Sad news about former Blue Jay pitcher Mike Flanagan

Mike Flanagan was born on December 16, 1951 in Manchester, New Hampshire and was Originally drafted by the Houston Astros but did not sign because of an arm injury and then the Orioles drafted him in the seventh round of the 1973 draft.

Yesterday Mike Flanagen was found behind his Sparks community of Baltimore County home and the Maryland medical examiner reported that he died from self infected gun shot wound to the head and it seems that he was worried about financial matters. He was a CY Young winner in 1979 as he won 23 games while with only 9 losses with 5 shutouts and he won 141 games as a Orioles while he then spent parts of 4 seasons away from the Orioles as he traded to the Blue Jays late in '87 as the Jays fell apart and lost their last 7 games which allowed the Tigers to sneak passed them and get into the playoffs. He was 26 and 27 as a Blue Jay and the most memorable moment would be a moment he would like to forget as in the '89 ALCS Mr Juiced himself (Jose Canseco) hit a 500 level shot at the Skydome (now known as the Rogers Centre). When he went back to the Orioles in '91 as a free agent to become a middle reliever for his final 2 seasons in his 18 season career that began with the Orioles in 1975 and he in '91 was apart of a four pitcher no-hitter with pitchers Bob Milacki, Mark Williamson, and Greg Olson while in the same season was the final Orioles pitcher to pitch in Memorial Stadium and then after a disastrous in '92 he retired as he had a 8.05 ERA in 34 innings.

His big moments with the Orioles were he helped them make the playoffs with a 12 and 4 record with an ERA of 3.30 in 20 games as he had his first of two major injuries in this season which was a knee injury as the Orioles won the World Series in '83. He also made an All-Star game in '78 and he had career numbers of 167 wins and 141 loses with 1491Ks in 2770 inning pitched with an ERA of 3.90.

After her retired he was the Orioles and at other times he was a pitching coach twice ('95 & '98), he was the Orioles broadcaster ('96-7, '99-'02), and then was in the Orioles front office including assistant GM and executive vice president of baseball operations until '08 and finished in broadcasting booth since '10 til his death.

Gone to soon

Tom Mehegan