{"id":532039,"date":"2026-03-10T23:23:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T23:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/532039\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T23:23:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T23:23:19","slug":"was-paul-skenes-in-the-air-force-before-becoming-an-mlb-pitcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/532039\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Paul Skenes in the Air Force Before Becoming an MLB Pitcher?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cy Young winner Paul Skenes<\/a>‘ journey to the big leagues is the stuff legends are made of. As one of the aces of Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, the 23-year-old represents the present \u2014 and future \u2014 of pitching, as you’ll see this season on Sunday Night Baseball<\/a> on NBC and Peacock<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How to Watch<\/p>\n

Watch MLB on NBC and streaming on Peacock<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Skenes has been a key part of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ starting rotation since 2024, but his road to Major League Baseball stardom is wholly unique. Believe it or not, the pitching phenom never planned for it to happen quite like this.<\/p>\n

Skenes started his collegiate career without necessarily dreaming of playing in the Major Leagues \u2014 he entered the Air Force Academy as a cadet with dreams of becoming a fighter pilot. As an integral part of the rotation beginning in 2021, he played two seasons of college ball for Air Force, earning first-team All-American status after his freshman campaign.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Full 2026 Schedule for MLB Games on NBC & Peacock: Sunday Night Baseball & Sunday Leadoff<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s true. But the allure of playing baseball proved too powerful, and in July 2022, Skenes announced he was transferring to LSU. The gambit was worth it \u2014 he led the Tigers to the 2023 College World Series title with a 1.69 ERA.<\/p>\n

The six-foot-six, 260-pounder was then drafted with the number-one pick in the 2023 Major League Baseball<\/a> draft \u2014 and the rest is history.<\/p>\n

But what was so significant about Skenes’ March 9 WBC debut? As it turns out, he paid tribute to his Air Force roots with a touching gesture that has fans buzzing.<\/p>\n

Paul Skenes welcomed the current Air Force baseball team to the WBC<\/p>\n

With a little help from his WBC teammate Griffin Jax \u2014 who also attended Air Force Academy \u2014 Skenes secured tickets for the current Air Force baseball team to attend Team USA’s first game against Mexico on March 9<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was a full-circle moment for the star \u2014 and the gesture paid off in spades. Skenes pitched four scoreless innings (allowing just one hit) as the United States defeated Mexico 5-3. Skenes added seven strikeouts, too.<\/p>\n

It all happened in front of a group of men who share the same infectious, patriotic sense of service as the Pirates ace.<\/p>\n

RELATED: MLB Spring Training 2026: How Many Games Are There? How Does it Work? What to Know<\/a><\/p>\n

And of course, Skenes met with the current Air Force team after the game.<\/p>\n

Team USA Manager Mark DeRosa had high praise for his two Air Force alums.<\/p>\n

“Every guy in that room is proud to represent the United States of America,” the former big leaguer explained to MLB.com<\/a>. “But the conversations with them were a little bit different, as far as wanting to represent every serviceman and woman who protects our freedom on a nightly basis. They’re thinking a little bit different.”<\/p>\n

Paul Skenes talks about the significance of the World Baseball Classic<\/p>\n

Skenes’ patriotism is unwavering \u2014 in a March 9 letter published in The Players’ Tribune<\/a>, he called the World Baseball Classic tournament “not about any of us, really.”<\/p>\n

“It’s bigger than any one person. It’s about country,” he wrote. “That concept is a huge part of what attracted me to military service, and it gets at why I have so much respect for those who are willing to raise their hand and put their life on the line for our country. That sense of a greater good. The bigger picture.”<\/p>\n

RELATED: MLB Returns to NBC: Sunday Night Baseball, Wild Card Round, Peacock Exclusives & More<\/a><\/p>\n

Team USA fans will be happy to know that, after his time as an Air Force cadet, an LSU Tiger, and a Pittsburgh Pirate, one uniform stands out for Skenes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Out of all the jerseys I’ve had over the past few years, the USA one is the one I’m most proud of wearing,” Skenes confessed in a March 9 interview with MLB.com<\/a> before his WBC debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why did Paul Skenes transfer out of the Air Force?<\/p>\n

In an October 2022 interview with the Lafayette Daily Advertiser<\/a>, Skenes explained why he transferred to LSU.<\/p>\n

“So even if you’re still in Minor League Baseball, Major League Baseball. If you’re still in the Air Force, they can pull it away from you, which isn’t a super common thing but you see it occasionally,” he revealed. “I didn’t want anyone to take it out from under me.”<\/p>\n

For Skenes, the flexibility to pursue his professional baseball ambitions was crucial.<\/p>\n

“I think [going to Air Force] was the best thing for me,” Skenes said. “I don’t know where I would be from a baseball standpoint going into my junior year because, to be honest, I think I would have developed more if I spent two years at a program like this. But in terms of personal development, meeting the people that I did, and I think just becoming the person that I am right now, I think that was the best place for me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cy Young winner Paul Skenes‘ journey to the big leagues is the stuff legends are made of. As…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,3326,591,70389,1833,85,313],"class_list":["post-532039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-career","tag-mlb","tag-nbc-sports","tag-peacock","tag-sports","tag-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}