Martin Manley

It all started when…

As an American sports fan living in Germany for so long, I did not have much choice but to follow and learn to appreciate soccer. And although I have learned quite a bit about soccer, my first love for American sports has never waned. So, of course, I continued to follow my Kansas Jayhawks.

At some point, I ran across Martin Manley’s articles as he was covering the Jayhawks for the Kansas City Star. I always enjoyed reading his very well written but also deeply analytical stories. He would always bring a lot of statistical anaylsis into it, which I loved. He called his column “Upon Further Review”, a great takeoff on the video review process in the NFL. He did a further review of the previous game and added much insight. So he was pretty much my first sports read each day.

Since I live in Germany and he was writing from Kansas City, he would often post in the middle of the night for him, which was mid-morning for me. That meant that I was often one of the first ones to see his articles. And he was always very open for correction or improvement. So, on occasion I would point out a typo or some other mistake, and he was always very grateful. That’s how we struck up an email friendship.

For some reason unknown to me he left the Kansas City Star but kept publishing his blog and sports analysis. I came to find out that he lived in Overland Park, KS and I was going there for a visit, so I asked about meeting up. He said sure and suggested the Wendy’s on 75th street.

We hit it off right away. The next three hours went by like nothing! We had so much in common: had both grown up in Kansas, had spent a part of our childhood in western Kansas, loved baseball, were both extremely frugal, studied math, and on and on it went. He was truly a sports statistical genius and had written a book on tempo-free statistics (Basketball Heaven), where much of today’s NBA stats originated.

He wore a Fedora hat the whole time and never took it off. At one point he made a comment about not living much longer, so I thought it was maybe cancer and he had treatment and doesn’t like to take his hat off, but I never asked him specifics.

One of my main reasons for wanting to meet him was to share Christ with him. And I did share my complete testimony, and after talking a long while, concluded that he was most likely also a Christian. He was active in a church, loved to sing in the choir, etc. All in all a wonderfully enjoyable meeting. This was in July of 2013.

I continued to read his articles once I got back home to Germany. Then on August 15, his article was titled My Final Article. Obviously I was concerned. When I opened it he started by stating that he knew this was his last article, because that day he had taken his own life! But I was reading this just minutes after he had posted it. So I desperately tried to call, write, message him. All to no avail. He had committed suicide on his 60th birthday.

It is hard to imagine anyone thinking more thoroughly through such a decision. In our meeting I had understood that he had a profound experience in Florida at a senior home. There are all sorts of old people totally dependent on others, in very unsightly conditions, etc. He never wanted to end up there.

He went to all the trouble of disposing of all his assets, so those details were taken care of. He composed a website of his life and his decision, which is very detailed and you can find it to this day. He did all he could that his organs would go to someone in need. He even planned where to do it, so that trained professionals would find him first (he shot himself outside the Overland Park police station).

As far as I can tell, no one else thought so, but he felt like his mind was beginning to go and he didn’t want to be a burden on anyone. Assuming that Martin Manley is a true believer and is now in the presence of Christ, he claimed promises of eternal life way too early in my opinion.

The Apostle Paul had this to say:

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.” Philippians 1:21-24

This would also mean that he missed out on many more opportunities to serve and glorify God. Yet another way to squander opportunities of seeing God be faithful to His promises. Rest in peace, Martin!