The Charlotte Knights have given away more than 2,000 tickets to first responders for Friday night's game against the Buffalo Bisons, the club said this week. First pitch is 7:04 p.m. at Truist Field. Friday is September 11, twenty-five years since the attacks.
The evening is built around the date. Before the national anthem, first responders will take the field and unfurl an American flag across the outfield. The ballpark will hold a moment of silence for those affected. There is a rendition of "God Bless America" at the seventh-inning stretch, a flag-passing ceremony after the final out, and fireworks.
Knights players and coaches will wear custom first responders' jerseys during the game, and those jerseys are already listed for auction through Minor League Baseball's auction site. The proceeds go to the Fire Fighter Steven Coakley Foundation.
Steven Coakley was a New York City firefighter assigned to Engine 217. The foundation that carries his name says he was killed in the line of duty on September 11, 2001, climbing the towers. He was one of 343 firefighters who died in New York that day.
The foundation has been running since the summer of 2002, and it is a Charlotte-area operation. IRS records compiled by ProPublica list it as a 501(c)(3) registered in Waxhaw, granted tax exemption in July 2003. Its stated purpose, in its own words, is to "keep the thought alive in our hearts, how Steve and many other firefighters lived their lives and were always ready to help us in our hours of crisis."
What it does with that is modest and consistent. It awards scholarships. It runs a golf tournament, now in its twentieth year. And every year it sets out 2,977 flags, one for each person killed on September 11.
It does this on very little. In its most recent filing, for fiscal year 2024, the foundation reported $21,132 in revenue and listed no paid officers and no paid staff. Twenty-four years of remembrance work, run by people who are not paid to do it.
That is who the jerseys are for.
Tickets for Friday remain available through the club.