Cory Lidle’s wife learned that her husband was never coming home after getting off a plane at a California airport last night.
Lidle’s wife, Melanie, and 6-year-old son, Christopher, were returning home on a commercial flight from New York.
Brandy Peters said she broke the news to her sister – who was looking forward to spending the off-season with Cory – at the airport.
“You can imagine how hard that was,” Peters said.
At around the same time, Lidle’s father was learning the tragic news from a TV bulletin.
Following a round of golf, Doug Lidle and a friend, Bobby Compton, went to a snack bar in southern California where a TV was mounted near the counter. A breaking news story flashed across the screen: a single-engine plane had crashed into a Manhattan building.
“We were watching it on TV not even thinking it could be Cory, because Doug thought Cory had already left [New York],” Compton told ESPN.com.
Compton said he parted ways with Doug – both not concerned that the accident may have involved Cory.
Compton went back to his real-estate offices in Covina, Calif., where word was spreading that the plane may have belonged to the Yankee pitcher.
Compton, Doug’s supervisor at Century 21, called his friend at home.
“Is it Cory’s plane or not?” Compton asked.
“I don’t know. I’m watching it [on TV],” Doug replied.
At that moment, the TV report both were watching confirmed the plane was registered to Lidle.
Doug drove to his friend’s house.
“He’s totally devastated,” Compton said. “But that can be expected.”