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fourteenandoh
My swing feels like an unfolding lawn chair.
it was bedlam here right after it happened, as i'm sure you guys can imagine. i live across from a firestation about 40 blocks south of where it happened. i think every cop and firetruck in the city was dispatched at once. i'm glad it wasn't terrorism, but i still feel bad for ALL involved (yankee or not).
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NewYorkBuck
Do not read this title
tibor75;631194; said:
And of course, I could have deduced this from "And he's a Yankee."
Stupid fucking post #2.
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tibor75
Banned
NewYorkBuck;631235; said:
Deduce whatever you want - your inability or abilty to deduce my posts doesn't really bother me.
Gotta prepare for the onslaught of worthless articles by the media. Here is a title of the dumbest one so far on MSNBC:
Tragedy bruises baseball, but it will go on
Lidle's sad death should remind us how great an escape game can be
Uh, baseball went on after the death of Roberto Clemente, a true hero who was actually trying to help people when he died, so I'm pretty sure the game will somehow survive the death of Corey Lidle.
If you need to hear about somebody dying in order to get the proper perspective on life, you're pretty clueless and lost to begin with.
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DDN
Former Cincinnati Reds pitcher dies in plane crash
By the Associated Press
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
NEW YORK ? A small plane carrying New York Yankee Cory Lidle slammed into a 40-story apartment building Wednesday after issuing a distress call, killing the pitcher and a second person in a crash that rained flaming debris onto the sidewalks and briefly raised fears of another terrorist attack.
A law enforcement official in Washington said Lidle ? an avid pilot who got his license during last year's offseason ? was aboard the single-engine aircraft when it plowed into the 30th and 31st floors of the condominium high-rise on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said both people aboard were killed.
Lidle's passport was found on the street, according to a federal official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. It was not immediately clear who was at the controls and who was the second person aboard. There was no official confirmation of Lidle's death from city officials.
Federal Aviation Administration records showed the plane was registered to Lidle, who had repeatedly assured reporters in recent weeks that flying was safe and that the Yankees ? who were traumatized in 1979 when catcher Thurman Munson was killed in the crash of a plane he was piloting ? had no reason to worry.
"The flying?" the 34-year-old Lidle, who had a home near Los Angeles, told The Philadelphia Inquirer this summer. "I'm not worried about it. I'm safe up there. I feel very comfortable with my abilities flying an airplane."
"No matter what's going on in your life, when you get up in that plane, everything's gone," Lidle told a Comcast SportsNet interviewer while flying his plane in April.
The crash came just four days after the Yankees' embarrassingly quick elimination from the playoffs, during which Lidle had been relegated to the bullpen. In recent days, Lidle had taken abuse from fans on sports talk radio for saying the team was unprepared.
"This is a terrible and shocking tragedy that has stunned the entire Yankees organization," Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement. He offered his condolences to Lidle's wife, Melanie, and 6-year-old son.
The federal official said the plane had issued a distress call before the crash. The craft took off from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport about 2:30 p.m. and was in the air for barely 15 minutes, authorities said. Bloomberg said Lidle and his flying companion were sightseeing and were taking a route that took them over the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building.
The FAA said it was too early to determine what might have caused the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators.
How the plane managed to penetrate airspace over one of the most densely packed sections of New York City was not clear. The plane was unusual in that it was equipped with a parachute in case of engine failure, but there was no sign the chute was used.
The crash rattled New Yorkers' nerves five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, but the FBI and the Homeland Security quickly said there was no evidence it was anything but an accident. Nevertheless, within 10 minutes of the crash, fighter jets were sent aloft over several cities, including New York, Washington, Detroit, Los Angeles and Seattle, Pentagon officials said.
The plane, flying north over the East River, along the usual flight corridor, came through a hazy, cloudy sky and hit The Belaire ? a red-brick tower overlooking the river ? with a loud bang. It touched off a raging fire that cast a pillar of black smoke over the city and sent flames shooting from four windows on two adjoining floors. Firefighters put the blaze out in less than an hour.
At least 21 people were taken to the hospital, most of them firefighters. Their conditions were not disclosed.
Large crowds gathered in the street in the largely wealthy New York neighborhood, with many people in tears and some trying to reach loved ones by cell phone.
"It wasn't until I was halfway home that I started shaking. The whole memory of an airplane flying into a building and across the street from your home. It's a little too close to home," Sara Green, 40, who lives across the street from The Belaire. "It crossed my mind that it was something bigger or the start of something bigger."
Outside Lidle's home in Glendora, Calif., neighbors and others quickly converged. Keri Pasqua, a close friend of the player's wife, and Mary Varela, Lidle's mother-in-law, told reporters that Melanie Lidle wasn't home and they weren't certain if she knew about the crash.
"This is a tragedy for everybody involved," a teary-eyed Varela said.
Kevin Lidle, Cory Lidle's twin brother, said on CNN's "Larry King Live" that he had spoken to their parents, who were "obviously having a tough time."
"But what can you do? Somehow you hang in there and you get through it," he said. "I've had a lot of calls from friends and family, people calling and crying. And they've released some emotions, and I haven't done that yet. I don't know ? I guess I'm in some kind of state of shock."
On Sunday, the day after the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs, Lidle cleaned out his locker at Yankee Stadium and talked about his interest in flying.
He said he intended to fly back to California in several days and planned to make a few stops. Cory Lidle had reserved a room for Wednesday night at the historic Union Station hotel in downtown Nashville, Tenn., hotel spokeswoman Melanie Fly said.
Lidle discussed with reporters the plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy Jr. and how he had read the accident report on the NTSB Web site.
Lidle, acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies on July 30, told The New York Times last month that his four-seat Cirrus SR20 was safe.
"The whole plane has a parachute on it," Lidle said. "Ninety-nine percent of pilots that go up never have engine failure, and the 1 percent that do usually land it. But if you're up in the air and something goes wrong, you pull that parachute, and the whole plane goes down slowly."
Lidle pitched 1 1/3 innings in the fourth and final game of the Division Series against the Detroit Tigers and gave up three earned runs, but was not the losing pitcher. He had a 12-10 regular-season record with a 4.85 ERA.
He pitched with the Phillies before coming to the Yankees. He began his career in 1997 with the Mets, and also pitched for Tampa Bay, Oakland, Toronto and Cincinnati.
Lidle's $6.3 million, two-year contract, agreed with the Phillies in November 2004, contained a provision saying the team could get out of paying the remainder if he were injured or killed while flying a plane. Because the regular season is over, Lidle already had received the full amount.
After the Yankees' defeat at the hands of the Tigers, Lidle called in to WFAN sports-talk radio two days before the crash to defend manager Joe Torre, and said: "I want to win as much as anybody. But what am I supposed to do? Go cry in my apartment for the next two weeks."
Lidle was an outcast among some teammates throughout his career because he became a replacement player in 1995, when major leaguers were on strike.
