COVINA, Calif. – The wife of tragic Yankee pitcher Corey Lidle said yesterday she never would have been able to make it through the worst week of her life had it not been for “my beautiful son, Christopher.”
Speaking to reporters outside the Faith Community Church, where more than 300 friends, relatives and teammates mourned her husband, Melanie Lidle paid tribute to her beloved 6-year-old boy, as well as other close relatives.
“Obviously there are thousands [of people] I need to say thank you to,” she said, singling out her sister Brandie, “the rest of the family, my mother, my father, Cory’s parents, his family, his brother and his sister.”
Then she broke down in tears, and the pitcher’s agent Jordan Feagan whisked her inside.
Lidle, 34, and flight instructor Tyler Stanger, 26, died instantly last Wednesday when their plane slammed into the 40th and 41st floors of an Upper East Side high rise as they were trying to navigate the complicated air space over the East River.
Kevin Lidle told mourners he picked up his twin’s jacket sometime after learning the horrible news and felt something inside.
“I pulled out a tiny little ball with a big smiley face on it – and I took that as basically Cory saying, ‘Everything’s OK,’ ” he said at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, showing off the pingpong-sized yellow ball.
“This is Cory looking down on all of us – and he’s OK.”
Several Yankees were among the mourners: Jason Giambi, a high school teammate of Lidle’s, Derek Jeter, Jaret Wright, Craig Wilson, manager Joe Torre and general manager Brian Cashman.
Aaron Small, a former Yanks pitcher and teammate of Lidle’s at nearby South Hills High School, choked back tears when he talked about the man he referred to as his “brother.”
“As my son grows up,” Small said, “I only pray that he’ll have a friend like Cory Lidle to grow up with.”
Mourners shared a moment of silence at the cemetery as three small planes flew overhead in Lidle’s honor.
The hurler’s flower-draped casket sat on a stage, next to an action picture of him on the mound and another still shot of Lidle wearing a Yankees cap.
Giambi said he was heartened to see so many old friends, but saddened that it had to be for Lidle’s funeral.
“The service was beautiful, a lot of these people that I haven’t seen in a long time . . . it’s unfortunate to see them under these circumstances,” Giambi said.
The service ended with a photo montage of Lidle’s wedding and him on the mound set to music.
Mourners gave Lidle a final standing ovation, as Melanie Lidle wept uncontrollably in her sister’s arms.
A mourner shouted: “We love you Cory!”