Tonight the NY Mets played the first major league baseball game in NYC since Sept. 11. The NY Mets happen to be one of our clients and once a year they provide a sky box for our company. As it happens, tonight was the night. I expected a very long slow process to get into the stadium. Everyone knew it was going to be a special night and a large crowd was expected. We also expected very tight security to slow things down. And then it was a Friday evening rush hour that we would be traveling through to get to Shea Stadium. Thankfully the traffic was light for me as I was coming from Long Island against all the traffic trying to get home from NYC. The stadium was very well prepared and everything moved smoothly even though there was a huge crowd.

Before the game started, the players of both teams lined up on the foul lines from home plate to 1st base and to 3rd base. A group of midshipmen from a nearby naval academy in Kings Point carried in a very large American Flag. The Emerald Society of the NYC Police Department marched in playing patriotic songs on their bag pipes. Then several hundred NYC policemen, firemen, EMT's and others marched in. Diana Ross sang America The Beautiful and then Mark Anthony sang the National Anthem. There was a 21 gun salute and some moments of silence. In attendance was Mayor Rudy Gulliani who got a thunderous applause when announced. A fireman through out the first ball and the game was underway.

I cannot tell you how proud I was to be a New Yorker at that game. The crowd could not have been better behaved. They were so appreciative of all the heroes who were there that night. For the 7th inning stretch Liza Minelli sang New York, New York to a chorus line of fireman and policeman and even wore one of their hats. It is amazing how nice people can be when they want to be.

And yes they did play a baseball game. The Mets have been playing great baseball over the last few weeks and are a long shot to overtake their rivals Philadelphia and Atlanta for a playoff shot. Tonights game was against Atlanta. And it was a great game, great pitching by both teams. Atlanta had a 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the eighth inning when Mike Piazza hit a game winning 2 run home run. In the top of the ninth inning, Atlanta's Lockhart grounded into a game ending double play and the crowd roared for the last time this evening. What a great game, what an emotional game. It was great that the home team won, no doubt about that. But what was much better was just being there.