August 1, 2025 • 35 mins
As a Naval Academy graduate, professional baseball player, and author, Mitch Harris brings a unique perspective to the challenges of balancing military service and personal aspirations. In this compelling two-part episode, we explore Mitch's journey from Annapolis to the major leagues, and the unexpected obstacles he faced along the way.
Mitch's story isn't just about athletic achievement; it's a testament to resilience in the face of adversity. From his initial uncertainty about the Naval Academy to becoming a surface warfare officer and eventually pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals, Mitch's path was anything but straightforward.
A Story of Triumph and Personal Growth
This episode offers more than just a recounting of Mitch's accomplishments. It provides a raw and honest look at the realities of military life, the strain it can put on personal relationships, and the inner strength required to overcome life's unexpected challenges.
Mitch's candid reflections on his struggles and the lessons he learned offer valuable insights for:
- Current and prospective Naval Academy students
- Military families navigating the complexities of service life
- Anyone facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles in pursuit of their dreams
Lessons in Resilience and Self-Discovery
Through Mitch's experiences, listeners will gain a deeper understanding of:
- The true value of a Naval Academy education beyond academics
- How military service shapes character and personal growth
- The importance of maintaining focus on long-term goals, even in difficult circumstances
- Finding strength and support in unexpected places
Join us for this inspiring conversation that showcases the indomitable spirit of those who serve our nation while pursuing their personal passions. Mitch's story reminds us that with determination and the right mindset, it's possible to overcome life's toughest challenges and emerge stronger on the other side.
The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.
Grant Vermeer your host is the person who started it all. He is the founder of Academy Insider and the host of The Academy Insider podcast. He was a recruited athlete which brought him to Annapolis where he was a four year member of the varsity basketball team. He was a cyber operations major and commissioned into the Cryptologic Warfare Community. He was stationed at Fort Meade and supported the Subsurface Direct Support mission.
He separated from the Navy in 2023 and now owns The Vermeer Group, a residential real estate company that specializes in serving the United States Naval Academy community with nationwide consulting and connection.
We are here to be your guide through the USNA experience.
Connect with Grant on Linkedin
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If you are interested in sponsoring the podcast, have an idea, question or topic you would like to see covered, reach out: podcast@academyinsider.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone and welcome back to the Academy
Insider Podcast.
Today we're going to have partone of a two-part episode in
which we're talking with MitchHarris.
Mitch Harris is a Naval Academygraduate.
He played baseball at theAcademy, became a service
warfare officer and then, aftergetting out of the Navy, he
continued relentlessly pursuinghis dream to become a
professional baseball player andhe made it, and he ended up
playing and pitching for the StLouis Cardinals for a couple
(00:22):
years.
But he also wrote a book andit's called my Private War,
because, as much as this episodewants to be fun and cool,
talking about his accolades,it's actually going to be a
story about overcoming adversity.
It's going to be a story aboutthe difficulties that he
experienced in Annapolis andbeyond and how his time as a
midshipman prepared him tohandle the realness of human
life and the difficulties andthe challenges he faced in his
(00:45):
young adult life, and so I'mreally excited to talk with
Mitch in this episode.
I think you guys are going tolove it and, again, this is
going to be a two-part episode,so I hope you enjoy part one and
looking forward to getting parttwo out to you soon as well.
Thank you, guys so much.
Enjoy the listen, appreciate it.
Hi everyone and welcome back tothe Academy Insider Podcast.
(01:08):
Mitch, thank you so much forbeing here.
Brother, again everyone who'sabout to see we're going to be
talking about his brand new book, my Private War.
This is a Naval Academy grad,professional baseball player for
the St Louis Cardinals and soexcited to get this opportunity
to have you on the podcast.
Before we jump into it, I'lllet you just introduce yourself.
Tell us a little bit aboutwhere you're from and what's
good is.
It's going to lead us kind ofinto our first questions, but
(01:30):
tell us a little bit about howyou ended up at the Naval
Academy.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Man.
So no one believes me when Isay it, but I was recruited by
the defensive coordinator forthe Navy football team to play
baseball.
Yeah, so I grew up actuallyjust outside of Atlanta, then
went to high school up in NorthCarolina, in Belmont North
Carolina, went to South PointHigh School.
We had a really good footballteam, and so the defensive
coordinator came by the baseballfield to pick up the head
(01:56):
baseball coach, who was theassistant football coach, and
when he did, he saw this scrawnykid throwing a bullpen.
He started asking questionsabout where's he going?
What's he doing?
Next thing, we know, they saidhey, you got any interest to go
to Naval Academy.
And of course I was like, whatis that?
I'll be honest, I had an ideabut I didn't really know.
(02:19):
And two weeks later we went ona visit and I fell in love and I
just said, man, if I can getinto this place, yes, I will go.
The rest is history.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
It cracks me up the story in the book because you're
telling it.
It's kind of like the samething that happened with my
family.
You're like I think the Navywants me to go play baseball.
Your mom was like no, dude, no.
Then you're like no.
It's like I think it's like acollege.
She's like anapolis isrecruiting you and like the
whole dynamic changes.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Oh yeah, exactly yeah .
My mom had no idea what I wassaying because I didn't know
what I was saying.
Uh, I just said somebody fromnavy is calling me and she's
like tell them, no, you're notgonna go as a recruit, you're
gonna go to school.
I was like, no, I think it is aschool.
Yeah, and anyway, that's.
That's kind of how that started.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Dude, it cracks me up .
It's such a good story and soyou end up making the decision
Again.
It's an interesting thingbecause it sounds like
originally you're planning ongoing to Davidson Right and to
go play baseball, that kind offalls through.
You end up at the naval academy.
But like you're saying and Ithink this is a really
interesting dynamic for a lot ofathletes is that if it wasn't
(03:32):
for our sport, we probablywouldn't have ended up at the
academy.
We didn't know about it.
It wasn't our dream growing upto be a marine or to be at the
naval academy.
It was an opportunity thatended up in our lap, uh, that we
then took advantage of rightand and learned to, to follow
exactly, uh.
But you show up at i-day andyou tell some pretty funny
stories about being there ati-day and hitting that like oh
snap, like what did I just signup for moment?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
you mind running us through like your recollection
of i-day and some of those earlymoments, moments of plebe,
summer yeah, when I say I hadreally no idea what I was doing,
I had no idea like they werelike, yeah, pack a duffel bag.
And you know I was thinkinglike all right, well, you know
I'll get there, and like I'llget them packed, and I kind of
talk about the academy, we mightdo some running and some stuff,
(04:16):
and within like five minutessome dude's yelling at me.
I'm like whoa, what is thisdude like?
Chill out, you know.
And then I realized like yeah,that's not gonna work here.
Uh, uh, this dude's way smallerthan me and just yelling at me
like he's got no issues, uh.
And then, about you know, 15minutes in, when they're like
you're gonna fill you with abunch of shots, uh, and you
(04:37):
gotta read this little book anddon't say anything back, you're
like all right, this isdifferent, uh, but hey, I'll do
what they're saying, because Idon't think it'd be smart to do
otherwise.
But yeah, man, it was just, itwas obviously everybody's eye
day is overwhelming.
And so when you finally hadtime to take a deep breath and
realize, like what the heck didI just sign up for?
(04:58):
You start realizing, like allright, this is the real deal,
like all right.
And then, all right, this isthe real deal, like all right.
Um, and then, and then, youknow, I'd tell a little bit
about how.
You know, thankfully, some ofthe Napsters man saved the day,
and and, uh, in helping out andjust telling me, like dude, you
got to realize this is a biggame, you got to play the game,
you got to get through it.
Do what they're saying Uh, it'sthe, the details, it's, it's,
(05:21):
it's all the little things, uh,it's got a purpose.
And so once you realize that,man, we had a lot of fun with it
.
And so, as, except, you know,minus the fact that you know,
come, come summer, you know,actually, post summer, we're
actually starting school.
We were on seven four, hey yo.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And having a chop seven four was no bueno no bueno
, and for anyone who hasn'tlistened to the episode, I do.
I have an as g episode thatkind of breaks down the Bancroft
layout.
So if you're like what theheck's 7-4 mean, go check out
that episode.
We'll link it as well.
But go check it out because,again, we referenced that that's
the seventh wing on the fourthdeck and fourth deck really is
(05:59):
fifth deck because it starts atzero.
