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Tim Flannery is fed up with Padres fans, writes lengthy statement

Tim Flannery (far right) joins the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir for the national anthem. (AP)
Tim Flannery (far right) joins the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir for the national anthem. (AP)

Former major league player and coach Tim Flannery always seemed like a pretty laid back guy when he was actively involved in baseball.

However, it would appear fans of the San Diego Padres have found a way under his skin during his retirement, which led to a pretty lengthy rant that was written and posted to Twitter on Wednesday night.

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For a quick history lesson, Flannery spent the entirety of his 11-year playing career in San Diego, even playing on their first World Series team back in 1984. Flannery was also a part of Bruce Bochy's coaching staff in San Diego from 1996-2002. After Bochy was allowed to leave San Diego for the managerial job in San Francisco, Flannery rejoined him on the coaching staff until his retirement in 2014.

Based on Flannery's rant, it's apparent there are some fans who feel he turned his back on San Diego to join the rival Giants. And it's very clear he's tired of hearing from those people.

Whew. Those are strong, almost stinging words for anyone invested in the Padres organization. The only thing he didn't do was use one of Ron Burgundy's famous lines to put a bow on it.

We're sure you know the one.

Flannery kept it clean though, and we certainly appreciate that. But he also came out throwing some serious haymakers. Especially when driving home the success both he and Bochy enjoyed in San Francisco and the failures the Padres have experienced since Bochy's departure. It started out as a rant against the fans, but it obviously became a little more than that. It will be interesting to see how that's received, or if it's even acknowledged by the current Padres regime.  

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Focusing on the fan aspect, it's surprising we don't see more outbursts like this from athletes, coaches and entertainers on social media. They're expected to be cordial to fans, but there are always fans who live to irritate and there are always fans who simply don't have a firm perspective of what matters and what doesn't. Making it more frustrating, those fans rarely know the whole story or even half of it. It can be exhausting to deal with those people, and those who do day-in and day-out are very patient people.

Flannery probably is too, but everyone has a breaking point. His was reached Wednesday, and he's not apologizing for it.

You go, Tim.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!