Martin Manley, who was highlighted on this site in March 2012 shortly after abruptly leaving the Kansas City Star, committed suicide on his 60th Birthday on Thursday.
Manley, who was considered one of the leading sports statisticians in the country and wrote three books on the topic, killed himself with a gun in the parking lot at the Overland Park, KS police station. He was twice-divorced with no children.
In somewhat stunning and methodical fashion he outlined his life and death on a site he created (LINK) for the event. He even did a video (below).
A national blogger has noted some details, but Kansas City’s leading blogger, Tony Botello at tonyskansascity.com has the best insight into the strange situation. The Kansas City Star also did a short story on his demise.
Deadspin may have captured the essence of his suicide by noting this about his blog posts: ”All of them are written in the past tense, making it an all the more unsettling experience to read the thoughts of a man who, very sanely, was organizing the conditions of his own death.”
On his blog Manley penned this note for his decision:
“This is my final post on Sports In Review and the reason is pretty major. Before I get into that, I want to say how much I appreciated being able to follow my passion regarding statistics – more specifically, sports statistics – for so many years. It’s been a blast and I’ve had a great opportunity to make a contribution to the many areas that make up this subject.
“The reason for my departure is 100% within my ability to control. You see, earlier today, I committed suicide. I created a web-site to deal with the many questions a person would rightfully have. It’s called martinmanleylifeanddeath.com. It went live today. In my opinion, there is no question which you could conceivably ask that I have left unanswered on that site.”
Manley discussed on his final blog his career at the Kansas City Star and what drove him to resign February 6, 2012. Basically, an admitted workaholic, Manley noted that after surviving nine layoffs he found himself working even harder to make up for the lack of staffers and abruptly quit one evening.
One would be hard-pressed not to see a connection with the ongoing layoffs at the McClatchy-owned Kansas City Star and the pressure they have put on employees there and Manley’s suicide.
MANLEY REAL SURVIVOR
Exactly 30 years ago this coming Monday (August 19) I watched a co-worker literally die on the job there at the newspaper office (a county-seat weekly in SE Kansas). It would be inaccurate to say that he literally worked himself to death (years of drinking and smoking, to be sure, were contributing factors to the cardiac arrest he suffered that Friday afternoon), but he left this world doing the very work that had been an integral part of his life for a number of years. Was he a martyr? No, not really, but he came a whole lot closer to being one than Mr. Manley did. Having already “made the cut” 9 times at The Star and put up with two different women on a daily basis to boot, I’d have to say that Mr. Manley was a real survivor. It’s just too bad that he didn’t see fit to live out the rest of his days in some meaningful way.