And that's a lot of stairs whenyou're a plead man running up
and down, and it's actually sixdeck because one of those is the
gym.
You got the basement gym andthen the mail.
Yeah, the mail in the basementgym.
That's right, man yeah, it's alot of stairs that's a lot of
stairs every day, uh, but yeah,no for anyone again.
(06:20):
This is.
This is not necessarily meantto tell everybody to go buy the
book, but but I think again forall of my Naval Academy families
that want funny little insightsto the Naval Academy life
stories to understand thecontext of what people are going
through.
The first 40 pages of thisthing is a lot of Naval Academy
plebe stories.
You're talking about rack races.
You're talking about holdingyour sheets out front.
(06:40):
You're talking aboutcalisthenics in the P-way.
You're talking about sittingdown and eating, sitting on the
front three inches of your chair, right, like there are a lot of
stories in here that are reallygood for to understand the
plebe experience as well.
And so you know, I think that'spretty, pretty awesome man.
And uh, you know, I think oneof the first things that I love
about this book too, again assomeone who is an impressive
(07:02):
young man athleticallyacademically book too, again as
someone who is an impressiveyoung man athletically
academically is you talkingabout your first chemistry class
and showing up and getting hitin the face with a nice little d
?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
uh, you mind talking about that experience and
transition to naval academyacademics as well and how you
adjusted to that yeah, you know,I think anybody that has the
opportunity to go to the navalacademy is obviously doing well
in high school academically.
Otherwise, you know, youwouldn't even have a shot.
And you know that was me.
You know I did well in sports,but I did well in school In high
(07:35):
school.
Man, I just it just camenaturally, I listened, I paid
attention, you know, did thehomework and once I did it I got
it.
That's just.
I was blessed with that.
Once I kind of did it a fewtimes, I got it.
Now, I was not blessed withunderstanding how to take notes
and I realized that my freshmanyear because plebe year was
(07:56):
brutal when it comes toacademics.
They were like, all right,let's talk about chemistry and
we're going to get into details,and I was like, yeah, I should
probably learn how to write allthis down.
And it didn't go well.
It didn't go well at all.
Uh, yeah, my first test I waslike, yeah, I don't know how
long I'm going to last here.
Uh, cause I don't remember whatthe score was.
(08:16):
I just remember I was way offof a hundred and uh, so, yeah,
it was, uh, it was brutal.
I did know immediately that Iwas not going to be a chemistry
major, so that was good, youknow, checked one off the box to
say that was not going to be it.
But yeah, it was an eye-openingexperience.
Thankfully, you know, we didhave some great, great
(08:36):
counselors.
That really just helped kind ofunderstand like, hey look, this
is the real deal.
And all of your peers that youwent to high school with,
they've got about 12 credits,you're going to have 22 to 24.
And you're like, oh, awesome.
So yeah, I need to learn how tostudy.
So that was a learning curvefor sure, but once I figured it
(08:57):
out it helped immensely.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah, no, it's good storytelling Because the Naval
Academy is hard.
Man, I talk a lot about how Ifeel like the naval academy is
like a high school on steroids.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
it's not your normal college I was like, no, you're
right seven hours a day, sixperiods, like quizzes all the
time.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Tons of homework.
Right, it's, it's, it's tough,it's, it's no joke.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Um there is no, there's no leeway or or break
from from the.
The amount of work and you knowbeing an athlete, as you can
understand, doesn't make it anyeasier.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, you got to go practice from exactly three
thirty until seven.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Exactly so.
But yeah, it was, it was alearning curve, but you know
once, once you know you got thehang of it and it was, it was
easier, it wasn't easy, it wasthe easier.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah, no fair enough and you get into plebe year and
now you start playing baseball.
And not only do you startplaying baseball, but you're
darn good, you're really darngood Like even coming into, you
know, plebe year, youngster year, and you have a portion in the
book where you talk aboutsigning your two for seven.
Right, and actually coming backin your junior year and making
the decision to sign your twofor seven despite other
(10:08):
opportunities and other options92 for seven, despite other
opportunities and other optionsyou mind walking through your
mindset, your thought processthere and like what caused you
to anchor to the Naval Academyand say like, yes, I'm going to
continue going here, despitepotential professional baseball
opportunities being easier inother pathways.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah.
So I mean for me to sit hereand say that I knew I was going
to have any shot professionallywould be a flat out lie, right.
I mean for me to sit here andsay that I knew I was going to
have any shot professionallywould be a flat-out lie, right.
I mean, coming out of highschool I was just a decent
athlete that could play reallyanywhere on the baseball field.
You know, I was kind ofrecruited, so to say, as the
third baseman that could hit andthat pitched a little bit.
And you know, freshman year Ionly threw 15 innings the whole
(10:50):
season.
Then we had a new coach come inour sophomore year, revamped
the whole program and that waskind of the turning point for me
.
I'd lost all that lead yearweight and I think I lost maybe
15, 20 pounds but gained it allback going into my sophomore
(11:11):
year.
So my arm felt good, my bodyfelt amazing and things just
started to click.
And about that time was kind ofwhen I was like, all right, I
have a shot at this, because youknow I had a great sophomore
year which then obviously leadsinto, you know, the two for
seven and after getting thatfirst year, year and a half
under my belt, it was a nodoubter that I wanted to, that I
(11:35):
really understood what it meantto serve and to want to lead
and to be a part of somethingbigger than myself, and I've
always loved teams and I'vealways kind of loved that
mentality, and there's no betterfeeling than being a part of
the team which is, you know,serving and being a part of the
military, like that.
That was super intriguing to me.
(11:55):
And then, on top of that,having the history of the Naval
Academy and understanding theeducation you get from there all
of that man, I was like dude, Iam a hundred percent doing this
.
I want to commit to that.
I want to commit to my family,my friends, my peers, my
classmates.
I want to do this.
However, there was this lifelongdream as a kid to play
(12:18):
professional baseball.
And you know it's really neat.
I had a classmate my class knewespecially my company knew like
that I loved baseball and thatI wanted to play.
But they knew that I wanted tobe there and they knew the
importance of two for seven.
And one of my classmatesactually took a picture of me in
Memorial hall looking at thetwo for seven document, just
(12:43):
kind of soaking it in.
And I and I'm and I'm sothankful that they got that
picture, because it was such acandid moment of understanding
the weight of what we're doing,hence why they do it there in
Memorial Hall.
And for me it was so importantjust to realize the importance
of that, to never forget what Iwas committing to and what I
truly wanted to do, which was doboth.
(13:03):
And so, by signing that, thatwas kind of a commitment to not
only everybody but to myself,that, hey, you're going to do
this and you're going to fulfillthis commitment, but you're
also going to keep that dreamalive and figure out how to do
both.
And we started trying to, youknow, figure that out from day
one, junior year, figuring out,hey, what do we do now?
(13:25):
You know how do we go abouttalking to teams?
Because teams were already kindof there was a little bit of a
buzz and people were wonderingwell, what's he going to do?
You know, he's got to serve,and so that kind of led us down
this whole path of trying tofigure out what that looks like.
But you know, when it came tothe two for seven, I wanted to
do both I wanted to fulfill mycommitment and I wanted to serve
.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, okay, yeah, I love it, mot
, okay, yeah, I love it.
Motivate me, that's right.
No, but but in all seriousness,I?
It's interesting that youmentioned that because one of my
favorite pictures from my timeat the Naval Academy is me
signing my two for seven too,right.
And I had a classmate like takea picture, as I'm kind of like
leaning over the desk with thescroll, getting ready to sign
(14:05):
Right, and it's a special moment, man, like there's a ton of
weight associated with thatexact moment.
Right, like you know, now youare fully aware of everything
you're signing for, right, likewhen you show up for plebe
summer, like yeah, maybe you getit, but like you don't really
get it until you've lived it fortwo years.
Right, and now you get it, andnow you're really consciously
making this choice to continue,you know, with this, with this
(14:28):
path, right and so specialmoment, really cool.
You kind of finish out your yoursecond class and first year at
the Naval Academy and now youlike you really have scouts I
know you mentioned in the book,right, talking, you know, had
you been at a normal university,you may be a third or fourth
round pick, right, so where's,where's your brain, knowing
you've service selected.
(14:49):
Swell, you're getting ready tokind of like be a surface
warfare officer, you're lookingat getting drafted, and all of
these factors are going on.
Like, where are you at in yourfirst year?
Is it?
Is it an exciting time?
