Lidle Killed In Manhattan Plane Crash

It's hard to fathom that the plane that crashed in Manhattan into a high-rise apartment building on Wednesday afternoon was piloted by Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle. As it all unfolded, it brought back some rather unpleasant memories for all of us.

Of that terrible Tuesday morning in September of 2001. Especially when it was reported that there were people trapped in the apartment building above the fire.

Miraculously, everyone who was in that 72nd Street and York Avenue apartment building escaped. Several firemen were hurt, but fortunately, none seriously.

The death of Cory Lidle also brings back those terrible memories of Thurman Munson's tragic death in a plane crash in Ohio in 1979. For myself personally, I don't know what people see in those light planes. They scare the pants off of me. Give me a jumbo jet any day.

Lidle was with his flight instructor, and he was also killed. Of course, the first knee-jerk reaction when this happened was a possible terrorist attack. That was fortunately proven groundless.

Lidle created a bit of a mess over the weekend when he made comments after the Yankees ALDS loss on Saturday when he more or less said that the Yankees were not "ready" to face the Tigers last week, and basically pointed fingers at the coaching staff. He called the Mike and the Mad Dog show on Monday afternoon and tried to defend himself from the criticism. But Russo and Francesa unloaded on him and read him back his comments from the newspaper, which he claimed was taken out of context. Lidle came off sounding really bad on Monday.

Today, Russo sounded very guilty for having treated Lidle the way he did. Francesa said he shouldn't feel that way, that the crash had nothing to with what happened Monday.

I offer my sympathies and condolences to all the friends and loved ones of Cory Lidle. He left a wife and young son.