NY Mets manager Luis Rojas, players share memories from Sept. 11 terrorist attacks

On September 11, 2001, Rich Hill was walking through campus at the University of Michigan following an 8 a.m. class that went until 9:30 a.m. In front of the library, Hill saw a bunch of students on their phones. Some were crying, others were looking up at the sky. 

“Hey, what’s going on?” Hill, a junior at the time, asked one student. 

“They said a plane had hit the World Trade Center,” Hill recalled on a recent afternoon at Citi Field. 

At that time, cell phones didn’t have internet and social media didn’t exist to provide live news. Hill went to the computer lab because he knew there would be a television in there. On a small TV that hunt down from the corner of the wall, he watched the horrific footage of the planes hitting the Twin Towers. 

“I couldn’t believe it,” Hill said. “I couldn’t believe what I was watching.”

There are certain “Where Were You?” events in our history. 

Perhaps none is more prominent than the September 11 terrorist attacks, which changed New York City, the country and the world. 

With the 20th anniversary of 9/11 upon us, The Record/NorthJersey.com talked to Mets manager Luis Rojas and several players about their memories from that day and the connections they may have had to it. 

Pitcher Rich Hill

On the day of the attacks, Mark Bavis, a scout with the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings, boarded United Airlines Flight 175 to Los Angeles. The hijacked plane eventually crashed into the south tower, which killed Bavis at age 31. 

Bavis was Hill’s wife’s cousin. 

Hill and his wife visited the reflecting pools — which sit where the towers once stood — a year after they opened. The pools feature the inscribed names of those who died in the tragedy.

On that terrible day in 2001, when Hill found out what had occurred, he began calling family and friends to see if they had seen the same thing he had watched. Then he went back to his apartment, where he and his roommate watched the news. 

“Obviously, it was devastatingly awful to watch and a terrible time for this country,” Hill said. 

Manager Luis Rojas 

Rojas, a 20-year-old at the time, had just finished his minor league season in the Marlins organization. He was living with his mother in the Dominican Republic and woke up to the awful news. He had been ready to go to baseball practice — even though his season had just ended — but something more pressing took his attention. 

Rojas and his mother watched the television footage of the planes hitting the towers. 

“I remember I stopped and I didn’t go anywhere,” he said. “I just stayed glued to the television with my mom.”

He soon added: “It was impactful. I remember that.” 

Throughout the years, Rojas has gained a greater perspective on the terrorist attacks’ impact on New York City as a whole. He’s coached for the Mets for over a decade and has connected with people who have connections to the tragedy. 

One such example: Rojas has developed a relationship with Jack McNamara, a teenager who is a Mets superfan. McNamara’s father, a firefighter, responder on 9/11 and, years later, died of cancer caused by the day’s events. Jack was only 2 years old. 

Rojas always tries to send McNamara something. Last year, the manager sent McNamara a signed hat from the Sept. 11 game in Buffalo. 

Rojas and his family have visited the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Manhattan. When they walk around it, he said, they engage in deep talks on what it must have been like that day. They think about the families that went through so much suffering. 

“Being with this organization, being in the city now for a couple of years, you can feel how hard that was for the country, the city, the members, the law enforcement, everyone that went in there to help and didn’t make it out of there,” Rojas said. “It brings you closer to it.”

Catcher James McCann

James McCann was only a sixth grader when the tragedy occurred. He knew what happened and could understand it, but he gained even more perspective years later. 

“Obviously as a sixth grader, you hear about the number of lives lost but I don’t think it really hits home until you get a little bit older and you start to understand the preciousness of life,” McCann said. “As an 11-year-old, 12-year-old, whatever you are in sixth grade, you’re jumping off of monkey bars and doing things that you probably shouldn’t be doing. You don’t really understand the seriousness of losing a life. 

“As you get older, you realize how many kids lost parents. People lost fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters. The older you get, you’re able to put yourself in those people’s shoes and realize how terrible it was.”

A woman who helps babysit McCann’s kids lost her father, a firefighter, to the tragedy. She’s told McCann and his wife how that has helped shape her view of the world. 

“I wouldn’t wish what people here went through on that day on anyone,” McCann said. 

On the day of the attacks, McCann, who grew up on the West Coast, woke up for school and found his parents watching the news. He remembers seeing the footage of the planes hitting the towers. 

At the time, he had no idea how much those events would affect the world forever.

“Was there an impact on me? Yeah, indirectly. But not like the people here,” McCann said. 

Outfielder Kevin Pillar

During a conversation about 9/11, Kevin Pillar brought up the recent events in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have seized power. The United States pulled its troops out of the country, ending the war. 

“It’s a scary thought of what could happen, what might happen,” Pillar said. “It’s scary because, for the last 20 years, aside from months to a year after the initial 9/11, I think all of us have been very fortunate to feel like we can live our life fear-free of something like that happening.

“It’s scary to think about the possibilities of (a terrorist attack) happening again. God willing, it doesn’t happen again. It’s definitely something that crosses my mind a little more than I’d like it to.”

Pillar was in fifth grade when the hijackers flew the planes into the World Trade Center. A West Coast kid, he saw it all over the news when getting ready for school. He understood it was an intentional attack on the United States, that it was bad, that tons of people died. 

He didn’t truly grasp the magnitude of 9/11 at that age, though.

“You just kind of go back to being a kid,” he said. 

Now, he said he tries to never take his freedoms for granted. He’s had family members and friends who served in the military, and tries to acknowledge their work in protecting his freedoms. 

“I make it a point, even days that I’m not playing, to get out here for the anthem because it does mean a lot to me,” Pillar said. “I understand how important they are to us being able to do what we do here.”

During a pitching change in one game this season, Pillar, who was playing left field, went to the wall and began speaking to a fan. He happened to be a FDNY firefighter in Flushing, and he later sent Pillar a shirt. 

When talking about the Mets’ game against the Yankees on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Pillar said he hoped to meet first responders, their families and others who were impacted by the tragedy to hear their stories. 

Third baseman J.D. Davis

J.D. Davis, an 8-year-old at the time, was watching cartoons on TV at home in Southern California when his mom entered the room and flipped the channel. 

One tower had been hit. Davis saw the plane hit the second one. 

“I didn’t understand it at first. I was too young,” he said. “I knew it was kind of a tragic event. I couldn’t even wrap my head around it. As I got older, I put one and two together on the magnitude of it and how it affected so many people.”

During a conversation, he used the phrase “unfortunate and fortunate enough” multiple times. 

It’s unfortunate, he said, that the tragedy happened but he feels fortunate to be able to thank first responders and their families — and console others — on the 20th anniversary of the attacks. 

It’s unfortunate, he said, that the attacks were so impactful that a museum needed to be built, but he’s fortunate to be able to have visited it and gained valuable perspective on what people went through on that day. 

“I think it’s very heavy,” Davis said. “It’s a tragedy, but it’s also a gift, too, that we come together on the 20th anniversary to play America’s national pastime.”

Pitcher Tylor Megill

Megill was only 6 years old. Understandably, he doesn’t remember much from the day. 

“We were in school and all of the sudden, we weren’t doing anything, we were watching TV,” he said. “But I didn’t really think much of it. I was young.”

Justin Toscano is the Mets beat writer for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to all Mets analysis, news, trades and more, please subscribe today and download our app.

Email: toscanoj@northjersey.com 

Twitter: @justinctoscano