Among the baseball stars killed in plane crashes were Roberto Clemente, Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder, killed Dec. 31, 1972, at age 38 while en route to Nicaragua to aid earthquake victims; and Munson, the Yankee catcher killed Aug. 2, 1979, at age 32 in Canton, Ohio.
"It's just sadder than sad," said New York Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson, who was Lidle's pitching coach in Oakland. "It's horrific. It's almost unbelievable. It's a surreal moment."
Young May Cha, a 23-year-old Cornell University medical student, said she was walking back from the grocery store down East 72nd Street when she saw something come across the sky and crash into the building. Cha said there appeared to be smoke coming from behind the aircraft, and "it looked like it was flying erratically for the short time that I saw it."
Former NTSB director Jim Hall said in a telephone interview he does not understand how a plane could get so close to a New York City building after Sept. 11.
"We're under a high alert and you would assume that if something like this happened, people would have known about it before it occurred, not after," Hall said.
Mystery writer Carol Higgins Clark, daughter of author Mary Higgins Clark, lives in the building but was not home at the time. She described the building's residents as a mix of actors, doctors, lawyers and writers, and people with second homes.
Despite initial fears of a terrorist attack, all three New York City-area airports continued to operate normally, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said. The White House said neither President Bush nor Vice President Dick Cheney was moved to secure locations.
The Belaire was built in the late 1980s and is situated near Sotheby's auction house. It has 183 apartments, many of which sell for more than $1 million.
Several lower floors are occupied by doctors and administrative offices, as well as guest facilities for family members of patients at the Hospital for Special Surgery, hospital spokeswoman Phyllis Fisher said. No patients were in the high-rise, Fisher said.
Associated Press writers Pat Milton, Robert Tanner and Adam Goldman in New York; Robert Weller in Denver; Daisy Nguyen in Los Angeles; Leslie Miller and Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington; and AP sports writers Ronald Blum and Mike Fitzpatrick contributed to this report.
Former Cincinnati Reds pitcher dies in plane crash
By the Associated Press
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
NEW YORK ? A small plane carrying New York Yankee Cory Lidle slammed into a 40-story apartment building Wednesday after issuing a distress call, killing the pitcher and a second person in a crash that rained flaming debris onto the sidewalks and briefly raised fears of another terrorist attack.
A law enforcement official in Washington said Lidle ? an avid pilot who got his license during last year's offseason ? was aboard the single-engine aircraft when it plowed into the 30th and 31st floors of the condominium high-rise on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said both people aboard were killed.
Lidle's passport was found on the street, according to a federal official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. It was not immediately clear who was at the controls and who was the second person aboard. There was no official confirmation of Lidle's death from city officials.
Federal Aviation Administration records showed the plane was registered to Lidle, who had repeatedly assured reporters in recent weeks that flying was safe and that the Yankees ? who were traumatized in 1979 when catcher Thurman Munson was killed in the crash of a plane he was piloting ? had no reason to worry.
"The flying?" the 34-year-old Lidle, who had a home near Los Angeles, told The Philadelphia Inquirer this summer. "I'm not worried about it. I'm safe up there. I feel very comfortable with my abilities flying an airplane."
"No matter what's going on in your life, when you get up in that plane, everything's gone," Lidle told a Comcast SportsNet interviewer while flying his plane in April.
The crash came just four days after the Yankees' embarrassingly quick elimination from the playoffs, during which Lidle had been relegated to the bullpen. In recent days, Lidle had taken abuse from fans on sports talk radio for saying the team was unprepared.
"This is a terrible and shocking tragedy that has stunned the entire Yankees organization," Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement. He offered his condolences to Lidle's wife, Melanie, and 6-year-old son.
The federal official said the plane had issued a distress call before the crash. The craft took off from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport about 2:30 p.m. and was in the air for barely 15 minutes, authorities said. Bloomberg said Lidle and his flying companion were sightseeing and were taking a route that took them over the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building.
The FAA said it was too early to determine what might have caused the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators.
How the plane managed to penetrate airspace over one of the most densely packed sections of New York City was not clear. The plane was unusual in that it was equipped with a parachute in case of engine failure, but there was no sign the chute was used.
The crash rattled New Yorkers' nerves five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, but the FBI and the Homeland Security quickly said there was no evidence it was anything but an accident. Nevertheless, within 10 minutes of the crash, fighter jets were sent aloft over several cities, including New York, Washington, Detroit, Los Angeles and Seattle, Pentagon officials said.
The plane, flying north over the East River, along the usual flight corridor, came through a hazy, cloudy sky and hit The Belaire ? a red-brick tower overlooking the river ? with a loud bang. It touched off a raging fire that cast a pillar of black smoke over the city and sent flames shooting from four windows on two adjoining floors. Firefighters put the blaze out in less than an hour.
At least 21 people were taken to the hospital, most of them firefighters. Their conditions were not disclosed.
Large crowds gathered in the street in the largely wealthy New York neighborhood, with many people in tears and some trying to reach loved ones by cell phone.
"It wasn't until I was halfway home that I started shaking. The whole memory of an airplane flying into a building and across the street from your home. It's a little too close to home," Sara Green, 40, who lives across the street from The Belaire. "It crossed my mind that it was something bigger or the start of something bigger."
Outside Lidle's home in Glendora, Calif., neighbors and others quickly converged. Keri Pasqua, a close friend of the player's wife, and Mary Varela, Lidle's mother-in-law, told reporters that Melanie Lidle wasn't home and they weren't certain if she knew about the crash.
"This is a tragedy for everybody involved," a teary-eyed Varela said.
Kevin Lidle, Cory Lidle's twin brother, said on CNN's "Larry King Live" that he had spoken to their parents, who were "obviously having a tough time."
"But what can you do? Somehow you hang in there and you get through it," he said. "I've had a lot of calls from friends and family, people calling and crying. And they've released some emotions, and I haven't done that yet. I don't know ? I guess I'm in some kind of state of shock."
On Sunday, the day after the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs, Lidle cleaned out his locker at Yankee Stadium and talked about his interest in flying.
He said he intended to fly back to California in several days and planned to make a few stops. Cory Lidle had reserved a room for Wednesday night at the historic Union Station hotel in downtown Nashville, Tenn., hotel spokeswoman Melanie Fly said.
Lidle discussed with reporters the plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy Jr. and how he had read the accident report on the NTSB Web site.
Lidle, acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies on July 30, told The New York Times last month that his four-seat Cirrus SR20 was safe.
"The whole plane has a parachute on it," Lidle said. "Ninety-nine percent of pilots that go up never have engine failure, and the 1 percent that do usually land it. But if you're up in the air and something goes wrong, you pull that parachute, and the whole plane goes down slowly."
Lidle pitched 1 1/3 innings in the fourth and final game of the Division Series against the Detroit Tigers and gave up three earned runs, but was not the losing pitcher. He had a 12-10 regular-season record with a 4.85 ERA.
He pitched with the Phillies before coming to the Yankees. He began his career in 1997 with the Mets, and also pitched for Tampa Bay, Oakland, Toronto and Cincinnati.