Is it super stressful?
Like, where were you at thatmoment?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I think it was a mixture of both.
I was obviously super excited,but I was really nervous.
I mean, you know, my junioryear I was drafted by the Braves
, okay.
And I remember I was in summerschool at the academy when I got
drafted by the Braves and Ijust thought, like did that just
(15:24):
happen?
Like now what?
Like I can't leave, yeah, youknow.
And so we basically told the Imean, we talked to almost every
team my junior year andeverybody was trying to figure
out what does this look like,what can you do?
And we didn't have an answer.
When I say we, me and CoachCosti we were trying to figure
(15:44):
out what it meant and what couldwe do.
And Chet, who was the athleticdirector, you know we met with
him several times and you knowhe didn't even have really a
good answer because it wasDepartment of Defense that put
down, you know kind of what youcould and couldn't do.
And then each department, youknow, then determined you know
(16:07):
where they stood, and the Navyhad one way, the Army had a
different way and the Air Forcehad a different way, and so we
didn't really have a good answer.
And that was the hardest part.
That's what the stressful partwas was we just didn't know.
And so, you know, coming into mylast year, I knew I was going
to be drafted.
We didn't know how high and wedidn't know what that meant or
(16:29):
where I was going to go.
But essentially I knew that,man, if I can just keep my head
straight, you know, and justtell people, hey, I want to do
both, whatever that looks like,hey, we'll figure it out as we
go.
But yeah, it was tough.
I was definitely very excitedfor both.
(16:49):
Right, I was excited tograduate, get the commission and
do all the stuff and get to myfirst ship and and start that.
But I was also excited tofigure out, okay, if I do get
drafted, what does that looklike?
How do I?
How do I go to play?
What does what does that mean?
But, um, yeah, it was tough.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Yeah and anyway, you ended up getting drafted and uh,
but you also end upcommissioning and the Navy ends
up telling you sorry shit, mate,time to get to sea, time to go
to sea and you become a SWO.
You might like what was yourexperience like as a SWO?
You talk about threedeployments.
You know kind of out in some 50deployments and other where,
(17:22):
like other places, like what wasyour experience out in the
world as a SWO man?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, I loved it.
Honestly, I truly enjoyeddriving ships and never knew I
was good at that or never knewthat I would be good at that or
would enjoy it.
But, man, my first ship I wason USS Ponce, out of Norfolk and
we were an amphibious ship andwe took Marines everywhere.
(17:48):
We pulled in really close toshore, we had a flat bottom that
we could get within a mile ofshore, pump out Marines to the
well deck and helos off the backdeck and it was just all kinds
of actions.
Therefore, it was so much fun.
It was constant stuff and wewere deployed gosh, I think I
deployed three times in fouryears, if I remember and so I
(18:10):
was constantly gone.
But it was fun.
I mean we got to see a bunch ofthings, see the world.
I think I went to 30 countriesbefore I was 26.
So I mean it was like it was ablast, plus the people that you
serve with man, like it just itmade me who I was, friendships
that I still have today.
It was awesome.
But you know, in the back of mymind I still was trying to
(18:34):
figure out like, okay, can Istill?
Can I still do this?
Can I still somehow get backand play Because, you know, at
the time we were in the middleof a war and we were just trying
to figure out.
You know, the Department ofDefense kind of put out this
early release policy where youcould do two years of active
duty and extend your reservetime, but the Navy said they're
going to put it on hold.
So the Navy didn't observe thatand so we still submitted
(18:56):
packages.
You know, throughout my time tojust say, hey, you let me know
how we can do both, excuse me,how we can do both and I will do
it.
That means wearing my wife'severyday tune from the field.
I'll do it.
But you know, my thing was thereality of, like, hey, I can't
always come back and play, sure,because you know my younger
years, of that kind of youngathleticism that doesn't last
(19:20):
forever, yeah, but I always feltlike, you know, I could, I can
always come back and serve, andyou know I've told them that
that I would be willing to dowhatever we thought made sense.
We just, you know, we justcouldn't get it worked out.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, so you stay out to sea and you stay swollen.
Yeah, you stay driving ships,uh, one, uh.
Again you call out one thing inthe book again as, as people
are reading this, um, they maycome across the term blue nose,
the blue nose ceremony uponcrossing the Arctic Circle.
You mind talking a little bitabout your blue nose ceremony?
(19:56):
I know you might not be able tosay all the shenanigans that
happened, especially back then,but love to hear a little bit
about your blue nose ceremony.
What a blue nose ceremony isfor all the people who may have
no idea as they're reading thisbook.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, so there's different ceremonies for
crossing certain thresholdsacross the globe, and when you
cross into the Arctic Circle,they put you through a ceremony.
We'll just say that and it wasawesome, we had an absolute
blast.
To this day we still laugh andtalk about it, but it was cool.
(20:32):
That was an awesome deployment.
We got to go up to Russia, goto all the Baltics.
It was a diplomatic deployment,but wave the flag and tell each
other we're friends while wespy on each other.
So that was cool.
But yeah, that was a fun.
Not knowing what to expect, man, I had a blast with it.
It was just like anotherinitiation on a team, but we had
(20:54):
fun.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, absolutely, when you cross the equator.
What shellback ceremony is that?
What it is, that's right.
So you'll hear those terms.
Much like you, Mitch, I'mactually part of the blue nose
community out there, and so Ihave spent plenty of time above
the Arctic circle and done myblues nose ceremonies.
(21:15):
And I tell you what it is thecoldest I have ever been in my
life.
It is the coldest.
I have ever been in my life.
I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
We got lucky.
We went up during the summer.
So it wasn't near as cold forus, but I've heard.
I've heard some stories.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah, bro, and I'll tell you what I did mine on a
submarine.
I was a sub bubba, so that was,that was uh, extra, extra spicy
man.
I'll tell you, uh, yeah, cold,real cold, but uh, no,
incredible, incredible lifeexperience.
You're out to see you're, youknow you're on deployment,
you're doing these things again.
I think there's a reallyinteresting dynamic in the book
as well, and again, as you know,as we're talking to our
(21:54):
audience of family members ofmidshipmen, midshipmen
themselves, this idea of thepeople in your life during that
time and how the impact of acertain captain versus another
captain may make a huge impact.
And you know the presence of acouple of enlisted dudes who
love playing baseball, rightlike, are on the ship with you
and willing to play catch everyday.
You mind just talking a littlebit about some of your
(22:16):
experiences and some of thedynamics you had with.
You know certain sailors andcertain captains that helped you
on your journey to try andachieve this.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
You know, no matter what, yeah, so I, you know, I
was very fortunate in that myfirst ship the CO and XO both
were Academy grads and before Igot there I emailed both of them
and said hey, I don't know ifyou've heard, but I was drafted
and I have no intentions ofcausing any ruckus or whatever.
(22:46):
I am showing up to the ship andI'm full intent of doing
everything you're asking me andI'm full intent of doing
everything you're asking me.
But I do have a dream of oneday playing in the big leagues
and would love to talk to youmore about it as we get to know
each other.
And, man, I think that went along way because as soon as I
got there, we all kind of got onthe same page of like, hey,
(23:08):
this is what we expect, weexpect you to be a great officer
, we expect you to lead, weexpect you to do all the things
necessary for the ship and youdo that.
We'll support you a hundredpercent and whatever else you're
trying to do.
And they were a hundred percenttruthful on that.
Um, they were a huge help, uh,in, in helping me put together
packages, sending things up,calling people Um, it was.
It was awesome to have thatcause.
(23:29):
It just helped give me someencouragement, um, but yeah, it
was, it was great.
And then, of course, having youknow the you don't stay.
People ask like, how'd you stayin baseball shape?
You don't, uh, when you're notplaying, uh, but mentally I just
want to keep my mind in shape,uh, in that, when the
opportunity presented itself Iwanted to be ready, yeah, and I
(23:50):
knew if I just kept my body inshape, you know that's all you
can do on a ship anyway is workout, read and eat and watch
movies, pretty much, yep.
And so we did a lot of that.
So I worked out all the timejust to keep my body in shape,
knowing that when I had theopportunity all I would have to
work on or focus on is my arm.
But mentally I wanted to kindof stay in it from a baseball
(24:11):
perspective.
So I was like man, if I couldthrow on a flight deck, that'd
be great just to kind of get outthere and feel the ball and
throw it a little bit, just kindof get that interaction.
