The Mets’ David Wright swapped his baseball glove for darts while honoring FDNY heroes on the eve of 9/11.
The third baseman visited Squad 18 on W. 10th Street today, which lost a lieutenant and six firefighters who responded to the attacks.
“It’s very special to go back there and sit down with the firefighters and hear their stories about the peers they lost on 9/11,” Wright said. “It’s touching an moving.”
During the visit, Wright discovered that Firefighter John Darcy won a gold medal in darts during the FDNY/NYPD games.
He challenged Darcy to a match — and lost.
“It needs a little work,” Darcy said of Wright’s skill. “But he hung in there.”
Darcy lost a cousin assigned to Ladder 7 and started at Squad 18 a short time later to replace one of the fallen brethren.
“I think about them every day. I’m sure it’s the same at every firehouse in the city,” he said. “The only thing you can do is keep them in your memory.
“Especially around this time of year, even the weather reminds you of 9/11.”
Wright promised that he and his teammates will remmember the firefighters during their game tonight against the Nationals.
“It’s heavy on our hearts,” Wright said. “Any time we take the field on 9/11 it’s tough to focus on baseball. “I think it’s so unfortunate that we celebrate what these men and women do only a few days a years.”
Squad 18 remembers their fallen heroes with a brass plaque with the names of those who died: Lt. William McGinn and Firefighters David Halderman, Andrew Fredericks, Manuel Mojica, Eric T. Allen, Timothy Haskell and Lawrence Virgilio.
“It’s a rough day. You try to avoid watching TV this time of year,” Squad 18 Captain Brian Smith said.