Sometimes, you have to remember it's just a game. Sometimes life has a way of reminding you.
I have no readers to speak of, and even if I did they would certainly be aware of the tragic death of New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle this afternoon in a plane crash in New York.
In an eerie manner, my wife woke me up around noon today with the same "turn on the TV!" anxiousness that my stepmother awoke me on 9/11/01. The same type of images filled the screen as the television warmed up, and the announcers on Fox said it might have been a helicopter that slammed into a 50-story apartment building in Manhattan. The excitement my wife showed made me think that I may turn the TV on to see a smoldering crater where Washington, D.C. used to be, so to see a small plane had crashed into a tall building was a bit anti-climactic. My interest waned, and I moved on to other things.
Right as I finished my other blog entry, I reloaded the front page of SI.com to see a small "Breaking News" blurb on the screen saying "Joe Torre confirms Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle killed in plane crash in Manhattan" or something near those words. Suddenly, the story that couldn't keep my interest for sixty seconds a few hours earlier had found away to keep me glued to ESPN and internet news sites.
Nearly as soon as I heard that Lidle was killed in the crash, my curiosity forced me to head to ebay.com and type "Cory Lidle" into the search tab. At that time there were about 13 autographed items listed, none of them within the previous few hours. A few minutes ago, there were over seven pages of items. A simple "completed auctions" search showed that autographed baseballs with a certificate of authenticity went off as early as yesterday with no bids at $9.99. A few of those same baseballs with less than two hours left as I write this (obviously not put up for auction after the news of the plane crash hit) are over $250.00.
I can't blame the people bidding on them, though I think they are idiots. A news item like this is sure to drive the prices up immediately, but they will calm down and show to be very poor "investments."
The people who need to have their testicles tarred and feathered are those who are listing auctions now. I'd post links, but they won't last long as eBay cleans house regularly, but some jackass put a Cory Lidle signed baseball on the eBay auction block with a "Buy It Now" of $249.99. I've seen four seperate Cory Lidle internet domain names for sale in the last hour. These vultures disgust me. I didn't look myself, but apparently it was a hundred times more disgusting in the twenty-four hours after Steve Irwin's death. With the American obsession with sports, a journeyman starting pitcher's death may match it. eBay really should stop these auctions, much like they did with all the stuff listed on 9/11/01 taking advantage of that tragedy.
Let's all remember that it is only a game.
Godspeed, Cory Lidle. May you find yourself walking out of a cornfield somewhere in Iowa.
1 comment:
Truly a sad loss not only for Cory's family but for the baseball community as a whole. The old addage that at least he died doing something he loved holds true, but is of little consolation.
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