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But Rodriguez, an infantryman with the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines, put that on hold when his unit was called for a third tour of Iraq.
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Former major leaguer and Viterbo player Damian Miller and fellow former Viterbo player Adam Wershoven share a laugh as they run off the field in the fourth inning after playing outfield for the La Crosse Area All-Stars Tuesday at Copeland Park.
PETER THOMSON photo
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This summer, Rodriguez is getting his chance again to play ball.
“I’ve wanted to do this,” Rodriguez said Tuesday afternoon before the Military All-Stars played the La Crosse Area All-Stars in an exhibition game at Copeland Park. “When I was deployed, I had six baseballs that I’d throw through a tire because there was no one to play catch with me.”
Rodriguez and his teammates are getting all the baseball they want this summer. The Military All-Stars’ “Red, White and Blue Tour of America” runs from March through September. It includes games, autograph appearances and visits to other games with the mission of promoting support for men and women of the armed forces.
“It’s an honor to play on this team,” said Retired Navy Lt. Cmdr Terry Allvord, who founded the program 19 years ago. “Baseball is really 10 percent of what we’re doing out here. Everything else is about letting fans get an opportunity to see the military in a different light.”
Allvord said members of the Military All-Star team pay their own expenses, including travel and meals, and use their leave time to play.
“It’s not easy,” Allvord said. “There are a lot of individual sacrifices being made. Young guys on the team aren’t getting paid that much, so teammates all pitch in so they can stay with us.”
Rodriguez, 30, was in vehicles that were struck by IEDs (improvised explosive devices) while serving in Iraq in April 2004 and January 2006. He suffered shrapnel wounds.
“It’s nothing to brag about,” Rodriguez said. “The way I feel is that some service members, they only got one (Purple Heart). Those are the ones that didn’t come back. I’m lucky enough to still be here.”
Rodriguez’s third deployment — his first two were in Hit and Fallujah — was in an area called Trebil. He made it through that tour without any injuries.
“The joke was that our last deployment was like a vacation,” said Rodriguez, who has earned a stateside deployment as a machine gun instructor at Camp Pendleton.
Spending a summer with the Military All-Stars is even better.
“Everybody here loves baseball,” Rodriguez said. “It’s fun. It doesn’t get any better than signing autographs for little kids and making ’em smile. No matter what, it’s not a bad day. At the end of the night, you go to sleep on a mattress in a cool room, versus camped out on the sand.”
Rodriguez’s old infantry unit is now in Afghanistan.
“They’ve lost something like nine to 11 guys,” Rodriguez said. “I think about them a lot.“
Tuesday’s starting pitcher for the Military All-Stars, Navy Ensign Matt Munson, is in his second summer with the team. It’s clear to him that the mission is about more than balls and strikes.
“We’ve seen fans crying in the stands,” Munson said. “It’s because they’ve got family or someone they know serving. It can be pretty emotional at times.”
Joel Badzinski can be reached at (608) 791-8402 or joel.badzinski@lee.net
