Evening had fallen, spirits had been transferring and the songwriting baseball coach was rounding third base and headed for dwelling. Twice within the autumn of 2020, medical doctors had suggested a gravely unwell Tim Flannery to say goodbye to his household. Each instances, he declined to give up.
The appropriate arm that despatched dwelling so many San Francisco base runners throughout the Giants’ three World Collection titles from 2010 to 2014 waved away a closing coda.
The street again from the brink was as unlikely as the person himself. A second baseman turned widespread coach, Flannery was at all times one thing extra. A musician who carried a guitar with him on the street, and a surfer who posed with a board on one in all his buying and selling playing cards, he couldn’t assist however stand out within the strait-laced world of Main League Baseball.
Having transitioned absolutely into philanthropy and songwriting in his baseball retirement — his basis has raised lots of of hundreds of {dollars} for anti-bullying causes — he had extra individuals to assist and extra tales to inform. So giving in to a life-threatening staph an infection was not an choice.
Destiny and Flannery finally reached a standstill throughout his harrowing, three-month battle with the an infection, however medical doctors nonetheless warned him that he would possibly by no means stroll once more. He fell into sepsis and required two again surgical procedures to clear away abscesses and broken tissue. He went dwelling with a tube that despatched antibiotics streaming into his coronary heart. That was the straightforward half as a result of his spouse of 42 years, Donna, administered these doses.
Finally, walker in hand, along with his little granddaughter Jade driving shotgun on the crossbar, he reduce a deal: 25 instances up the driveway, slowly, 25 instances again, painfully, and Jade can be rewarded with an ice cream sandwich.
On significantly productive days, she’d rating two.
“I’ve positively modified my life,” Flannery, 65, stated on a current afternoon at a neighborhood espresso store close to the seaside, a well-recognized twinkle — life — again in his eyes. He had rehearsed for 2 hours earlier that day. Quickly, he would nail down particulars for the subsequent present along with his band, the Lunatic Fringe.
“I’ve checked out moments and issues much more clearly,” he continued. “And also you do attempt to create good ideas and attempt to keep in mind, like, this second proper right here. As a result of if I ever return to that state of affairs once more, I need to attempt to carry as many good recollections and good hallucinations as I can.”
His keep within the hospital was harrowing. “Vicious,” he stated of time spent tied down so he didn’t hurt himself or others. The hospital was two miles from his dwelling, however every look out his window introduced extra distortion. Not all his visions had been terrible. His good friend Bob Weir, a founding member of the Grateful Useless, appeared by apparition. So did one other good friend, Jimmy Buffett.
The that means of these explicit visitations would come into focus later, convincing Flannery that they had been no coincidence.
Genuine
By greater than 4 a long time of baseball and music, first in San Diego after which in San Francisco, Flannery grew right into a beloved participant, coach and troubadour — a character — due to an endearing knack for leaving items of himself with whomever he met.
“Genuine,” stated Flannery’s bandmate and producer, Jeff Berkley. “He’s precisely who you suppose he’s. He’s not attempting to placed on any airs. He’s not attempting to be from Kentucky; he’s from Kentucky. Till he stopped consuming, man, he carried moonshine round with him wherever he went. He’s a complete hillbilly. He wears that time period proudly. He’s in all probability the primary woke hillbilly.”
As a result of Flannery felt some baseball individuals considered his guitar suspiciously throughout his years in San Diego, he initially supposed to maintain that a part of his life quiet when he agreed to teach for Bruce Bochy in San Francisco.
“I used to be going to return coach third and never let anyone in,” Flannery stated. “I believed, ‘Nobody’s going to tear my coronary heart.’”
However in 2011, his music got here to the forefront when he based the Love More durable Undertaking in response to the horrific beating of Bryan Stow, a Giants fan who was attacked within the Dodger Stadium car parking zone on opening day in 2011. With the inspiration, which has a mission of anti-bullying and anti-violence, Flannery has helped increase round $100,000, principally by way of reveals with the Lunatic Fringe, to offset the Stow household’s medical prices.
“Hey, I hit 9 dwelling runs within the ’80s,” Flannery stated. “I can’t simply write a examine.”
However he might write, and play, and sing.
Stow, now 54, sustained a critical mind damage within the assault and at the moment lives at dwelling within the Santa Cruz space along with his dad and mom. He’s taking reminiscence and mobility programs at a local people faculty and discovered on Father’s Day that he was going to be a grandfather.
“Flan was one of many first to return to the forefront and assist Bryan out. It was simply superb,” stated Ann Stow, Bryan’s mom. “And he’s been that means all through Bryan’s journey. Flan and Donna are such an vital a part of our household.”
In all, the Love More durable Undertaking has raised round $360,000 in Flannery’s ongoing battle in opposition to bullies and violence.
Air and Water
Regardless of what some suggested early in his profession, Flannery was by no means going to decide on baseball over music.
