Goold: Can Harris’ success get baseball an NFL-like nod from Navy? – STLtoday.com

PASADENA, Calif. • When the Navy wouldn’t let Mitch Harris leave it for baseball, Mitch Harris made sure to bring baseball with him.

He wasn’t going to be inactive on active duty.

For five years and a handful of deployments around the world, Harris served his country with honor and brought two baseball gloves and a few baseballs so that he could do whatever possible to keep his arm in shape and his professional chances afloat. On one deployment, the Naval Academy grad found a catcher, the ship’s cook. Whenever he had leave, he would do what he could to report to Jupiter, Fla., and get any innings or bullpens available, just to show the Cardinals that he was as interested in following through with baseball as they were in having him, years after selecting him.

Twice, Harris put together an appeal to the U.S. Navy to allow him to serve in the reserves, to complete his five-year commitment in another way so that he could pursue a career in baseball while young, before baseball abandoned him.

Each time, his request was rejected.

Once at the same time, an NFL player’s request was approved.

“There are questions why two different decisions were made,” he told me.

Thirteen months after Harris made his major-league debut, joining the Cardinals’ in the Nation’s Capital last April, a recent draft pick in the NFL has been given clearance that Harris wasn’t. According to The Dan Patrick Show, Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds will be allowed by the Secretary of the Navy to complete his service commitment in the reserves. A sixth-round pick by the Baltimore Ravens in the most recent draft, Reynolds was an option quarterback at Navy. An ESPN.com report also states that Navy long-snapper Joe Cardona has been given clearance to join the New England Patriots.

It’s not a direct comparison because decisions like these are made in the moment and the country’s needs may have changed and the people making the decisions have likely changed. It is possible that a baseball player who made the same request today would receive clearance. It’s possible Harris will have blazed that trail. It’s possible.

What’s obvious is the preferential edge given to football.

Years ago, Harris petitioned for such an allowance and within days of rejecting his the Navy allowed Eric Kettani’s early release to join the Patriots in 2009. Six years later he was back at the Naval Academy. According to The Capital Gazette, he had agreed to do a seven-year stint with the Naval Reserves in public affairs in addition to several years of active duty so that he could pursue football.

Lt. Harris completed his commitment, five years.

Baseball waited. He served.

Harris continued in the Reserves even after reaching the majors.

On Jan. 31, 2013 – almost five years after he was drafted – he had his final day on active duty. Only weeks earlier he had received his DD-214, a report on his separation of service. During that time he had three friends from the Naval Academy marry, and he missed each wedding. He had two friends have children. He’d never met them. Harris had been married himself. And divorced. And he had not thrown an official inning as a pro.

He described being “overwhelmed” by the Cardinals staying with him.

In an interview with FoxSportsMidwest.com in 2012, Harris succinctly and pointedly described how he had a hard time reconciling the treatment a football player received after his attempts to turn pro in baseball.

“I met everything on the criteria just as Kettani did,” Harris told the Web site. “We have the exact same situation. And not to take anything away from him at all, but neither one of us are higher ranked or anything. So how does one get approved and one doesn’t? It’s not fair. I met everything on the policy. I don’t know how to describe it. I feel (jilted). I’ve done everything I was supposed to do. I’m just trying to figure out why I wasn’t approved.”

The Post-Dispatch and other media outlets attempted to get comments and an explanation from the Navy at the time. There wasn’t one offered.

The Department of Defense has a policy for academy graduates who wish to pursue a career in professional sports, and to do so before the completion of their service obligations. As a Naval Academy graduate, Harris had committed to five years of active duty. The policy he appealed to allows for “exceptional personnel with unique talents and abilities” to be released from those obligations if that person can “enhance national recruiting or public affairs efforts” through “significant favorable media exposure.” These quotes are taken from a policy dated August 2007.

This seems to allow for the Navy to argue the NFL is the beloved behemoth of American sports and any player – even a role player – is going to get that desired publicity. On any given Sunday that player could bring welcome attention to Navy by being in the NFL.

A minor-league ballplayer – what headlines is he going to get?

Rookie ball in Johnson City is a long way from Sunday Night Football.

But … all Harris became was the first Naval Academy grad to appear in the majors since 1921. Media outlets did take note. Lots of them. The Post-Dispatch has 195 articles including Harris in the archives, and that does not include a dozen more articles like this that appeared only online. There were as many as four thousand-word feature stories on him in this one paper alone. Yahoo Sports!, USA Today, and The New York Times also featured Harris.

Harris is back waiting again. He had discomfort in his arm during spring training that put him on the disabled list to start the year. When he reached the majors last season, he pitched well enough, going 2-1 with a 3.67 ERA in 27 innings of relief. It took a couple years after he completed his obligation with the Navy to rebuild arm strength, but he did through determination and was throwing in the mid-90s mph as a reliever. Imagine if he had been allowed to do what the NFL players did, trying baseball in his prime. I mean, it’s not like a Cardinal pitcher from the Naval Academy would have gotten any attention for being a part of a World Series team in 2013 or contributing to five consecutive playoff runs.

It’s hard not to believe that the only difference between these examples is the sport they play. The NFL, evidently, outsizes everything. Its arrogance grows because its entitlement continues. Too big to care.

Maybe Harris’ success will change this. Maybe the next baseball player who attempts to pursue a pro career gets what Harris didn’t because of what Harris did.

There was once a reason given for rejecting Harris’ application.

A Navy spokesman several years ago told The Associated Press why Harris’ request had been rejected at about the same time Kettani had been allowed to leave for the NFL. The spokesman said: “Bottom line, we’re a nation at war.”

-30-