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Template:Mlbretired Cory Fulton Lidle (March 22, 1972 – October 11, 2006) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. He played for seven different teams in his ten-year career, last playing for the New York Yankees . Only a few days after the team's 2006 season ended, Lidle was killed when his personal airplane crashed into a residential building in New York City.

Biography

Born in Hollywood, California, Lidle was a descendant of 19th century engineer and inventor Robert Fulton. He attended South Hills High School in West Covina, California, graduating in 1990. During this time, he was a teammate of Jason Giambi. Lidle married Melanie Varela on January 7 1997; the pair had one son, Christopher.

Baseball career

Lidle was signed in 1990 by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent. After his release in 1993, he was signed by the Milwaukee Brewers. Lidle was then traded in 1996 to the New York Mets, and made his Major League debut for the Mets on May 8, 1997. Lidle was one of the few Major League Baseball players who was not a member of the MLB Players Union. As a replacement player during the 1994 baseball strike, he was not eligible to join the union. Lidle later appeared for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Oakland Athletics, Toronto Blue Jays, Cincinnati Reds, and Philadelphia Phillies. On July 30, 2006, Lidle was traded along with outfielder Bobby Abreu from the Philadelphia Phillies to the New York Yankees for minor league shortstop C.J. Henry, the Yankees' first round pick in the 2005 draft, along with left-handed reliever Matt Smith, minor league catcher Jesus Sanchez, and minor league right hander Carlos Monasterios. In August 2002, Lidle was named American League pitcher of the month after finishing the month with 1 earned run and an ERA of 0.20. His five wins during that span helped the Oakland Athletics win 20 straight games.

Controversies

After being traded by the Philadelphia Phillies in July 2006 at the trade deadline, Lidle criticized his former team: "On the days I'm pitching, it's almost a coin flip as to know if the guys behind me are going to be there to play 100 percent." He noted he was joining a Yankees team that expects to win all the time.

"That's why I'm most excited about it," Lidle said. "Sometimes I felt I got caught up kind of going into the clubhouse nonchalantly sometimes, because all of the other guys in the clubhouse didn't go there with one goal in mind."

In response former teammate Arthur Rhodes said, "He is a scab. When he started, he would go 5 1/3 innings and (the bullpen) would have to win the game for him. The only thing Cory Lidle wants to do is fly around in his airplane and gamble. He doesn't have a work ethic. After every start, he didn't run or lift weights. He would sit in the clubhouse and eat ice cream. ... He shouldn't say that, he shouldn't say anything like that because he is a scab. He crossed the line when guys like me, Flash and Lieberthal were playing. He is a replacement player."

Death

According to the Associated Press, the plane that crashed into a building on New York City's Upper East Side on October 11 2006 was registered to Lidle. New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg reported in a press conference that a flight instructor and a trainee pilot were aboard the plane. While Mr. Bloomberg could not identify the two occupants of the plane because their next-of-kin had not been identified, news media reported that the student pilot was Lidle. His death makes him the second Yankees player to die while flying his own plane, after Thurman Munson.

See also

• List of Major League Baseball replacement players
• Thurman Munson, a Yankee who also died in a plane crash, in 1979
• List of people who died in aviation-related incidents

Notes

1. http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/index.jsp#
2. ^ Cory Lidle. MLB.com Retrieved October 11, 2006.
3. mlb.com "Chavez clutch in A's 17th straight", August 31, 2006, by Mychael Urban
4. ESPN.com Retrieved October 11, 2006.
5. FAA: Plane Registered To Yankees' Pitcher Lidle, WCBS-TV, accessed October 11 2006

External links

• Career statistics from Baseball Reference
• MLB.com profile

• Current events
• 1972 births
• 2006 deaths
• Accidental suicide victims
• Plane crash victims
• Aviators killed in aircraft crashes
• Major league pitchers
• Cincinnati Reds players
• New York Mets players
• New York Yankees players
• Oakland Athletics players
• Philadelphia Phillies players
• Tampa Bay Devil Rays players
• Toronto Blue Jays players
• Major league players from California