On Saturday, Mitch Harris became the first Naval Academy graduate since 1921 to play in a Major League Baseball game, according to the Baseball Hall of Fame and the academy itself. Many of the stories noting Harris’ achievement, or his initial call-up to the St. Louis Cardinals from the minors, gave a passing mention to his lone USNA predecessor: Nemo Gaines, who pitched in four games for the Washington Senators. Like Harris, Gaines pitched in relief. Unlike Harris, his time in the majors didn’t come after his time in active service: Gaines secured what amounted to extended leave to pitch in the…
Browsing: Annapolis
After the Naval Academy rescheduled a soccer game this week and the Air Force Academy announced it wouldn’t travel to Annapolis for this weekend’s big Navy-Air Force football game, it looked like the government shutdown had completely cast its shadow over service academy athletics. However, the Naval Academy announced late Wednesday that the game against Air Force and would go on. At the time, it was the only athletic contest that remained on Navy’s shutdown-shortened schedule, but the school announced Friday that some games were back on the docket. Even the women’s soccer game at American University, which had been…
I spent Friday night at the Naval Academy covering the 72nd Brigade Boxing Championships. I’m no boxing expert but judging from the crowd’s reaction, the action was solid. The night opened up with a bout between two female midshipmen, Sam Glaeser and Abby Khusf, and ended with a great heavyweight match. Though he looked like he got the worst of it, Matt Brewer (above) won the heavyweight title after trading punches for three rounds with Annapolis native Beau Haworth. For more photos, check out the Scoop Deck blog at Navy Times.
It’s official. Navy has confirmed that Penn State men’s basketball coach Ed DeChellis, who guided the Nittany Lions to the 2009 NIT title, will leave his alma mater to become the new men’s basketball coach at Annapolis. The reports started creeping out Monday afternoon from a variety of outlets, including The Patriot-News of Harrisburg (Pa.) and ESPN. DeChellis built a middling program at what is a football school. Let’s face it, football will always be No. 1 in the pecking order in Happy Valley, at least as long as Joseph Vincent Paterno walks among us mortals. But it’s still an…
