Mike Flanagan, 1985 O-Pee-Chee #46

Tonight I've got another entry from the "Kevin is oblivious" files. As I've already mentioned, last Wednesday night I had the pleasure of attending Paul Lukas' Uni Watch gathering at Racers in Parkville. I had a great time talking about the O's with several of the other folks in attendance, but between my tendency to be easily sidetracked and the relatively limited amount of time (two and a half hours were carved out for the event), I didn't get a chance to formally meet everyone. When I introduced myself to Paul, he mentioned that there was a gentleman sitting at the bar in a classic Maryland Terrapins tee who worked for the Orioles. I eventually made my way over to his area, and I vaguely remember briefly speaking to him and his significant other, but again I don't think we exchanged names and other vitals before my attention was grabbed by something else. It could have been a Nick Markakis single, or maybe I felt the need to compliment another party-goer on his Baltimore Skipjacks hockey jersey. I didn't give the whole thing another thought until Friday morning, when Paul finally posted a photo essay of the meetup on his Uni Watch Blog.

I started reading and clicking through to the photos, grateful to put names with faces. The guy in the Terps tee was Jack Krabbe, and his role with the Orioles is corporate sales. What really gob-smacked me was the identity of Jack's companion. The young woman was his fiancee Kerry, and she just happens to be Mike Flanagan's daughter. My first thought: I can't believe that I shared a drink with Flanny's daughter and didn't even realize it! My second thought: Oops, I hope I didn't bad-mouth him that night...or in any of my blog posts. Well, I can't vouch for my conversation material that evening, but at least as far as the blog content goes, I seem to have treated #46 pretty well. Whew. Anyhow, if Jack and/or Kerry are reading, it was nice to meet you, however briefly, and if our paths cross again, we'll have to talk shop.
From left: Kerry Flanagan, yours truly, Dan Sliwinski, Sean Combetti, and Joe Hilseberg