8 baseball players who served in the military and won a World Series
Griffin Jax stands alone in Major League Baseball as the only active player to graduate from one of the United States military service academies. Jax graduated from the Air Force Academy and completed two years of active-duty service before transitioning to the Air Force Reserve.
Jax is still in the Reserve, but now, his focus is elsewhere. Jax, who will turn 32 years old next month, is a starting pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays. His team will face the Milwaukee Brewers in the 122nd World Series, beginning with Game 1 on Friday night.
In the past, it was not uncommon for some of baseball’s top players to serve in the military. While we await the first pitch from American Family Field in Milwaukee, we remember eight military veterans who also shone brightly in the World Series.
Alexander was in the middle of his Hall of Fame baseball career when the Army drafted him in 1918. During combat, Alexander sustained exposure to mustard gas and developed what became known as post-traumatic stress disorder.
The military discharged Alexander in time for him to resume his major-league career with the Chicago Cubs in 1919. He pitched 20 seasons overall, totalling 373 regular-season victories and appearing in three World Series. The highlight came in 1926 when Alexander helped the St. Louis Cardinals defeat the New York Yankees in seven games for the title. In that series, Alexander yielded four runs (three earned) and struck out 17 in 20⅓ innings. Alexander was 63 years old when he died in 1950.
Before Berra became a Yankees legend, he served in the Navy. He was on a support vessel at Utah Beach in France on D-Day that “sprayed bullets and rockets across the heavily fortified beach fronts before the troops landed,” Berra said in a Defense Department article in 2020.
After his service, Berra helped the Yankees take home 10 World Series titles. No major-league player was part of more championship teams. He hit 12 home runs in the Fall Classic, including three against the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956. Berra holds the World Series record with 71 career hits.
Berra died in 2015 at the age of 90.
Did you know that one of Major League Baseball’s most beloved players ever also served in the Marine Corps Reserve for six years? After playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1958 to 1964, Clemente spent his offseasons as an infantryman.
Clemente became a Pirates fixture, playing all 18 of his major-league seasons with the franchise. He played on two World Series championship teams, including earning MVP honors in 1971. Clemente batted .414 with two home runs—including one in a Game 7 victory against the Baltimore Orioles—and four RBIs. Clemente died December 31, 1972, when his plane crashed while on its way to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. He was 38 years old.
A Marine Corps veteran, Coleman holds the distinction of being MLB’s only player to appear in combat during World War II and the Korean War. Coleman, who died in 2014 at the age of 89, flew a combined 120 missions as a fighter pilot. In his five-year military career, Coleman received two Distinguished Flying Crosses, 13 Air Medals, and three Navy Citations.
On the baseball field, he celebrated four World Series titles with the Yankees. His RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning lifted New York past the Philadelphia Phillies 3-2 in Game 3 in 1950. The Yankees popped champagne after winning the next day.
Joe DiMaggio
DiMaggio was already a two-time American League MVP when he enlisted in the Army Air Forces in 1943. DiMaggio sought a combat role, only for the military to assign him as a physical education instructor in the states. DiMaggio, who also played for a military baseball team, served two years before his medical discharge for stomach ulcers.
The ulcers didn’t bother DiMaggio in the batter’s box. He won another league MVP in 1947 and earned nine World Series with the Yankees. He batted .271 with eight homers and 30 RBIs in 51 World Series games.
After the Army assigned Ford to the Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, during the Korean War, his time in the military got off to an inauspicious start. He twice fell off telephone poles, and while Ford thankfully wasn’t seriously hurt, his mishaps resulted in a change of plans. He served out the rest of his time as a radar operator.
Ford had few missteps when he took the mound for the Yankees during the World Series. He ended his playing days as a six-time champion, along with World Series records with 10 victories, 146 innings pitched, and 94 strikeouts. Those marks still stand, as does his record for once tossing 33⅓ scoreless innings in a row during the 1960 and 1961 World Series.
The 1961 World Series MVP, Ford died in 2020. He was 91 years old.
No MLB player served longer in the military during World War II than Greenberg, but his time in uniform could have been short-lived. Greenberg was an anti-tank gunner in the Army in 1941 when a change in the draft released men over 28 years old from service. Greenberg, who was 30 at the time, was discharged on December 5, two days before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
He reenlisted in the Army Air Forces.
“We are in trouble, and there is only one thing to do—return to the service. I have not been called back,” Greenberg told the Associated Press. “I am going back of my own accord.”
The military discharged Greenberg a second time in 1945. He appeared in four World Series for the Detroit Tigers. Greenberg, who finished as a two-time champion, sparked the Tigers to a seven-game victory against the Cubs in 1945. He batted .304 in that series with two homers and seven RBIs. He hit .318 overall in 23 World Series games.
In 1952, the Army drafted Mays. He reported for duty at Fort Eustis in Virginia, where he underwent basic training. He missed a significant portion of the 1952 and 1953 MLB seasons. Mays saw no combat during his military service, playing center field for the Fort Eustis Wheels instead. That’s where he learned his famous basket catch from another Fort Eustis outfielder, Al Fortunato.
Mays played in four World Series, and while his offensive numbers were not spectacular, he made this list because of one of the most famous catches in baseball history. Playing center field for the New York Giants, Mays ran down a deep fly ball that Vic Wertz of the Cleveland Indians hit, robbing him with a sensational, over-the-shoulder catch in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series. The Giants went on to sweep that series.
Don’t Miss the Best of We Are The Mighty • Decorated Navy vet Bob Feller is the only MLB pitcher to throw an Opening Day no-hitter • This former Navy pilot became one of the unlikeliest Super Bowl champions ever • The namesake for hockey’s most prestigious trophy fought in both World Wars
8 baseball players who served in the military and won a World Series
Tragedy at Navy game overshadows Army and Air Force victories
Why this retired Marine colonel and cancer survivor runs 50 marathons a year
Military football report: Army, Navy, and Air Force emerge victorious in Week 6
Ford is launching the ‘Army-Navy Game for NASCAR’ with the Veterans Day Classic