And I was like man I don'treally know, you know no offense
, but like who can catch me.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Who can throw?
Who can catch a ball thrown byyou?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, yeah.
And so you know, there was alot of people who kind of heard
through the grapevine that I'dbeen drafted and they kind of
knew the story.
And someone said, hey, you needto go talk to Nunez.
I was like, oh, the cook.
They're like, yeah, go talk toNunez.
So I go in one day to thecafeteria area and I was like,
hey, you know looking for Nunez,and he's like, hey, I'm Nunez.
(24:49):
I was like, hey, I was told tocome talk to you so maybe we can
throw baseball on the flightdeck.
I was like, do you want tothrow?
And he's like, come on, papi,I'm from Dominican.
And I was like, oh, all right,yeah, you can do this.
So my dad would send bags ofbaseballs out.
(25:09):
We'd go on the flight deck andthrow on a flight deck when we
could Lost a lot of baseballsover the side, but we had a
blast.
We'd throw every opportunity wehad.
Man, and to this day he and Istay in contact and he means a
lot to me because you know, Ithink that was a big thing, just
mentally staying positive andtelling myself at some point
(25:30):
this will all pay off.
You've got to just know that atsome time, at some point, this
will all pay off.
You got to just know that atsome point down the road
there'll be an opportunity.
Quite frankly, I don't know ifthere was.
You know some days that I trulybelieve that, but I tried to
tell myself that as much as Icould.
And you know, having peoplelike that to encourage me and
just kind of, you know, continueto keep me motivated was huge.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah, I think probably the part of the book
that made me laugh the mostbecause it's just like it's the
most reflective of, like thetrue Navy dynamic, which is like
a true level of like pessimismand like feeling everything in
the world, where he looks at youwhile you're playing catch and
he says, mitch, it ever make youfeel funny that you could be
(26:08):
making 500 grand a week playingbaseball.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
But you're on a ship with me.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
You feel funny that you could be making 500 grand a
week playing baseball.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
But you're out here on a ship with me.
Yeah, you're.
You're in the middle of the uhuh, persian golf and 105 degree
heat.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
You know our shoes are melting, but hey, you know
you could be playingprofessional baseball, but
you're here making millions ofdollars, but you're doing that,
you're doing this, yeah, sweet,uh, no they can't be, they can't
be humble for sure yeah, no, no, that's great and um, all right
, Uh, you know, we, you, you,started to tease a little bit
some of the struggle sometimethere, right and um, this is
(26:42):
where the book, in my opinion,takes a turn for the very real,
right For the very real.
And, uh, I want to talk a littlebit, um, about your personal
journey and your personal story,especially as it relates to
overcoming adversity andhandling the burdens of human
life and the struggles of realhuman life.
As you go through this thingand the power of the Naval
(27:03):
Academy, and, again, you'renever really prepared for
certain life moments, but youcan get used to working through
tough spots and so you know.
You mentioned how having Nunezout there as a supportive figure
was an incredible thing,because back home maybe you
weren't receiving some of thesupport about chasing your
dreams and I'll kind of turn itover to you here, to, you know,
(27:25):
share as much of the story asyou'd like to about what was
going on back in front whileyou're out there afloat at sea
doing the Lord's work.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah.
So I mean I'll back up just alittle bit so you kind of get an
idea of kind of you know wheremy head was at, because you know
there was plenty of times whereI just did not know if this was
a true reality.
You know, I was like man,everyone's kind of like, hey,
that's a lofty goal.
You know great.
You know good luck to you.
And you know, in the back of myhead I was going, yeah, but I'm
(27:55):
going to do this.
You know why do they keepdoubting this?
But there's always that littleyou know voice that creeps in.
It's like, yeah, but that's notreally possible.
You know, and I'll never forget, because you know, when you're
leading these men and women forus it was, you know, our bro was
all guys.
So for me, when I was leadingthese men, I always told them
(28:17):
like hey, what's your plan?
Why are you here?
It's either to be careermilitary, it's either to get a,
you know, stepping stone towardsa career, stepping stone for
education.
There's some reason you're hereand I always wanted to know as
their division officer so that Icould help them achieve that,
help them kind of get in theright ways and right paths to
(28:41):
achieve.
That I'll never forget.
I was the Combat InformationCenter officer, so it was
probably two or three in themorning in the pitch dark, with
red lights and green lightseverywhere For those of you who
are familiar with combat, andthe conversations in combat are
very wide-ranging and oneparticular night we were talking
(29:04):
about some of this stuff andone of the guys hit me pretty
hard with a question.
He just said you know, mitch,you're they call me Mr H a lot
of times.
You know, hey, what you talkabout, some of these, some of
these goals, like what's yours?
And I was like, ah, I wasn'tprepared to answer that.
You know, um, and I, you know,in that moment was kind of like
(29:24):
you know what I'm?
I'm, I'm going to do everythingI can to achieve this.
Because if I'm telling you guysto, to, to strive for your,
your goals and your dreams, thenwhat a hypocrite I am if I
don't.
And that was the turning pointfor me to be like, all right,
I'm going to do this.
Well, about the same time I'm onmy second or, excuse me, last
(29:50):
deployment, my third deploymenton my next ship, and I could
just tell things at home justweren't going well.
And everyone hears of the youknow, dear John letters that you
receive or people receive withloved ones back home.
And I could tell somethingwasn't right.
And we were going to come home,actually just shortly after my
one-year anniversary from beingmarried, and I talked to our CEO
(30:14):
and I just said, hey,something's not right, I need to
get home to salvage whatever Ican.
And he was gracious enough tolet me get off at Mayport and
fly home a little bit early.
We pulled back in for our lastlittle supplies before heading
back to Norfolk.
When I got home it was veryobvious that that relationship
(30:36):
was on thin ice and, long storyshort, found out that she was
with someone 20 years our senior.
She basically told me to myface that she doesn't love me
anymore.
And, boy, you're talking abouta punch in the gut.
It just seemed like everythingwas turning for the worse all at
(30:58):
once and I didn't know whichway was up.
You know, I felt like man.
I'm four years in now to theNavy.
I still don't know what thislooks like from a baseball
standpoint.
Man, I've failed as a husbandbecause my marriage is in the
toilet.
I failed as an officer because Ijust started putting things in
(31:22):
my head because it just seemedlike everything was so bad and,
man, I didn't know where to turn.
I started filling that voidwith really anything and
everything that I could, becausethe pain was so difficult,
nothing seemed to be going.
You know the right way and youknow and I write in detail in
the book about what I was goingto because I want people to
understand life's hard andyou're going to face some things
(31:45):
that you don't have planned andthat you didn't want to face,
and and it it really determineswho you are with how you handle
those things.
And, man, it rocked me, it putme at rock bottom and I think to
this day there's things that itmade me who I am because, quite
frankly, you know, one of thenights, you know, I was drinking
(32:07):
heavily and had gone to acounselor, I just said, you know
, I'll finally do what he said,I'll take out a notebook and
just start writing, which I'mnot a journaler.
So for those of you who arekudos, that's just not me.
But I said, you know what, whatI had to lose.
I'm at rock bottom, it can'thurt and I just started writing.
I mean, I was angry, I was madat God, I was mad at me, I was
(32:30):
mad at her, I was mad at theworld.
And I go back and start readingthrough it and I came across a
quote that I wrote and it justsaid it takes courage to face
the mountain and strength toclimb, but when you reach the
summit and see the valley, yourealize who you become.
And I thought I don't know whowrote that, but that's pretty
dang good.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
That's good yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
And so I was like I don't know if this, you know
this, whatever I was drinking isjust that potent or someone
else is playing a trick on me orwhat.
But I stopped what I was doingin that moment.
I don't know what time it was,I just know it was super late.
I went to the tattoo placewhich is right down the road
there's one on every corner, Ifeel like in Virginia Beach and
(33:11):
Norfolk and I said, hey, I wantyou to tattoo this on my ribs.
I don't ever want to forgetthis moment.
And the guy, of course you knowsmoking he's like, all right,
let's do it.
And of course he's like that'sgreat man, did you write this?
And I was like, yeah, I did,but I did that because I didn't
ever want to forget the depthsof which I was at.
I knew that was rock bottombottom and I always wanted to
(33:36):
remember you know where I camefrom and the depths of which I
came from.
And so I say all that to sayit's nice now looking back from
the summit and realizing, man,all the things I came through
developed me into who I am today.
