Posted on 07/03/2005 5:22:06 AM PDT by MikefromOhio
When you do this job for a living, there are athletes that stay with you. The years pass, the old newspaper clips fade, but those stories stay with you. Steve Reich always did. He was a West Point pitcher with a 90 mph fastball and a big, bright smile. He could've walked out of the United States Military Academy for a Top 25 baseball power and someday the Major League Baseball draft, but he never did.
"I wanted to see how I stacked up against the best kids," Reich said. "I wanted to see how far I could push myself. Before I came here, I had no idea of what my potential was. I had no idea who I was."
No one had ever heard of Pat Tillman back in the early 1990s, but Reich, the left-hander whom a Cleveland Indians scouting director insisted "could have a long career and make a lot of money," stayed the course at West Point. Once Reich returned for his junior year in 1993, the Army had him for the next seven years – his final two at the Academy, and the mandatory five-year active-duty commitment that followed. In the end, his country would need him and he had been right: He had a commitment to honor.
--snip--
David Robinson once had this choice to make at the Naval Academy. He stayed too. Only difference: The Navy let the 7-foot star out of his commitment and turned him into a public relations boon. Reich was no sure thing to make it big, and the Army always believed his greatest value belonged with them. They never did let Reich have his baseball career, and yet he always understood it. They had bigger plans for him.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...
Sometimes, unfortunately, they pay the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
I gave up my professional book-making career for the military...
Good article!
yeah...
I stopped being a slacker :)
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Pat Tillman - Hero
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1136204/posts
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Major Reich married a girl from here, (Panama City, FL), three months before he went back to Afghanistan.
God bless them both.
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NEVER FORGET
American Soldiers...
Fighting for the...
Freedom of others,
Those that train and...
Those loved ones who...
Wait for them to...
Come home...
or not...
are...
......HOLY..!!!
Signed:.."ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer
Veteran-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_collection.htm
(Photos)
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Oop's, make that:
MEL's -PASSION- sparked by -WE WERE SOLDIERS-
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1085111/posts
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hehe I was wondering about that :)
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