Fifteen days after the most horrendous experience of their young lives, Brielle and Kirsten Saracini were smiling again. They were skipping along the concourse of old Yankee Stadium, then scooting through the box seats and then scampering along the grass near the first base dugout.
“I couldn’t breathe for about 20 minutes,” Brielle said.
It was one visit to a ballpark on September 26, 2001, but it was a memorable visit that allowed Brielle and Kirsten to feel like innocent children again for a few hours. Actually, they felt like queens or princesses or the 26th and 27th players on the Yankees roster. Every place the girls looked, another player or another person embraced them or hung out with them. It was a day where some healing, which is an endless process, began.
Brielle and Kirsten were devastated because their father, Victor, had been killed during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11. Victor was the pilot on United Airlines Flight 175, which was taken over by hijackers and crashed into the south tower. At that time, Brielle was 10 years old and Kirsten was 13. Their father was stolen from them and from Ellen, their mother, like so many other people were stolen from their families.
“I didn’t know what to do so I hid behind my Yankee cap,” Brielle said. “I turned to baseball.”
Because Brielle had read about Derek Jeter’s close relationship with his parents, she wrote the Yankees’ shortstop a letter. She explained what had happened to her father and how her family was mourning. She asked Jeter if there was any way they could meet him.
Miraculously, the letter made it to the Yankees. Jason Zillo, who worked in the media relations department, contacted the Saracinis to verify the story. After the Yankees did that, Jeter called Brielle and invited the family to the Stadium. When Brielle answered the phone and realized it was Jeter, she was stunned and giddy, stupefied and ecstatic.
“What 10-year old,” she asked a decade later, “gets a call from Derek Jeter?”
At least one did. At least one brave girl got that call. That is how Brielle and Kirsten, her equally brave sister, ended up sitting on Joe Torre’s tower behind the cage to watch batting practice, how they posed for pictures with Tino Martinez and Bernie Williams, how they chatted with Paul O’Neill and Scott Brosius and how they each received brand new gloves from Jeter. By the way, Jeter strayed from the on deck circle to deliver the freshly-stitched gloves to Brielle and Kirsten in the seventh inning.
The Saracinis are one of the inspiring stories of courage from 9/11. In the YES Network special “9/11 Remembered” that will air on Thursday night at 10 p.m., we will recount the family’s incredible story. From the unspeakable tragedy of losing their father and husband, the Saracinis have displayed amazing strength and have developed powerful friendships that trace back to their visit to the Stadium in 2001. I know because I’m one of those friends.
Since I had co-authored the book “The Life You Imagine” with Jeter, Brielle told Zillo she wanted to meet me. Once I was told who the girls were and how their father had perished, I was worried about what to say. What could I possibly tell these kids? Besides “I’m sorry for your loss,” and “I’m praying for you,” what else would be appropriate?
As Brielle and Kirsten approached me in the back of the press box, I decided that the best thing I could do was offer them insight about Jeter and the Yankees. I told them things that would appeal to young girls. How I had flown on a private jet with Jeter. How one of my interviews with Jeter at a restaurant was ruined because fans kept interrupting us and asking for his autograph. How Jeter’s favorite meal was chicken parmesan. For three innings, I answered their questions and told them anything and everything about the Yankees.
Ten years later, I’m still talking to Brielle, Kirsten and Ellen and I’m thrilled to have maintained that connection. Ten years later, the family talked to Jeter again, too. Our cameras captured the reunion between the Saracinis and Jeter. If you want see that and see how one courageous family has remained so strong since 9/11, watch YES on Thursday night. You will get to Brielle and Kirsten smiling.
Follow Jack Curry on Twitter: @JackCurryYES
