"People want to find refuge in sports, want to find comfort in a crowd, being around other people. Maybe that has a tendency to ease the pain even if it’s just a little bit” - Mike Piazza.
Ten days after 9/11, down 2-1 to the Braves, Piazza hit a home run in the bottom of the eighth innings to win the game 3-2 for the New York Mets.
The outcome of that game didn't really matter all that much in the end. The Mets finished 82-80 and missed the play-offs. Most sport really doesn't matter if you really want to compare it to other life stuff. Yet, on September 21st, 2001 for a brief moment after Piazza's homer, you had the city of New York celebrating what it meant to feel alive again.
That Piazza moment is considered one of the greatest in American sporting history and a sign that life was returning to normal again.
When it is safe to do so, and sport returns, which it will, we will all have our own Mike Piazza moment. The first goal your football team scores and you're celebrating with strangers. Watching hurling and the smell of freshly cut grass. The tension of a mens Wimbledon final. Whatever sport it is that brings us together and allows us to dream a little.