Lidle's $6.3 million, two-year contract, agreed with the Phillies in November 2004, contained a provision saying the team could get out of paying the remainder if he were injured or killed while flying a plane. Because the regular season is over, Lidle already had received the full amount.
After the Yankees' defeat at the hands of the Tigers, Lidle called in to WFAN sports-talk radio two days before the crash to defend manager Joe Torre, and said: "I want to win as much as anybody. But what am I supposed to do? Go cry in my apartment for the next two weeks."
Lidle was an outcast among some teammates throughout his career because he became a replacement player in 1995, when major leaguers were on strike.
Among the baseball stars killed in plane crashes were Roberto Clemente, Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder, killed Dec. 31, 1972, at age 38 while en route to Nicaragua to aid earthquake victims; and Munson, the Yankee catcher killed Aug. 2, 1979, at age 32 in Canton, Ohio.
"It's just sadder than sad," said New York Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson, who was Lidle's pitching coach in Oakland. "It's horrific. It's almost unbelievable. It's a surreal moment."
Young May Cha, a 23-year-old Cornell University medical student, said she was walking back from the grocery store down East 72nd Street when she saw something come across the sky and crash into the building. Cha said there appeared to be smoke coming from behind the aircraft, and "it looked like it was flying erratically for the short time that I saw it."
Former NTSB director Jim Hall said in a telephone interview he does not understand how a plane could get so close to a New York City building after Sept. 11.
"We're under a high alert and you would assume that if something like this happened, people would have known about it before it occurred, not after," Hall said.
Mystery writer Carol Higgins Clark, daughter of author Mary Higgins Clark, lives in the building but was not home at the time. She described the building's residents as a mix of actors, doctors, lawyers and writers, and people with second homes.
Despite initial fears of a terrorist attack, all three New York City-area airports continued to operate normally, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said. The White House said neither President Bush nor Vice President Dick Cheney was moved to secure locations.
The Belaire was built in the late 1980s and is situated near Sotheby's auction house. It has 183 apartments, many of which sell for more than $1 million.
Several lower floors are occupied by doctors and administrative offices, as well as guest facilities for family members of patients at the Hospital for Special Surgery, hospital spokeswoman Phyllis Fisher said. No patients were in the high-rise, Fisher said.
Associated Press writers Pat Milton, Robert Tanner and Adam Goldman in New York; Robert Weller in Denver; Daisy Nguyen in Los Angeles; Leslie Miller and Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington; and AP sports writers Ronald Blum and Mike Fitzpatrick contributed to this report.
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ABJ
Lidle had 2 passions, pitching, flying
BEN WALKER
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Cory Lidle hoped to use his passion for flying to get away from a most difficult season. Criticized by former teammates in Philadelphia and attacked in the New York media, Lidle looked forward to piloting himself back home to California once the Yankees lost in the playoffs.
Instead, the 34-year-old Yankees pitcher was killed along with a second person Wednesday when his small plane crashed into a 40-story skyscraper in Manhattan.
"This is a terrible and shocking tragedy that has stunned the entire Yankees organization," Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement.
Said commissioner Bud Selig: "All of baseball is shocked and terribly saddened by the sudden and tragic passing of Cory Lidle."
Lidle got his pilot's license last offseason, bought his own plane and tried to spend every spare moment in the air.
"Yeah, it's risky, but no more risky than driving a car," he said in August.
A friend of Lidle's said the pitcher had phoned earlier Wednesday to say he would stop in Nashville, Tenn., on his way to California.
"He called me about 11:30 this morning ... and said that he was still planning on coming in, that there were some weather cells around Nashville and that he had a flight instructor with him and that they'd be in about 5," Dave Whitis told radio station WGFX.
"He was actually going to take me up in his plane when he got here," Whitis said.
Lidle agreed to a $6.3 million, two-year deal with the Phillies in November 2004. The contract contained a provision saying the team could get out of paying the remainder if he was injured or killed while piloting a plane.
Because the regular season was over, Lidle had already received the full amount in the contract.
For nearly a decade, Lidle put together a successful career as a major league pitcher by living on the edge. Not the hardest thrower, he worked to the corners.
"Cory was a gambler. He always tried to take chances," Oakland coach Ron Washington said Wednesday before the Athletics faced Detroit in the AL playoffs.
Lidle went 82-72 with a 4.57 ERA in a career that started in 1997. He played for the New York Mets, Tampa Bay, Oakland, Toronto, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and the Yankees.
Still in the minors, Lidle played one game for the Milwaukee Brewers in a 1995 spring training game while major leaguers were on strike. That one-inning stint as a replacement player haunted him later in his career, and Lidle was taunted as a "scab" by Phillies pitcher Arthur Rhodes after being traded to the Yankees on July 30.
Then Lidle was dropped from the Yankees' postseason rotation, reduced to a relief role instead of starting in the surprising four-game loss to Detroit. After the defeat, Lidle was quoted as saying the Yankees weren't as prepared as the Tigers.
On Tuesday, aware that he was getting criticized on WFAN radio, he called the station to defend himself. What ensued was a testy interview, with Lidle insisting his comments were not directed at manager Joe Torre.
"All I ever said was that they came more ready to play than us. They won that series. They outpitched us, they outhit us, they outfielded us. They were more ready to play than we were," Lidle said on WFAN.
"I want to win as much as anybody. But what am I supposed to do? Go cry in my apartment for the next two weeks?"
Lidle said he was sure the Yankees weren't happy about his plane, but added that no one in the organization had said anything to him about it.
Players flying airplanes is a troubling topic for the Yankees. Team captain Thurman Munson was killed flying his own plane during the 1979 season in Ohio, and his catcher's gear still hangs in a special spot in the Yankees' clubhouse.
"This is a terrible shock," Torre said. "I was with (coaches) Ron Guidry and Lee Mazzilli when I heard the news and we were just stunned. Cory's time with the Yankees was short, but he was a good teammate and a great competitor. My heart goes out to his family."
Lidle played in high school with Jason Giambi, and they became teammates on the Yankees this season.
"Right now, I am really in a state of shock, as I am sure the entire MLB family is," Giambi said in a statement.
"My thoughts are with Cory's relatives and the loved ones of the others who were injured or killed in this plane crash. I have known Cory and his wife, Melanie, for over 18 years and watched his son grow up. We played high school ball together and have remained close throughout our careers. We were excited to be reunited in New York this year and I am just devastated to hear this news," he said.
Lidle had a 6-year-old son, Christopher.
Lidle said he liked to fly around in the offseason to see family and friends, especially his brother, a former minor league player, in Florida.
In the clubhouse, Lidle liked to have fun, former Oakland teammate Barry Zito remembered.
"We would call him 'Snacks' because he would eat Reese's between innings when he was pitching," the A's pitcher said. "He'd have Whoppers, ice cream all while throwing eight scoreless innings."
