Fate, I laugh At You...but nervously

I don't really believe in a pre-designed plan for every creature and thing, and I wrestle with that when trying to work it into my Christo-Agnostic belief system. But when something happens like the Cory Lidle airplane accident in Manhattan yesterday it makes me stop and think. Strictly from a sporting perspective, here are some things to consider that led up to crash that prematurely ended the life of the Yankee pitcher:

- On July 31st the Yankees acquired Bobby Abreu from the Phillies in a trade to help them in the stretch run and into the playoffs. Thrown into the trade was pitcher Cory Lidle to help sure up a sometimes shaky Yankees starting staff. If the trade wouldn't have went through, Lidle would already have finished his season a couple of weeks ago and been home with his family in California.

- The Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs Oct 7. They were heavily favoured, and their lineup, one of the most impressive hitting lineups in baseball history struggled to even score a run for a 20 inning stretch. If the Yankees would have won the series, or even won another game, Lidle would probably not have taken off to leave for home yesterday. You could say baseball's $200M team let Lidle down.

- The game in which the Yankees were eliminated, saw Lidle come in in relief of starter Jaret Wright. Wright gave up 3 runs, the Yankees ended up scoring 3 runs during the game. Theoretically, if Lidle hadn't given up a run and pitched 8-9 innings, (as he could have as a typical starter) the Yankees might have won the game and pushed the series at least an extra game. Lidle, unknowingly at the time, was actually pitching for his life. He gave up 3 runs in 1 1/3 innings.

Now, like all accidents, you can look for, and find, a billion turning points that could have lead to another outcome. For someone who doesn't believe in fate, I would suggest no matter what happened, Lidle would have eventually got on a plane that had some sort of mechanical problem and the outcome would have been similar... just delayed. But what made him pick THAT plane?

I saw Lidle pitch live a few times in 2003 when he was a member of the Toronto Blue Jays. The games weren't eventful by any means, but I'll always remember him as ex-jay no matter where he would have went. Thanks for the memories Cory.