Lidle recounted for the St. Petersburg Times in 2002 an incident on the Devil Rays team bus while in 2000. The good-natured razzing between players turned ugly when one veteran shouted at Lidle, “Tell me it’s not true. Tell me you’re not a scab.” Lidle said he felt like it was him against 24 players, and that he couldn’t explain away his decision. Instead, he challenged the loudest and drunkest player on the bus to a fight, which was broken up before anything could get started.

(Oddly, Lidle was the first to criticize former reliever Billy Wagner when Wagner said something to that same effect upon his move to the Mets.)

Phillies reliever Arthur Rhodes blasted back, taking hits at Lidle’s “S”-word past, as well as his passions — flying (he got his license before spring training), poker (he hosted a charity tournament in Las Vegas and was generally considered among the league’s best players) and food (former teammate Barry Zito remembers the A’s calling Lidle “Snacks.”)

“He is a scab. When he started, he would go 5 1/3 innings and (the bullpen) would have to win the game for him. The only thing Cory Lidle wants to do is fly around in his airplane and gamble. He doesn’t have a work ethic. After every start, he didn’t run or lift weights. He would sit in the clubhouse and eat ice cream. ... He shouldn't say that, he shouldn't say anything like that because he is a scab. He crossed the line when guys like me, Flash (Tom Gordon) and (Mike) Lieberthal were playing. He is a replacement player.” In May, Rhodes had confronted Lidle for being on the Internet during a game in New York.

Lidle backed off, saying he meant only that incessant trade talk affected the Phillies’ effort, but the damage was done.

It was not the last time he would backtrack from a comment during a difficult 2006. After the Tigers eliminated the Yankees 3-1 in the AL Division Series — in which Lidle gave up three runs in 1 1-3 innings and was passed over as a starter in favor of Jaret Wright — he said: “I think we got taken by surprise. I think we got matched up with a team that was a little more ready to play than we were.” Lidle a day later called New York radio station WFAN to defend his comments, which he said were not meant as a slap at the Yankees play nor at manager Joe Torre, who at the time looked like he might be fired.

This is not to say Lidle was Toxic Cory inside every major-league clubhouse. Lidle said he got on well with many teammates, even some who didn’t agree with what he did in 1995. And many teammates said the same thing.

Still, one of the many unfortunate byproducts of Lidle’s sudden death is that, at age 34 and heading into free agency, he didn’t get one last chance to find a true home with a team and a locker room. Lidle’s decision to play replacement games in 1995 was unfortunate, and his tragic death means Lidle and his teammates both will never have the chance to finish, if that would have been possible, getting over that decision and aiming their daggers at the common enemy — the management that forced vulnerable players such as Lidle to make that decision.

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