Passing of Bob Flanagan

To fastpitch fans in So Cal in the early 1990’s he was the voice of the Vista Bombers, serving as the public address announcer for the teams that played in several ISC World Tournaments. His energetic, upbeat style, akin to NBA arena announcers of today, was well received by the fans. His “Goooood Morning Vista C-A” (think Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam) and “Danny Reeeeeeeee-gas” were two of the favorites. I can still hear his voice booming over the loudspeaker.

Bob Flanagan passed away Friday afternoon at the age of 56 after a long battle with cancer.

He was a lifelong baseball player and fan, establishing a 15 year career working in the front office of a number of minor league teams from the 1990’s through 2007. He was a devoted husband, a father of two. He was one of the Three Wise Men at Christmas, assuring me at the time that I should have known all along, but providing photographic proof just the same. He was a guitar player, a bowler, a dartist, and world traveler.

He was my brother, the best man at my wedding, a great lifelong friend. I miss him dearly.

Bob Flanagan was the toughest man I ever knew, overcoming a broken neck in 1990, and then later, battling cancer for five and a half years, refusing to yell uncle to the pain, complain about the multiple surgeries, radiation or chemotherapy, or surrender to the toll it took on his body in recent years.

He was my younger brother, an identical twin to our other brother Rick, and three years my junior. Though I held the height advantage when we were kids, and slightly so as adults, it was I who grew to look up to him, and to his courage.

He and our brother Rick were the first ones that I tossed a ball around with, playing wiffle ball at our house in Long Beach for hours on end, virtually every night until the street lights came on, and then for a while longer until we could no longer make out the ball.

In high school, Bob was a catcher, Rick a pitcher, with their team taking on the likes of eventual Hall of Famer, Tony Gwynn. Bob was an MVP and two time all-star. He teamed up with me to play fastpitch for one season, a season I now cherish more than ever, before going off to make his way in the world.

In his youth, Bob was a bartender locally, in Long Beach, The restaurant touted his Bloody Marys as his drawing card, but it was his amiable Irish nature and gift of gab that brought people back again and again.

In 1990, on his way back from a trip to Europe – before he made it home, he stopped in Shreveport Louisiana for a friend’s wedding. The night before the wedding, he suffered a broken neck in a freak accident, when someone fell on him. I got a late night call and flew to Shreveport, to find him in a hospital bed, with a “halo” screwed into his head. I remember it vividly, as the Vista Bombers had a big weekend planned; this time however, fastpitch would have to take a back seat. After surgery, he recovered, and made a remarkable recovery, with some fused vertebrae and long scar on his neck the only reminder of the injury. It was during that long stay with him in Shreveport that I came to appreciate his tolerance for pain and courage in facing a life-altering situation. Not one word of complaint.

A bedside chat at that hospital led to some of my most enjoyable experiences in life — annual trips with Bobby to visit the old ballparks around the country. At the time he was hospitalized, there was a serious question as to whether he would suffer paralysis as a result of the broken neck. Trying to offer encouragement, I told him that when he walked out of the hospital, we would do what we only talked about previously — travel and visit some of the old ballparks.

And so it was. He made it back to California by summer’s end and in late September, 1990, we flew to Chicago Illinois, where we visited Wrigley Field and (old) Comiskey Park, with a side trip to County Stadium in Milwaukee, fulfilling the promise made during his hospital stay. It was the final week of play at (old) Comiskey Park. In the photo below, the attire Bobby was wearing around his neck was not a scarf to guard against the cold autumn winds of Chicago, but rather a neck brace, the last remnant of his injury a few months before.

