One day in late May, four former New York Mets — Mike Piazza, Todd Zeile, Al Leiter and John Franco — settled into seats in a small theater at Citi Field. They had come together to rewatch footage from the night baseball returned to New York after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Over the course of a couple hours, the quartet relived that emotional Sept. 21 game against the Atlanta Braves. They reminisced about the atmosphere at Shea Stadium. They watched Piazza’s dramatic go-ahead homer disappear into the night. “What baseball did at the time,” Franco told his former teammates, “was put a small Band-Aid on a big wound.”

The retired players’ conversation is part of a two-hour original documentary, “When America Took the Field,” that revisits baseball’s role in helping restore some sense of normalcy to a reeling city and country.

The documentary will premiere at 10 p.m. ET Sept. 10 on MLB Network, ahead of the Mets’ weekend series against the New York Yankees in the Bronx that will commemorate the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11. It will be available on MLB.TV starting the week of Sept. 13.

“Twenty-five years later, it’s still in the forefront of my mind,” former Yankees ace Roger Clemens says in a trailer for the documentary.

His old manager, Joe Torre, echoes: “It feels like it just happened.”

After the Sept. 11 attacks, then-MLB commissioner Bud Selig postponed all games through Sept. 16. Once games resumed, many remained unsure of how to move forward, and how soon. In St. Louis, Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Buck took the microphone before the Cardinals’ Sept. 17 home game and delivered a line that resonated far beyond the baseball world.

“I don’t know about you,” Buck said, “but as for me, the question has already been answered. Should we be here? Yes.”

The crowd roared.

Buck continued: “Should we show others how to demonstrate our resolve? Yes. And we shall do it here this evening. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to baseball. Welcome back to Busch Stadium.”

In the days after the Twin Towers collapsed, the Shea Stadium parking lots were used as supply centers to distribute disaster-relief items. The Mets’ scheduled home series Sept. 17-19 against the Pittsburgh Pirates was relocated to Pittsburgh for security reasons. On Sept. 21, the Mets came home, and those parking lots filled again with baseball fans. There were tributes to the 343 members of the New York City Fire Department who died responding to the attacks. Piazza provided the defining image with his two-run, eighth-inning homer.

Zeile, an executive producer on the documentary, referred to Sept. 21, 2001, as “the most significant day” of his baseball career.

“While wearing the caps of our first responders, it wasn’t just another baseball game,” Zeile said in a statement. “It helped unite America through the healing power of baseball and the strength of the human spirit. My hope is that this film preserves these stories for future generations and, above all, reminds us of the promise we all share: Never Forget.”

On Oct. 30, 2001 — 50 days after Sept. 11 — U.S. President George W. Bush strode to the mound at Yankee Stadium before Game 3 of the World Series wearing an FDNY sweater with a bulletproof vest underneath. He gave the crowd a thumbs up and then threw the most iconic ceremonial first pitch in MLB history: a perfect strike.

The documentary will be shown at a Sept. 10 event for Mets season ticket holders at Citi Field, according to an MLB Network news release. Piazza, Zeile, Franco, Leiter, Robin Ventura and David Wright are expected to attend.

Among the baseball voices in the film are numerous players — Ken Griffey Jr., Chipper Jones, John Smoltz, Bernie Williams, Curt Schilling, Paul Konerko and Craig Biggio and others — managers, executives and prominent media members, from Bob Costas to Joe Buck to Mike Francesa. In the documentary, it’s Francesa, the New York radio legend, providing perhaps the most apt description of the part baseball played after Sept. 11:

“We needed the escape. We needed the distraction. We needed the games.”

HOUSTON — Tatsuya Imai has a new locker mate inside the Houston Astros’ home clubhouse. He posted a 4.94 ERA across 74 2/3 Triple-A innings but possesses promising underlying metrics. Still, one rival scout said that “in an ideal world” Ethan Pecko would be “more of an option for ’27.”

“But no doubt,” the scout added, “they don’t have other options.”

So there sat Pecko on Tuesday afternoon atop a bench inside Dakin Park’s first-base dugout, smiling to hide nerves before the biggest day of his baseball life. The scout, speaking anonymously to candidly discuss another club’s prospects, said Pecko profiles as a “back-end starter.”

More fanfare accompanied the man Pecko passed over for this opportunity. Signing Imai this winter represented a splash for a franchise that is reluctant to spend in free agency while signaling its advancement into the Pacific Rim. Guaranteeing him $54 million suggested Imai would serve, at minimum, as a stabilizing force behind returning ace Hunter Brown.

Pecko’s arrival Tuesday afternoon accentuated how far Imai has fallen in the team’s pitching hierarchy. Imai pitched twice in the first 18 days of August. He could have started on six days of rest Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Angels, a team torn apart at the trade deadline and carrying the third-lowest OPS in the sport.

Instead, Pecko will receive the assignment and make his major-league debut, manager Joe Espada announced Tuesday night. In a second half filled with indictments on Imai’s inauspicious season, few seem more glaring than this.

“I want to be a starter and back in the rotation, but right now, we’re in a tough situation where we want to win this division,” Imai said Tuesday through interpreter Shio Enomoto. “The second team and third team are really close behind. We have to win these games. That’s why I really understand how the team has made the decision.”

Bypassing Imai, 28, does give this ballcub its best chance to win, a fact the pitcher himself twice acknowledged in a 10-minute conversation before Tuesday’s game. Imai failed to finish five innings in eight of his 15 starts, is walking 5.8 batters per nine innings and has a 5.29 ERA.

Problems acclimating to major-league life have plagued Imai since the season’s first month, when Enomoto said the right-hander was “not able to adjust to the American lifestyle.”

