Revisiting ‘Nine Innings from Ground Zero’ – and Previewing its HBO Max Follow-Up
“Nine Innings From Ground Zero” immortalizes the never-to-be-forgotten victims of a world-shifting tragedy, the heroes who responded first to the scene, and the sportsmen who provided the ultimate distraction in the weeks to come.
All discussion as to whether or not the game should have even been played ceased when the New York Mets’ All-Star backstop Mike Piazza launched a go-ahead home run at Shea Stadium just a week after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. In addition to covering this iconic demonstration of sports’ therapeutic nature, the documentary also tackled the power of the Yankees’ ultimately-failed but theatric-filled run at a fourth consecutive World Series title. The road there paved with infinite drama and “mystique and aura” for a city – and country at large – that desperately needed something to feel good about again.
Before Game 3 of the 2001 World Series between the Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks, then-President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch, a perfect strike, to an incredibly unified in patriotism, uproarious crowd in response. A moment remembered by those on-hand as further permission – this time, from the Commander of the highest office – to cheer again. And taking place on a night of terrifying unease, until America’s pastime took over and steered the conversation back onto the ballplayers before them.Thereby deflecting the chance of possible civilian detection away from the heavy[1]duty security precautions later revealed: Bush wearing kevlar beneath his FDNY pullover, a secret service agent dressed incognito as an umpire, and the military personnel equipped with rocket launchers from the Yankee Stadium rooftops.
“After they won [that night], I high-fived two cops while going to my car; when have you ever done that?” the film’s producer, former HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg recalled on The Michael Kay Show last week. Greenburg has won 51 Sports Emmys and 8 Peabody Awards in a career he’s spent overseeing other notable productions like “HBO Boxing,” “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” “61*,” and “Miracle.”
The ESPN Radio 98.7 FM afternoon drive mainstay simulcast on YES Network had Greenburg on as a guest to plug “Extra Innings From 9/11: 20 Years Later,” the upcoming follow-up to his first 9/11-based outing. In the interview, Greenburg revealed that, amid the pandemic, the new film reminds audiences that through the spreading of hope, “we can get through this.” He also teased contributions from Piazza and executive producer on the film, then-Mets manager Bobby Valentine, who likened the former’s Sept. 21 lightning bolt sent into Shea’s batter’s eye to “taking the cork out of a champagne bottle and popping it.”
Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was also quoted as saying, “it [the serenade following President Bush’s first pitch] wasn’t about being Democrat, or being Republican; it was about being an American,” in the new documentary, according to Greenburg.
“Extra Innings From 9/11: 20 Years Later” will premiere Saturday night on HBO Max. The mightily-awaited documentary arrives in commemoration of the date signaling 20 years since the unthinkable brought a prone[1]to-division country together like nothing has before, and nothing has since.
