RIP, Cory Lidle

I promoted this to the front page as it needed exposure and RSNexile had written about it so well. /SweSox

I spent much of the afternoon, as I frequently do when I work at home, with my TV on CNN. I watched with horror as they showed the aftermath of a plane that crashed into an apartment building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The initial speculation, of course, was that it may have been a terrorist attack, but the small size of the plane -- it wasn't that big a fire -- seemed to preclude that possibility and it was discarded pretty quickly.

I never expected, though, that the story would take a sports-related turn: Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle may have been piloting the plane, and he and one other person were killed.

Lidle was working toward getting his pilot's license, and as the story on ESPN indicates, he has made several statements to the press about his interest in flying and all the safety precautions he took. It sounds like he was very conscientious, and it seems like this was just a freak accident of the sort that happens on planes (and small planes in particular) from time to time.

I've never been a Lidle fan, and of course I can't stand the Yankees, but when something like this happens, none of that is important. My heart goes out to Lidle's wife, Melanie, and six-year-old son, Christopher.

Rest in peace, Cory.