Night time had fallen, spirits have been shifting and the songwriting baseball coach was rounding third base and headed for house. Twice within the autumn of 2020, docs had suggested a gravely ailing Tim Flannery to say goodbye to his household. Each occasions, he declined to give up.
The fitting arm that despatched house so many San Francisco base runners in the course of the Giants’ three World Collection titles from 2010 to 2014 waved away a closing coda.
The highway again from the brink was as unlikely as the person himself. An infielder turned in style coach, Flannery was at all times one thing extra. A musician who carried a guitar with him on the highway, and a surfer who posed with a board on certainly one of 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 a whole lot of 1000’s 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 ultimately reached a standstill throughout his harrowing, three-month battle with the an infection, however docs nonetheless warned him that he may 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 house with a tube that despatched antibiotics streaming into his coronary heart. That was the simple half as a result of his spouse of 42 years, Donna, administered these doses.
Finally, walker in hand, along with his little granddaughter Jade using shotgun on the crossbar, he reduce a deal: 25 occasions up the driveway, slowly, 25 occasions again, painfully, and Jade can be rewarded with an ice cream sandwich.
On notably productive days, she’d rating two.
“I’ve positively modified my life,” Flannery, 65, mentioned on a current afternoon at a neighborhood espresso store close to the seaside, a well-known 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 bear 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 reminiscences and good hallucinations as I can.”
His keep within the hospital was harrowing. “Vicious,” he mentioned of time spent tied down so he didn’t hurt himself or others. The hospital was two miles from his house, however every look out his window introduced extra distortion. Not all his visions have been terrible. His buddy Bob Weir, a founding member of the Grateful Lifeless, appeared by apparition. So did one other buddy, Jimmy Buffett.
The which means of these specific visitations would come into focus later, convincing Flannery that they have been no coincidence.
Genuine
Via 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,” mentioned Flannery’s bandmate and producer, Jeff Berkley. “He’s precisely who you assume 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 ingesting, man, he carried moonshine round with him wherever he went. He’s a complete hillbilly. He wears that time period proudly. He’s most likely 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 educate for Bruce Bochy in San Francisco.
“I used to be going to return coach third and never let anyone in,” Flannery mentioned. “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 Mission 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 elevate round $100,000, largely by reveals with the Lunatic Fringe, to offset the Stow household’s medical prices.
“Hey, I hit 9 house runs within the ’80s,” Flannery mentioned. “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 in the present day lives at house within the Santa Cruz space along with his mother and father. He takes 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 wonderful,” mentioned Ann Stow, Bryan’s mom. “And he’s been that method all through Bryan’s journey. Flan and Donna are such an necessary a part of our household.”
In all, the Love More durable Mission has raised round $360,000 in Flannery’s ongoing battle towards 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 mentioned. “I’ve bought to have each.”
Although Flannery largely 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, frequently carried a Gibson J35 guitar with him on the highway. When Flannery signed professionally at 19, he adopted go well with.
Flannery’s first supervisor, Roger Craig, advised him to concentrate on baseball reasonably than taking part in the guitar, however the instrument remained his fixed companion. Youngsters have 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 mentioned.
One other uncle, George, satisfied Flannery that taking part in 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 Lifeless’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 in the course of the San Francisco years as properly.
“The beauty of the Bay Space, one of many biggest blessings, is I discovered a spot the place they perceive you might be an artist and nonetheless coach third,” Flannery mentioned.
Taking part in Via 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 any electrical energy, no cellphone service and the water comes straight from a properly. The staph an infection that almost 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 bought to place every part in cages, as a result of there’s animals,” mentioned Flannery, who retired from teaching after the 2014 World Collection however stayed in baseball, doing tv evaluation, by 2019. “I’ve by no means finished any of that stuff as a result of I by no means had summers off. Someway, I bought reduce, or the soil bought in.”
As an outdated ballplayer, when the again ache attacked, he figured he would simply play by 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 mentioned of his nightly routine.
However one afternoon he fell asleep, exhausting, on the deck, waking up solely as a result of it was time for supper for his canine, Buddy. Cussed as his grasp, Buddy nudged and licked Flannery till he got here to. If not for that, Flannery mentioned, he thinks he would have died proper there. As a substitute, the 2 in some way drove to his San Diego-area house, the place Tim collapsed and was taken away by paramedics.
As he was recovering in early 2021, Susan Walker phoned someday. Her husband, Jerry Jeff, had died from most cancers in October, and she or he 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 lads 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 stored 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 outdated coach performed, at Susan’s request, a Walker authentic entitled “Final Tune” and a tribute Flannery wrote for his buddy, “Final of the Previous Canine.”
“I believe I sort of shocked individuals,” Flannery mentioned. “I don’t know the way it occurred, and it was all past myself. Once I got here off, the entire crew had tears of their eyes.”
Donna Flannery mentioned she finds her husband to be “a kinder particular person lately, nicer to all people.”
As one of many strains in a music of his goes, kindness lives on the opposite aspect.
And so the person who was advised to go away his guitar at house and concentrate on baseball has as an alternative hung up his spikes. And he’ll maintain attempting to make the world just a bit bit higher.
“Once I play, I pray earlier than every present that the nice translator, the holy spirit, reveals up and modifications every part I say and turns it into no matter individuals want and stick it of their hearts,” Flannery mentioned. “And a few days later, while you begin to hear again from individuals, yeah, there’s a cause why I’m taking part in.”