Baseball Digest Daily Blog: Losing a Member of Our Family

It was around 3:00 PM today when word started spreading around my office that an aircraft had hit a high rise apartment building on the Upper East Side. Many of us received CNN email alerts and others heard details from friends and colleagues in the vicinity of the crash. In the post 9/11 era, word of an aircraft hitting a building in New York City rings of one thing and one thing only, terrorism. People immediately rushed to radios and televisions to see if any more details were known. Interestingly enough, in a city inundated with media, it took an awful long time to get any real information about what had happened.

But once the pictures started coming in, we all knew this wasn't the work of a terrorist. The fire was confined to about 3 apartments in the building, and the scale of damage was minimal. I guess once you see the destruction of the World Trade Center, you get a sense of what may or may not be a terrorist act. Scary and sad, I know.

Nobody was sure whether the aircraft was a plane or a helicopter, but we knew this was some sort of accident. As terrible as this may sound, and despite the fact that we knew that people were hurt or killed, there was some relief in knowing this was not 9/11 Part II. I immediately called home to let Christie (my wife) know that everything was alright in New York. I told her that if she hears about a plane hitting a building, it was just an accident. The fire looks to be under control and casualties appear to minimal.

Once my colleagues realized that suicidal pilots weren't targeting New York again, they quickly turned their attention to the location of the accident. There are about 70 people in my office located on 23rd Street in midtown Manhattan. About 20 of those people live in the vicinity of the crash. Unfortunately, it took a while, again, for us to learn that the building on fire was located at 72nd and York. People were naturally concerned that maybe it was their home that was hit. Luckily, as it turned out, none of our staff was affected except for a few minor traveling delays here and there.

Then the eerie news struck. My brother sent me an email that ESPN News was reporting that the plane was registered to New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle. I thought it might be some kind of cruel joke or tip someone passed along. I mean, what are the odds that a single engine plane traveling through some of the busiest airspace in the world could crash into a NYC building AND belong to a pitcher on the Yankees? It was inconceivable. But then more details started coming in. CBS radio, WFAN, News4 NY...they were all reporting the same thing. I suddenly became numb. Word soon circulated that Lidle's passport was found on the ground among the debris at the site of the accident. I just sat still in a daze. There was nothing I could possibly say or do.

Over the past few years, the BDD community and professional baseball have become extensions of my own family. It may sound overly sentimental, but it's true. From the conversations with our members to the discussions with general managers, baseball is not just a sport or hobby to me anymore, it's an integral part of my life. I've formed relationships I'd never dreamed were possible and discovered a side of myself I never knew I had. I look up to established journalists and baseball executives as my mentors now and share what I've learned with others who are interested. My kids get a kick out of the fact that I talk to professional athletes. I get a kick out of the fact that some major league players treat me like their dad (One day I'll tell the funny story about Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns!). The bottom line is that BDD, baseball, players, managers, executives, scouts, media relations, and everyone else associated with the game are MY people now...my family if you will.

Looking back on today's events, I guess it's no surprise then that the death of Cory Lidle really upset me. Cory Lidle was not just a baseball player. He was a person, a husband, a father. I wasn't sad that I'd never see him pitch again. I was sad because we lost a member of our "family."

Tonight, the thoughts of the entire baseball community are with the Lidle family and the family of the flight instructor flying with Cory...and rightfully so.

Losing a Member of Our Family

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