Lidle had 2 passions, pitching, flying
BEN WALKER
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Cory Lidle hoped to use his passion for flying to get away from a most difficult season. Criticized by former teammates in Philadelphia and attacked in the New York media, Lidle looked forward to piloting himself back home to California once the Yankees lost in the playoffs.
Instead, the 34-year-old Yankees pitcher was killed along with a second person Wednesday when his small plane crashed into a 40-story skyscraper in Manhattan.
"This is a terrible and shocking tragedy that has stunned the entire Yankees organization," Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement.
Said commissioner Bud Selig: "All of baseball is shocked and terribly saddened by the sudden and tragic passing of Cory Lidle."
Lidle got his pilot's license last offseason, bought his own plane and tried to spend every spare moment in the air.
"Yeah, it's risky, but no more risky than driving a car," he said in August.
A friend of Lidle's said the pitcher had phoned earlier Wednesday to say he would stop in Nashville, Tenn., on his way to California.
"He called me about 11:30 this morning ... and said that he was still planning on coming in, that there were some weather cells around Nashville and that he had a flight instructor with him and that they'd be in about 5," Dave Whitis told radio station WGFX.
"He was actually going to take me up in his plane when he got here," Whitis said.
Lidle agreed to a $6.3 million, two-year deal with the Phillies in November 2004. The contract contained a provision saying the team could get out of paying the remainder if he was injured or killed while piloting a plane.
Because the regular season was over, Lidle had already received the full amount in the contract.
For nearly a decade, Lidle put together a successful career as a major league pitcher by living on the edge. Not the hardest thrower, he worked to the corners.
"Cory was a gambler. He always tried to take chances," Oakland coach Ron Washington said Wednesday before the Athletics faced Detroit in the AL playoffs.
Lidle went 82-72 with a 4.57 ERA in a career that started in 1997. He played for the New York Mets, Tampa Bay, Oakland, Toronto, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and the Yankees.
Still in the minors, Lidle played one game for the Milwaukee Brewers in a 1995 spring training game while major leaguers were on strike. That one-inning stint as a replacement player haunted him later in his career, and Lidle was taunted as a "scab" by Phillies pitcher Arthur Rhodes after being traded to the Yankees on July 30.
Then Lidle was dropped from the Yankees' postseason rotation, reduced to a relief role instead of starting in the surprising four-game loss to Detroit. After the defeat, Lidle was quoted as saying the Yankees weren't as prepared as the Tigers.
On Tuesday, aware that he was getting criticized on WFAN radio, he called the station to defend himself. What ensued was a testy interview, with Lidle insisting his comments were not directed at manager Joe Torre.
"All I ever said was that they came more ready to play than us. They won that series. They outpitched us, they outhit us, they outfielded us. They were more ready to play than we were," Lidle said on WFAN.
"I want to win as much as anybody. But what am I supposed to do? Go cry in my apartment for the next two weeks?"
Lidle said he was sure the Yankees weren't happy about his plane, but added that no one in the organization had said anything to him about it.
Players flying airplanes is a troubling topic for the Yankees. Team captain Thurman Munson was killed flying his own plane during the 1979 season in Ohio, and his catcher's gear still hangs in a special spot in the Yankees' clubhouse.
"This is a terrible shock," Torre said. "I was with (coaches) Ron Guidry and Lee Mazzilli when I heard the news and we were just stunned. Cory's time with the Yankees was short, but he was a good teammate and a great competitor. My heart goes out to his family."
Lidle played in high school with Jason Giambi, and they became teammates on the Yankees this season.
"Right now, I am really in a state of shock, as I am sure the entire MLB family is," Giambi said in a statement.
"My thoughts are with Cory's relatives and the loved ones of the others who were injured or killed in this plane crash. I have known Cory and his wife, Melanie, for over 18 years and watched his son grow up. We played high school ball together and have remained close throughout our careers. We were excited to be reunited in New York this year and I am just devastated to hear this news," he said.
Lidle had a 6-year-old son, Christopher.
Lidle said he liked to fly around in the offseason to see family and friends, especially his brother, a former minor league player, in Florida.
In the clubhouse, Lidle liked to have fun, former Oakland teammate Barry Zito remembered.
"We would call him 'Snacks' because he would eat Reese's between innings when he was pitching," the A's pitcher said. "He'd have Whoppers, ice cream all while throwing eight scoreless innings."
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Canton
[FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]COMMENTARY: Lidle, Munson now are linked forever by fate[/FONT]
Thursday, October 12, 2006 [FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]By Joe Gergen Newsday [/FONT]
MUNSON
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They never met. They were from different generations, grew up in different parts of the country, played different positions. What joins them now and forever was their enthusiasm for flying and the circumstances of their demise.
Sadly, both died at the controls of private planes. Remarkably, both died as Yankees.
Corey Lidle never enjoyed the success of Thurman Munson. He never was an all-star, never played for a team that won a postseason series, never had the opportunity to spend the entirety of his career with one franchise.
And yet his last public appearance three days earlier occurred in the same Yankee Stadium clubhouse just steps away from where Munson?s locker remains empty in silent tribute to the former catcher.
Munson?s crash, at the age of 32, was stunning not because of how it happened but because of who he was. When the then-Canton resident?s plane struck the ground short of the runway at Akron-Canton Regional Airport on Aug. 2, 1979, he was an emotional leader of a team that had won consecutive world championships in 1977 and 1978.
Munson also was a combative figure that commanded the attention of baseball fans everywhere but, particularly, those in New York where he played for a decade.
Lidle never spent more than two full seasons with any of the seven major-league franchises which employed him. He was a Yankee for only one summer and might well have been forgotten as soon as spring training rolled around in 2007 if not for the fact his plane flew into the apartment building on the upper East Side of Manhattan Wednesday afternoon.
The very thought of such an incident conjured chilling memories of 9/11. But no sooner were the fears of such a replay diminished than the crash of 10/11 gained distinction for the identity of one of the two occupants.
What were the odds that the next major-league player to die in his own plane would also be a Yankee, if only a temporary one headed for free agency and a different uniform? Lidle knew about Munson. He had to because of the way the Yankees have chosen to persevere their history.
In addition to the empty locker, there?s a plaque in Monument Park ? alongside the Yankees? bullpen where Lidle had many occasions to warm up ? dedicated to the gritty receiver.
Munson?s number, 15, was retired in the wake of his death, which occurred on an off day when he was at home practicing takeoffs and landings. That isn?t likely to happen in the case of Lidle, who wore the same number 30 in New York than he had with his previous club, the Phillies.
Fifteen times two equals 30.
The catcher was 32, a husband and the father of three young children in 1979. The pitcher was 34, with a wife and a 6-year old son. Munson was listed at 5-foot-11 and 191 pounds, small for a major-league catcher.
Lidle was 5-11, 190 pounds, undersized for a pitcher in this era of massive bodies and inflated statistics.
