Domingo German was the “starter” but threw just one inning for the Yankees on Sunday by design – so his biggest impact on Yankee Stadium may have come pregame.
That’s when, in an homage to watching Sammy Sosa carry a miniature United States flag across Wrigley Field in the Cubs’ first home game after Sept.
11, 2001, German did the same thing before taking the mound in Sunday’s rain-delayed win on the 21st anniversary of the attacks.
“I was 9 years old, watching baseball with my granddad, and I remember seeing Sammy Sosa run out there with the flag,” Germán said through Yankees team interpreter Marlon Abreu. “The way I took it, it was a way to show support to the country, to the people, to the victims. Today I felt it was a good way to replicate that and show that even after that horrific event, you remember what happened and that it’s close to your heart.”
The Yankees commemorated the date by having all uniformed personnel wearing caps celebrating NYC’s first responders, and manager Aaron Boone placed a red, white, and blue wreath next to the 9/11 monument in Monument Park. The team also had a member of FDNY sing the National Anthem, accompanied by the presentation of colors by the Port Authority Police Department Honor Guard, and had an NYPD officer sing God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch.
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“It’s incredibly meaningful to all of us in there to get to play, and to get to play in New York, on this day that means so much to so many people,” Boone said before the game. “It’s not something we take lightly.”
Germán tossed a scoreless inning in his short start, which came on three days’ rest and was intentionally truncated because of the Yankees’ need to shuffle the rotation after a doubleheader on Wednesday (in which German pitched Game 1). He had been thinking about the Sosa tribute for a while, but when he found out he would get the ball on 9/11, he decided that it was the right thing to do.
“I always felt that, given the opportunity and given the right time, I wanted to do it,” Germán said. “It happened here with the Yankees. It’s something that my kids can see and hopefully use it as inspiration.”
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