When he didn't tweet about Cliff Lee, she knew something was wrong.

During the weekend Steven Smith had posted dozens of Twitter messages, a prolific output that his 578 followers had come to expect.

Smith lived in Scotch Plains, N.J., but place is moot in the Twitter universe. He had a vast network of friends from Albany to Anchorage, an eclectic crew bound by technology and their shared passion -- sports, especially the Yankees.

Many knew him only as @stevensmithy.

We're told e-mail, Facebook and Twitter foster an impersonal world in which conversation and personal connection are replaced by 140-character messages.

The life of Steve Smith suggests otherwise.

Technology, he knew, gives like-minded people a medium to connect in online friendships as meaningful as any others. Sometimes, those people even meet and fall in love.

Smith was killed this past Monday in a three-car accident on the Thruway, near Newburgh. He was 24.

He had been driving home from New Paltz, where he was visiting his close friend, a 21-year-old woman with whom he enjoyed a blossoming relationship.

He tweeted for the last time at 10:30 Monday night, about an hour before the accident and the news of Lee's signing broke.

Word of his death rippled across Twitter.

Hundreds of followers grieved together through a flurry of messages, mourning a mutual friend they never had met but to whom they were nonetheless bonded.

A woman tweeted the three words she wanted to say to him, but never found the right moment.

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Scroll through recent tweets about the Yankees, and interspersed with missives about Lee you find messages illustrating how, to many, @stevensmithy was more than just a faceless handle.

"Never knew @stevensmithy -- but he always brought good dialogue to any Yankees convo," tweeted ESPN anchor Anish Shroff.

"I never met @stevensmithy. Based on all the kind words about him that have filled my feed today, it seems that I missed out ... big time," tweeted @jnorris427.

The words may appear on a computer screen instead of a sympathy card, they may be typed instead of spoken, but friend Kelsey O'Donnell said, "The outpouring on Twitter for him is all real."

Smith never thought of his Twitter network any other way.

"The people he tweeted with, it was kind of amazing," said Steve Tarde, a San Diego resident and Yankees fan who tweeted with Smith. "The followers he had were incredibly loyal to him."

Smith dreamed of a career in sports, and he pursued it at his college radio station at George Washington and as an intern with the Baltimore Orioles.

This coming February, Smith planned to move to New York City in hopes of landing employment with the Yankees.

But thanks to Twitter, one doesn't need a job with the Yankees, space in the newspaper or time on the radio to become a sports commentator. His posts about the Yankees made him a Twitter hit and gave him many friends, online and otherwise.

As his followers grew, Smith started organizing Tweet-ups -- or meetings of Twitter friends. He couldn't afford Yankees playoff tickets, so they met at Reade Street Pub in New York City, sometimes more than 30 of them in all.

"He was so knowledgeable on every single sport," said Marcia Herold, a bartender at Reade Street Pub, "that it would have blown your mind."

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Twitter is also how Smith met Madison Bohunicky.

She is a Duanesburg native who is studying at SUNY New Paltz. She is also a Mets fan.

When she began tweeting jabs at the Yankees, Smith responded with tweaks about the Mets. Soon they were Twitter bantering every day.

"I thought I knew everything about the Mets," Bohunicky said. "But he knew 100 times more."

When Bohunicky tweeted that she'd be at a Mets game this past September, Smith tweeted back that he'd join her. They hit it off, even if he spent much of the time fiddling with his Droid phone, following Twitter updates about the Yankees.

They became close, and this past weekend, Smith visited Bohunicky at school.

Even as he and Bohunicky enjoyed the weekend, reveling in the euphoria of a relationship on the verge of something special, Smith tweeted often.

He wrote at one point, "IF CLIFF LEE SIGNS FOR 50 MILLION LESS TO PLAY WITH THE PHILLIES, THEN HE'S GOING TO MAKE 50 MILLION LESS."

Smith left Bohunicky's place around 11 Monday night, and she expected him to text when he arrived at his home. They had set a Skype date.

But by 3:30, when Smith hadn't tweeted about Lee signing with the Phillies, she was worried.

"Just know I'm here whenever you need me, I'll wait for you," she tweeted.

The following morning, she saw this tweet from a mutual friend: "He was apparently killed in a car accident last night."

Soon Bohunicky's Twitter feed was flooded with messages of support.

Smith's Twitter followers began arranging carpools to attend the Thursday morning funeral in Pennsylvania.

Bohunicky tweeted the words she never found the perfect moment to say.

"@stevensmithy I love you. I hope you know that."

Pete Iorizzo can be reached at 454-5425 or by e-mail at piorizzo@timesunion.com.