Chances are they would have enjoyed each other?s company. Munson was a well-regarded prospect but he played with the hunger of a man who had been criticized and overshadowed all his life. Lidle wasn?t even drafted out of high school. He pitched in an independent league. He was a replacement player during the strike. He came back from elbow surgery. He had to prove himself over and over again despite posting a winning record on good teams and bad.
And then there was that fascination with flying. The tough-minded Munson, who helped to revive Yankee tradition, used his plane to fly home to Ohio at a moment?s notice. Lidle, a Californian who embraced Yankee tradition, loved the sight of Manhattan from the sky. Both considered themselves at peace in the air.
Munson?s impact on New York, concluding with that terrible exclamation point 27 years ago, remains to this day. Lidle was not on that level as a player. But because of what happened Wednesday, it will be difficult to remember the former without thinking of the latter.
[FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]COMMENTARY: Lidle, Munson now are linked forever by fate[/FONT]
Thursday, October 12, 2006 [FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]By Joe Gergen Newsday [/FONT]
MUNSON
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Sadly, both died at the controls of private planes. Remarkably, both died as Yankees.
Corey Lidle never enjoyed the success of Thurman Munson. He never was an all-star, never played for a team that won a postseason series, never had the opportunity to spend the entirety of his career with one franchise.
And yet his last public appearance three days earlier occurred in the same Yankee Stadium clubhouse just steps away from where Munson?s locker remains empty in silent tribute to the former catcher.
Munson?s crash, at the age of 32, was stunning not because of how it happened but because of who he was. When the then-Canton resident?s plane struck the ground short of the runway at Akron-Canton Regional Airport on Aug. 2, 1979, he was an emotional leader of a team that had won consecutive world championships in 1977 and 1978.
Munson also was a combative figure that commanded the attention of baseball fans everywhere but, particularly, those in New York where he played for a decade.
Lidle never spent more than two full seasons with any of the seven major-league franchises which employed him. He was a Yankee for only one summer and might well have been forgotten as soon as spring training rolled around in 2007 if not for the fact his plane flew into the apartment building on the upper East Side of Manhattan Wednesday afternoon.
The very thought of such an incident conjured chilling memories of 9/11. But no sooner were the fears of such a replay diminished than the crash of 10/11 gained distinction for the identity of one of the two occupants.
What were the odds that the next major-league player to die in his own plane would also be a Yankee, if only a temporary one headed for free agency and a different uniform? Lidle knew about Munson. He had to because of the way the Yankees have chosen to persevere their history.
In addition to the empty locker, there?s a plaque in Monument Park ? alongside the Yankees? bullpen where Lidle had many occasions to warm up ? dedicated to the gritty receiver.
Munson?s number, 15, was retired in the wake of his death, which occurred on an off day when he was at home practicing takeoffs and landings. That isn?t likely to happen in the case of Lidle, who wore the same number 30 in New York than he had with his previous club, the Phillies.
Fifteen times two equals 30.
The catcher was 32, a husband and the father of three young children in 1979. The pitcher was 34, with a wife and a 6-year old son. Munson was listed at 5-foot-11 and 191 pounds, small for a major-league catcher.
Lidle was 5-11, 190 pounds, undersized for a pitcher in this era of massive bodies and inflated statistics.
Chances are they would have enjoyed each other?s company. Munson was a well-regarded prospect but he played with the hunger of a man who had been criticized and overshadowed all his life. Lidle wasn?t even drafted out of high school. He pitched in an independent league. He was a replacement player during the strike. He came back from elbow surgery. He had to prove himself over and over again despite posting a winning record on good teams and bad.
And then there was that fascination with flying. The tough-minded Munson, who helped to revive Yankee tradition, used his plane to fly home to Ohio at a moment?s notice. Lidle, a Californian who embraced Yankee tradition, loved the sight of Manhattan from the sky. Both considered themselves at peace in the air.
Munson?s impact on New York, concluding with that terrible exclamation point 27 years ago, remains to this day. Lidle was not on that level as a player. But because of what happened Wednesday, it will be difficult to remember the former without thinking of the latter.
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Canton
[FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Michaels: Lidle often discussed becoming a pilot[/FONT]
Thursday, October 12, 2006 [FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]By Andy Call REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER [/FONT]
Jason Michaels remembers well how much Cory Lidle looked forward to becoming a pilot.
?He was excited about it, and very serious about it,? Michaels said Wednesday. ?My dad had his pilot?s license, so I remember talking to Cory about it all the time.?
Lidle, 34, a pitcher for the New York Yankees, died Wednesday when the small plane he was flying crashed into a high-rise apartment building in New York City.
Michaels, an outfielder for the Cleveland Indians, and Lidle were teammates on the 2005 Philadelphia Phillies. They were friends and, in fact, had lockers next to each other in the home clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park.
?He was good to me and we really got along well,? Michaels said. ?I had a chance to meet his wife, Melanie, and his son, Christopher.?
Michaels, 30, said he had no memory of anyone from the Phillies attempting to talk Lidle out of learning to fly.
?What happened is really a freak thing,? Michaels said.
Michaels heard of the tragedy from a friend while waiting in an airport to catch a flight from his native Tampa to Orlando.
?It?s awful,? Michaels said. ?I really feel bad. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.?
Lidle also played with the New York Mets, Oakland, Tampa Bay and Cincinnati in the big leagues. The Indians had some internal discussion about signing Lidle when he became a free agent following the 2004 season, but nothing concrete transpired.
?When I heard the news, I was shocked,? Philadelphia Manager and former Indians skipper Charlie Manuel told The Associated Press. ?I couldn?t believe it. Cory was a true professional who gave his all every time he went to the mound. My deepest sympathy goes out to his family.?
[FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Michaels: Lidle often discussed becoming a pilot[/FONT]
Thursday, October 12, 2006 [FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]By Andy Call REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER [/FONT]
Jason Michaels remembers well how much Cory Lidle looked forward to becoming a pilot.
?He was excited about it, and very serious about it,? Michaels said Wednesday. ?My dad had his pilot?s license, so I remember talking to Cory about it all the time.?
Lidle, 34, a pitcher for the New York Yankees, died Wednesday when the small plane he was flying crashed into a high-rise apartment building in New York City.
Michaels, an outfielder for the Cleveland Indians, and Lidle were teammates on the 2005 Philadelphia Phillies. They were friends and, in fact, had lockers next to each other in the home clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park.
?He was good to me and we really got along well,? Michaels said. ?I had a chance to meet his wife, Melanie, and his son, Christopher.?
Michaels, 30, said he had no memory of anyone from the Phillies attempting to talk Lidle out of learning to fly.
?What happened is really a freak thing,? Michaels said.
Michaels heard of the tragedy from a friend while waiting in an airport to catch a flight from his native Tampa to Orlando.
?It?s awful,? Michaels said. ?I really feel bad. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.?
Lidle also played with the New York Mets, Oakland, Tampa Bay and Cincinnati in the big leagues. The Indians had some internal discussion about signing Lidle when he became a free agent following the 2004 season, but nothing concrete transpired.
