From
Wil Cruz, Matt Gagne and Oren Yaniv:
A Manhattan man plunged to his death Tuesday from the rooftop of the ritzy midtown hotel where the Los Angeles Angels stayed before their Opening Day loss at Yankee Stadium.
At least one baseball player watched in shock as Brian Fiore, 39, plunged from the 42nd floor pool of Le Parker Meridien about 8 a.m., his broken body landing on W. 56th St.
Angels pitchers Jered Weaver and Matt Palmer were just crossing the street when Fiore fell.
"Weaver actually saw him [land]," Palmer said. "I felt kind of sick to my stomach....It's hard to see something like that and hard to take it."
Weaver refused to discuss the incident.
Before facing the Yankees on Opening Day, the still-shaken Angels said the morning's incident puts baseball in perspective.
"You can kind of picture it, but I'm glad I didn't get the whole visual of it - the body, or him falling," said former Met Brian Stokes. "But you realize how precious life is."
"It's obviously traumatic when you witness something like that, but these guys understand the privilege of playing baseball," said Angels manager Mike Scioscia.
Not the greatest welcome to NYC. When I was younger I saw a woman jump to her death on the upper east side and it's not something anyone needs to see.
