little more time here, I started to realize the severity and the importance of this day. ... Baseball played a big part in the healing of this city and the country 20 years ago, and I think that still resonates with us today.”

There remains a responsibility among adults of a certain age to ensure that the heroes of 9/11 are not forgotten, and that the stories of their bravery get passed down to the younger generations. Those messages seem to have resonated far and wide. After losing to Emma Raducanu in the women’s final at the 2021 U.S. Open, 19-year-old Canadian tennis player Leylah Fernandez told the Queens crowd, “I know on this day it was especially hard for New York and everyone around the United States. I just want to say that I hope I can be as strong and as resilient as New York has been the past 20 years.”

“I know what happened on 9/11; it was terrible for the country,” said Yankees infielder Gleyber Torres, who was a 4-year-old living in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2001. "I’m from Venezuela, but half of my life I’ve been here, so I feel like it’s part of me, too. To me and the guys, this was special. We just went to the ballpark wanting to give 100 percent of what we can do to try to win the game.”

The Yankees would need every ounce of that determination to emerge with a victory. But not before a stirring pregame ceremony that put everything in perspective.

***

Located on an upper level behind home plate, the packed bar at the Piazza 31 Club was far less noisy than on a typical Saturday night. The Sept. 11 crowd was there for enjoyment, but the gravity of the day ensured that the tone would remain subdued and respectful. The game was clearly a bipartisan gathering -- Yankees jerseys seemed to equal the number of Mets jerseys among the 43,144 fans in attendance -- yet there was a harmony seldom seen at a sporting event, bringing back memories of what it felt like to be a New Yorker, or any American, in the weeks that followed 9/11.

At that moment in time, people pulled together in extraordinary ways. From the bucket brigades that removed rubble at Ground Zero to the acts of love and support that poured in from every corner of the country, New York became a symbol of resilience and unity.

“It was one of those times in our history where a tragic event brought out the best in a lot of people and brought out the best in humanity,” Boone said. “And in today’s world, where so many times we’re so polarized in so many different ways, it felt like one of those moments in time where we saw people come together. Hopefully we can honor that properly this weekend.”

Gerrit Cole’s turn in the rotation meant that he wouldn’t be pitching during the Mets series, but the 31-year-old California native wanted to soak in the atmosphere, so nearly an hour before first pitch he sat in the visitors’ dugout at Citi Field chatting with Yankees director of medical services Steve Donohue.

Cole was in full uniform, which on this particular night included a small U.S. flag stitched atop the back of his road gray jersey, a few inches above his No. 45. The famous interlocking NY that normally adorns the front of his Yankees cap was now on the side, replaced by FDNY in red letters.

One-by-one, Yankees players and coaches filtered out of the clubhouse and into the dugout, each wearing a similar cap honoring a branch of the city’s civil servant sector that played such a crucial role -- and, in so many cases, payed an unimaginably high price -- on 9/11: FDNY, NYPD, Port Authority Police Department, Department of Sanitation and Department of Correction. When the Remembrance Ceremony began in earnest, Cole, Anthony Rizzo, DJ LeMahieu and Tyler Wade were among the Yankees leaning on the railing of the dugout as the sellout crowd started up its first chants of “U-S-A!”

The first standing ovation of the night went to the officers making their way from the left-field corner dutifully carrying a folded flag that was soon to be unfurled across the outfield. Yankees hitting coach Marcus Thames couldn’t resist pulling out his phone and snapping a photo of the poignant scene.

Both teams stepped onto the field and removed their caps as Anaïs Reno, a 17-year-old first-year student studying jazz at SUNY Purchase, approached the microphone behind home plate and delivered a stunning rendition of “America the Beautiful.” The Switzerland-born singer followed the familiar closing refrain, “And crown thy good with brotherhood/From sea to shining sea,” with a lesser-known verse that was entirely appropriate for the occasion:

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!

“Incredible,” Thames said, putting his cap back on.

The goosebump-inducing performance spurred on a full-throated round of “U-S-A!” chants, soon followed by the sounds of bagpipes courtesy of the Pipes & Drums of the Emerald Society of the New York City Police Department as the brigade marched across the infield toward second base. After representatives of the city’s various departments, accompanied by members of the 2001 New York Mets, were introduced and stood along the warning track in the outfield, perhaps the most surprising and symbolic moment of the ceremony took place.