Yeah, made me the person I amtoday, made me the husband.
I am today the father.
I am today the friend I amtoday, and so it sucks, man, to
(34:00):
have to go through those things,but, man, it made me who I am
and it's crazy to say I'mthankful that that was what I
was able to do.
And, as someone who builds hisfoundation on my faith, to me
that was the piece that, likeall right God, you allowed this
to happen.
I'm not sure why, you know,builds his foundation on my
faith.
Like to me that was the piecethat, like all right God, you
allowed this to happen.
I'm not sure why, but, man, I'mjust going to trust that that's
(34:20):
what your plan was for me tocome into the person I am today.
And, yeah, so that's kind ofthe 30,000 foot view.
To get the rest, I guess, sean,to get the book.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of
the Academy Insider podcast.
I really hope you liked it,enjoyed it and learned something
during this time.
If you did, please feel free tolike and subscribe or leave a
comment about the episode.
We really appreciate to hearyour feedback about everything
and continue to make AcademyInsider an amazing service that
guides, serves and supportsmidshipmen, future midshipmen
(34:56):
and their families.
Thank you.
Hey everyone and welcome back to the Academy
Insider Podcast.
Today we're going to have partone of a two-part episode in
which we're talking with MitchHarris.
Mitch Harris is a Naval Academygraduate.
He played baseball at theAcademy, became a service
warfare officer and then, aftergetting out of the Navy, he
continued relentlessly pursuinghis dream to become a
professional baseball player andhe made it, and he ended up
playing and pitching for the StLouis Cardinals for a couple
(00:22):
years.
But he also wrote a book andit's called my Private War,
because, as much as this episodewants to be fun and cool,
talking about his accolades,it's actually going to be a
story about overcoming adversity.
It's going to be a story aboutthe difficulties that he
experienced in Annapolis andbeyond and how his time as a
midshipman prepared him tohandle the realness of human
life and the difficulties andthe challenges he faced in his
(00:45):
young adult life, and so I'mreally excited to talk with
Mitch in this episode.
I think you guys are going tolove it and, again, this is
going to be a two-part episode,so I hope you enjoy part one and
looking forward to getting parttwo out to you soon as well.
Thank you, guys so much.
Enjoy the listen, appreciate it.
Hi everyone and welcome back tothe Academy Insider Podcast.
(01:08):
Mitch, thank you so much forbeing here.
Brother, again everyone who'sabout to see we're going to be
talking about his brand new book, my Private War.
This is a Naval Academy grad,professional baseball player for
the St Louis Cardinals and soexcited to get this opportunity
to have you on the podcast.
Before we jump into it, I'lllet you just introduce yourself.
Tell us a little bit aboutwhere you're from and what's
good is.
It's going to lead us kind ofinto our first questions, but
(01:30):
tell us a little bit about howyou ended up at the Naval
Academy.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Man.
So no one believes me when Isay it, but I was recruited by
the defensive coordinator forthe Navy football team to play
baseball.
Yeah, so I grew up actuallyjust outside of Atlanta, then
went to high school up in NorthCarolina, in Belmont North
Carolina, went to South PointHigh School.
We had a really good footballteam, and so the defensive
coordinator came by the baseballfield to pick up the head
(01:56):
baseball coach, who was theassistant football coach, and
when he did, he saw this scrawnykid throwing a bullpen.
He started asking questionsabout where's he going?
What's he doing?
Next thing, we know, they saidhey, you got any interest to go
to Naval Academy.
And of course I was like, whatis that?
I'll be honest, I had an ideabut I didn't really know.
(02:19):
And two weeks later we went ona visit and I fell in love and I
just said, man, if I can getinto this place, yes, I will go.
The rest is history.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
It cracks me up the story in the book because you're
telling it.
It's kind of like the samething that happened with my
family.
You're like I think the Navywants me to go play baseball.
Your mom was like no, dude, no.
Then you're like no.
It's like I think it's like acollege.
She's like anapolis isrecruiting you and like the
whole dynamic changes.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Oh yeah, exactly yeah .
My mom had no idea what I wassaying because I didn't know
what I was saying.
Uh, I just said somebody fromnavy is calling me and she's
like tell them, no, you're notgonna go as a recruit, you're
gonna go to school.
I was like, no, I think it is aschool.
Yeah, and anyway, that's.
That's kind of how that started.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Dude, it cracks me up .
It's such a good story and soyou end up making the decision
Again.
It's an interesting thingbecause it sounds like
originally you're planning ongoing to Davidson Right and to
go play baseball, that kind offalls through.
You end up at the naval academy.
But like you're saying and Ithink this is a really
interesting dynamic for a lot ofathletes is that if it wasn't
(03:32):
for our sport, we probablywouldn't have ended up at the
academy.
We didn't know about it.
It wasn't our dream growing upto be a marine or to be at the
naval academy.
It was an opportunity thatended up in our lap, uh, that we
then took advantage of rightand and learned to, to follow
exactly, uh.
But you show up at i-day andyou tell some pretty funny
stories about being there ati-day and hitting that like oh
snap, like what did I just signup for moment?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
you mind running us through like your recollection
of i-day and some of those earlymoments, moments of plebe,
summer yeah, when I say I hadreally no idea what I was doing,
I had no idea like they werelike, yeah, pack a duffel bag.
And you know I was thinkinglike all right, well, you know
I'll get there, and like I'llget them packed, and I kind of
talk about the academy, we mightdo some running and some stuff,
(04:16):
and within like five minutessome dude's yelling at me.
I'm like whoa, what is thisdude like?
Chill out, you know.
And then I realized like yeah,that's not gonna work here.
Uh, uh, this dude's way smallerthan me and just yelling at me
like he's got no issues, uh.
And then, about you know, 15minutes in, when they're like
you're gonna fill you with abunch of shots, uh, and you
(04:37):
gotta read this little book anddon't say anything back, you're
like all right, this isdifferent, uh, but hey, I'll do
what they're saying, because Idon't think it'd be smart to do
otherwise.
But yeah, man, it was just, itwas obviously everybody's eye
day is overwhelming.
And so when you finally hadtime to take a deep breath and
realize, like what the heck didI just sign up for?
(04:58):
You start realizing, like allright, this is the real deal,
like all right.
And then, all right, this isthe real deal, like all right.
Um, and then, and then, youknow, I'd tell a little bit
about how.
You know, thankfully, some ofthe Napsters man saved the day,
and and, uh, in helping out andjust telling me, like dude, you
got to realize this is a biggame, you got to play the game,
you got to get through it.
Do what they're saying Uh, it'sthe, the details, it's, it's,
(05:21):
it's all the little things, uh,it's got a purpose.
And so once you realize that,man, we had a lot of fun with it
.
And so, as, except, you know,minus the fact that you know,
come, come summer, you know,actually, post summer, we're
actually starting school.
We were on seven four, hey yo.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And having a chop seven four was no bueno no bueno
, and for anyone who hasn'tlistened to the episode, I do.
I have an as g episode thatkind of breaks down the Bancroft
layout.
So if you're like what theheck's 7-4 mean, go check out
that episode.
We'll link it as well.
But go check it out because,again, we referenced that that's
the seventh wing on the fourthdeck and fourth deck really is
(05:59):
fifth deck because it starts atzero.
And that's a lot of stairs whenyou're a plead man running up
and down, and it's actually sixdeck because one of those is the
gym.
You got the basement gym andthen the mail.
Yeah, the mail in the basementgym.
That's right, man yeah, it's alot of stairs that's a lot of
stairs every day, uh, but yeah,no for anyone again.
(06:20):
This is.
This is not necessarily meantto tell everybody to go buy the
book, but but I think again forall of my Naval Academy families
that want funny little insightsto the Naval Academy life
stories to understand thecontext of what people are going
through.
The first 40 pages of thisthing is a lot of Naval Academy
plebe stories.
You're talking about rack races.
You're talking about holdingyour sheets out front.
(06:40):
You're talking aboutcalisthenics in the P-way.
You're talking about sittingdown and eating, sitting on the
front three inches of your chair, right, like there are a lot of
stories in here that are reallygood for to understand the
plebe experience as well.
And so you know, I think that'spretty, pretty awesome man.
