Ten days after the attacks on September 11, the Mets returned home for the first professional sporting event in the city, embracing their division rivals, the Atlanta Braves, before first pitch.

"We sat in the green seats in the mezzanine,” explained Jimmy Bellington. The lifelong Mets fan and Queens native was 17 at the time he and his buddy bought tickets to the game.

"I remember Marc Anthony sang the national anthem, Diana Ross [sang] 'God Bless America.' People were crying in their seats,” recalled Bellington. “It was not just a ball game, it was truly an event."

Players and fans swapped their Mets caps for FDNY and NYPD ones, and the seats of Shea Stadium were packed with first responders and families who had lost loved ones in the attacks.

"I remember a sense of uneasiness,” said Bellington. "You could really sense that in the stadium for a lot of the game."

Until the bottom of the eighth inning, with the Mets trailing 2 to 1, and All-Star catcher Mike Piazza at the plate.

"People who were crying in their seats the whole night just erupted,” remembered Bellington, recalling Piazza's go-ahead home run. "The place was shaking, it was like nothing I have ever seen before."

Twenty years later, Bellington says it is a moment he will never forget. Former Mets closer and team captain John Franco says he won't either.

"To see smiles on people's faces that haven't smiled for a while, it meant a lot for us to see that,” said Franco.

The former major leaguer and Brooklyn native said there was some uncertainty in the clubhouse among players before that game in Queens. Was it to soon? Was taking the field the right thing to do? Those questions were answered once Piazza's ball cleared the left-center field wall.

"When you turn around and when you see the fans in the stands, hugging and crying, waving the flags and chanting, 'USA!' guys in the dugout hugging," Franco said, "It made us feel good, that for the three hours we played, we put a Band-Aid on a big wound."

Franco said all New York sports helped heal that wound. From President Bush's World Series pitch at Yankee Stadium to Rangers captain Mark Messier donning the fire helmet of a fallen FDNY chief, different moments from all of the city's teams offered a bit of normalcy in a time of so much uncertainty.

"I bleed New York City and it was like getting a punch to the stomach,” said Franco. "You want to do whatever you can do to help as an athlete."

The Mets and the Yankees will join together this year, to help honor this anniversary, playing against each other on September 11th for the first time. To mark the 20th anniversary, there will be a pre-game ceremony bringing back many of the athletes from the 2001 teams that helped heal a city.

Bellington will be there, thinking about his first game back after the attacks.