Multiple players from the 2001 Yankees team disputed Bobby Valentine’s claim the Yankees’ post-Sept. 11 community involvement was non-existent.
“The Yankees did plenty as a team,” former reliever Mike Stanton told The Post on Wednesday. “The players did a lot of stuff on an individual basis. That’s how we elected to go about it.
“The Yankee organization and the Yankee players, we did just as much as anyone else. We had a meeting. We talked about it as players and decided to do it on the down-low.”
Mariano Rivera also disputed Valentine’s comments.
“That’s not true,” he said. “We know what we did.”
Earlier in the day, Valentine said on WFAN the Yankees were absent in the 9/11 aftermath. The comments about the Yankees by Valentine — who was the Mets manager in 2001 — were unprompted.
“I was dealing with players who were dealing with this fear factor, and even some of them dealing with a little bit of a guilt factor. Then there was the situation with the Yankees across town. Because let it be said, that during the time from 9-11 to 9-21, the Yankees were AWOL,” Valentine said. “You couldn’t find a Yankee on the streets of New York City. You couldn’t find a Yankee down at Ground Zero talking to guys who were working 24-7.
“Many of them didn’t live here, and so it wasn’t their fault. Many of them did not partake in all that and so there was some of that jealousy going around. Like ‘Why are we so tired, why had we been to funerals and the fire houses and the Yankees are getting all the credit for bringing baseball back?’ And I said, ‘This isn’t about credit, guys. This is about doing the right thing.’ ”
Yankees president Randy Levine said he believes the remarks were disappointing on multiple levels.
“My reaction is it’s very sad. Surprised Bobby did that,” Levine told The Post. “Especially on this day. Today is a day that we pray and remember. Not a day to point fingers. It’s well documented that the New York Yankees visited Ground Zero, the Armory, the Javits Center, St. Vincent’s Hospital and many other places during those horrible days.
“We have continued to honor all of the first responders, heroes and the families of the victims of 9/11 and today is not to take credit but a day of remembrance.”
In addition to the visits that the Yankees made, the team also donated $1 million to the Twin Towers Fund.
General manager Brian Cashman found Valentine’s comments to be baffling.
“I don’t know what to say to that, to be honest,” he said. “I would point anybody who was covering us to go back and look what we were doing because that’s not what I remember. I don’t know what the purpose of him raising those issues is. I don’t agree with him. I personally was proud of our team. We did everything we thought we should be doing.
“I don’t understand the conversation, why we’re even having it here. It’s hard to speak to it, given everything else that’s going on. … I like Bobby. But in this case, I don’t understand it.”
Valentine did not return a message left for him on Wednesday.
— Additional reporting by Ken Davidoff, George A. King III and Dan Martin