?When I heard the news, I was shocked,? Philadelphia Manager and former Indians skipper Charlie Manuel told The Associated Press. ?I couldn?t believe it. Cory was a true professional who gave his all every time he went to the mound. My deepest sympathy goes out to his family.?
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SI
Remembering a 'tiger'
Lidle known for competitiveness, fun-loving nature
Posted: Wednesday October 11, 2006 11:38PM; Updated: Thursday October 12, 2006 1:47A
NEW YORK -- Raindrops falling on Shea Stadium felt like enormous teardrops Wednesday, as baseball lost one of the good ones from its own family. Baseball people were shocked to learn that Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, a pilot, was aboard the small plane that crashed into a high-rise apartment building on New York's bustling Upper East Side, creating reams of smoke and commotion and killing Lidle and one other person.
Those who knew Lidle recalled a fun-loving, passionate pitcher who liked to gamble and loved to compete. Lidle was a fellow with a slight build who relished beating big guys with his changeup and other deceptive pitches.
Listed at just 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds, tiny by the standards of a big-league pitcher, he had average ability but carved out a fine career, first as a Mets reliever and later as the regular guy who followed supreme pitching talents Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito in Oakland's playoff rotations. In terms of ability, he didn't come close to any of those three. But the key, according to Bobby Valentine, the first major-league manager to give him a chance, was thinking he was as good as any of them.
Valentine also remembered Lidle as the one pitcher who was always upset when removed from a game. No matter what he had.
"He had a big heart. He was a riverboat gambler, a gunslinger,'' Valentine said by telephone from Japan. "He was very unassuming to look at. But as soon as he competed, you knew you were up against a tiger.''
He was also recalled as a bit of a gambler. "He'd take your money at cards, and he'd take your money at pool,'' Valentine recalled, fondly.
No explanation has been given yet for the crash of the plane -- which Lidle reportedly owned -- into the Belaire, a fashionable high-rise building. Lidle was a new and fearless pilot. He reportedly took up flying exactly a year ago and earned his pilot's license during this past spring training.
A week or so after earning that license, he took sportswriter Randy Miller from the Bucks County (Pa.) Times up in the air, having fun and feigning stunts while Miller's heart nearly leaped into his throat. "This is way safer than people realize,'' Lidle told Miller.
Later, after he'd been dealt at the trade deadline to the Yankees, Lidle told Tyler Kepner of The New York Times, "The whole plane has a parachute on it. Ninety-nine percent of pilots that go up never have engine failure, and the one percent who do usually land it. But if you're up in the air, and something goes wrong, you pull that parachute, and the whole plane goes down slowly.''
Lidle was described by those who knew him well as passionate, and flying was his latest passion. "I know Cory had just gotten his pilot's license,'' said the Mets' Chris Woodward, a teammate of Lidle's with the Blue Jays. "He was pretty pumped up about it the last time I talked to him.''
According to news reports, the plane left New Jersey's small Teterboro Airport about 2:30 p.m., circled the Statue of Liberty, then headed north, following the path of the East River, which borders New York's fashionable East Side.
Reports say no laws were broken but gave no explanation for the crash. The other person on board, who also died, was reported to be a flight instructor.
Mets people watched news of the crash on the clubhouse TV. Mets coach Manny Acta soon realized he lives in the building struck by Lidle's plane, identified in The Times article as a Cirrus SR-20, a four-seater. After hearing the accident was indeed at 524 East 72nd Street, just off York Avenue, Acta said, "I was in a state of shock because I'd just left the building. ... My heart goes out to not only Cory but to the co-pilot and the people hurt in the building because we're all human.'' News reports indicated 11 firefighters suffered injuries after the building caught fire.
Lidle, 34, left a wife and 6-year-old boy. Several former teammates of Lidle -- who played for seven teams -- were at Shea. To a man they considered Lidle one of their own. "It's a sad moment for the baseball family,'' Carlos Delgado said. "It's a family, and this is one of our members.''
Although Lidle's stays with most teams were often short, he left an impression. "He was special. Just looking in his eyes you could see the warmth,'' Valentine said. "He's a real person who cared, and not just about himself.''
Valentine would have loved to keep him after Lidle won seven games for him on guts and guile. But after Lidle suffered an injury late in the season, Valentine recalled being told by Mets people that "they'll never take him'' in the expansion draft.
But alas, Tampa Bay saw something in the smallish, hurt Lidle, who was visiting Phoenix with his newlywed Melanie when he was shocked to see on a big-screen TV set up downtown that he'd been picked. Later, A's general manager Billy Beane and his lieutenants J.P. Ricciardi and Paul DePodesta swung a deal for Lidle to join their playoff rotation when he'd only been a spot starter for the lowly Devil Rays.
"We lost Kevin Appier and were looking for a fifth starter. We felt Cory was a guy to take a chance on,'' Beane recalled from Oakland on Wednesday. "He was a good athlete, a converted guy who had a real good sinker and developed a split-finger.'' Lidle, 34, was 82-72.
Lidle's two-year, $6.3 million contract had expired after this past season, when he started and relieved for the Yankees and was passed over for the Game 4 start for Jaret Wright. "Cory's time with the Yankees was short, but he was a good teammate and a great competitor,'' Yankees manager Joe Torre said in part in his statement.
Beane was one of many who recalled Lidle as happy-go-lucky. "He was a quality guy,'' Beane said. "This is very sobering. Just terrible, terrible news.''
Even by baseball standards, Lidle was quite a practical joker. He once fooled Rick Peterson, his pitching coach in Oakland, by having his twin brother stand in for him for a bullpen session, and of course, he threw nothing like a big leaguer. Peterson was stunned by how bad he looked, until the real Cory Lidle approached from behind and tapped him on the shoulder.
Mets and Cardinals players expressed shock as news filtered throughout the basement at Shea Stadium. "Unbelievable. I can't imagine what his wife and son ..." Mulder said, his sentence stopping abruptly. "I feel terrible.''
"To see how quickly you can be taken puts things in perspective,'' Billy Wagner said.
For once, some players seemed pleased not to have to play. And that's true even though it was to be the first Championship Series game for many of the Mets. Woodward said, "Maybe this is God's way of showing we shouldn't be playing today.''
Remembering a 'tiger'
Lidle known for competitiveness, fun-loving nature
Posted: Wednesday October 11, 2006 11:38PM; Updated: Thursday October 12, 2006 1:47A
NEW YORK -- Raindrops falling on Shea Stadium felt like enormous teardrops Wednesday, as baseball lost one of the good ones from its own family. Baseball people were shocked to learn that Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, a pilot, was aboard the small plane that crashed into a high-rise apartment building on New York's bustling Upper East Side, creating reams of smoke and commotion and killing Lidle and one other person.
Those who knew Lidle recalled a fun-loving, passionate pitcher who liked to gamble and loved to compete. Lidle was a fellow with a slight build who relished beating big guys with his changeup and other deceptive pitches.