We decided to make the baseball trips an annual event, returning to Baltimore in 1991, to see the final three games ever played at Memorial Stadium, and what might’ve been the greatest closing weekend ever. The final pitcher that day was our namesake, Mike Flanagan, who entered the field from the bullpen, to the raucous chants of 50,000 people screaming “We Want Flanagan, We Want Flanagan”. Never did we feel so loved 😉

In subsequent years, we continued to visit the old ballparks which were about to close, or in some years just throwing a dart at the map. (Bob was pretty good with those darts). 1992 was Fenway Park in Boston, 1993, closings in Arlington Texas and Cleveland (where we were joined by our third brother Rick, who was living in Ohio at the time). The annual trips were dubbed, “Jim and Bob’s Excellent Adventures”, borrowing a movie title at the time, or just B&B for short. Beer and baseball. The local paper in Vista CA wrote a story entitled “If You Close It, They Will Come“.

In the midst of our annual trips, I got another look at Bob’s courage — his courage to throw caution to the wind, and follow his heart no matter the cost or challenge. He wanted to work in baseball, and was determined to find a way to make it happen. That year, he boarded a plane to Atlanta to attend the annual meetings of major league baseball executives and stood in the lobby handing out his resume and shaking hands with anyone he could find. In truth, the resumes could have been blank pieces of paper because he had no experience whatsoever. He did not let that stop him. He had a passion, and the ability to sell himself. By the end of the year, he had landed an entry-level job with the Central Valley Rockies (later Visalia Oaks) in Visalia California, a single-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. When he left to go to work in Visalia, he didn’t have a place to stay, but marched on to follow his dream. That summer,I got to take a baseball trip of a different kind, one to see him while he was working in Visalia. We played golf in the summer heat, and, as we had done so many times before, took in a ballgame or three. It was obvious from the first time I saw him there, that he had found his place in the world.

Bob and I continued to enjoy our annual baseball trips. 1994 was the strike year, but we set course for Cooperstown to visit the baseball Hall of Fame. We laughed when the security guards crowbarred us out the door at closing time on our first day, assuring us that the museum would be open again come morning. For Love of the Game is not just a movie title.

A few more years and a few more trips, before Bob had met the love of his life, Dawn, while working for the Lubbock Crickets, and decided to get married and settle down, raising their two children, Riley (now 12) and Delaney (now 10). Bob met his wife, naturally enough, at the ballpark. Their tour of duty took them to Edinburg Texas, Florence South Carolina, and eventually to Wichita Kansas, where Bob took a job with the Wichita Wingnuts.

A diagnosis of cancer at Christmas 2008 changed his life dramatically, but did not diminish his love of family, or determination to battle the disease. It was an aggressive, late stage melanoma, with a life expectancy of just a few years. Though unable to continue his career in baseball, Bob continued to find a way to live with vigor, and above all, with love for his family. Over the past five and half years, he endured multiple surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy treatment as well as experimental drug treatment, in efforts to slow the spread of the disease.

Last summer, Bob and his family stayed at my house for a week, fulfilling a bucket list promise to his kids to take them to Disneyland. While here, Bob and I shared our last trip to the ballpark, to see the Angels at Anaheim Stadium, where we had gone to games as kids. The Flanagan boys, those Wiffle Ball Kids, were back in the parking lot at the Big A, playing catch before the game.

The trip included most of our siblings, along with a couple of very special family friends, Don Zennie and Alex Maldanaldo who arranged with Angels’ closer, Ernesto Frieri for Bob and his kids to be in the dugout before the game, and meet the Angel players. He seemed right at home in that dugout, and very happy to share that special moment with his kids.

Bob’s battle against cancer continued after his return to Wichita, Kansas. On December 22, 2013, Bob broke the record for the longest surving melanoma patient in Kansas. He surpassed early life expectancy estimates by a longshot, taking the game deep into extra innings, continuing to endure the radiation and chemotherapy, until March 2014, when doctors would no longer administer, due to his condition. I got to visit him in February and again in May. Despite the fact that he could barely stand, he was still engaging, with a sense of humor about him. It was his nature.

On Friday, a week after I returned home, I received word of his passing. That night, I ran across a fitting photo (below) on the Angels’ twitter page, with caption reading: “The sky looked like a scoop of rainbow sherbet tonight”

Bob loved his ice cream. Life, to Bob, was rainbow sherbet.