And uh, you know, I think oneof the first things that I love
about this book too, again assomeone who is an impressive
(07:02):
young man athleticallyacademically book too, again as
someone who is an impressiveyoung man athletically
academically is you talkingabout your first chemistry class
and showing up and getting hitin the face with a nice little d
?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
uh, you mind talking about that experience and
transition to naval academyacademics as well and how you
adjusted to that yeah, you know,I think anybody that has the
opportunity to go to the navalacademy is obviously doing well
in high school academically.
Otherwise, you know, youwouldn't even have a shot.
And you know that was me.
You know I did well in sports,but I did well in school In high
(07:35):
school.
Man, I just it just camenaturally, I listened, I paid
attention, you know, did thehomework and once I did it I got
it.
That's just.
I was blessed with that.
Once I kind of did it a fewtimes, I got it.
Now, I was not blessed withunderstanding how to take notes
and I realized that my freshmanyear because plebe year was
(07:56):
brutal when it comes toacademics.
They were like, all right,let's talk about chemistry and
we're going to get into details,and I was like, yeah, I should
probably learn how to write allthis down.
And it didn't go well.
It didn't go well at all.
Uh, yeah, my first test I waslike, yeah, I don't know how
long I'm going to last here.
Uh, cause I don't remember whatthe score was.
(08:16):
I just remember I was way offof a hundred and uh, so, yeah,
it was, uh, it was brutal.
I did know immediately that Iwas not going to be a chemistry
major, so that was good, youknow, checked one off the box to
say that was not going to be it.
But yeah, it was an eye-openingexperience.
Thankfully, you know, we didhave some great, great
(08:36):
counselors.
That really just helped kind ofunderstand like, hey look, this
is the real deal.
And all of your peers that youwent to high school with,
they've got about 12 credits,you're going to have 22 to 24.
And you're like, oh, awesome.
So yeah, I need to learn how tostudy.
So that was a learning curvefor sure, but once I figured it
(08:57):
out it helped immensely.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah, no, it's good storytelling Because the Naval
Academy is hard.
Man, I talk a lot about how Ifeel like the naval academy is
like a high school on steroids.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
it's not your normal college I was like, no, you're
right seven hours a day, sixperiods, like quizzes all the
time.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Tons of homework.
Right, it's, it's, it's tough,it's, it's no joke.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Um there is no, there's no leeway or or break
from from the.
The amount of work and you knowbeing an athlete, as you can
understand, doesn't make it anyeasier.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, you got to go practice from exactly three
thirty until seven.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Exactly so.
But yeah, it was, it was alearning curve, but you know
once, once you know you got thehang of it and it was, it was
easier, it wasn't easy, it wasthe easier.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah, no fair enough and you get into plebe year and
now you start playing baseball.
And not only do you startplaying baseball, but you're
darn good, you're really darngood Like even coming into, you
know, plebe year, youngster year, and you have a portion in the
book where you talk aboutsigning your two for seven.
Right, and actually coming backin your junior year and making
the decision to sign your twofor seven despite other
(10:08):
opportunities and other options92 for seven, despite other
opportunities and other optionsyou mind walking through your
mindset, your thought processthere and like what caused you
to anchor to the Naval Academyand say like, yes, I'm going to
continue going here, despitepotential professional baseball
opportunities being easier inother pathways.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah.
So I mean for me to sit hereand say that I knew I was going
to have any shot professionallywould be a flat out lie, right.
I mean for me to sit here andsay that I knew I was going to
have any shot professionallywould be a flat-out lie, right.
I mean, coming out of highschool I was just a decent
athlete that could play reallyanywhere on the baseball field.
You know, I was kind ofrecruited, so to say, as the
third baseman that could hit andthat pitched a little bit.
And you know, freshman year Ionly threw 15 innings the whole
(10:50):
season.
Then we had a new coach come inour sophomore year, revamped
the whole program and that waskind of the turning point for me
.
I'd lost all that lead yearweight and I think I lost maybe
15, 20 pounds but gained it allback going into my sophomore
(11:11):
year.
So my arm felt good, my bodyfelt amazing and things just
started to click.
And about that time was kind ofwhen I was like, all right, I
have a shot at this, because youknow I had a great sophomore
year which then obviously leadsinto, you know, the two for
seven and after getting thatfirst year, year and a half
under my belt, it was a nodoubter that I wanted to, that I
(11:35):
really understood what it meantto serve and to want to lead
and to be a part of somethingbigger than myself, and I've
always loved teams and I'vealways kind of loved that
mentality, and there's no betterfeeling than being a part of
the team which is, you know,serving and being a part of the
military, like that.
That was super intriguing to me.
(11:55):
And then, on top of that,having the history of the Naval
Academy and understanding theeducation you get from there all
of that man, I was like dude, Iam a hundred percent doing this
.
I want to commit to that.
I want to commit to my family,my friends, my peers, my
classmates.
I want to do this.
However, there was this lifelongdream as a kid to play
(12:18):
professional baseball.
And you know it's really neat.
I had a classmate my class knewespecially my company knew like
that I loved baseball and thatI wanted to play.
But they knew that I wanted tobe there and they knew the
importance of two for seven.
And one of my classmatesactually took a picture of me in
Memorial hall looking at thetwo for seven document, just
(12:43):
kind of soaking it in.
And I and I'm and I'm sothankful that they got that
picture, because it was such acandid moment of understanding
the weight of what we're doing,hence why they do it there in
Memorial Hall.
And for me it was so importantjust to realize the importance
of that, to never forget what Iwas committing to and what I
truly wanted to do, which was doboth.
(13:03):
And so, by signing that, thatwas kind of a commitment to not
only everybody but to myself,that, hey, you're going to do
this and you're going to fulfillthis commitment, but you're
also going to keep that dreamalive and figure out how to do
both.
And we started trying to, youknow, figure that out from day
one, junior year, figuring out,hey, what do we do now?
(13:25):
You know how do we go abouttalking to teams?
Because teams were already kindof there was a little bit of a
buzz and people were wonderingwell, what's he going to do?
You know, he's got to serve,and so that kind of led us down
this whole path of trying tofigure out what that looks like.
But you know, when it came tothe two for seven, I wanted to
do both I wanted to fulfill mycommitment and I wanted to serve
.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, okay, yeah, I love it, mot
, okay, yeah, I love it.
Motivate me, that's right.
No, but but in all seriousness,I?
It's interesting that youmentioned that because one of my
favorite pictures from my timeat the Naval Academy is me
signing my two for seven too,right.
And I had a classmate like takea picture, as I'm kind of like
leaning over the desk with thescroll, getting ready to sign
(14:05):
Right, and it's a special moment, man, like there's a ton of
weight associated with thatexact moment.
Right, like you know, now youare fully aware of everything
you're signing for, right, likewhen you show up for plebe
summer, like yeah, maybe you getit, but like you don't really
get it until you've lived it fortwo years.
Right, and now you get it, andnow you're really consciously
making this choice to continue,you know, with this, with this
(14:28):
path, right and so specialmoment, really cool.
You kind of finish out your yoursecond class and first year at
the Naval Academy and now youlike you really have scouts I
know you mentioned in the book,right, talking, you know, had
you been at a normal university,you may be a third or fourth
round pick, right, so where's,where's your brain, knowing
you've service selected.
(14:49):
Swell, you're getting ready tokind of like be a surface
warfare officer, you're lookingat getting drafted, and all of
these factors are going on.
Like, where are you at in yourfirst year?
Is it?
Is it an exciting time?
Is it super stressful?
Like, where were you at thatmoment?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I think it was a mixture of both.
I was obviously super excited,but I was really nervous.
I mean, you know, my junioryear I was drafted by the Braves
, okay.
And I remember I was in summerschool at the academy when I got
drafted by the Braves and Ijust thought, like did that just
(15:24):
happen?
Like now what?
Like I can't leave, yeah, youknow.
And so we basically told the Imean, we talked to almost every
team my junior year andeverybody was trying to figure
out what does this look like,what can you do?
And we didn't have an answer.
When I say we, me and CoachCosti we were trying to figure
(15:44):
out what it meant and what couldwe do.
And Chet, who was the athleticdirector, you know we met with
him several times and you knowhe didn't even have really a
good answer because it wasDepartment of Defense that put
down, you know kind of what youcould and couldn't do.
And then each department, youknow, then determined you know
(16:07):
where they stood, and the Navyhad one way, the Army had a
different way and the Air Forcehad a different way, and so we
didn't really have a good answer.
And that was the hardest part.
That's what the stressful partwas was we just didn't know.
