It's Gone! Goodbye!

No sitting President since Eisenhower in 1956 had thrown out the first ball of a World Series game, and none had done so from the top of the mound. I'm glad we had baseball around in those first days of grief and recovery, and I'm glad I had the World Series. I've always thought of baseball as the most communal of our sports, with the ballpark serving as a kind of town hall, a place of gathering, of democracy at work. And if you can excuse a moment of pride here, I dare say no other ballpark is more historically and socially significant—more American—than me.

So there you have it. You know my secrets. You've roamed by basement hallways. You've seen my hidden places. You know my life story. And now you know my dying wish. When all of me is gone I hope you can remember the special place I occupied in American history. I want you to remember the emotions and the meaning of that night in 2001 because I was never just about great baseball. I was always about much more than that.