Listed at just 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds, tiny by the standards of a big-league pitcher, he had average ability but carved out a fine career, first as a Mets reliever and later as the regular guy who followed supreme pitching talents Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito in Oakland's playoff rotations. In terms of ability, he didn't come close to any of those three. But the key, according to Bobby Valentine, the first major-league manager to give him a chance, was thinking he was as good as any of them.
Valentine also remembered Lidle as the one pitcher who was always upset when removed from a game. No matter what he had.
"He had a big heart. He was a riverboat gambler, a gunslinger,'' Valentine said by telephone from Japan. "He was very unassuming to look at. But as soon as he competed, you knew you were up against a tiger.''
He was also recalled as a bit of a gambler. "He'd take your money at cards, and he'd take your money at pool,'' Valentine recalled, fondly.
No explanation has been given yet for the crash of the plane -- which Lidle reportedly owned -- into the Belaire, a fashionable high-rise building. Lidle was a new and fearless pilot. He reportedly took up flying exactly a year ago and earned his pilot's license during this past spring training.
A week or so after earning that license, he took sportswriter Randy Miller from the Bucks County (Pa.) Times up in the air, having fun and feigning stunts while Miller's heart nearly leaped into his throat. "This is way safer than people realize,'' Lidle told Miller.
Later, after he'd been dealt at the trade deadline to the Yankees, Lidle told Tyler Kepner of The New York Times, "The whole plane has a parachute on it. Ninety-nine percent of pilots that go up never have engine failure, and the one percent who do usually land it. But if you're up in the air, and something goes wrong, you pull that parachute, and the whole plane goes down slowly.''
Lidle was described by those who knew him well as passionate, and flying was his latest passion. "I know Cory had just gotten his pilot's license,'' said the Mets' Chris Woodward, a teammate of Lidle's with the Blue Jays. "He was pretty pumped up about it the last time I talked to him.''
According to news reports, the plane left New Jersey's small Teterboro Airport about 2:30 p.m., circled the Statue of Liberty, then headed north, following the path of the East River, which borders New York's fashionable East Side.
Reports say no laws were broken but gave no explanation for the crash. The other person on board, who also died, was reported to be a flight instructor.
Mets people watched news of the crash on the clubhouse TV. Mets coach Manny Acta soon realized he lives in the building struck by Lidle's plane, identified in The Times article as a Cirrus SR-20, a four-seater. After hearing the accident was indeed at 524 East 72nd Street, just off York Avenue, Acta said, "I was in a state of shock because I'd just left the building. ... My heart goes out to not only Cory but to the co-pilot and the people hurt in the building because we're all human.'' News reports indicated 11 firefighters suffered injuries after the building caught fire.
Lidle, 34, left a wife and 6-year-old boy. Several former teammates of Lidle -- who played for seven teams -- were at Shea. To a man they considered Lidle one of their own. "It's a sad moment for the baseball family,'' Carlos Delgado said. "It's a family, and this is one of our members.''
Although Lidle's stays with most teams were often short, he left an impression. "He was special. Just looking in his eyes you could see the warmth,'' Valentine said. "He's a real person who cared, and not just about himself.''
Valentine would have loved to keep him after Lidle won seven games for him on guts and guile. But after Lidle suffered an injury late in the season, Valentine recalled being told by Mets people that "they'll never take him'' in the expansion draft.
But alas, Tampa Bay saw something in the smallish, hurt Lidle, who was visiting Phoenix with his newlywed Melanie when he was shocked to see on a big-screen TV set up downtown that he'd been picked. Later, A's general manager Billy Beane and his lieutenants J.P. Ricciardi and Paul DePodesta swung a deal for Lidle to join their playoff rotation when he'd only been a spot starter for the lowly Devil Rays.
"We lost Kevin Appier and were looking for a fifth starter. We felt Cory was a guy to take a chance on,'' Beane recalled from Oakland on Wednesday. "He was a good athlete, a converted guy who had a real good sinker and developed a split-finger.'' Lidle, 34, was 82-72.
Lidle's two-year, $6.3 million contract had expired after this past season, when he started and relieved for the Yankees and was passed over for the Game 4 start for Jaret Wright. "Cory's time with the Yankees was short, but he was a good teammate and a great competitor,'' Yankees manager Joe Torre said in part in his statement.
Beane was one of many who recalled Lidle as happy-go-lucky. "He was a quality guy,'' Beane said. "This is very sobering. Just terrible, terrible news.''
Even by baseball standards, Lidle was quite a practical joker. He once fooled Rick Peterson, his pitching coach in Oakland, by having his twin brother stand in for him for a bullpen session, and of course, he threw nothing like a big leaguer. Peterson was stunned by how bad he looked, until the real Cory Lidle approached from behind and tapped him on the shoulder.
Mets and Cardinals players expressed shock as news filtered throughout the basement at Shea Stadium. "Unbelievable. I can't imagine what his wife and son ..." Mulder said, his sentence stopping abruptly. "I feel terrible.''
"To see how quickly you can be taken puts things in perspective,'' Billy Wagner said.
For once, some players seemed pleased not to have to play. And that's true even though it was to be the first Championship Series game for many of the Mets. Woodward said, "Maybe this is God's way of showing we shouldn't be playing today.''
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SI
A life in full
Lidle never lost an appreciation of his good fortune
Posted: Wednesday October 11, 2006 10:01PM; Updated: Thursday October 12, 2006 1:23AM The words are haunting now that Cory Lidle is gone, having perished in a terrible crash of his Cirrus CR20 into a New York East side building Wednesday. Phillies pitcher Arthur Rhodes wanted to insult Lidle after Lidle said, upon being traded to the Yankees last August, that the Phillies didn't want to win badly enough. "The only thing Cory Lidle wants to do," Rhodes said, "is fly around in his airplane and gamble."
Yes, it was true that Lidle loved his time above the earth as much as he did the time he spent on it. There are many questions to answer about how and why Lidle, who planned to fly to Nashville on his way home for the offseason to California, would be flying northward over the East River and somehow into a building to meet his death. Maybe the National Transportation Safety Board can find the answers. Maybe they can't. But there can be no denying that Lidle spent a full, joyful life in his 34 years, and perhaps maybe none more thrilling than this last one, when he became a pilot out of nothing more complicated than a passion -- a need -- to be airborne.
Everywhere he went, and Lidle bounced among 10 organizations in 17 years, Lidle made an impression on people with his down-to-earth, convivial manner. He liked action, be it pool, cards, golf or, especially, flying. He was not the kind to sit still. There's a saying in baseball that you can take the measure of a player by how he treats the little people around him -- the clubhouse attendants, ushers, public relations people and, yes, media people. Too many players take no note of those considered "beneath" them. Lidle, though, was quick with a smile, a hello or a conversation starter for all.
Rhodes called him "a scab," though the wounds of 1995 had healed for most players. And Rhodes famously questioned his work ethic, noting that Lidle would "sit in the clubhouse and eat ice cream."
