Mike Flanagan (23-9, 3.08) wins the Cy Young Award, easily outdistancing New York’s Tommy John (21-9, 2.97)

On October 31, 1979 — Mike Flanagan (23-9, 3.08) wins the Cy Young Award, easily outdistancing New York’s Tommy John (21-9, 2.97). The Orioles’ southpaw receives 26 of the 27 first-place votes cast by the writers.

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Mike Flanagan’s parents spent years worrying about their son’s health. But the news that the 27-year-old southpaw pitcher had won the American League’s Cy Young award almost put his mother in the hospital. “When I heard it, I almost ran off the road,” said Lorraine Flanagan, who tuned in on her son’s award announcement on the radio Tuesday while driving home from work at Manchester’s Elliot Hospital. The pride of the Baltimore Orioles, Flanagan was the clear choice of the 28-member Baseball Writers Association of America which tagged him for the award. In his third season with the 1979 American League champion Orioles, Flanagan posted a 23-9 won-loss record, the club’s best, and an earned run average of 3.08. “We knew he would do well, but never this well,” said Mrs. Flanagan, who has spent the week basking in congratulations of “everyone from the patients to the help” at the hospital where she works as a dietician. She recalls bundling in blankets with a thermos nearby to watch Mike pitch in Little League and -Memorial High School when he was growing up in Manchester. “All the kids used to say he’d pitch with his mittens on,” she said. The cold weather experience may have helped Flanagan survive the frigid weather which made the World Series this year an endurance test. Lorraine and Ed Flanagan, a former pitcher with the Boston Red Sox, recognized their son was star material early on. “Many times we felt Mike had unusual abilities. We just prayed that he wouldn’t get hurt. We knew he would do well,” she said. “But we used to laugh by the time he gets his Cy Young award he would be called Cy Old.” After being named the league’s top pitcher, what’s left for Flanagan is to “stay healthy and maybe break a few more records,” his mother said. The Flanagans are a 6-member family of all-stars. Elaine Flanagan was named most valuable player in softball, basketball and soccer as a junior at Memorial High. But Mrs. Flanagan is not surprised. She says they all take after her. Her sport specialty, she says is “running to the car.”

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