Their fathers died on 9/11. Baseball became part of their healing

NEW YORK — How can pain and joy, love and heartbreak, coexist, side by side, year after year? How could the worst day of your life lead to the best? How do you rebuild a life shattered in an instant? 

One ballgame at a time, as it turns out. 

On Friday night, the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Brielle Saracini and her husband Sean McGuire provided the highlight of an emotional pregame ceremony when they threw out the game’s ceremonial first pitch. Both 37, they represent both the tragedy and the resolve of 9/11, the devastation of loss and the strength of resilience. Brielle’s father Victor was the captain of United Flight 175, the plane which impacted the South Tower … where Sean’s father, Patrick, worked on the 84th floor. 

The two were just 10 years old when their fathers died. They met two years later at Camp Better Days, a camp established to help children who had lost a parent on 9/11, and were married on September 9, 2017. And on Friday night, they walked out on the field together — Brielle wearing a Derek Jeter jersey, Sean bravely wearing a Mike Piazza Mets one — showing that joy can come from even the most horrifying of days. 

“You’re so happy and thankful for so many things that have come your way after 9/11,” Brielle said a few minutes after her pitch. “But it comes at a terrible price.”

Friday morning dawned in New York the same way that Tuesday did 25 years ago, with a brilliant blue sky that seemed to go on forever. And much like the first hours of that terrible day, everything felt normal. All over the city, New Yorkers hustled down streets and up avenues in a typical morning rush as taxi drivers leaned on their horns. People had places to be, and not enough time to get there. 

In Lower Manhattan, though, a more solemn air prevailed. At the traditional 9/11 memorial ceremony, four presidents, several mayors and thousands of still-grieving family members gathered to remember the nearly 3,000 lost on 9/11, and the hundreds more lost as a result of the attacks in the years since. 

The ceremony illustrated the deep, painful and often contradictory hold that 9/11 still has on New York. Sporting blue-and-white ribbons, some family members used the occasion to speak about their loved ones, holding onto now-fading memories. Others opted to vent frustrations or demand action from the assembled politicians. And still others, in true New York fashion, thanked their departed loved ones for whatever role they had in making Knicks In Five a reality earlier this year. 

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Chris Iannuzzi holds his son, Chris Iannuzzi, Jr., as the stand at one of the 9/11 Memorials Pools in New York, NY, on September 11, 2026. This was the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The 2026 Yankees have spent the last few weeks leading up to September 11 in much the same way the 2001 team did, though without the searing pain of immediate tragedy. Manager Aaron Boone, Aaron Judge, Cam Schlitter and others visited four fire stations in Manhattan, both to express gratitude and to understand a bit more about a moment that, for many of them, is only history. 

“I talked to our players a little bit about (9/11), because everyone has a different context,” Boone said Friday afternoon. “Some of our guys weren’t born.” 

That’s a growing challenge for those who lived through 9/11, to communicate the meaning and importance of it to a nation that, increasingly, has no meaningful connection to that day. Almost 40 percent of Americans now are too young to remember 9/11, too young to remember the fear and the horror that consumed the entire country, too young to remember the terror that quickly gave way to unity and resolve. As fractured as the nation is right now, it’s worth remembering that it wasn’t always this way … and that baseball had a small role in the healing process. 

“As an athlete, it was the first time that I said to myself, Why am I even playing?” Derek Jeter said Friday evening. “My initial thought was, We’re not going to come back. What does baseball mean? And then you had a chance to meet a lot of family members who lost loved ones … and that’s when you realize that our job was to at least try to give people something to cheer for for a few hours a day.” 

One of those family members Jeter met was Brielle, who wrote The Captain a letter just three days after her father died. Jeter eventually got the letter and quickly invited Brielle and her family to batting practice. 

“When we invited her to the stadium, you really don’t know what to say,” Jeter said. “You know, I don’t even know if I said ‘I’m sorry’ or anything like that. I just tried to make her day feel special.”

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Brielle Saracini and her husband Sean McGuire talk to Derek Jeter during commemorations for the 25th anniversary of 9/11 before the game between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets at Yankee Stadium on September 11, 2026.

He did that day, introducing her to several Yankees, and he did for years afterward, offering friendship and encouragement even as she navigated a life without a father. 

“It was just an incredible display of kindness — in a time where we all just felt the gravity of the situation that was rooted in hate, to be able to then flip that around and find a bright spot,” Brielle said, adding, “It became this special thing that healed me. It healed 10-year-old Brielle.”

Baseball can’t dull the pain of tragedy or bring back a loved one. But baseball can bring a bit of normalcy to a tragic time. After 9/11, that’s exactly what New York needed, and on Friday night New York tapped back into that feeling. 

Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising,” the defiant anthem released shortly after 9/11, began the ceremony, followed by videos documenting the 2001 Yankees’ inspiring World Series run. (They lost the series in seven to the Diamondbacks, but won all three New York games, two in dramatic extra innings.) The highlight, of course: President George W. Bush striding out of the Yankee dugout to throw a perfect strike before Game 3. 

Bush wasn’t in attendance Friday night, but several of those 2001 Yankees were, including Jeter, former manager Joe Torre, Mariano Rivera and Paul O’Neill. They walked out to thunderous applause, and then it was time for Brielle and Sean to take the stage. 

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Fans are seen holding up a sign prior to the game between the New York Mets and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Friday, September 11, 2026 in New York, New York.

Sean’s pitch reached “catcher” Paul Goldschmidt, but Brielle, throwing to Cody Bellinger, bounced hers, much to her horror. 

“He was in my head,” Brielle said, nodding to Jeter. “‘Don’t bounce it, they’ll boo you!’ And then I bounced it.” (For the record, no one booed her.)

The national memory of 9/11 may fade with time, but for so many — starting with the 3,051 children who lost parents in the World Trade Center attacks — the scars won’t ever fade. The holes where the Twin Towers once stood remain in Lower Manhattan, a testament to what was lost. The painful absences always loom, too — missed birthdays, graduations, weddings, and yes, Yankees games. 

“I never know what I want to do on each anniversary. I never know the proper way to honor my father,” Brielle said as the Yankees and Mets started their game. “This feels really special. I know he’d be so proud of me. I only cried like six times today, this morning. So to balance it out with smiles, and laughs, and just overwhelming feelings of gratitude and everything, is a beautiful display of how the last 25 years have been.”