Former New York Mets pitcher Al Leiter has shared a detailed account of how September 11, 2001 unfolded for him, describing a personal detour that turned into a harrowing journey through a city under attack.
Leiter told the story on OutKick’s “The Craig Carton Show.” That morning, despite a scheduled game in Pittsburgh, he had quietly flown home to New York without telling Mets management, so he could be there for his daughter’s first day of first grade.
“I wanted to be there for my daughter’s first grade,” Leiter said. “She was scared. You know, ‘We’ll be there, honey.’ And I’m like playing a long time, I’m probably 15, 16 years in the big leagues, whatever. And I knew if it wasn’t Pittsburgh, US Air had like a flight like every hour, was like a shuttle. Drop her off, get on the plane.”
He admitted it wasn’t something he normally did. “I never had done this, Craig. I can’t believe I actually did it. I don’t know if I did it like Bobby Valentine and Steve Phillips didn’t know about it.”
After walking his daughter to school, Leiter headed to LaGuardia Airport to catch a flight back to Pittsburgh for that night’s game. Sitting on the tarmac, he heard the first vague reports of trouble downtown.
“The pilot says, ‘Oh, it looks like a news helicopter by the [World] Trade Center. We’re about ready to take off,'” Leiter recalled. “And then not five minutes later, we’re going back to the airport. Get your stuff. New York airspace is closed, LaGuardia is closed, evacuate.”
Even then, Leiter said the severity of the situation hadn’t fully registered. “I still think we’re gonna play. At that time, you know, we don’t know what they’re like.”
Still trying to reach the team, Leiter got into a cab and set out for Philadelphia to catch an alternate flight. “I called Jay Harts. I’m, ‘Jay, you got to get me a flight. I’m going to Philly,'” he said. “I have a female Pakistani cab driver. When do you ever get a female, like, and she’s crying. I’m like, ‘Can you take me to Philadelphia? I’ll pay you.’ And I’m pissed off. I’m mad. I’m sad. So going over to Triborough Bridge, the towers are burning.”
As the city shut down around him, Leiter’s route changed again. “They closed off New York City. I was going to go up to Tappan Zee over to go down through New Jersey to get to Philly to get on a plane to pitch that night,” he said. “By the time I’m on the D again, going north of Yankee Stadium, heading up to Tappan Zee, radio’s on and the Pentagon just got hit.”
Leiter then called Mets general manager Steve Phillips. “I called Steve Phillips. I said, ‘Steve, I’m sorry, but like, I’m pretty sure we’re not playing baseball, right?’ It’s like, ‘Don’t worry about it.'”
Looking back on the day, Leiter said the strangeness of his own morning stuck with him alongside the horror of what happened. “I tell you that story because you know it was so bizarrely unique for like the balls that I had actually to do that, and then that was the day of the most heinous terrorist act in the history of our country,” he said.
Decades later, Leiter said his account hasn’t changed even as public discussion of the attacks has shifted over time. “Every year it’s like my story doesn’t change, right? Like history doesn’t change. Although now what we’re seeing, like you know I read the paper about like there were 19 Al-Qaeda guys that took down four planes. Like I’m reading stuff, there’s like the story is changing. What are we doing here, right? My story’s not changed.”
He pushed back against what he sees as attempts to reframe the day. “I think a narrative that is out there is trying to paint 9/11 in a way that I just disagree with,” Leiter said. “That was a heinous terrorist act that killed 3,000 lives, right? Almost 400 firefighters running up there to help people. And so many more.”
“It couldn’t be a simpler moniker of Never Forget, right? And it’s not just a slogan. It’s true. Because it’s easy, I can see how as time goes on, you start… wait a minute, that happened. Let’s not forget that it happened.”
