BY SCOTT MORGANROTH
It is very rare that I get an opportunity to talk American History when I’m writing a story of this nature.
So pardon me for talking about it now because that was always one of my favorite subjects when I went to grade school and took some of those courses as electives in college.
Throughout the years, I’ve traveled to some great cities where there is a tremendous amount of history.
The ones that standout are Philadelphia, PA, Boston, MA, the Colonies in Virginia and Washington DC, yes, the Nations Capital.
There are some cities that are a part of American History for all the wrong reasons.
Dallas, TX and New York City are the ones that created infamous moments in US History.
We all know that President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald.
Many years ago while on assignment to cover the Detroit Lions at Dallas Cowboys, I went to the site where President Kennedy was killed.
In early September, after a trip to Cooperstown, NY, on my way back to Florida, although I’ve been there a few times, it was time to return to the Big Apple and see the World Trade Center sight and the redevelopment of a place that lives in infamy with the events of September 11, 2001.
I have to admit that I was impressed that the site was completed with one of the best memorials that I’ve ever seen and spent a couple hours just walking around looking at the fountains which surrounded “Ground Zero.”
It’s hard to believe that 21-years later that the bombing of the World Trade Center even took place.
How am I going to tie all of this to Baseball, The Great American Pastime?
That’s very easy.
The Miami Marlins played an interesting stretch of games with all the cities that I mentioned.
On September 6-8, the Fish visited the City of of Brotherly Love to take on the Philadelphia Phillies, home of the Liberty Bell.
From September 9-11, the Marlins hosted the New York Mets.
I covered the game on September 11 at Loan Depot Park.
In a rare inter-league double-header, the Marlins hosted the Texas Rangers on September 12.
The Phillies came to Miami and faced the Marlins from September 13-15.
The Marlins are currently in Washington DC to take on the Nationals and on September 11, this area was attacked by the events that occurred as well. The Pentagon was hammered in the attacks.
We always tend to ask ourselves where we were when significant events take place.
On September 11, 2001, I was living in Phoenix, Arizona when the Twin Towers were attacked.
I found out about the news from My Attorney Harry Cawood as I was in the beginning of divorce proceedings.
He told me about it and the reason I didn’t know was due to the fact that I was traveling from my apartment in Chandler, AZ to his office in Mesa.
It was certainly a somber day as well as the fact that these events would test our country’s resolve.
Ironically, the New York Yankees would face the Arizona Diamondbacks in the World Series and defeated the Bronx Bombers 4-3 in the Fall Classic.
Here I am living in an area where the entire country was probably sentimentally rooting for the Yankees and I’m enjoying being a part of the Diamondbacks success.
To date, the Diamondbacks have won Phoenix’s only major sports championship.
Whenever the situation presents itself, I do like to go to Sporting Events on September 11 because it’s great to see the levels of patriotism with the American Flag covered out over the majority of the field.
On September 11, 2016, I saw the Green Bay Packers defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars 27-23 as the home team gave Aaron Rodgers quite a battle on a hot afternoon in Northern Florida.
As I mentioned earlier, I attended the Mets at Marlins contest on September 11 at Loan Depot Park.
The Mets defeated the Marlins 9-3.
Everyone in the line-up contributed offensively for the Mets.
Jaijuan Walker pitched an outstanding game tossing seven innings and giving up one run, yielding five hits striking out 10.
Once again, there were a lot of events that took place on the field including the American Flag as well as the singing of “God Bless America” to reflect on this day.
For me the thought of attending a game with a New York based team was neat in its own right.
Let us not forget that some of the Marlins bigger crowds are when the transplanted New York Mets fans take the trek down I-95 and you can definitely hear them in the crowd.
The atmosphere was like watching a game at Citi Field as they’re extremely loud.
Between Walker and the Mets pounding out 14 hits, the New Yorkers definitely could be heard loud and clear.
For this one afternoon, it was great to spend Patriots Day at the Ballpark.
The real winners are all of us because we still have the opportunity to enjoy the freedom that our military works hard to provide us. We must never take that for granted!
Ironically, the Miami Dolphins defeated the New England Patriots 20-7 up the road at Hard Rock Stadium.
It was a Patriotic Day in South Florida with two sets of fish entertaining crowds.
Scott Morganroth can be reached at [email protected] and you can follow him on Twitter @TribuneSouth.
Also, you can catch his broadcasts by subscribing at no charge to the South Florida Tribune You Tube Channel.
