A couple of weeks ago, a professional baseball player — a catcher on the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, said that once the offseason hit, he was going to join up and be a member of the United States Army Reserves. It was, in many ways, a shocking declaration from a high-profile athlete making millions of dollars to play on the diamond every day. But, hey, it was cool too — because here’s a guy, Brayan Pena, who wasn’t even born in America (he’s originally from Cuba) who loves his new country so much that he wants to defend it.
Unfortunately, after much deliberation, he won’t be able to. It first came out that he was too old (34), and needed a waiver from the Army to get around it. Then, just last week, this broke:
Cardinals' Brayan Pena attempted to enlist in the Army reserves but was told his MLB contract prohibits it. Will be an ambassador for troops
— Mark Saxon (@markasaxon) July 5, 2016
Always read the fine print. Not like the clause was special in Pena’s case, it’s most likely built in for every ballplayer that makes it to the bigs. Up until this year, the catcher — who defected when he was just 16 years old — had made a total of $9 million over the course of his career. A hefty sum that usually comes with a tag of “you shan’t do anything even remotely dangerous”. The possibility of deployment and serving overseas would certainly fit that description.
Pena though, ever the optimist, took his lemons and made some ‘ade, and published this note via his Twitter feed in the wake of the contractual hiccup:
Im very proud to announce with the support of my wife & family that i will be joining the ARMY RESERVE this off season " God Bless America "
— Brayan Pena (@cuban2727) July 5, 2016
The tweet was well received and even the Secretary of the Army, Eric Fanning, replied to it:
.@cuban2727 Your incredible story keeps getting better. #hooah @USArmyReserve pic.twitter.com/NI2Qz6iu4X
— Eric Fanning (@SECARMY) July 6, 2016
Cheer on another ambassador of the more than two million active-duty and reserve troops serving America.
Just don’t cheer on the Cardinals. Thanks.