“Like having to decide on between air and water,” he stated. “I’ve acquired to have each.”
Although Flannery principally was raised in Anaheim, Calif., his household got here from the hills of Kentucky. His uncle, Hal Smith, was a catcher who smashed a three-run homer for Pittsburgh within the eighth inning of Recreation 7 of the 1960 World Collection. Had the Pirates’ bullpen held the 9-7 lead, Smith would have been a hero. As a substitute, the Yankees tied issues up and Pittsburgh’s Invoice Mazeroski received the sport and earned immortality.
Smith, who performed 10 seasons, often carried a Gibson J35 guitar with him on the street. When Flannery signed professionally at 19, he adopted swimsuit.
Flannery’s first supervisor, Roger Craig, advised him to concentrate on baseball fairly than enjoying the guitar, however the instrument remained his fixed companion. Youngsters had been born — Daniel now’s 37; Ginny, the mom of Tim’s three grandchildren, is 35; Kelly is 32 — and the guitar was there for all of it.
“If it was a loopy day, having that guitar mellowed him out,” Donna Flannery stated.
One other uncle, George, satisfied Flannery that enjoying music wasn’t sufficient and that he wanted to file his songs to inform the tales of his household’s life. Amongst them is “Items of the Previous,” a tribute to Flannery’s preacher father, Ragon, who was dying of Alzheimer’s. Jackson Browne and Bruce Hornsby carried out on that recording.
On his musical journey, Flannery has opened for Buffett and Emmylou Harris. The Grateful Useless’s Weir entered his life throughout the advantages for Stow, and Walker, the outlaw nation legend and longtime hero of Flannery’s who wrote “Mr. Bojangles,” befriended him throughout the San Francisco years as nicely.
“The wonderful thing about the Bay Space, one of many biggest blessings, is I discovered a spot the place they perceive you will be an artist and nonetheless coach third,” Flannery stated.
Taking part in By Ache
When the pandemic struck and the world closed, Flannery retreated to a getaway he calls his “treehouse” within the mountains north of Santa Barbara.
At his cabin, there isn’t a electrical energy, no cellphone service and the water comes straight from a nicely. The staph an infection that just about killed him began, he believes, as he was constructing cages to guard the potatoes, corn, tomatoes, okra, spinach and diverse different greens he vegetation there.
“You’ve acquired to place every little thing in cages, as a result of there’s animals,” stated Flannery, who retired from teaching after the 2014 World Collection however stayed in baseball, doing tv evaluation, by way of 2019. “I’ve by no means finished any of that stuff as a result of I by no means had summers off. By some means, I acquired reduce, or the soil acquired in.”
As an previous ballplayer, when the again ache attacked, he figured he would simply play by way of it.
“I took 4 Advil, drank an enormous cocktail and normally I’d polish that off with a bottle of wine to kill the ache,” he stated of his nightly routine.
However one afternoon he fell asleep, laborious, on the deck, waking up solely as a result of it was meal time for his canine, Buddy. Cussed as his grasp, Buddy nudged and licked Flannery till he got here to. If not for that, Flannery stated, he thinks he would have died proper there. As a substitute, the 2 someway drove to his San Diego-area dwelling, the place Tim collapsed and was taken away by paramedics.
As he was recovering in early 2021, Susan Walker phoned at some point. Her husband, Jerry Jeff, had died from most cancers in October, and he or she invited Flannery to carry out at a celebration of life in Luckenbach, Texas, that June. On the time, he couldn’t even sit as much as play his guitar, however he was decided to make it.
The memorial live performance was Flannery’s first gig after regaining his well being, and each of the boys Flannery felt had visited him within the hospital, in spirit solely, performed a component. Weir, who was scheduled to be in Luckenbach earlier than journey points saved him away, phoned simply earlier than Flannery went onstage. And Buffett, who died this month, was there in particular person.
“Hey, you look similar to Tim Flannery, solely older,” Buffett teased.
The previous coach performed, at Susan’s request, a Walker unique entitled “Final Track” and a tribute Flannery wrote for his good friend, “Final of the Outdated Canines.”
“I feel I form of shocked individuals,” Flannery stated. “I don’t know the way it occurred, and it was all past myself. After I got here off, the entire crew had tears of their eyes.”
Donna Flannery stated she finds her husband to be “a kinder particular person today, nicer to everyone.”
As one of many traces in a track of his goes, kindness lives on the opposite facet.
And so the person who was advised to go away his guitar at dwelling and concentrate on baseball has as a substitute hung up his spikes. And he’ll preserve attempting to make the world just a bit bit higher.
“After I play, I pray earlier than every present that the nice translator, the holy spirit, reveals up and modifications every little thing I say and turns it into no matter individuals want and stick it of their hearts,” Flannery stated. “And a few days later, whenever you begin to hear again from individuals, yeah, there’s a cause why I’m enjoying.”