Cpl. Cooper Brannan has started a new career. From an Marine veteran of the Iraq War to a rookie with the San Diego Padres.
PEORIA, Ariz. – They asked their parents to send baseball gloves. When time lurched for Cpl. Cooper Brannan and the 12-man squad he led into war, they retreated to their barracks, grabbed the gloves caked with dust like everything else in Fallujah, Iraq, and remembered, momentarily, what home was like, only for the impediment of a 60-pound flak jacket to snap them to attention.
“Talk about bad mechanics,” Brannan said Sunday, chuckling, which he could do now because he was at San Diego Padres spring training, and he was here to play for a living, a right-handed pitching prospect among dozens. Two hours earlier he had walked into the Padres’ clubhouse and seen a jersey with his name striped across the back.
He wanted to cry. He steeled himself.
Brannan had enlisted in the Marine Corps right after high school, learned honor and courage and commitment and Semper Fi, heard bullets whiz by his head, seen friends die, lost his left pinky to a flash-bang grenade. He had lived “in the Bible times,” as he liked to say, so for a moment he allowed himself to appreciate the fortuity of this, him, here, sun and grass, in the uniform of a completely different kind. [source]
Brannan will officially be honorably discharged on May 31st. About 16 months ago, Lance Corporal Brannan was serving his second tour of duty in Fallujah. His tour there ended when a granade exploded in his left hand. Doctors were able to salvage most of his hand. He lost his little finger, had to do months of operations and physical therapy.
The hand still swells and he has to adjust his pitching accordingly. But Cpl. Brannan says there is no way he’s going to ‘pity-party about a pinky’.
There’s no greater honor than that of command of men on the field of battle.
Cpl. Cooper Brannan has lead men on the field of battle. Now he’s one of many on the field of play.
The Padres are lucky to have such a man in their league.
Semper Fi. Now play ball …..
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This is just a great story. Here’s hoping he pulls it off.
BSC: Me too! I think it’s great
Awesome story, though, as a longtime Dodgers fan, I will be torn every time they play the Padres.
San Diego is a good place for him to play. Unlike so much of the rest of Ca, they are pro-military, and the Padre’s have several games every year where the team wear’s camoflague uniforms.
I wonder how the libs will treat Cpl Cooper when he plays in their town? Could get very interesting when they play in San Fran, who the Pads will play many times.
BSC: My first reaction when I was reading that was ‘why on earth would they give him a hard time.’. What was I thinking??