Mike Flanagan (baseball)

Born and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, he was one of Ed and Lorraine Flanagan's four children and the younger of their two sons. Under the coaching of his father and grandfather Ed Sr., who both played in the Boston Red Sox organization, Flanagan once struck out 18 batters in a 6-inning Little League game.[3][4]

Flanagan graduated from Manchester (NH) Memorial High School, where he was on the baseball and basketball teams that each won consecutive New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association (NHIAA) Class L titles in 1970 and 1971.[5] His pitching was limited in 1971 because of an arm injury he had sustained while playing American Legion Baseball for the local Henry J. Sweeney Post the previous summer.[6] This factored into him not signing a contract after he was picked by the Houston Astros in the 15th round (346th overall) of the 1971 Major League Baseball draft.[5][7]

Flanagan attended the University of Massachusetts, where he played baseball in 1972 and 1973. He earned first-team All-Yankee Conference and first team All-New England honors in 1973 after he compiled a 9–1 record with a 1.52 ERA and 91 strikeouts and leading the team in all 3 categories. The 9 wins and .900 winning percentage also set school single-season records at the time. Flanagan had a career ERA of 1.19 and a career winning percentage of .923 (12–1), which are both still the best marks in school history.[8] He also played in the outfield while at UMass, hitting .320 with 6 homers and 29 RBI in 128 career at-bats.

Flanagan also played freshman basketball at UMass on the same team as classmate Rick Pitino. Flanagan and Pitino crossed paths with Julius Erving, who was a junior at the time.[9] Flanagan said, "I really didn’t know much about Dr. J until I came down on a fast break and pulled up to take a jump shot. Dr. J was nowhere in the area but, out of nowhere, he blocked the shot and nine players were running the other way. First thing I thought? Better work on my slider, because this is a whole different level of play."[9] He received his degree from the UMass School of Education in 1975, and he was inducted into the UMass Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.[10]

He was a pitcher and outfielder for the Falmouth Commodores in the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) during the summer of 1972. He had a 7–1 record and a 2.18 earned run average (ERA), while batting .286 with 7 home runs. He was a member of the CCBL's inaugural Hall of Fame class in 2000.[11]

He served two stints each as a pitching coach and broadcaster for the Orioles. Flanagan was the Orioles' executive vice president of baseball operations. In recent years, positions in the Orioles' front office have been referred to by this title that would be known as general manager in other team organizations. However, with the appointment of Andy MacPhail as President of Baseball Operations, his responsibilities dwindled. According to Dave Johnson on the August 15, 2009 episode of the Tom Davis Show, Flanagan's contract with the Orioles had ended in 2008 and he was no longer officially with the club.

Flanagan's career as a color commentator on Orioles telecasts began with 20 contests on Home Team Sports (HTS) in 1994. His appointment by the network as the primary game analyst alongside Mel Proctor in early-January 1996 followed the controversial dismissal of John Lowenstein, an Orioles teammate of Flanagan's during their playing days.[29][30] He also teamed with Michael Reghi for a year before being succeeded by Rick Cerone prior to the 1998 season.[31] He rejoined Reghi in the broadcast booth after replacing Cerone in 1999.[32] He continued in that capacity for four more seasons, during which HTS evolved into Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. He was followed behind the microphone by Buck Martinez in 2003.[33] He joined the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) as the secondary analyst after Martinez became the Blue Jays' lead broadcaster on Rogers Sportsnet in 2010. Both he and Palmer worked with rotating play-by-play announcers Gary Thorne and Jim Hunter.[34]

Flanagan was noted for his sense of humor, especially when it involved using puns to create nicknames. In his baseball column in the Sunday issues of The Boston Globe during the late-1970s, Peter Gammons ran a regular feature called the Mike Flanagan Nickname of the Week. One example was John "Clams" Castino, which was a play on clams casino.[18] Another was "Mordecai Six Toe" Lezcano, based on Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown and given to Sixto Lezcano.[35] When the Blue Jays allowed Tony Solaita to sign with the Nippon-Ham Fighters after the 1979 campaign, he was dubbed "Tony Obsolaita".[18] During the 1980 season, Flanagan called himself "Cy Young", Jim Palmer "Cy Old", Steve Stone "Cy Present" and Scott McGregor "Cy Future." When Storm Davis, whose pitching motion resembled Palmer's, joined the Orioles two years later in 1982, he was "Cy Clone."[36] Flanagan added that pitchers became "Cy-bex" if they were injured and "Cy-onara" when they were no longer effective.[37] Two monikers that stuck were "Full Pack" and "Stan the Man Unusual", both of which coined for Don Stanhouse; the former nickname referred to the relief pitcher's causing manager Earl Weaver to smoke a full pack of cigarettes while Stanhouse was pitching, and the latter nickname was a play on "Stan the Man" Musial's nickname.[36] This nickname concept was later popularized by ESPN's Chris Berman, who was inspired by the feature in Gammons' column.[18]

Flanagan's pitch selection included a slow curve, heavy sinker, fastball, and a changeup taught to him by Scott McGregor in 1979.[38]

Flanagan's oldest daughter Kerry Ellen was the fourth American born through in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the first IVF baby not born by Caesarean section. She was born at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center on July 9, 1982. The conception had been performed at the Eastern Virginia Medical School.[39][40]

When Flanagan's wife Alex did not hear from her husband on August 24, 2011, she called a neighbor who went to the home and called 9-1-1 after failing to find him. Police discovered a body on the property but could not immediately determine the identity because the wounds were so severe.[41] The body was later identified as Flanagan, with the cause of death determined to be a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.[1][2]

Police said that Flanagan was distressed about financial issues.[2][42] WBAL-TV reported that Flanagan was still despondent about perceived failures during his tenure in the Orioles' front office.[43] About one year after her husband's death, Alex Flanagan told Dan Rodricks of the Baltimore Sun that her husband had struggled with depression for many years.[44]

Since 2012, the Baltimore Orioles have kept Flanagan's number 46 out of circulation, with Jeremy Guthrie being the last player to wear the number in 2011.

• List of Major League Baseball annual wins leaders

In-line citations

General

• 1980 Baseball Register published by The Sporting News
• "Sports People; Girl for Flanagans" The New York Times

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference (Minors), or Baseball Almanac, or Retrosheet, or Pura Pelota (Venezuelan Winter League)