9/11 Museum Honors Legacy of New York Yankees

With the Bronx Bombers opening their season yesterday at Yankee Stadium, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum honors the connection between the Yankees and legacy of Sept. 11.

Among the first artifacts on view in the museum’s historic exhibition is a pair of Yankees tickets from Sept. 10, 2001. That night, Yankee Roger Clemons readied to pitch his 6th 20-win season against his former team, the Boston Red Sox. More than 50,000 fans flocked to the original Yankee Stadium in anticipation of the big game. When rain forced a cancellation, the fans were left to find other forms of entertainment.

Many instead turned to “Monday Night Football” to watch the Giants play in Denver. The game went late, past midnight on the East Coast. Workers who usually would have been at their desks the time hijacked flight 11 knifed into the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. were running late. In oral histories recorded for the museum, some survivors credited the decision to watch the football game after the Yankee’s game was rained out for saving their lives that day.

These Yankee tickets became a symbol of fate and represent the ways in which small decisions had significant consequences.

The team’s connection to 9/11 also extends to the museum’s memorial exhibition. Inside, lost Yankees fans are remembered through photographs of beaming faces in the stands, artifacts such as baseball caps and jerseys, and recordings of personal recollections from loved ones about their shared affinity for the team.   

One fan who died in the attacks, Brooklyn-born Vincent Litto was at work on the 104th floor of the North Tower. Listen to his best friend and neighbor Rocky R. tell a story about their shared love of their baseball club and how it defined their friendship.

By Jenny Pachucki, 9/11 Memorial Content Strategist