Baseball diamonds renamed "Flannigan's Dream"

BATAVIA – Everybody came to see Jim. "Do you remember me?" Steve Meyer  asked Jim Flannigan, the man who is said to have started youth baseball in Batavia about 50 years ago.

Dozens of players whom Flannigan had coached attended a naming ceremony of two ball diamonds at Merlo Drive and Route 31 on Saturday morning.

The baseball diamonds were renamed "Flannigan's Dream." The road skirting the property was renamed "Jim Flannigan Drive."

Meyer, 59, said he remembers being in kindergarten and living about a block away. He would meet up with kids in the neighborhood and they would play baseball on a vacant lot kept by Flannigan. Flannigan borrowed a neighbor's mower to keep the grass short.

"He was the big man in the neighborhood," Meyer said of Flannigan.  

Some refer to 71-year-old Flannigan as being "special."  Many agree he has a simple heart and loves sports.

Jeff Schielke, mayor of Batavia,  said Flannigan was his first baseball coach.

"Youth baseball started here in the weeds and the tall grass," Schielke said. "Before Jim, the circus came to town and the grass here was mowed once a year.

"But Jim Flannigan got the idea to keep the grass mowed all summer and he invited kids in the neighborhood to come here and play baseball. Back then everybody got a chance to play. ... Jim gave us a greater and grander world to grow up in."

Lorraine Planek, who has six children and six grandchildren, was at Saturday's ceremony. She said Flannigan spends his holidays at her house with her family.

"Jim adopted us," Planek said. "He is so sweet. ... He spent his own money buying kids uniforms when he was a coach. You meet so many people that have so many stories about Jim."

John West, employed by the city of Batavia,  played flag football under Flannigan's tutelage, said "concerned citizens of Batavia got together and decided that something be done to keep Flannigan's Dream alive."

Following the ceremony, Flannigan threw out the first pitch at a Batavia Youth Baseball game at his namesake field.

"You guys play hard," Flannigan told the young baseball players.