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HBO: Can you describe your passion for the Yankees?
Rudy Giuliani: Well I grew up I grew up as a Yankee fan in Brooklyn when the Dodgers played less than one mile from my house. And everybody, including all my relatives, were Dodger fans. But my father was a Yankee fan. He had come from Manhattan. My mother had required him to live in Brooklyn. So his revenge was to make me a Yankee fan. So I was I think the only Yankee fan on my block. For the longest time I felt like I was the only Yankee fan in all of Brooklyn. And the other kids would throw things at me, knock me down, attempt to kill me, you know, all kinds of very generous and nice things. But all it did was make me a stronger and stronger Yankee fan.
I'm a very, very devoted Yankee fan, I was there when Roger Marris hit his sixty-first home run, there in the stands. No kidding. I was there when Reggie Jackson hit the three home runs to win the '77 World Series, one of the most dramatic final games of a World Series. So, I'm a Yankee fan going way, way back.
HBO: On September 11th, what was your single biggest task as far as trying to help the psyche of this city?
Rudy Giuliani: The single biggest task and the most difficult thing to do was to properly balance an understanding and an appreciation, which I probably knew first hand and probably better than anyone else cause I was right there, the horrific nature of this attack and how difficult it really was going to be to come out of it.
And even the thought that we'd probably be attacked again during that period of time was really, really difficult. I could see from the very beginning the number of casualties and the tremendous damage that was done. But at the same time, being realistic about that I had to create hope that we could get through it. So the only way I could do that is keep believing that myself. And I remember the first night, saying to the people of the city that I want you to come out of this stronger than we were before. Cause I want to show the terrorists that they can't harm us. They can't really hurt us. And the only way we're going to do that is by emerging from this stronger than we were before this happened.
HBO: After 9/11, how did baseball help the city of New York return to normalcy?
Rudy Giuliani: For me there were only two things that got my mind off the terrorist attacks for any period of time in the fall of 2001 and they were baseball and my son's football games. They were the only two things that I could watch, go to, or spend any time with where for fifteen minutes or twenty minutes I could feel that I was in a state of normalcy again. It was a wonderful thing.
I remember the first baseball game that I went to after September 11, 2001 was the Mets returning home. I went because we were worried about the security for both the Yankees and the Mets when they first came home. Any event outdoors then was a major security issue. But I also went because I wanted to thank the Mets for wearing the baseball caps of the NYPD and the FDNY and the and the Port Authority Police, which they had done on their own. The Yankees also did that, but the Mets actually did it first. I arrived at Shea Stadium and I got a standing ovation.
I was a Yankee fan. So I wore my Yankee hat. It used to get the Met fans really upset and they would yell at me get out of here, you bum. Go back to the Bronx, you don't belong here. But I was not used to getting a standing ovation at Shea Stadium. And it was really beautiful and it was very emotional. And I went over to Bobby Valentine and the Met players and I thanked them for wearing the hats. And honoring our firefighters and police officers and rescue workers.
I also remember seeing the Yankees and the White Sox, I think it was the first away game the Yankees played. And the during the 7th inning stretch somebody pointed to a big banner in Chicago, Chicago loves New York. Fans were holding it. And it was great to see. I mean it just lifted your spirits. It made you feel like you're not alone, people care about you, they're going to help you get through this, and we share this in common. This love of baseball.
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