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To say Tim Flannery is a baseball man is an understatement. And while he is beyond proud, and certainly humble, about being part of three World Series championship San Francisco Giants teams (2010, 2012, 2014), as well as his thirty plus years in the Major Leagues, Tim Flannery also pursues another passion.
Those who know “Flan,” as he’s come to be known, understand how much music has always meant to him. In fact, over those thirty years traveling the country with baseball, one thing he always had with him was his guitar. And on a rainy night in St. Louis or after a day game in Cincinnati, you might have heard a man singing in the stairwells of the team hotel.
That singing and playing has sustained Flan for nearly all of his years. From singing in church to singing on the porch with family, this blue-eyed Irish son was raised on Ralph Stanley as well as the California country of Merle Haggard and others. He has recorded eleven albums, has an all-star band (The Lunatic Fringe), and for the past fifteen or so years has relished playing gigs in the off-season, or ‘music season,’ with as much gusto as windmilling the player around third to score.
But in 2011, something shifted for Flan and his music. It was that year, on opening day of the baseball season, when Bryan Stow, a Giants fan, was brutally beaten in Los Angeles. Flan followed Stow’s recovery and came to know the Stow family very well. He began using his music to help. Proceeds from his shows and CD sales went to Stow’s family to help them manage the financial responsibilities involved in caring for Bryan. In 2014, he presented the Stows with a check for $96,000, money that was raised in that off-season from concerts, CD sales, and donations.
“It felt like this is a great opportunity to let the family know that people still are thinking about them,” Flannery said. “More than anything, it allows them to know that people still care, people still think about them. That has always been the story — everybody else showing up and giving of themselves. I play the music. It inspires me to just keep doing it. It’s not that difficult for me doing what I always do.”
And in that spirit, and over the course of the 2014 season, Flan kept coming back to the phrase “Love Harder.” He says it’s what the Stows have taught him about life, family, and how to teach through action. In November 2014, Flan stepped down as third base coach for the San Francisco Giants to, as he said, “…take this music love of mine to another level in hopes of raising money and awareness for things dear to my heart. In January, we will launch the Love Harder Project, in hopes to help others in their lives.”
That’s where you come in. You being the reader, the music lover, the baseball fan, the philanthropist, and the person who wants to help. Come to the shows, donate what you can, listen to the music, and love harder.