Twenty-five years on, the geography of the day has shifted at the top. President Donald Trump will observe the September 11 anniversary at the Pentagon, with Vance sent to the Lower Manhattan ceremony at the World Trade Center site. Other administration officials are attending the Shanksville, Pennsylvania observance.
The arrangement reverses last year’s picture. On the 24th anniversary in 2025, Trump visited the Yankees clubhouse before a regular-season game against the Detroit Tigers, took photos with players and watched from a suite alongside Attorney General Pam Bondi and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. The Yankees wore hats carrying NYPD and FDNY logos, and Trump told the players in the clubhouse: “For some reason, I don’t know what it was, we won every time I came.”
Asked why he was not returning to New York this year, Trump was brief.
“Because I’m going to the Pentagon,” he told reporters.
Read also: Staveley breaks silence on West Ham bid
His team had initially discussed a Ground Zero visit. The National September 11 Memorial and Museum has barred politicians from delivering speeches at the ceremony since 2012, and sources told NBC News the president wanted to speak.
A Subway Series tribute in the Bronx
The baseball centerpiece is in the Bronx. The Yankees host the Mets at Yankee Stadium and have asked fans to be in their seats by 6:30pm local time for the pregame program, according to amNewYork.
Brielle Saracini and Sean McGuire, whose fathers were killed on September 11 and who met as children at Camp Better Days, will throw the ceremonial first pitches. Saracini’s father, Victor, was captain of United Flight 175; McGuire’s father, Patrick, worked on the 84th floor of the South Tower. Both were 10 years old when they lost their fathers.
Current Yankees players will lay a wreath beside the 9/11 monument in Monument Park earlier in the afternoon. Select alumni from the 2001 Yankees team will take part in the ceremony, along with honour guards from NYPD, FDNY and the Port Authority Police Department, and representatives of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation and Tuesday’s Promise. Opera tenor James Valenti will sing the national anthem, Lee Greenwood will perform “God Bless the USA”, and FDNY Lieutenant William Arce will sing “God Bless America” during the seventh-inning stretch.
Read also: Enormous F2 crash at Madring raises fresh safety alarm hours before F1's debut at the circuit
Yankees captain Aaron Judge will host honoured guests from 9/11 organisations in his section of the ballpark.
First 9/11 meeting since 2021 at Yankee Stadium
The Subway Series scheduling gave MLB a chance to place the sport’s biggest New York fixture at Yankee Stadium on the date itself. The Yankees and Mets last met on September 11 in 2021, on the 20th anniversary, when they played at Citi Field. It was the first time the two clubs had faced each other on the date.
First pitch in the Bronx is Friday evening. Trump’s Pentagon remarks are scheduled earlier in the day in Arlington.
Read also: LIV Golf files for bankruptcy
Read also: Leclerc breaks silence after Ferrari meeting
