According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, a writer who wrote a feature on Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes, a starter whose opening with the Pirates has been an electric one, Skenes plans on serving his country in the US military after he is done with his MLB career. Skenes attended the US Air Force Academy for two seasons before leaving.
Such is what Mike Kazlausky, Skenes’ former coach at the Air Force Academy, said when speaking to Nightengale. According to Kazlausky, Skenes plans on serving his country once he is done with the MLB, and it is very important to him that he does that at some point.
Speaking on that, Kazlausky said, “He will serve his country in some manner moving forward.” He continued, “It’s just going to be a matter of when. Paul and I have spoken about that piece. We’ll get him back in the military once his professional playing days are over.” He added, “It’s a big deal for Paul to be able to serve our country.”
Kazaulsky said that Skenes, who wanted to be an F-16 pilot while at the Air Force Academy, was a “model cadet” at the academy and loved it greatly. However, he would not have been able to play professional ball until he served five years of active duty had he stayed at the academy after his sophomore year, as he would have been forced to graduate. So, to play professional ball, he transferred out of the academy after his sophomore season.
That worked out well for him, as he transferred to LSU and became the No. 1 pick for professional baseball, earning a whopping $9.2 million signing bonus. Also speaking to Nightengale in the profile was Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, who said, “It’s amazing how his life would have been a lot different and our exposure to him in the big leagues would have been a lot different had he stayed at the academy.”
Continuing, Hinch speculated that many undiscovered legends could be at the service academies, commenting to Nightengale that Skenes’ story “makes you wonder how many other 100 mph arms are in the academy that we should have found.”
St. Louis Cardinals reliever Mitch Harris, who graduated from the Naval Academy, served, and then appeared in the major leagues, the first to do so in a century when he did so in 2015, spoke about the matter to Nightengale as well. He said, “Most of these guys want to serve their country or they wouldn’t have gone there in the first place. hey want to represent our academies. They want to represent the Armed Forces. But if an opportunity comes to play pro sports, too, why can’t we figure something out where both can be possible?”
Continuing, he added, “Everyone that goes to a service academy knows what we’re committed to, and we want to serve and fulfill our commitment. But the chance of being in the big leagues is so very small. You feel for those guys. It would be nice for the Department of Defense to figure it out for the men and women who want to do both if the opportunity presents itself.”
Watch Skenes’ girlfriend, gymnast Livvy Dunne, discuss his electric MLB debut for the Pirates here:
Featured image credit: By Minda Haas Kuhlmann – https://www.flickr.com/photos/mindahaas/53676302036/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=147704809
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