Browsing: Baseball

This year’s Bob Feller Act of Valor Awards go to……………. Major League Baseball’s Nick Swisher, a Cleveland Indians outfielder; Baseball Hall-of-Famer Tommy Lasorda, former Dodgers manager; and Senior Chief Aviation Electronics Technician Carl Thompson, the calibration laboratory lead chief petty officer on the carrier George Washington. “This is a tremendous honor and such a humbling experience for me,” Thompson said in a statement after the awards were announced Oct. 10. “I am overwhelmed and extremely excited at the same time. I would have never dreamed that I would receive an award for the way I live my life, but I am…

Last year, Chief Hospital Corpsman (DV/FMF) Garth Sinclair, Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander and New York Yankees legend Yogi Berra were the first to receive the Bob Feller Act of Valor award, named for a man who was also a chief petty officer, a pitcher and a baseball legend. Earlier this year, The Bob Feller Award Act of Valor foundation opened the nomination process for the award’s second year. Each Major League Baseball team was asked to nominate an active player and/or hall-of-famer who has made significant contributions to the military or veteran communities. Active finalists include: – Washington Nationals…

Lt. Brad Snyder is the only sailor among 30 military members selected to represent a Major League Baseball team at the All Star Game at Citi Field in New York, an MLB release said. The “Tribute for Heroes” contest, run by MLB and People’s Magazine, selected 90 finalists, then let the public vote online for the top 30, who were announced last week. The winners, one for each MLB team, will be recognized during the pre-game ceremony on Tuesday. They also took part in activities in the days leading up to the game like a private tour of the 9/11…

On Friday, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus took a break from his desk job to take part in the greatest American pastime: baseball. Mabus threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the April 12 game between the Nationals and the Braves in Washington, D.C. The game was the Nationals’ annual Navy appreciation game. All five services will have a game played in their honor during the 2013 season. The Coast Guard’s will happen Aug. 5. The Braves won the Friday night game 6-4 in 10 innings. Prior to taking the mound, Mabus administered the oath of enlistment to 11 sailors at the…

(cross-posted from Military Times’ After Action sports blog) Boston Red Sox shortstop, coach, manager and all-around legend Johnny Pesky died Monday at age 92. The Fenway fans’ seven-decade love affair with Pesky went well beyond his stat sheet, even though he hit .307 over 10 seasons and led the American League in hits three times — 1942, 1946 and 1947. What happened in 1943, 1944 and 1945? Like so many others, baseball icon or no, Pesky went to war. He began his naval aviator training in Massachusetts before the 1942 season ended, learning alongside Ted Williams at Amherst College. (Williams…

The Navy’s top official visited the National League Central Division’s top team Tuesday as Navy Secretary Ray Mabus threw out a ceremonial first pitch before a baseball game at Miller Park, part of a day-long celebration of Littoral Combat Ship 5 being given the name Milwaukee. The original announcement was made March 18. The Navy didn’t supply a pic of Mabus rifling a fastball off the Miller Park mound. But it did snap the secretary chatting on the field with former not-so-great-but-he-admits-it baseball player Bob Uecker, the longtime and beloved Brewers radio broadcaster who graced the movie “Major League” with…

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