Twenty-five years on, George W. Bush reflects on a moment that asked more of a baseball than physics ever intended — a first pitch at Yankee Stadium six weeks after September 11th, thrown not merely toward a catcher's glove but toward a grieving nation still searching for solid ground. In the space between the mound and home plate, something larger than sport was being tested: whether ordinary life could reassert itself in the shadow of catastrophe. Derek Jeter's wry counsel not to bounce it offered the kind of human levity that grief sometimes needs before it can begin to move.
Bush recalls Derek Jeter's pep talk before iconic post-9/11 Yankee Stadium pitch
Nearly 3,000 people died in the September 11 terrorist attacks, including hundreds of firefighters and police officers.
Politics & Governance