Jim Mandelaro

ROC

The junior from Massachusetts is the Tigers' dependable cleanup hitter

He has started all but two games in his career at RIT

The diehard Red Sox fan idolizes Ted Williams and David Ortiz

Skip Flanagan was 17 months old when doctors diagnosed him as deaf. His panic-stricken parents bought every book they could find on sign language, desperately hoping to connect with their son.

And then one day...

"We were sitting with him in his high chair rolling a ball across the table," his father, Sean, recounts. "He would catch it and giggle. We would point to the ball and sign 'ball,' which is putting your fingers together several times."

This went on and on. Sean and Sue Flanagan then hatched a plan.

"When he wanted the ball back, we wouldn't roll it until he signed 'ball' to us," Sean says. "He hesitated, then signed 'ball.' And we rolled it back to him with tears in our eyes."

It was truly a sign of the times — and love at first sign. Skip was playing baseball almost as soon as he was walking.

"I loved it," he says through RIT interpreter Meredith Ray. "I didn't think of it as a challenge. I just thought of it as fun."

He became not just a fan, but a history buff.

"His favorite player is Ted Williams," his dad says. "And his room is dedicated to Ted, almost like a stalker."

Positive presence

Skip is still playing these days, as the junior first baseman, cleanup hitter and sunshine spreader for Rochester Institute of Technology.

"He lights up any room he's in," Tigers coach Rob Grow said. "If you walk into a room, you're drawn to certain people. You're drawn to Skip. He's the best kid I've ever been around, attitude-wise."

Flanagan entered the weekend hitting .292 and leading the Tigers with five triples and 23 walks (against only four strikeouts). The 6-foot, 200-pound left-hander has started every game this season.

"We keep charts on the tendencies of hitters," University of Rochester senior infielder Nate Mulberg says. "But Skip is a hard hitter to scout, because he hits the ball everywhere. He's such a great hitter and one of the most respected players in the Liberty League."

Because he can't hear, Flanagan must look back at the home-plate umpire to see if a ball or strike was called on each pitch. An interpreter is present at all games — RIT pitcher Brian Sheridan is hard of hearing — but Flanagan communicates with his teammates through reading lips, gesturing and mouthing words to each other.

"Hearing is definitely important," RIT third baseman Walt Roman says, "but he's done a great job. He's basically out there on his own. Popups, being on base ... he has to use his vision."

Roman, a Spencerport High graduate, says he has watched Flanagan improve every year.

"He's a great ballplayer with a tremendous work ethic," Roman says. "He came here his freshman year and wasn't that big. But he had a desire to get better. He came back his sophomore year and blew it out of the water. You could tell he worked his butt off in the offseason."

The early years

He was born Sean Patrick Flanagan on Dec. 8, 1992, in Chicago. His middle name is in honor of his brother, Patrick Flanagan, who lived only one day. The family moved to Trumbull, Conn., when Skip was 2 — his dad is a sales manager for the Bayer Corp. (think aspirin), and was transferred. They soon settled in Framingham, Mass., about 20 miles west of Boston, so that Skip could attend the Learning Center for Deaf. He was there from ages 3 to 11, went to a public middle school for grades 6 through 8, then was the only deaf student for four years at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, Mass., where he had an interpreter.

Skip's deep faith drew him to a Catholic school, and he made his mark there. He started an American Sign Language club and was instrumental in the school adding it to their curriculum.

Skip's deafness was traced to a recessive gene as both his parents have cousins who are deaf. He has never used it as an excuse — "never played the deaf card," his dad says. Instead, he finds it to be an advantage in baseball.

"You can ignore all the trash talk that goes on, all the negative," says the diehard Boston Red Sox fan, who attends several games at Fenway Park each summer. "You can stay in the zone and play your game."

But what about never being able to hear cheers?

"I can see them," he says.

At a young age, a cousin who was deaf suggested that Skip read everything he could get his hands on — especially comic books.

"For one thing, they have pictures," Sean explains. "And they have slang words, like 'whatcha doin'. ' You don't get that in a normal education."

Skip has devoured thousands of comic books in his 21 years. His favorites are superheroes like Batman, The Avengers and Superman.

Finding his place

When Skip was 5, he wanted to play Little League in Framingham. But league officials balked.

"That wouldn't be a good idea," one man told Sean. "We wouldn't know how to handle that."

So Sean and Sue tried the town of Marlborough, 10 miles northwest of Framingham. Officials there did know how to "handle" it.

