Terrorist attack NYC -- or not

Don’t want to read about Corey Lidle? You’ve come to the wrong place. I’m going to tackle that, and break format a little today.

I feel for Lidle’s family the same as I’ve felt for those I’ve mentioned in this space before. As someone that relies very heavily on sports in their life, it’s never a good thing when a member of the extended family we call the sports world dies. It’s actually always pretty awful.

One thing that makes it even more awful is when it’s a current New York Yankee, and he flies his four-seat plane into a building in Manhattan five years and a month -- to the day -- after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Here’s the first reaction: terrorists!

So the reaction of some New Yorkers was to assume this tiny plane was another terrorist attack. Are you kidding me? To borrow from Russell Peters, “nothing’s going down up there, dude.”

Welcome to the post-9/11 world.

A friend left the following on my voice mail; “Hey man, Corey Lidle’s a terrorist, call me.” And that joke is also the first thing I thought when I heard the news. But it couldn’t have been further from the truth.

It turns out, though not a first-ballot Hall of Famer, Lidle is a well-respected player loved throughout the Major League ranks. Fans in the cities he played in have nothing but the highest respect for him. During his time in Toronto, I only got to know the Lidle that took up residence on the field, where he was sometimes hit-or-miss. Off the field, he was just a hit.

While Lidle’s immediate friends and family will feel this lost most, his death is a significant loss not for the New York Yankees/Evil Empire, not for Major League Baseball, but for fans. At a time when $25 million can’t buy you more than a base hit in the playoffs, or an autograph before the game, it’s the Corey Lidles that make this game so great.

An apology for the awful joke, you deserved better Corey, and hats off to you. You’re an all star where it matters most -- off the field.

As for the rest of you, if you want to stop living in a world where a four-seat plane crashing into the side of a building in New York City is the next wave of terrorist attacks, maybe it’s time to take a look inside, and figure out what we do that makes people so angry with us, and stop doing it.