Report: Flanagan had made suicide threats

BALTIMORE, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- Former Baltimore Orioles pitcher Mike Flanagan had threatened suicide several times before fatally shooting himself last month, police records show.

The Baltimore Sun said records show Flanagan's wife, Alex Flanagan, had told detectives in an interview he had taken a shotgun several times and walked outside their home in Sparks, Md., and said, "I can't take it anymore." She said each time she talked her husband out out of killing himself.

Flanagan, who was 59, suffered a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head near a barn on his property last month while his wife was out of town.

The Sun said the interview with detectives and other details of the suicide were released Friday by Baltimore County police in response to a Public Information Act request.

Flanagan, a Cy Young Award winner, had been depressed after losing his job as the Orioles executive vice president in 2008 but some who knew him said he seemed to enjoy his latest job as an announcer on the team's television network, the Sun said.

Flanagan's wife could not be reached for comment.

Flanagan was an Orioles starting pitcher from 1975 to 1987 and played for the Toronto Blue Jays until 1990.