Phillies

Harry Kalas Welcomes Us Back to Baseball After 9/11

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Sep 11th, 2026 · 10:06 AM EDT

---

If you have three minutes today:

“From the Cradle of Liberty, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Do we have closure? No. No. The heinous acts of terrorism last Tuesday will be with us for as long as we all shall live. We have earned a greater respect and love for the men and women of our fire departments, our police departments, our emergency rescue squads. We are all Americans, and we are proud to be Americans. And we must never resort to the thinking that created Tuesday’s acts of terrorism. They were born of hatred. We as individuals, we as a nation, must never hate. More than ever before, we must stand together and live by His words: love one another. Here at Veterans Stadium we see various displays of nationalism and patriotism. And let us always remember that above all else: love one another. Love thy brother. Yes, baseball will go on. It won’t be the same. It’ll be a long time before it’s the same. But sports has always been a diversion from our everyday problems, and in this case from a national tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers and our hearts go out to the families and to the friends of the victims of the tragedy of September 11th, 2001. The color guard is now coming up on the field. We see waves of people here at Veterans Stadium standing united, regardless of race, color, religion, or creed. We are all together as members of the United States of America. We’re proud to be Americans, and baseball is our national pastime. We’re proud to be small pieces of our national pastime, and we want to see it continue. You can hear in the background chants of “USA.” Yes. America perhaps now will become more united than ever before. And probably now we won’t need it more than any time that I can ever recall.“