Lidle known for competitiveness, fun-loving nature

	Cory Lidle began his career with the Mets in 1997, winning seven games in relief. Jason Wise/Getty Images
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NEW YORK -- Raindrops falling on Shea Stadium felt like enormous teardrops Wednesday, as baseball lost one of the good ones from its own family. Baseball people were shocked to learn that Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, a pilot, was aboard the small plane that crashed into a high-rise apartment building on New York's bustling Upper East Side, creating reams of smoke and commotion and killing Lidle and one other person.

Those who knew Lidle recalled a fun-loving, passionate pitcher who liked to gamble and loved to compete. Lidle was a fellow with a slight build who relished beating big guys with his changeup and other deceptive pitches.

Listed at just 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds, tiny by the standards of a big-league pitcher, he had average ability but carved out a fine career, first as a Mets reliever and later as the regular guy who followed supreme pitching talents Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito in Oakland's playoff rotations. In terms of ability, he didn't come close to any of those three. But the key, according to Bobby Valentine, the first major-league manager to give him a chance, was thinking he was as good as any of them.

Valentine also remembered Lidle as the one pitcher who was always upset when removed from a game. No matter what he had.

"He had a big heart. He was a riverboat gambler, a gunslinger,'' Valentine said by telephone from Japan. "He was very unassuming to look at. But as soon as he competed, you knew you were up against a tiger.''

He was also recalled as a bit of a gambler. "He'd take your money at cards, and he'd take your money at pool,'' Valentine recalled, fondly.

No explanation has been given yet for the crash of the plane -- which Lidle reportedly owned -- into the Belaire, a fashionable high-rise building. Lidle was a new and fearless pilot. He reportedly took up flying exactly a year ago and earned his pilot's license during this past spring training.

A week or so after earning that license, he took sportswriter Randy Miller from the Bucks County (Pa.) Times up in the air, having fun and feigning stunts while Miller's heart nearly leaped into his throat. "This is way safer than people realize,'' Lidle told Miller.

Later, after he'd been dealt at the trade deadline to the Yankees, Lidle told Tyler Kepner of The New York Times, "The whole plane has a parachute on it. Ninety-nine percent of pilots that go up never have engine failure, and the one percent who do usually land it. But if you're up in the air, and something goes wrong, you pull that parachute, and the whole plane goes down slowly.''

Lidle was described by those who knew him well as passionate, and flying was his latest passion. "I know Cory had just gotten his pilot's license,'' said the Mets' Chris Woodward, a teammate of Lidle's with the Blue Jays. "He was pretty pumped up about it the last time I talked to him.''

According to news reports, the plane left New Jersey's small Teterboro Airport about 2:30 p.m., circled the Statue of Liberty, then headed north, following the path of the East River, which borders New York's fashionable East Side.

Reports say no laws were broken but gave no explanation for the crash. The other person on board, who also died, was reported to be a flight instructor.