Mike Flanagan always made me laugh. Always. Even when the Orioles were playing their worst baseball. Even when the reason for my call was serious or grim. He had an easy way about him. A quick one-liner to ease the tension and put a smile on my face.
I covered the Orioles for the Baltimore Sun from 2002 to 2004. Flanagan, the 1979 Cy Young Award winner, was a TV analyst and a close friend of the owner, Peter Angelos. Flanagan moved into a job as co-General Manager, with Jim Beattie, and their first spring together running the team was 2003.
Since Flanagan's death Wednesday, from an apparent suicide, people have asked me what kind of person he was. To sum it up, here's a story I wrote for The Sun in February 2003, at another heartwrenching time in Orioles history. Most of the words are Flanagan's.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - They talked about baseball. They talked about life.
They laughed, they cried and they hugged.
For a few hours early Monday morning, when she wasn't sure if her husband would live or die, Kiley Bechler had someone she could turn to: Orioles vice president of baseball operations Mike Flanagan.
Steve Bechler, a 23-year-old Orioles pitching prospect, collapsed during Sunday's practice and suffered heatstroke, with his body temperature rising to 108 degrees. Kiley Bechler, who is 7 1/2 months pregnant, was driving cross-country when she got the news. After flying from Salt Lake City, she arrived at the hospital after midnight.
By 1:50 a.m., Steve Bechler's condition had stabilized. Orioles manager Mike Hargrove and several staff members looked exhausted, so Flanagan sent them home, volunteering to remain at the intensive care unit with Kiley Bechler, who is 22.