Well, maybe so, but that kind of damn-glad-to-be-here feeling never left Lidle. The guy was signed out of high school as an undrafted free agent, was released less than three years into pro ball, and somehow went on to win 82 games in the big leagues, help carry Oakland to an AL record 20-straight wins in 2002, and earn almost $18 million, a largesse that made his dream of airplane ownership possible. Can such a journey happen with no work ethic?
Sometime this summer the Philadelphia Daily News asked Lidle about Barry Bonds and the slugger's pursuit of the all-time home run record. The Stepford ballplayer would have stayed within the thin blue line and give the union company line, praising Bonds' talents and steering clear of what has been obvious for years to you, me and anybody else with a basic sense of reason. But Lidle answered it exactly as you and I might, speaking honestly and on the record about the illegitmacy of Bonds' numbers.
"The reason I'm not scared to speak out is -- I don't think he's a dumb person -- basically, he had decisions to make," Lidle told The Daily News. "Whether he wanted to treat people good or treat people bad. Whether he wanted to pump drugs into his body or stay clean. I believe he chose the [former].
"There are consequences in every decision. He's a grown-up. He's got to live with those consequences. I don't feel sorry for him."
That, too, was Lidle. Never reticent. A full throttle kind of person. And so it was, too, at about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, when Lidle took off from Teterboro Airport in northern New Jersey, nothing but an open sky of possibilities in front of him.
Then, shortly before 3 p.m., Yankee officials got word that a plane had smashed into a building and it had the same tail number as Lidle's plan: N929CD. They hoped against hope for a mistake, or some word that somehow Lidle wasn't aboard. Deep down, though, they knew what soon would be confirmed. Lidle talked openly and often about his piloting. When he cleaned out his Yankee Stadium locker just the other day he excitedly told teammates he was flying back home to California, leaving Wednesday, with a first night stop in Tennessee.
The Yankees should have been hosting Game 2 of the ALCS that night. It should have been a celebration of New York baseball, with the Mets hosting Game 1 of the NLCS. (Rain washed out the start of the NLCS). But the Tigers wiped out the Yankees in four games in the ALDS, ending the Yankees' season in a kind of gloom that now seems impossibly trivial. Lidle had the day off, had the whole winter off. There was much flying to be done. The Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline must have looked majestic, even serene, from up there -- all until there had to be one moment of sheer terror with the knowledge that something was horribly wrong.
There are no more flights for Cory Lidle. What's left is only the memory of a man who, yes, loved to fly and loved to gamble. Be it too brief, Lidle managed to live a life in full.
A life in full
Lidle never lost an appreciation of his good fortune
Posted: Wednesday October 11, 2006 10:01PM; Updated: Thursday October 12, 2006 1:23AM The words are haunting now that Cory Lidle is gone, having perished in a terrible crash of his Cirrus CR20 into a New York East side building Wednesday. Phillies pitcher Arthur Rhodes wanted to insult Lidle after Lidle said, upon being traded to the Yankees last August, that the Phillies didn't want to win badly enough. "The only thing Cory Lidle wants to do," Rhodes said, "is fly around in his airplane and gamble."
Yes, it was true that Lidle loved his time above the earth as much as he did the time he spent on it. There are many questions to answer about how and why Lidle, who planned to fly to Nashville on his way home for the offseason to California, would be flying northward over the East River and somehow into a building to meet his death. Maybe the National Transportation Safety Board can find the answers. Maybe they can't. But there can be no denying that Lidle spent a full, joyful life in his 34 years, and perhaps maybe none more thrilling than this last one, when he became a pilot out of nothing more complicated than a passion -- a need -- to be airborne.
Everywhere he went, and Lidle bounced among 10 organizations in 17 years, Lidle made an impression on people with his down-to-earth, convivial manner. He liked action, be it pool, cards, golf or, especially, flying. He was not the kind to sit still. There's a saying in baseball that you can take the measure of a player by how he treats the little people around him -- the clubhouse attendants, ushers, public relations people and, yes, media people. Too many players take no note of those considered "beneath" them. Lidle, though, was quick with a smile, a hello or a conversation starter for all.
Rhodes called him "a scab," though the wounds of 1995 had healed for most players. And Rhodes famously questioned his work ethic, noting that Lidle would "sit in the clubhouse and eat ice cream."
Well, maybe so, but that kind of damn-glad-to-be-here feeling never left Lidle. The guy was signed out of high school as an undrafted free agent, was released less than three years into pro ball, and somehow went on to win 82 games in the big leagues, help carry Oakland to an AL record 20-straight wins in 2002, and earn almost $18 million, a largesse that made his dream of airplane ownership possible. Can such a journey happen with no work ethic?
Sometime this summer the Philadelphia Daily News asked Lidle about Barry Bonds and the slugger's pursuit of the all-time home run record. The Stepford ballplayer would have stayed within the thin blue line and give the union company line, praising Bonds' talents and steering clear of what has been obvious for years to you, me and anybody else with a basic sense of reason. But Lidle answered it exactly as you and I might, speaking honestly and on the record about the illegitmacy of Bonds' numbers.
"The reason I'm not scared to speak out is -- I don't think he's a dumb person -- basically, he had decisions to make," Lidle told The Daily News. "Whether he wanted to treat people good or treat people bad. Whether he wanted to pump drugs into his body or stay clean. I believe he chose the [former].
"There are consequences in every decision. He's a grown-up. He's got to live with those consequences. I don't feel sorry for him."
That, too, was Lidle. Never reticent. A full throttle kind of person. And so it was, too, at about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, when Lidle took off from Teterboro Airport in northern New Jersey, nothing but an open sky of possibilities in front of him.
Then, shortly before 3 p.m., Yankee officials got word that a plane had smashed into a building and it had the same tail number as Lidle's plan: N929CD. They hoped against hope for a mistake, or some word that somehow Lidle wasn't aboard. Deep down, though, they knew what soon would be confirmed. Lidle talked openly and often about his piloting. When he cleaned out his Yankee Stadium locker just the other day he excitedly told teammates he was flying back home to California, leaving Wednesday, with a first night stop in Tennessee.
The Yankees should have been hosting Game 2 of the ALCS that night. It should have been a celebration of New York baseball, with the Mets hosting Game 1 of the NLCS. (Rain washed out the start of the NLCS). But the Tigers wiped out the Yankees in four games in the ALDS, ending the Yankees' season in a kind of gloom that now seems impossibly trivial. Lidle had the day off, had the whole winter off. There was much flying to be done. The Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline must have looked majestic, even serene, from up there -- all until there had to be one moment of sheer terror with the knowledge that something was horribly wrong.
There are no more flights for Cory Lidle. What's left is only the memory of a man who, yes, loved to fly and loved to gamble. Be it too brief, Lidle managed to live a life in full.
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StooGrimson
He drives around, all over the town...
osugrad21;631405; said:
Ugh...that might be one of the worst pieces I've ever read. I'll never understand the need of some people (including this writer) to find meanings in things (like numbers) that simply aren't there. This kind of stupidity is an insult to Munson and Lidle.
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