Giants' Tim Flannery retires: 'I'm going to send myself home safely.'
Published 12:13 pm, Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Tim Flannery, the old soul who can sing a perfect three-part harmony one night then chase a baserunner from third to home the next, is calling it a career.
A day after the Giants lost third baseman Pablo Sandoval, their third-base coach phoned general manager Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy to say he was stepping down after eight seasons in San Francisco and 33 years in professional baseball.
Flannery, 57, told The Chronicle by phone he is physically and emotionally spent, has done all he wants to do on the baseball field, wants to spend more time with his wife and family and devote his energies to raising money for all manner of causes through his music.
In short, the all-encompassing parade of baseball seasons finally got to him.
'I call it the god-damned blessed road,' Flannery said. 'I've buried friends. I've put friends in rehab. I've watched marriages dissolve. There's a lot of collateral damage in this lifestyle I've had for 33 years. I'm going to send myself home safely.'
Flannery said he had thought about this all year.
'Physically, the grind of the season, and the way I demand how I work and what I expect of myself, I just didn't feel I was capable in a quick turnaround to do it again.
'I had no desire to manage. This has all been thought-out. This is not a knee-jerk reaction. So then you ask yourself, what else are you going to do? Keep coaching third till drop over? Win a fourth world championship? A fifth? What else can I do in the next phase of my life?
'I need to stay home a little while and enjoy what we have just accomplished, or else it doesn't mean anything.'
Flannery, who came to the Giants with Bochy from San Diego when the latter was hired as manager in 2007, was not your ordinary third-base coach, even putting his musical talents aside. He was aggressive in sending players and ran along with them. People often joked he might reach the plate ahead of some of the slower players on the team.
But after 33 years as a player and coach, Flannery's body feels its 57 years. He has had surgery on many parts of the right side of his body, including his knee last year.
He revealed Tuesday that he has had double-vision in one eye since spring training and needs to take care of that.
Flannery has raised tens of thousands of dollars for Bryan Stow, the Giants fan injured in a beating in 2011. He plans to expand his fundraising in a project called Love Harder that will include shows in the Bay Area in January.
Flannery said Bochy brought the team together before Game 7 of the World Series and recited a line from 'Gladiator' that fits into this decision. Bochy said, 'What you do in this life will live on through eternity.'
Said Flannery, 'I just feel I did it in the baseball world. I was as fulfilled helping the Stow family as much as anything in my life.'
Sabean broached the idea of a different role for Flannery in the organization. Flannery said that could happen, but down the road.
Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail hschulman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hankschulman
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