“It was the first game I ever played in my life, at any level, where I didn’t want to win.”
A powerful statement from Mark DeRosa, who was an Atlanta Brave that played in the memorable game against the Mets at Shea Stadium on Sept. 21, 2001, the return of baseball to New York just 10 days after the 9/11 attacks.
DeRosa, along with five other players from the New York area who played in that game, is part of the MLB Network documentary “Remembering the Game for New York,” which airs Thursday night at 9 p.m. with two re-airs on Sept. 11. He joined Moose & Maggie on WFAN on Thursday to discuss the show, and in addition to the powerful quote above, he had this synopsis of the whole project:
“I think for me, I was humbled at first when the features department came to me with this idea, wanting to get a feel for all the guys from the surrounding area that played in the game,” DeRosa told Moose & Maggie about the concept. “I said if we just stick a camera in a room and out us around a table, we’ll get some good stuff…and when I saw the rough cut, I was blown away to be a part of it.”
When it came to being part of the visiting team for that game, well, there was a lot of trepidation amongst the Braves as to how the day would unfold.
“It was one of those games where if you ask 15 different players if we should’ve been there, you’d have gotten 15 diff answers. We didn’t know what to expect – should we be playing? It is safe?” DeRosa recalled. “They rolled it out in such a grandiose way you felt like you wanted to enjoy it but you couldn’t.”
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The game did go on with some pregame ceremonies – DeRosa recalled Bobby Cox and Bobby Valentine orchestrating a team handshake, and then locking eyes with his family in the stands – and while his own participation was limited a pinch-running appearance in the ninth, he will never forget what happened the half-inning before.
“When Piazza hit that homer, I looked at Bobby Cox because normally he’d get mad, but everyone in the dugout was like this needs to happen,” DeRosa said. “Like I said, it was the only game I ever felt we needed to lose.
For one small moment, people forgot about what was happening.”
DeRosa, who grew up in New Jersey, admitted he wasn’t in NYC much as a child, maybe once or twice – his family only frequenting the city once he made the Majors and would come to New York. But for many of the others in the documentary, being part of that game was surreal as it gets.
“The Twin Towers were the backdrop to my Wiffle ball games on the streets, but Al Leiter said it best: for the guys who grew up around here, the Twin Towers were a shining light of power,” DeRosa said. “We went back to Steve Karsay’s childhood home in College Point, Queens; he talked about being able to hear Shea Stadium from his front steps in the 1986 World Series, and then to be on the mound that night…the toughness of what New York represents is the same for all of us.”
Karsay was the one on the mound when Piazza hit his go-ahead (and eventually game-winning home run), and while DeRosa was happy to see Staten Islander and fellow documentary participant Jason Marquis dominate for the Braves that night (he allowed one run over six innings), he thinks everything fell into place as it needed to.
“For me, it was all the karma moments; for Marquis to go out and dominate, I know how much it meant to him,” DeRosa said, “but that homer…I was thinking, ‘that’s the way it’s supposed to be.’ For all the years I was with the Braves, when you lost a road game, there was no talking on the bus back to the hotel. That night, it was guys having conversations about how great that was. I thought it’s the one game I ever competed in ever that I didn’t want to win, and that’s still true to this day.”
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And, DeRosa shared one story that came 10 years later that you may not believe even if he told you, but brings full-circle how he always felt about 9/11 and playing in the return on 9/21.
“Wherever I went the remainder of my career, I asked the guys to come out to the line for the National Anthem on 9/11, because I never wanted it to be forgotten,” DeRosa said. “Back in 2011, I was with the Giants, and I was having dinner with Jason Marquis in DC when he was with the Nationals.
He was driving me back to the team hotel, and I said to Jason that I want to know we’re still looking for Bin Laden; we get back to the hotel that night, and we hear the news Bin Laden has been killed.”
That was May 1, 2011, a day the Nationals beat the Giants 5-2. Marquis did not pitch and DeRosa did not play…but perhaps the second most emotional day of their careers.
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