And so, you know, coming into mylast year, I knew I was going
to be drafted.
We didn't know how high and wedidn't know what that meant or
(16:29):
where I was going to go.
But essentially I knew that,man, if I can just keep my head
straight, you know, and justtell people, hey, I want to do
both, whatever that looks like,hey, we'll figure it out as we
go.
But yeah, it was tough.
I was definitely very excitedfor both.
(16:49):
Right, I was excited tograduate, get the commission and
do all the stuff and get to myfirst ship and and start that.
But I was also excited tofigure out, okay, if I do get
drafted, what does that looklike?
How do I?
How do I go to play?
What does what does that mean?
But, um, yeah, it was tough.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Yeah and anyway, you ended up getting drafted and uh,
but you also end upcommissioning and the Navy ends
up telling you sorry shit, mate,time to get to sea, time to go
to sea and you become a SWO.
You might like what was yourexperience like as a SWO?
You talk about threedeployments.
You know kind of out in some 50deployments and other where,
(17:22):
like other places, like what wasyour experience out in the
world as a SWO man?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, I loved it.
Honestly, I truly enjoyeddriving ships and never knew I
was good at that or never knewthat I would be good at that or
would enjoy it.
But, man, my first ship I wason USS Ponce, out of Norfolk and
we were an amphibious ship andwe took Marines everywhere.
(17:48):
We pulled in really close toshore, we had a flat bottom that
we could get within a mile ofshore, pump out Marines to the
well deck and helos off the backdeck and it was just all kinds
of actions.
Therefore, it was so much fun.
It was constant stuff and wewere deployed gosh, I think I
deployed three times in fouryears, if I remember and so I
(18:10):
was constantly gone.
But it was fun.
I mean we got to see a bunch ofthings, see the world.
I think I went to 30 countriesbefore I was 26.
So I mean it was like it was ablast, plus the people that you
serve with man, like it just itmade me who I was, friendships
that I still have today.
It was awesome.
But you know, in the back of mymind I still was trying to
(18:34):
figure out like, okay, can Istill?
Can I still do this?
Can I still somehow get backand play Because, you know, at
the time we were in the middleof a war and we were just trying
to figure out.
You know, the Department ofDefense kind of put out this
early release policy where youcould do two years of active
duty and extend your reservetime, but the Navy said they're
going to put it on hold.
So the Navy didn't observe thatand so we still submitted
(18:56):
packages.
You know, throughout my time tojust say, hey, you let me know
how we can do both, excuse me,how we can do both and I will do
it.
That means wearing my wife'severyday tune from the field.
I'll do it.
But you know, my thing was thereality of, like, hey, I can't
always come back and play, sure,because you know my younger
years, of that kind of youngathleticism that doesn't last
(19:20):
forever, yeah, but I always feltlike, you know, I could, I can
always come back and serve, andyou know I've told them that
that I would be willing to dowhatever we thought made sense.
We just, you know, we justcouldn't get it worked out.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, so you stay out to sea and you stay swollen.
Yeah, you stay driving ships,uh, one, uh.
Again you call out one thing inthe book again as, as people
are reading this, um, they maycome across the term blue nose,
the blue nose ceremony uponcrossing the Arctic Circle.
You mind talking a little bitabout your blue nose ceremony?
(19:56):
I know you might not be able tosay all the shenanigans that
happened, especially back then,but love to hear a little bit
about your blue nose ceremony.
What a blue nose ceremony isfor all the people who may have
no idea as they're reading thisbook.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, so there's different ceremonies for
crossing certain thresholdsacross the globe, and when you
cross into the Arctic Circle,they put you through a ceremony.
We'll just say that and it wasawesome, we had an absolute
blast.
To this day we still laugh andtalk about it, but it was cool.
(20:32):
That was an awesome deployment.
We got to go up to Russia, goto all the Baltics.
It was a diplomatic deployment,but wave the flag and tell each
other we're friends while wespy on each other.
So that was cool.
But yeah, that was a fun.
Not knowing what to expect, man, I had a blast with it.
It was just like anotherinitiation on a team, but we had
(20:54):
fun.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, absolutely, when you cross the equator.
What shellback ceremony is that?
What it is, that's right.
So you'll hear those terms.
Much like you, Mitch, I'mactually part of the blue nose
community out there, and so Ihave spent plenty of time above
the Arctic circle and done myblues nose ceremonies.
(21:15):
And I tell you what it is thecoldest I have ever been in my
life.
It is the coldest.
I have ever been in my life.
I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
We got lucky.
We went up during the summer.
So it wasn't near as cold forus, but I've heard.
I've heard some stories.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah, bro, and I'll tell you what I did mine on a
submarine.
I was a sub bubba, so that was,that was uh, extra, extra spicy
man.
I'll tell you, uh, yeah, cold,real cold, but uh, no,
incredible, incredible lifeexperience.
You're out to see you're, youknow you're on deployment,
you're doing these things again.
I think there's a reallyinteresting dynamic in the book
as well, and again, as you know,as we're talking to our
(21:54):
audience of family members ofmidshipmen, midshipmen
themselves, this idea of thepeople in your life during that
time and how the impact of acertain captain versus another
captain may make a huge impact.
And you know the presence of acouple of enlisted dudes who
love playing baseball, rightlike, are on the ship with you
and willing to play catch everyday.
You mind just talking a littlebit about some of your
(22:16):
experiences and some of thedynamics you had with.
You know certain sailors andcertain captains that helped you
on your journey to try andachieve this.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
You know, no matter what, yeah, so I, you know, I
was very fortunate in that myfirst ship the CO and XO both
were Academy grads and before Igot there I emailed both of them
and said hey, I don't know ifyou've heard, but I was drafted
and I have no intentions ofcausing any ruckus or whatever.
(22:46):
I am showing up to the ship andI'm full intent of doing
everything you're asking me andI'm full intent of doing
everything you're asking me.
But I do have a dream of oneday playing in the big leagues
and would love to talk to youmore about it as we get to know
each other.
And, man, I think that went along way because as soon as I
got there, we all kind of got onthe same page of like, hey,
(23:08):
this is what we expect, weexpect you to be a great officer
, we expect you to lead, weexpect you to do all the things
necessary for the ship and youdo that.
We'll support you a hundredpercent and whatever else you're
trying to do.
And they were a hundred percenttruthful on that.
Um, they were a huge help, uh,in, in helping me put together
packages, sending things up,calling people Um, it was.
It was awesome to have thatcause.
(23:29):
It just helped give me someencouragement, um, but yeah, it
was, it was great.
And then, of course, having youknow the you don't stay.
People ask like, how'd you stayin baseball shape?
You don't, uh, when you're notplaying, uh, but mentally I just
want to keep my mind in shape,uh, in that, when the
opportunity presented itself Iwanted to be ready, yeah, and I
(23:50):
knew if I just kept my body inshape, you know that's all you
can do on a ship anyway is workout, read and eat and watch
movies, pretty much, yep.
And so we did a lot of that.
So I worked out all the timejust to keep my body in shape,
knowing that when I had theopportunity all I would have to
work on or focus on is my arm.
But mentally I wanted to kindof stay in it from a baseball
(24:11):
perspective.
So I was like man, if I couldthrow on a flight deck, that'd
be great just to kind of get outthere and feel the ball and
throw it a little bit, just kindof get that interaction.
And I was like man I don'treally know, you know no offense
, but like who can catch me.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Who can throw?
Who can catch a ball thrown byyou?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, yeah.
And so you know, there was alot of people who kind of heard
through the grapevine that I'dbeen drafted and they kind of
knew the story.
And someone said, hey, you needto go talk to Nunez.
I was like, oh, the cook.
They're like, yeah, go talk toNunez.
So I go in one day to thecafeteria area and I was like,
hey, you know looking for Nunez,and he's like, hey, I'm Nunez.
(24:49):
I was like, hey, I was told tocome talk to you so maybe we can
throw baseball on the flightdeck.
I was like, do you want tothrow?
And he's like, come on, papi,I'm from Dominican.
And I was like, oh, all right,yeah, you can do this.
So my dad would send bags ofbaseballs out.
(25:09):
We'd go on the flight deck andthrow on a flight deck when we
could Lost a lot of baseballsover the side, but we had a
blast.
We'd throw every opportunity wehad.
Man, and to this day he and Istay in contact and he means a
lot to me because you know, Ithink that was a big thing, just
mentally staying positive andtelling myself at some point
(25:30):
this will all pay off.