Imai has since bemoaned — among other things — the differences in mound quality at visiting ballparks, the extensive travel schedule, his sight lines with a third deck and the timing of his meals. That Imai is the first Japanese player the Astros have signed from Nippon Professional Baseball meant an already massive learning curve would grow steeper.

“It’s been way (more) difficult than I thought,” Imai said Tuesday. “Everything is new. I just have to try out everything step by step, try to figure out how to adapt, how to adjust. For my second year, it won’t be my first year, so I’ll have to adjust well more and start performing with more consistency.”

Imai’s mention of his second year is striking, perhaps a glimpse into how he is processing — or already putting in the past — this plodding season. Without prompt, Imai spoke about his second or third season four times in a span of three questions Tuesday.

“It’s my rookie year. Yes, I do have to perform, but I have to adjust and experience everything so it goes smooth in my second year and third year,” Imai said. “I think, for now, I just have to try out everything and perform well. For my second year and third year, I want to be back in the rotation and perform like I did in NPB.”

Imai’s contract contains an $18 million player option for both 2027 and 2028. His performance makes it difficult to imagine he will find a similar payday on the free-agent market. Imai did not directly answer whether he will exercise his option and return to the Astros in 2027.

“For right now, I’m really trying to figure out and trying to have the consistency and perform,” Imai said. “That’s the only thing I’m thinking right now. The team is trying to win the division as well. That is not in my mind right now. My thing is just try to perform well, and that’s the only thing on my mind right now.”

At the end of July, the Astros moved Imai to the bullpen in what Espada hoped would be “something that we just do for a short period of time.” Pecko’s arrival must raise the question whether the move will be more permanent — at least for the final 36 regular-season games.

Barring a complete implosion Wednesday, it is difficult to imagine Houston will remove Pecko from the starting rotation after one appearance. Offseason trade acquisition Mike Burrows is making another minor-league rehab start with Triple-A Sugar Land on Thursday, too.

Burrows’ early-season performance inspires little confidence — he had a 5.99 ERA in 94 2/3 innings before his injured-list stint — but the consistent length Burrows provides may put him ahead of Imai in the pecking order.

“My conversations with (Imai) are good,” Espada said. “He’s doing everything possible to help us win. Right now, where we’re at, he’s going to continue to help us out of the bullpen. We’ll see where it takes us. But he’s taking it well.”

Tuesday started a stretch of 19 games in 20 days. The Astros’ rotation is in such a state that ruling anyone out as a candidate to start games seems silly, but their actions indicate Imai is something of a last resort.

Imai could’ve started Tuesday’s series opener against the Angels but got bypassed in favor of Cristian Javier, another well-compensated starter incapable of providing stability for a group searching for it.

“Winning is the most important thing,” Imai said. “I think that’s how they decided.”

Carlos Sainz will remain with Williams in Formula 1 after signing a new multi-year contract with the team.

The 31-year-old joined Williams in 2025 after a stint at Ferrari, and scored two podium finishes last year. A dip in the team’s on-track performance this season led to some question marks over Sainz’s future with the team — he has scored just six points so far with a best finish of ninth place.

Any doubts about Sainz’ future have now been removed with the announcement of this new deal on Wednesday.

The team said in a statement that Sainz had agreed a new multi-year contract which it called a “a show of faith in Williams’ long-term project to compete at the front
contract of the F1 grid”. It did not disclose how long the deal will run for.

The news follows Tuesday’s announcement that Sainz’ teammate, Alex Albon, had extended his contract into 2027, ensuring Williams will run an unchanged line-up in F1 next year.

“I’m thrilled to announce my continued journey with the Williams F1 Team family,” Sainz said in a statement. “I truly believe in the people that form this team, both at the factory and at the racetracks, and the investments and hard work that are happening in the background.

“We have what it takes to turn this around together. I’m as committed as I was on day one to helping get Williams back to where it belongs, and I look forward to creating more memories with the team.”

Analysis

Analysis by Madeline Coleman

Getting Sainz and Albon to sign contract extensions, at the very least for next season, is the best-case scenario for Williams.

The 2026 campaign has been a difficult year for the team, ranging from production delays and a missed first test to an overweight car and quite a dip in on-track performance. And with trying times, after so much effort and time were dedicated toward the 2026 car, questions arise.

It didn’t come as a total surprise that Albon is remaining with Williams. He’s been a constant for the team since it gave him a second chance in F1 back in 2022. He previously told The Athletic, “I live and breathe the team. I want this to go well. I poured a lot of my time and energy into this team, and I hope it’s for something.” But that doesn’t mean it’s a guarantee he’ll stay forever.

With Sainz, it seemed that there were more question marks as Williams has failed to even come close to its 2025 performance. The Spaniard went as far as to say Hungary, the last race before the summer break, was “a bit of an eye-opener” with seeing the gap between them and the top teams. He went from winning races with Ferrari two seasons ago to now entering the second half of the 2026 season with six points to his name.

Albon and Sainz have both signed extensions (Peter Fox via Getty Images)

Matters may not be perfect right now, but Sainz does appear to see something worth continuing to invest in. When he found his groove at Williams, he thrived last season. You can’t forget the two podium finishes near the end of the campaign.

As Albon said in the news release about his extension on Tuesday, “One tough year doesn’t tell the full picture.” Securing Albon and Sainz means Williams has two race winners with immense F1 experience helping guide its development journey into the second year of this regulation set. They have a combined 370-plus race starts, over 1,600 points and 31 podiums.

It’ll take a while for Williams to overcome years of underinvestment and grow from both a car development and infrastructure standpoint. But having one of the more experienced driver line-ups on the grid for another season (at least) gives Williams a fighting chance at righting the wrongs of this season.

And it comes at a critical time — Williams will celebrate 50 years of competing in F1 next year.