Rain, Not Plane Crash, The Reason NLCS Game One Postponed

Rain Postpones NLCS Game One At Shea Stadium

MLB Exec VP/Baseball Operations Jimmie Lee Solomon said that the decision to postpone Cardinals-Mets NLCS Game One last night “wasn’t in response” to the plane crash that killed Yankees P Cory Lidle, according to Mark Hale of the N.Y. POST. Solomon said, “It was weather-related” (N.Y. POST, 10/12). In N.Y., Mike Vaccaro writes, “This was nowhere near the zero hour of devastation of September 11, but it stirred the memory anyway. It was a bad day all around for New York City. There was no need to play baseball” (N.Y. POST, 10/12). The A’s held a moment of silence before the start of their ALCS Game Two last night against the Tigers in memory of Lidle, who played for the club from ’01-02 (THE DAILY).

REPLACEMENT PLAYER: In DC, Thom Loverro notes Lidle crossed the picket line during the ’94-95 players’ strike and played in a ’95 spring training game. A’s P and player rep Barry Zito said of replacement players, “From a union standpoint, I know they don’t get the respect or whatever. But from a player’s standpoint, they’re just good guys trying to make a living for themselves. A lot of those guys who did cross the line were pressured by their organizations in a major way. I think there’s an individual story attached to every one of them. We couldn’t make any assumptions about him or about his character” (WASHINGTON TIMES, 10/12). ESPN’s Peter Gammons, on Lidle being a replacement player: “The replacement thing was always difficult. I mean, Kevin Millar was a replacement player. He still can’t be on any MLB videogame or get any of the checks, and so forth” (ESPNews, 10/11).