Giants’ coach brings band to Coastside

The 57-year-old Flannery spent his evenings after road games in his hotel room with his guitar, writing and playing songs that reflect his feelings. And when the season ended, he hit the road again, this time with fellow musicians that make up the Lunatic Fringe.

Flannery’s band plays 30 shows a year, often in the offseason and for the benefit of a variety of charitable causes. The band’s current tour brings members to Princeton on Sunday where they will play a benefit concert for the Square Peg Foundation. Square Peg is a local nonprofit that provides equine therapy for persons with disabilities.

While Flannery spends much of the offseason on a ranch in Southern California, he ventures to Half Moon Bay when the regular season schedule allows to surf, and he says he’s been able to “find a feeling of home” here on the San Mateo County coast.

The Review asked Flannery about winning another World Series, dealing with criticism, and his musical influences in a phone interview before the Lunatic Fringe headed to Carlsbad for its first offseason concert.

Julia Reis: How would you characterize this World Series run compared with the prior two in 2010 and 2012?

Tim Flannery: It’s a different type of team, but it’s a lot like (2010 and 2012). Nobody expected us to be even close, let alone even get in the wild card. But this team believes in themselves. When it’s all on the line, something happens to them. … The more you deal with these types of games, it’s different. It’s hard to breathe, the noise level goes up 10 times, the pressure goes up 10 times and our guys seem to play better in those situations than normal games — it’s really uncanny. I’m still trying to figure it out.

JR: How often do you encounter people critiquing a decision you make, and how do you respond?

TF: I have a hard time discussing the game in the moment and decisions made with somebody who just got involved as a fan or watched from a distance. The best one was from a bar in Half Moon Bay where this guy said, “I was sitting in this bar and I knew you shouldn’t have sent Posey.” I bit his head off and walked out of the place. Occasionally, my thing is if you shake my cage, you get the beast that lives inside it.

JR: Who are your musical influences?

TF: I was raised in Southern California with a Kentucky background and fell in love with Gram Parsons. My music has a little bluegrass influence yet it also has pedal steel. I was influenced by the music at church — gospel, hymns. And Jackson Browne came along and I always wanted to write songs because of him. Listening to him on the radio stunned me.

JR: Do you share a particular bond with Giants who also play music, like Mike Krukow and Jake Peavy?

TF: Mike will come by my room on the road and we’ll play. Jake has been doing that for years; I bought him his first guitar at 19 and, as he says, I ruined his life (laughs). This has been the greatest blessing for me to be a part of people that understand that you can still be the third base coach and be an artist, where a lot of the world in the baseball mindset is you can’t.

JR: What are your plans for the offseason besides playing shows?

TF: I have a little ranch north of Santa Barbara. I like to be quiet and alone and love to be in nature and surfing; there are great waves there. Like Winnie the Pooh says, “It’s my thinking spot.” I’ve got things in my mind, but I haven’t processed this whole thing very well yet. I lost a few friends along the way this season, and (the season’s that) long where babies can be born and people can get sick and die — it happens every single year. And my music saves me. If I didn’t have my guitar, I’d have jumped a long time ago and I’m anxious to play again.