August 26, 2011, 7:18 pm
ORIOLES PAGE | ORIOLES VIDEOS
By John Eisenberg
Staff Writer
CSNbaltimore.com
The ballgame between the Orioles and New York Yankees unfolded as usual Friday night at Camden Yards. But it was hardly a typical night.
The glistening downtown ballpark that has served as the setting for playoff games, historic baseball events and so many happy occasions was, this time, the saddest of places.
?Honestly, I think it?s the saddest night in Orioles history,? said Rick Dempsey, the MASN broadcaster who played for the team in its World Series-winning heyday.
It was the Orioles? first home game since the death of Mike Flanagan, their popular former ace pitcher, pitching coach and general manager, who committed suicide Wednesday at age 59. Still reeling, the organization grimly honored him in multiple ways.
Flanagan?s old jersey number (46) was depicted in tall orange numerals on the out-of-town scoreboard during the game and also was painted onto the press box fa?ade by the MASN broadcast booth, where Flanagan worked this season. There was a tribute and moment of silence in his honor before the game and a video shown on the scoreboard after the first inning.
Most prominently, the players wore circular ?Flanny? patches on their jerseys, as they will for the rest of the season.
?I hope I can get through this,? Dempsey said. ?This is about as rough as it gets. But at the same time, while you don?t want to go through it, you want people to know how people felt about Mike and how much he meant to this team and the city.?
A 23-game winner for the 1979 Orioles, Flanagan was one of four players from that pennant-winning team scheduled to broadcast Friday?s game. The other three showed up, Dempsey and Jim Palmer working for MASN and Ken Singleton for the Yankees? cable network. They slumped against each other in the afternoon hours before the game, shattered by the loss of a beloved teammate.
?I still live here. I drive by Mike?s house every day,? Singleton said, shaking his head behind dark glasses. ?I know we?re getting older and people are starting to leave us, but it?s not supposed to be like this.?
Singleton was working a broadcast in New York Wednesday night when a golfing buddy texted him the news.
?I just sank,? he said. ?It was the seventh inning and I got through it, but, boy, it was tough.?
Word reached the Orioles dugout and clubhouse in much the same way during their win in Minnesota Wednesday night. Today?s Birds didn?t know Flanagan nearly as well; although he traveled with them at times as a broadcaster, he stayed in the background. But the players understood his prominent place in the long chronicle of Baltimore baseball history and intuitively grasped that his sudden death was tantamount to removing a cornerstone from the team?s foundation, leaving it shaking.
?We had countless discussions through the years about baseball and pitching,? catcher Matt Wieters said. ?That?s what makes it so hard. He loved this game, still loved being around it and was such a big part of the Oriole family, did so many things for so many people. We?re just trying to go out there and play, honor him that way.?
Manager Buck Showalter said he was up most of Wednesday night taking calls from grieving former Orioles such as Scott McGregor. It was an emotional sledgehammer. Asked Friday if things were getting any easier, Showalter said: ?No, it?s not wearing off. And, honestly, I?m not trying to lose that emotion. That?s not something I?m trying to figure out a way to get around.?
He spoke in a voice so soft it was barely more than a whisper ? the sound of an entire city?s baseball community barely getting along as it comes to grips with this tragedy.
?We all loved him like flesh and blood. To have this sort of thing happen is devastating to all of us and puts more of a damper on Oriole baseball right now,? Dempsey said. ?I hope we can put it behind us and remember what he meant to this organization and how he was as a person and what an effect he had on us. No one had a bad thing to say about Mike, ever.
?There was no indication that there was a problem that might lead to this. I don?t think we?re going to know what was going on in his mind at that time. There had to be a problem there for a long time. If I attempted to try to think of what it might be, I could only scratch the surface. Maybe we should just leave it alone.?
Follow John Eisenberg on Twitter at @CSNEisenberg.
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