Baseline introductions are a hallmark of baseball’s special occasions: Opening Day, the All-Star Game, the postseason. With the Yankees and Mets playing each other on Sept. 11 for the first time in history, the two teams were invited to head out to the baselines before the game. But rather than lining up on opposite sides, the two squads put their rivalry aside and mixed together, exchanging hugs and handshakes before standing shoulder-to-shoulder while the New York City Police Athletic League Cops & Kids Choir sang the national anthem.

“I know they’re our opponent and we’re going to be battling it out for the next couple hours after that moment, but at that time, we were standing together, united,” said Judge. “It was a good time to just kind of embrace each other, and I think that was a big moment for this city and the fans, just to kind of show everybody that no matter what, when it comes down to it outside of baseball, we’re all in this together.”

Joe Torre and Bobby Valentine, who managed the Yankees and Mets, respectively, 20 years earlier, then came out for the ceremonial first pitch. Each wearing his team’s jersey, the beloved former skippers stood near one another and tossed baseballs to members of the FDNY, then high-fived each other on the walk back toward home plate.

***

The spirit of unity prevailed, even as a hard-fought, back-and-forth game unspooled over the next four hours.

Kyle Higashioka opened the scoring with a two-run homer in the second inning, and when Gardner and Judge went back-to-back later in the frame, it marked the first time all season that the Yankees had homered three times in the same inning.

The 5-0 lead that the Yanks handed Corey Kluber did little to staunch the Mets’ desire to win. They came back with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the second and another run in the third.

When catcher James McCann cranked a two-run homer in the sixth to give the Mets a 6-5 lead, the sportswriters covering that team quickly tapped out comparisons to Mike Piazza’s memorable two-run eighth-inning homer against the Braves on Sept. 21, 2001, the first MLB game in New York City after the attacks.

The Yankees would see to it that those lines would be deleted. After the Mets added a run to go up 7-5 in the bottom of the seventh, Gardner led off the top of the eighth with a single, and Judge followed with a booming, high-arching blast to left field that seemed to orbit the moon before landing in the seats. His second homer of the night -- and his team-leading 32nd of the season -- tied the game at 7 and brought the legions of Yankees fans in the building to their feet.

Four batters later, Luke Voit grounded into what appeared to be an inning-ending double play. But Torres slid hard into second, which caused Javier Báez’s throw to sail past first base toward the Mets’ dugout. Yankees pinch-runner (and native New Yorker) Andrew Velazquez, motoring at full speed from second base, rounded third and slid home headfirst with the go-ahead run. Judge made a spectacular diving catch for the first out of the ninth, then hauled in an easy fly ball to close out the Yankees' 8-7 victory.

For everyone who was there, it was an unforgettable game, no matter which side you were supporting.

Whether you were wearing dark blue and white or blue and orange, the colors that mattered most were red, white and blue. The bipartisan crowd did, in fact, become unified. Yankees fans and Mets fans chanted for their country in unison. They set aside their differences to do the wave, booing as one at the orange-clad 7 Line Army in center field, which refused to participate. And they cheered together when stadium security tackled the two knuckleheads who ran onto the field. Walking back to the parking lot, the feeling was not the joy of victory or the agony of defeat: it was gratitude for being there at all.

“I really can’t put it into words,” Judge said afterward. “When I was out there on the field, I would just kind of think about the fans that were there, the individuals that were there, that lost family members, lost husbands, brothers, dads, moms, and weren’t able to share this moment or be here, and how honored and blessed I am to get a chance to be out on that field and play this game. Honestly, on the home runs, I don’t even remember rounding the bases; all I could think about was the city and the individuals not there.”

“As bad of a day as that was 20 years ago, I think the one thing that it showed us is what we’re capable of doing as a country when people come together,” said Gardner. “Obviously we’re wearing different uniforms and in different dugouts and competing against each other, but at the end of the day, we’re kind of all on the same team and all part of this city.”

Sept. 11 will never be forgotten. Every year when it arrives, we remember the fallen, we pray for their families and we give thanks for the opportunity to be with the people we love. To have New York’s baseball teams meet in the city 20 years later made for a fitting venue in which to do all those things.

“You play in the Major Leagues, you get to be a part of this franchise, there are some special things you get to be a part of. Tonight was one of those,” Boone said. “It was an honor to be out on that field, honoring the memory of so many that lost their lives on a tragic day.”