YES Network to Debut Yankees-Focused 9/11 Special

On Thursday, September 8, at 10 pm ET, the YES Network will premiere a one-hour special – 9/11 Remembered — commemorating the 10th anniversary of 9/11, with an emphasis on how New York sports, and the New York Yankees in particular, played a role in bringing the New York community together in the face an unprecedented tragedy.

9/11 Remembered will include a special segment focusing on Brielle Saracini, whose father Victor Saracini was a pilot of the hijacked United Airlines plane which hit the World Trade Center’s south tower. Shortly after 9/11, Brielle wrote a letter to her favorite player, Derek Jeter, about her dad. Upon receiving Brielle’s letter, Jeter and the Yankees organization wholeheartedly embraced Brielle and her family in an effort to help ease their pain. The Saracinis met Jeter again recently in advance of the 10th anniversary of 9/11. This segment is narrated and reported by current YES Network Yankees reporter Jack Curry, who was a national baseball writer when 9/11 occurred, who met the Saracini family at Yankee Stadium after 9/11, and has since maintained a relationship with the family. (Curry had co-written a book with Jeter in 2000 and, when the Saracinis visited Yankee Stadium after 9/11, Brielle asked to meet Curry)

The special will also feature interviews with members of the FDNY who responded to the World Trade Center tragedies, as well as interviews with current and former Yankees players and executives, and other public figures, describing their 9/11 experiences and how they saw sports help the New York region cope with the tragedy.

Finally, viewers will get a look at how the Yankees’ run through the Major League Baseball post-season that fall, and its World Series play, helped bring New Yorkers together.