Ask Jot

Timothy Earl Flannery is the nephew of former Major League Baseball player Hal Smith. He also spent 11 seasons in the Majors himself, playing from 1979 to 1989 with the San Diego Padres. Before being drafted in the sixth round of the 1978 MLB draft by the Padres, Flannery attended Chapman University. Standing at 5 ft, 11 in tall and weighing 175 lb, Flannery batted left-handed but threw right-handed. He spent less than two seasons in the minors before making his big league debut. During his time in the minors, he hit .350 in 84 games in 1978 and .345 in 125 games in 1979. He made his big league debut on September 3, 1979 at the age of 21, but his minor league success did not carry over to the majors. He hit .154 in 65 big league at bats, with his only extra base hit of the season being a triple. He was the eighth youngest player in the majors in 1979. Flannery spent 46 games in the minors in 1980, hitting .346. He hit only .240 in the majors that year, though. In 1981, he only appeared in 37 games that year, and he batted .254. Not a power hitter, Flannery was in his fifth Major League season when he hit his first Major League home run. It was a solo home run off Chuck Rainey. He was used as a bench player for the majority of his career. Overall, he appeared in 972 games in his career, and batted .255 (631 for 2473). He hit only nine home runs, stole 22 bases and drove in 209 runs. He did have a good eye at the plate, walking 277 times and striking out 293. In the field, he had a .977 fielding percentage. He appeared in four postseason games in his career, collecting two hits in three at-bats. Flannery is best remembered for being the batter that hit a ground ball that trickled through the legs of Chicago Cubs first baseman Leon Durham in Game 5 of the 1984 National League Championship Series to score the tying run. The Padres would go on to the World Series, only to be beaten by the Detroit Tigers 4 games to 1 in the 1984 World Series. He played his final big league game on his birthday-September 29, 1989. Statistically, he is most related to Larry Milbourne. He spent nine seasons with Eric Show—longer than any other teammate. After his big league career ended, he became a Padres coach. He was a broadcaster for the team in 2005, and currently coaches third base for the San Francisco Giants. He is also an accomplished musician/songwriter, releasing multiple CDs. On Sunday, September 27, 2008, he changed his number to 60 for one game because J. T. Snow came back from retirement and wore number 6. Snow was taken out before the first pitch.