USA – The Hagerstown Suns Professional Baseball Club today named Robert Flannery as its new President and General Manager. The announcement was made by Mandalay Baseball Properties, owner and operator of the Suns.

Flannery brings an extensive and broad background in sports administration and marketing to the Suns organization, including 11 years in minor league professional baseball. Most recently, he had served as Assistant Athletic Director/Corporate Sales and Marketing at the University of Nebraska-Omaha from 2005 until joining the Suns.

“Robert brings wide-ranging experience in sports management and administration to the Suns organization,” said Art Matin, Chief Executive Officer of Mandalay Baseball Properties. “He has had the opportunity to manage staffs in a variety of sports marketing environments at the professional and college levels and we are pleased to add his leadership skills in Hagerstown.”

Flannery has previously overseen two minor league baseball operations as general manager. He served as G.M. of the Columbus (Ga.) RedStixx of the South Atlantic League in 1999-2000 before joining the New Haven (Conn.) Ravens, a Double-A club in the Eastern League, as G.M. in 2001.

In 2002, he accepted an executive role in Midland, Texas, overseeing the sales and marketing campaigns of the Midland RockHounds, a Double-A baseball club in the Texas League, and the Odessa Jackalopes, a Central Hockey League club. The teams were co-owned. He remained in that role for four years until entering college sports administration at UNO.

“I am thrilled to be joining one of the most accomplished and successful sports management groups in the nation in Mandalay Baseball Properties,” said Flannery. “I look forward to becoming part of the Hagerstown community and I am honored to become part of the rich history of professional baseball here. When you get the opportunity to work in a ballpark that has hosted minor league baseball for nearly 80 years, you are proud to share in that tradition.”

Flannery was a Dean’s List student at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where he earned a degree in Sport Management in 1990. After graduation, he served as head baseball coach and Sports Information Director at Nichols College in Dudley, Massachusetts for five years.

He entered professional minor league baseball in 1995 in Midland and served in a variety of roles including group sales, concessions, community relations, marketing and advertising, and merchandise sales before accepting the general manager position in Columbus in 1999.

Media Release: Hagerstown Suns

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