You've got to just know that atsome time, at some point, this
will all pay off.
You got to just know that atsome point down the road
there'll be an opportunity.
Quite frankly, I don't know ifthere was.
You know some days that I trulybelieve that, but I tried to
tell myself that as much as Icould.
And you know, having peoplelike that to encourage me and
just kind of, you know, continueto keep me motivated was huge.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah, I think probably the part of the book
that made me laugh the mostbecause it's just like it's the
most reflective of, like thetrue Navy dynamic, which is like
a true level of like pessimismand like feeling everything in
the world, where he looks at youwhile you're playing catch and
he says, mitch, it ever make youfeel funny that you could be
(26:08):
making 500 grand a week playingbaseball.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
But you're on a ship with me.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
You feel funny that you could be making 500 grand a
week playing baseball.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
But you're out here on a ship with me.
Yeah, you're.
You're in the middle of the uhuh, persian golf and 105 degree
heat.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
You know our shoes are melting, but hey, you know
you could be playingprofessional baseball, but
you're here making millions ofdollars, but you're doing that,
you're doing this, yeah, sweet,uh, no they can't be, they can't
be humble for sure yeah, no, no, that's great and um, all right
, Uh, you know, we, you, you,started to tease a little bit
some of the struggle sometimethere, right and um, this is
(26:42):
where the book, in my opinion,takes a turn for the very real,
right For the very real.
And, uh, I want to talk a littlebit, um, about your personal
journey and your personal story,especially as it relates to
overcoming adversity andhandling the burdens of human
life and the struggles of realhuman life.
As you go through this thingand the power of the Naval
(27:03):
Academy, and, again, you'renever really prepared for
certain life moments, but youcan get used to working through
tough spots and so you know.
You mentioned how having Nunezout there as a supportive figure
was an incredible thing,because back home maybe you
weren't receiving some of thesupport about chasing your
dreams and I'll kind of turn itover to you here, to, you know,
(27:25):
share as much of the story asyou'd like to about what was
going on back in front whileyou're out there afloat at sea
doing the Lord's work.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah.
So I mean I'll back up just alittle bit so you kind of get an
idea of kind of you know wheremy head was at, because you know
there was plenty of times whereI just did not know if this was
a true reality.
You know, I was like man,everyone's kind of like, hey,
that's a lofty goal.
You know great.
You know good luck to you.
And you know, in the back of myhead I was going, yeah, but I'm
(27:55):
going to do this.
You know why do they keepdoubting this?
But there's always that littleyou know voice that creeps in.
It's like, yeah, but that's notreally possible.
You know, and I'll never forget, because you know, when you're
leading these men and women forus it was, you know, our bro was
all guys.
So for me, when I was leadingthese men, I always told them
(28:17):
like hey, what's your plan?
Why are you here?
It's either to be careermilitary, it's either to get a,
you know, stepping stone towardsa career, stepping stone for
education.
There's some reason you're hereand I always wanted to know as
their division officer so that Icould help them achieve that,
help them kind of get in theright ways and right paths to
(28:41):
achieve.
That I'll never forget.
I was the Combat InformationCenter officer, so it was
probably two or three in themorning in the pitch dark, with
red lights and green lightseverywhere For those of you who
are familiar with combat, andthe conversations in combat are
very wide-ranging and oneparticular night we were talking
(29:04):
about some of this stuff andone of the guys hit me pretty
hard with a question.
He just said you know, mitch,you're they call me Mr H a lot
of times.
You know, hey, what you talkabout, some of these, some of
these goals, like what's yours?
And I was like, ah, I wasn'tprepared to answer that.
You know, um, and I, you know,in that moment was kind of like
(29:24):
you know what I'm?
I'm, I'm going to do everythingI can to achieve this.
Because if I'm telling you guysto, to, to strive for your,
your goals and your dreams, thenwhat a hypocrite I am if I
don't.
And that was the turning pointfor me to be like, all right,
I'm going to do this.
Well, about the same time I'm onmy second or, excuse me, last
(29:50):
deployment, my third deploymenton my next ship, and I could
just tell things at home justweren't going well.
And everyone hears of the youknow, dear John letters that you
receive or people receive withloved ones back home.
And I could tell somethingwasn't right.
And we were going to come home,actually just shortly after my
one-year anniversary from beingmarried, and I talked to our CEO
(30:14):
and I just said, hey,something's not right, I need to
get home to salvage whatever Ican.
And he was gracious enough tolet me get off at Mayport and
fly home a little bit early.
We pulled back in for our lastlittle supplies before heading
back to Norfolk.
When I got home it was veryobvious that that relationship
(30:36):
was on thin ice and, long storyshort, found out that she was
with someone 20 years our senior.
She basically told me to myface that she doesn't love me
anymore.
And, boy, you're talking abouta punch in the gut.
It just seemed like everythingwas turning for the worse all at
(30:58):
once and I didn't know whichway was up.
You know, I felt like man.
I'm four years in now to theNavy.
I still don't know what thislooks like from a baseball
standpoint.
Man, I've failed as a husbandbecause my marriage is in the
toilet.
I failed as an officer because Ijust started putting things in
(31:22):
my head because it just seemedlike everything was so bad and,
man, I didn't know where to turn.
I started filling that voidwith really anything and
everything that I could, becausethe pain was so difficult,
nothing seemed to be going.
You know the right way and youknow and I write in detail in
the book about what I was goingto because I want people to
understand life's hard andyou're going to face some things
(31:45):
that you don't have planned andthat you didn't want to face,
and and it it really determineswho you are with how you handle
those things.
And, man, it rocked me, it putme at rock bottom and I think to
this day there's things that itmade me who I am because, quite
frankly, you know, one of thenights, you know, I was drinking
(32:07):
heavily and had gone to acounselor, I just said, you know
, I'll finally do what he said,I'll take out a notebook and
just start writing, which I'mnot a journaler.
So for those of you who arekudos, that's just not me.
But I said, you know what, whatI had to lose.
I'm at rock bottom, it can'thurt and I just started writing.
I mean, I was angry, I was madat God, I was mad at me, I was
(32:30):
mad at her, I was mad at theworld.
And I go back and start readingthrough it and I came across a
quote that I wrote and it justsaid it takes courage to face
the mountain and strength toclimb, but when you reach the
summit and see the valley, yourealize who you become.
And I thought I don't know whowrote that, but that's pretty
dang good.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
That's good yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
And so I was like I don't know if this, you know
this, whatever I was drinking isjust that potent or someone
else is playing a trick on me orwhat.
But I stopped what I was doingin that moment.
I don't know what time it was,I just know it was super late.
I went to the tattoo placewhich is right down the road
there's one on every corner, Ifeel like in Virginia Beach and
(33:11):
Norfolk and I said, hey, I wantyou to tattoo this on my ribs.
I don't ever want to forgetthis moment.
And the guy, of course you knowsmoking he's like, all right,
let's do it.
And of course he's like that'sgreat man, did you write this?
And I was like, yeah, I did,but I did that because I didn't
ever want to forget the depthsof which I was at.
I knew that was rock bottombottom and I always wanted to
(33:36):
remember you know where I camefrom and the depths of which I
came from.
And so I say all that to sayit's nice now looking back from
the summit and realizing, man,all the things I came through
developed me into who I am today.
Yeah, made me the person I amtoday, made me the husband.
I am today the father.
I am today the friend I amtoday, and so it sucks, man, to
(34:00):
have to go through those things,but, man, it made me who I am
and it's crazy to say I'mthankful that that was what I
was able to do.
And, as someone who builds hisfoundation on my faith, to me
that was the piece that, likeall right God, you allowed this
to happen.
I'm not sure why, you know,builds his foundation on my
faith.
Like to me that was the piecethat, like all right God, you
allowed this to happen.
I'm not sure why, but, man, I'mjust going to trust that that's
(34:20):
what your plan was for me tocome into the person I am today.
And, yeah, so that's kind ofthe 30,000 foot view.
To get the rest, I guess, sean,to get the book.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of
the Academy Insider podcast.
I really hope you liked it,enjoyed it and learned something
during this time.
If you did, please feel free tolike and subscribe or leave a
comment about the episode.
We really appreciate to hearyour feedback about everything
and continue to make AcademyInsider an amazing service that
guides, serves and supportsmidshipmen, future midshipmen
(34:56):
and their families.
Thank you.
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