RIP Mike Flanagan

In addition to Kurkjian's column, there are a lot of other terrific tributes being written:

Jim Palmer (on air/MASN): http://www.masnsports.com/index_medialounge.php?show_id=707025&p

Richard Justice: http://blog.chron.com/sportsjustice/2011/08/rip-mike-flanagan/

Tom Boswell: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/mike-flanagan-brought-unique-perspective-to-the-top-of-the-mound/2011/08/25/gIQASXQ5dJ_story.html

Buster Olney: http://espn.go.com/mlb/blog/_/name/olney_buster/id/6894204/remembering-funniest-man-baseball

Peter Gammons: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110825&content_id=23728786&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

I can't recommend any of these over the others, because they're all outstanding. They're worth your time.

 

TV station stands by story:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/z-on-tv-blog/bal-wbaltv-stands-behind-gerry-sandusky-report-on-flanagan-suicide-20110825,0,6876360.story

 

I don't think Sandusky's timing had much journalistic integrity. I think that's one you have to wait on.

That said, I could see what he said being true, sadly. The man bled black and orange. He knew what it was like when things were good there. And he was in the middle of the entire, long crumbling of a great franchise.

It was Flanny's life work. I'm sure it had a profound affect upon him.

 

Tragic story. Loved those Oriole teams.

Re: Kurkjian piece -- pedantic nitpick, but Dick Cheney was never Secretary of State.

 

To me, there was nothing like the Memorial Stadium experience in that era.

Park a mile away on one of those side streets along Loch Raven Boulevard. Make your way up the hill to the stadium, buy a program on the sidewalk along the way. A ballpark that felt like an old ballpark. Chomp on a crabcake sandwich and suck down several National Bos. And a team that had a city's unique identity.

They were Baltimore -- Flanny, Palmer, Davey Johnson, DeCinces, Baylor, Grich, Dempsey. Bunch of them went elsewhere eventually, but they will always be Orioles.

 

I have never seen at any other the parking at Memorial Stadium.... they'd pack em in like sardines. Your car wasn't moving until everyone else left.

Anybody else remember this, or is this a faulty childhood memory?

 

Those are some wonderful tributes and articles on Flanagan (although Gammons had some errors in his story as well - on the nicknames; Flanny being involved in Wieters & Arrieta).

As far as parking at Memorial, I tell my kids about the time we were trapped after the game because they were parked 3 or 4 deep and we had to wait for someone to come out and move one of them. Worst parking experience ever, although amazingly only happened to me once there (we must have found somewhere else to park).

Also, didn't see it mentioned here, but the Flanagans had the first natural test tube baby. (http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20083137,00.html)

I'm still in a bit of shock. Can't imagine the feeling at Camden Yards tonight.

 

Beautiful column by Harvey Araton on this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/sports/baseball/flanagan-cherished-the-joy-of-new-life.html?_r=2&ref=sports

 

What Sandusky reported is being repeated by close friends and associates, including Ken Singleton and Rick Dempsey. It might not be the reason, but it's becoming clear it was one of the things swimming around in his head. The front office job was his first brush with failure. Whip-smart, good athlete, naturally charismatic, universally liked, good-looking, etc. Maybe a broken first marriage was the only thing that didn't go right for him on the surface. A lot of stuff is going to come out in the next several weeks.

 

I thought this comment from an Orioles message I saw summed it up perfectly in reference to Sandusky's report.



This is the problem with people who don't understand mental illness. They think in abstract terms about "cause" and "effect" in a way that may fit their own simplistic view of the world, but which has no real grounding in reality.

It is entirely possible that Flanagan had displayed signs of depression since leaving the front office, though that is no kind of evidence that his departure caused his depression - lasting depression is rarely the result of an event, and far more often both pre- and post-dates the "markers" that folks cite after-the-fact. It's also possible that Flanagan was having trouble adjusting to the change in environment - many people who struggle with depression self-medicate through high-stress, high-performance activities, and struggle to adapt when that activity is removed. It's also possible that Flanagan's depression caused him to accentuate the negative he felt about his departure and played into the kind of spiraling self-esteem that goes hand-in-hand with major depressive episodes. But this is less likely the post-GM situation affecting Flanagan as much as it is the way major depressive order radically alters our ability to maintain balance, see clearly, and find value in the things that have always given us pleasure. One of the major symptoms of depressive disorder is anhedonia - the inability to feel pleasure in the things that have traditionally given pleasure. In this case, it sounds like Flanagan's psychological issues may have created a rift between he and one of the things he had always depended on for buoyancy, the Orioles. And all of that is well-and-good. But it is a far cry for Sandusky's report, which is sensationalistic and implicitly points a finger at the Baltimore public. Flanagan was a smart, smart man - he was well-aware that a life in the spotlight comes with its downside.

But assigning causal relationships is more about tidy narratives - which benefit the narrator or the audience, but offer little insight into the real mechanism of depression. I thought last night, and continue to think, that Sandusky was (i) irresponsible in his report; and (ii) clearly underqualified to be discussing the issue. I may be proven wrong, but so far everything I read supports this take.