Former Navy lieutenant to join St. Louis Cardinals' bullpen

[BOP]

Piss-poor journalism, but the story is great.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mitch-harris-former-navy-lieutenant-to-join-st-louis-cardinals-bullpen/

The 29-year-old pitcher is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. The Hall of Fame says it believes the only Naval Academy graduate to appear in the major leagues was pitcher Nemo Gaines for the 1921 Washington Senators.

Harris is a 2008 Naval Academy graduate who had the rank of second lieutenant. He was selected by the Cardinals on the 13th round of the 2008 amateur draft and started his professional baseball career in 2013. According to MLB.com, the Cardinals were forced to wait after drafting him because he had a service commitment of five years to the Naval Academy.

 

[Monello]

Surprised he didn't sign with the Mariners or the Pirates.

 

[RoseRed]

Surprised he didn't sign with the Mariners or the Pirates.

 

[jrt_ms1995]

If he was a 2nd LT, then he was a Marine. And 5 years as a butterbar? :shrug:

Story has a few oddities.

 

[Monello]

Seems the guy was a SWO squid and reached the rank of LT.

Interesting how he had to wait to fulfill his service obligation but Nat McCallum & David Robinson were able to play right out of the academy.

 

[b23hqb]

Seems the guy was a SWO squid and reached the rank of LT.

Interesting how he had to wait to fulfill his service obligation but Nat McCallum & David Robinson were able to play right out of the academy.

My thoughts the same, but this guy was not the all-everything with all the national publicity, and of normal physical size and talents. McCallum did some time with the reserves and some active duty during the off-season (don't know how much), while Robinson just got too tall for any service. Add in the great publicity for the Academy, it was/will be a win-win for all parties.

I hope Harris does well, and if he served five years, he should have been an auto "if you are breathing and can sign the promotion papers" Lt (O-3) by then.

 

[04 AzureBlue]

Interesting how he had to wait to fulfill his service obligation but Nat McCallum & David Robinson were able to play right out of the academy.

Robinson served two years in the Navy but was too tall to serve on any ships and was subsequently allowed to leave the Navy.

 

[Monello]

Robinson served two years in the Navy but was too tall to serve on any ships and was subsequently allowed to leave the Navy.

Too tall? He could have served in the Sea Bees or a shore based command. I'm not buying the too tall explanation.

 

[b23hqb]

Too tall? He could have served in the Sea Bees or a shore based command. I'm not buying the too tall explanation.

Technically, Robinson was two inches too tall when he entered the Academy, but an exception was made for him:

http://www.military.com/veteran-job...ransition/famous-veterans-david-robinson.html

Robinson's size (6 feet 8 inches when he was first admitted) was cause for some consternation, as he was two inches above the Navy height limit, but he got a break when the Superintendent of the Academy made an exception for him. Although the sight of the giant Robinson negotiating the tight quarters of Navy vessels made for good news copy, it did throw his Navy career into doubt, as he would not be able to easily serve as an unrestricted line officer at sea. To solve this issue, Secretary of the Navy John Lehman placed Robinson in a program for training civil engineers for the Naval Reserves, reducing his active-duty obligation to two years. After graduating from the Naval Academy, Robinson became a civil engineering officer at the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay.