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Edward J. Rielly

The war in Iraq remains very much on people’s minds, good news, such as the recent Iraqi parliamentary elections, competing with bad news, especially the steadily rising number of American deaths. In addition, the military effort in Afghanistan continues, as does the amorphous but gravely serious war on terrorism. It is almost impossible to board an airplane without remembering why we are obliged to take off our shoes and subject our personal possessions to examination.

So it may be appropriate, within the context of this baseball column, to reflect for a few minutes on the role of athlete as soldier. In fact, not many professional athletes, including baseball players, have served as soldiers in recent wars, unlike the wholesale exodus of baseball players and other sports professionals into the military ranks during the two world wars.

Those few athletes who have traded the field of sports competition for a far more deadly field in recent wars have been more likely to come from football than baseball. The war in Afghanistan claimed Pat Tillman, a star safety with the Arizona Cardinals who stepped away from a multimillion dollar contract in 2002 to become a U.S. Army Ranger.

On April 22, 2004, Corporal Tillman was killed in eastern Afghanistan by so-called friendly fire. Tillman was posthumously awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart as the military fabricated a story claiming he was shot while storming an enemy stronghold to permit his own men to escape an ambush. The military apparently did not want to acknowledge that possibly the most famous soldier in Afghanistan had been killed by accident. Certainly no falsehood was necessary to convince the nation of the young solder-athlete’s patriotism and courage.

The story of Pat Tillman in some respects resembles that of Bob Kalsu, an All-American tackle at the University of Oklahoma who joined the Buffalo Bills in 1968 to become the team’s rookie of the year. Rejecting advice to try to get into the Army Reserves in order to continue his career and avoid the Vietnam War, Kalsu insisted on honoring the commitment to serve on active duty he had made when he joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.

Death came to Lieutenant Kalsu on July 21, 1970, when a mortar landed near the artillery battery he was commanding. When the mortar struck, Kalsu was reading a letter from his wife, Jan, who two days later gave birth to a boy, their second child. Kalsu was the only professional athlete to die in the Vietnam War; in fact, he was one of only a relative handful of active professional athletes to serve in the war.

One of those was another football player, Rocky Bleier, a halfback for the University of Notre Dame from 1965 to 1967. Bleier made the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1968 but after one season was drafted into the Army. Assigned to combat duty, he was hit by small-arms fire on Aug. 20, 1969. When he attempted to crawl to safety, a grenade exploded near his feet, nearly severing one of them and sending shrapnel into both legs, seemingly ending the running back’s career. However, Bleier made a remarkable comeback and rejoined the Steelers in 1971, ultimately becoming a thousand-yard runner and helping Pittsburgh win four Super Bowls.

The only baseball player to experience both the major leagues and the Vietnam War was Roy Gleason, whose autobiography, “Lost in the Sun,” was recently published. Ted Williams had tried to recruit Gleason for the Red Sox, but he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers instead. The future looked rosy for the 20-year-old Gleason when he joined the Dodgers in 1963. He appeared in several games as a pinch-runner and had one time at bat, stroking a pinch-hit double. Although he continued to play well in the minors, he had not yet made it back to the Dodgers when he was drafted in the spring of 1967.

In Vietnam, Gleason found himself participating in search-and-destroy missions. Walking point on July 24, 1968, he was preparing to cross a stream when a shell exploded, badly injuring his left leg and left wrist. While not life threatening, the injuries were serious for a baseball player. Nonetheless, he returned to baseball in 1969 but had his career prematurely ended by an automobile accident two years later.

While Gleason had no baseball comrades in arms during the Vietnam War, he would have found a great many during the world wars. Approximately 240 major leaguers were in uniform when World War I ended in 1918.

As World War II approached, the United States established a military draft. Detroit Tigers slugger Hank Greenberg was one of the first players to be drafted, completing his service prior to Pearl Harbor, after which he promptly reenlisted. During the war, some 340 major leaguers and several thousand minor leaguers either enlisted or were drafted. More than 50 professional baseball players died in the war, and many more were wounded. Superstars like Ted Williams, Bob Feller, and Joe DiMaggio lost years out of their prime.

During the Korean War, Ted Williams returned to action and performed heroically, flying 38 missions as a fighter pilot, once crash-landing with his plane on fire. Others who served during the Korean conflict included Yankee pitching great Whitey Ford (along with two of his infielders, Bobby Brown and Jerry Coleman), Hall of Famer Willie Mays, Dodger pitcher Don Newcombe, and pitcher Johnny Antonelli, who would team with Mays to help the New York Giants win the 1954 World Series. Fewer players served during the Korean War, though, than during World War II, and they were less likely to see action. One former major leaguer died during the war: Air Force Major Bob Neighbors, who had played with the St. Louis Browns.

With the abolition of the military draft, professional athletes, like people from other walks of life, now have a choice as to whether they join the military. Given the salaries of professional athletes, including baseball players, it will take an extraordinarily selfless individual, like a Pat Tillman, to sacrifice fame and fortune, and possibly his life, to enter military service. Or it may take the perception, as was the case during World War II, that the very life of the nation is at stake.

Edward J. Rielly is a Westbrook resident, English professor at Saint Joseph’s College, and widely published author with two books on baseball and American culture.