"No problem," the Flanagans were told. Sean coached the team, which included five other deaf players.

He played two varsity seasons at Bishop Feehan and was named to the 2011 All-Scholastic baseball team by the Boston Globe and Boston Herald. In 2012, he became the first deaf player to compete in the annual Oldtimer Baseball Game in Cambridge, Mass. The game features college-age players from the New England area wearing flannel uniforms of legendary teams like the Brooklyn Dodgers, St. Louis Browns and New York Giants. Forty players who participated in the charity game have gone on to reach the major leagues.

Peter Frates, a former Boston College captain, made a symbolic one-pitch start at first base just six months after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Frates was wearing a No. 9 Ted Williams jersey when he was introduced, but Boston Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington presented him with a No. 3 Jimmie Foxx jersey (Frates had worn No. 3 throughout his career). Cherington then handed Williams' No. 9 jersey to Flanagan. Inspired by his idol, Flanagan banged out three hits and was named Most Valuable Player.

"It was an amazing day," he says.

He started 31 of 33 games his freshman year and hit .247 as a pitcher-outfielder (he was 2-5 with a 10.15 earned-run average on the mound). Last year, he moved to first base, started all 39 games and hit .353 while leading the Tigers with 35 runs batted in. He set a single-season RIT record with 150 at-bats.

His parents are in daily contact, either through Skype, texting or email. Sean's job gives him travel flexibility, and Sue is a "volunteer extreme," her husband says, so they are at almost all of Skip's games.

"It's 376 miles and takes 5 hours, 45 minutes if you don't stop," Sean says with a laugh.

Skip is a psychology major with a solid 3.1 grade-point average. The National Technical Institute for the Deaf at RIT provides interpreters or note-takers for Skip and other deaf or hard-of-hearding students.

He still has one baseball season left at RIT and plans to be at the college for two more years, establishing a minor. He dreams of playing pro baseball, but if that doesn't work out he would like to run a baseball complex.

Flanagan says he wants to break "every record at RIT" before his career ends next spring. Well, every record but one. Roman has been hit by a pitch a whopping 68 times, the sixth-most in Division III history.

"I don't want that one," Flanagan says, laughing. "That's a painful record."

Looking forward

Deaf players at the major-league level are rare, but hardly unprecedented.

The most accomplished is William "Dummy" Hoy, a center fielder from 1888 to 1902. Hoy finished with a .288 batting average, 2,044 hits and 596 stolen bases. He is widely credited with being the driving force behind the establishment of signals for safe and out calls, which is documented in the 2008 award-winning film Signs of the Time produced by Fairport-based Crystal Pix.

In 1889, he set a big-league record (since tied) by throwing out three runners at home plate in one game. The catcher who recorded all three outs was Connie Mack, who went on to become the legendary owner and manager of the Philadelphia Athletics.

"He should be in the Hall of Fame for what he contributed," says Skip, who has read extensively about Hoy.

The most recent major-league deaf player is Curtis Pride, an outfielder for six major-league teams (including the 2003 Yankees). He hit .250 with 20 home runs and 82 runs batted in over 11 seasons.

Pride is now the head baseball coach at Gallaudet University, a school for the deaf and hard of hearing in Washington, D.C. He says there "weren't really any disadvantages" being a deaf player.

"The only thing that my teammates and coaches had to make an adjustment was to make sure they face me when talking to me since I read lips," Pride wrote in an email. "As far as on the field, another adjustment we made was anytime I call for the ball in the outfield, it's my ball all the way. If I feel that the other fielder is in a better position to catch the ball then I won't say anything and the fielder would just wave me off."

Pride said he never was made to feel different by other players.

"Everyone, including the fans, were very supportive." he says.

Pride recruited Flanagan and was sorry to lose out to RIT.

"He's a solid player and, more importantly, a great kid with a good head on his shoulders," Pride said. "He would have made a big impact on my program."

He already has made a big impact at RIT.

The statistics say that RIT's cleanup hitter has yet to hit a home run in college. But stats can be deceiving. Those who know him say Skip Flanagan has cleared the bases — and every hurdle — in his way.

"I just want to be judged on what I can do," he says. "Not what I can't do."

JMAND@DemocratandChronicle.com

Twitter.com/jmand1

Skip Flanagan

Name: Sean Patrick Flanagan, but you can call him "Skip."

Age: 21.

Major: Psychology.

Favorite players: Ted Williams, David Ortiz.

Hobbies: Watching Navy SEALS and Sole Survivor movies, reading about baseball history.