Cory Lidle

When online friends first reported a plane crashing into a Manhattan skyscraper there were concerns about a possible terrorist attack. Learning that it was not an airliner, but rather a small private plane did not ease fears as such a crash with a plane carrying bio or chemical or nuclear weapons is high on the list of probable and highly-feared attacks for NYC. When the news came later that the small aircraft belonged to Cory Lidle, who was aboard when it crashed it struck a different personal note.

Cory Lidle pitched for the Binghamton Mets, a couple years before I started attending their games, but he's among the players who've been here and done well, a honorary member of My Guys since I never actually saw him play in Binghamton.

Many minor leaguers players were called on as replacement players during the MLB players' 1994-95 strike, young players who felt they would lose any chance of some day making it to the majors if they refused to report as required by the teams' owners. As the 10th anniversary of that lost season rolled around, I did a bit of research about these replacement players who were at the time described as nobodies and no talents, and found several who went on to substantial success later in their careers, probably a close comparison to any other season's group of low level minor leaguers' success rate. Among those replacement players was Cory Lidle.

Back when I first got interested in baseball and had access only to the Yankees and the Mets on TV, I followed the soap-operatic Yankees, the Bronx Zoo, and my favorite Yankee was Thurman Munson. The shock of his death in a private plane crash still gives me pause, and Cory Lidle's death makes that shock echo once more.