Lessons learned from my little brother, there have been many, chief among them, to follow your heart, to reach for your dreams, to do what you really want to in life. Live life fully, no matter what challenges are thrown your way.

Rest in peace, I love you my brother.

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In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made to Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice, 313 S. Market, Wichita, Ks 67202 or Believers Southern Baptist Church, 13909 W. 21st N., Wichita, Ks 67235.

A memorial service will be held at on May 23, 2014 at1:00 p.m. at Believers Southern Baptist Church, 13909 West 21st St N, Wichita, KS 67235, (316) 729-5399. Baker Funeral Home, 100 S. Cedar, Valley Center. Condolences may be left for the family at www.bakerfhvc.com

Bob’s official obituary here.

ROBERT ROBERT “BOB” FLANAGAN
(Died May 16, 2014)

Robert “Bob” Martin Flanagan, 56, of Wichita, Kansas passed away Friday, May 16, 2014 after a long battle with cancer. The son of the late Harry L. Flanagan and Madeline L. Higgins Flanagan was born February 18, 1958 in Walled Lake, Michigan. His family moved to Long Beach, California when Bob was age four. He graduated from Robert A. Millikan High School in Long Beach and studied at Long Beach City College. He met the love of his life, Dawn Teaff Flanagan while working in pro baseball in Lubbock, Texas, where they married in 1999. The couple relocated first to Florence, South Carolina, followed by a move to Edinburg, Texas and eventually to Wichita, Kansas in 2007, where they raised their two children, Riley, 12 and Delaney, 10. Bob was an active member of Believers Southern Baptist Church in Wichita, Kansas. He served in a number of roles there, including that of one of the three wise men at Christmas. Bob’s family and faith became the foundation of his life, which he lived with great vigor. Above all, Bob loved to spend time with his wife, Dawn, and their children. Bob worked in the front office for a number of professional baseball teams during the course of his 15-year career in the sport, including the Central Valley Rockies and Visalia Oaks of Visalia, California; the Lubbock Crickets of Lubbock, Texas; the Edinburg Roadrunners of Edinburg, Texas; the Florence RedWolves of Florence, South Carolina; and the Wichita Wingnuts of Wichita, Kansas. Bob handled sales and marketing and rose to become an assistant general manager for a number of these teams. Bob was a high school baseball player; a catcher and battery-mate to his brother Rick, a pitcher. He earned MVP honors and was twice named to the All-Star team. Bob was a lifelong baseball fan, traveling to visit a number of the old ballparks around the country with his brother Jim. A student of the game, he loved to play “Strat-o-Matic Baseball.” Bob also traveled through Europe. A onetime member of a rock band in his youth, Bob continued to enjoy playing guitar and listening to music from his extensive vinyl record collection. He loved ice cream, and was an outstanding bowler and dart player. Bob is survived by his wife, Dawn Flanagan; son, Riley Flanagan; daughter, Delaney Flanagan; sisters, Kathy Flanagan of Long Beach, California, Nancy Savan and her husband, Mark Savan of Thousand Oaks, California, Sharyn Flanagan of Gardiner, New York and Sheilagh DiCicco and her husband, Marco DiCicco of Port Orchard, Washington; brothers, James Flanagan and his wife Madeleine of Rossmoor, California and Richard Flanagan and his wife Geri of North Bend, Washington; nieces and nephews, Amy Nicolas, Amanda and Matt Savan, Sean and Meghan Flanagan and Ryan DiCicco; and numerous extended family.

In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made to Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice, 313 S. Market, Wichita, Ks 67202 or Believers Southern Baptist Church, 13909 W. 21st N., Wichita, Ks 67235.

A memorial service will be held at on May 23, 2014 at1:00 p.m. at Believers Southern Baptist Church, 13909 West 21st St N, Wichita, KS 67235, (316) 729-5399. Baker Funeral Home, 100 S. Cedar, Valley Center. Condolences may be left for the family at www.bakerfhvc.com