Wednesday, October 11, 2006
(With the news coverage flying, I found this picture to be an interesting one: Cory Lidle, then Philadelphia Phillies pitcher, checking out his new plane in Spring Training less than a year ago. Little did the photographer know how much attention Lidle’s new pilot’s license would eventually bring…)
I finished Brian McLaren’s second book in his trilogy today. My on-line friend, Tom (given today, ironically from New York), sent me the entire trilogy to get my thoughts on McLaren, and I was deep into The Story We Find Ourselves In this afternoon. This book continues the conversations of fictional friends, Neo and Dan, and I found today’s reading interesting for bringing into the novel the events of September 11, 2001. One of the characters in the book noted that everyone would remember where he or she was when they heard the news.
I paused and remembered. I was at my office, on the computer (surprise!), when I saw a quick news update on Yahoo’s homepage of a plane flying into the World Trade Center. My initial reaction was that some little plane had lost control and bumped into the skyscraper. Before long, the phone began ringing, and I learned the magnitude of the disaster.
Talk about spooky today…
I’m reading this book, sent from a friend in New York, referring to the WTC terrorist attack, thinking of my personal memories with that story, when I checked my email and noticed a new report that a small plane had flown into a big building in New York City.
Spooky, huh?
I took this news report a bit more serious than the first one and tried to learn more. It wasn’t until later that I heard that terrorism was unlikely; instead, it seems that a pitcher for the New York Yankees, Cory Lidle, was the pilot of the plane that must have lost control and led to at least two deaths, including Lidle.
Of course, everyone in the world freaked out at the initial news, given the possibility of terrorism. Now, the story turns into a sad sports story with the world as audience.
My favorite baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals, is set to play the New York Mets tonight, ironically in New York City. This will be very awkward for Major League Baseball. Mets fans naturally despise the Yankees, but tonight a Yankee player will be getting the most (and deserved) attention.
Lidle was born in California in 1972 and became an All-State high school athlete, ironically teamed up with later Yankee teammate, Jason Giambi. He turned into an effective major league pitcher, starting this season with the Phillies. In the middle of summer, however, George Steinbrenner pulled out his fat wallet and traded some minor league prospects to Philadelphia for Lidle and megastar, Bobby Abreu, in his attempt to shore up his roster full of stars for what he hoped to be another World Series. Instead, the Detroit Tigers shocked Yankee fans by taking them down three games to one this past weekend.
Lidle decided to fly home to California for the offseason, but his wife reportedly flew on a commercial flight instead of tagging along for the fifteen-hour flight in his personal plane that he purchased for $187,000 a year ago after he obtained his pilot’s license. Today, Cory Lidle is dead, leaving behind a grieving wife and a young child.
Quite a strange day, if I do say so myself.
