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Tim Flannery poses with his new pride and joy. (@TimFlannery2 on Twitter)

Christmas came a few days early for former major leaguer and coach Tim Flannery, who helped the San Francisco Giants win three World Series in five years before retiring after the 2014 season. Flannery took to Twitter on Monday night to announce what he had received via delivery from his former colleague Bruce Bochy: A real Commissioner's Trophy, representing the Giants' World Series victories in 2010, 2012 and '14.

     

     

What a beautiful gesture on the part of Bochy. And it's potentially an expensive purchase, from Investopedia:

The current trophy design, tweaked a bit in 1999 and also a Tiffany production, is also in silver and is worth approximately $15,000. It's also two feet tall, weighs around 30 pounds, with 30 gold-plated flags - one for each Major League team - grouped around a silver baseball that contains 24-karat vermeil stitches.

       

And if you melt it down (as of 2011) it would be worth about $18,000, depending on the price of precious metals.

Everybody gets a ring when your team wins the World Series, but most don't get a trophy. Major League Baseball presents the winning team with the Commissioner's Trophy after every World Series but, at least at first, there's just one actual trophy made, which is displayed at the club's discretion. Unless, that is, a team member -- from the owner(s) on down to the players on the roster -- purchases an extra trophy. Presumably it happens every year, or most every year, that someone buys another trophy. It's not something fans often hear about, though.

The Giants always showed an open appreciation for Flannery, not only as a team member but also as a person. Flannery is sort of an old soul. A talented musician and an empathetic philanthropist, he's put on benefit concerts and donated money to causes such as that of Bryan Stow, the Giants fan who nearly died after being beaten in a Dodger Stadium parking lot. Flannery is a laid-back California dude for sure (he's a big surfer), but he's also a dedicated worker at any task he tries. He's sort of the perfect personality for baseball.

He doesn't coach anymore, though he will lend his expertise to Giants games as a studio analyst from time to time. In winning the Series three times in five seasons, the Giants showed themselves to be an organization worth more than the sum of its parts. But the team (at least Bochy) has recognized the contribution of one of the coaches in a very tangible way. It's hard to say that the Giants don't win those World Series without Flannery and with someone else coaching third. But what Bochy is saying by getting him a trophy is, "You were a big part of it, and you deserve a trophy calling you a World Series champ."

He didn't have to make a statement like that, but it speaks well of Bochy that he did.

As for Flannery's current project, his music, give it a listen and perhaps a purchase.

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Bochy (left) and Flannery during the World Series in 2014. (USATSI)