More Than a Game: A Memorial Day Tribute from the Dodgers Family
LOS ANGELES — As its name suggests, Memorial Day is about memory. About sacrifice. About names etched in granite and hearts left aching. It’s about flags folded and trumpets playing taps, about a grateful nation bowing its head not just in ritual but in reverence.
For the Dodgers—an organization that spans generations, coasts, and eras—this day holds special meaning. The team’s history is filled with players who stepped away from the game they loved to serve a country they cherished even more. Some returned to the diamond. Others did not. All of them wore two uniforms with honor.
Their stories are not statistics. They are testaments.
From Ebbets Field to the Front Lines
In the early 1940s, as the world was consumed by war, the Brooklyn Dodgers were among the top teams in baseball. They boasted stars like Dolph Camilli, Pete Reiser, and Pee Wee Reese. But when Pearl Harbor was attacked, baseball changed overnight.
Brooklyn’s general manager Larry MacPhail answered the call and accepted a commission in the Army. Their players followed—Cookie Lavagetto, Carl Furillo, Joe Hatten, and many more. By 1943, the Dodgers were training not in Florida, but at Bear Mountain, just north of West Point. Their scrimmages were often against the cadets. Their dugouts, half-empty, filled with teenagers too young to be drafted and veterans playing out the string.
Pee Wee Reese, a future Hall of Famer, entered military service in 1943. Pete Reiser, the heart of the ’42 pennant race until a wall-crashing injury nearly killed him, also enlisted. Larry French, a 197-game winner, wanted to return just long enough to earn three more wins and reach the 200 milestone. He promised to donate his salary to the Navy Relief Society. His request was denied. Instead, he served at Normandy and stayed in the military through the Korean War.
And of course, Jackie Robinson famously served in the Army prior to his joining the team. However, that service was cut short due to a court martial stemming from Jackie’s refusal to ride in the back of a segregated military bus.
Baseball, President Roosevelt said, should go on to lift morale—but not at the expense of duty. And so, many Dodgers gave up the cheers of Ebbets Field for the sound of gunfire overseas. The team carried on with borrowed players and borrowed time. Wins still mattered, but not as much as the war effort. On June 6, 1944—D-Day—every Major League game was canceled. Brooklyn knelt with the rest of the country in prayer.
Roy Gleason: From World Series Glory to the Mekong Delta
Two decades later, another Dodger answered his nation’s call. Roy Gleason played just eight games for the Dodgers in 1963, but it was enough to earn a World Series ring when L.A. swept the Yankees. Then came Vietnam.
Drafted in 1967, Gleason was deployed with the 9th Infantry Regiment and faced daily mortar attacks near Saigon. In one harrowing firefight, he carried two wounded men to safety under heavy fire. He was later wounded himself while walking point during an ambush in July 1968. His wrist and leg were torn open, but he kept fighting.
Gleason returned home with a Purple Heart—but never again played Major League Baseball. His war injuries cut his athletic career short. Still, he remained a Dodger in spirit. He became a symbol of quiet valor: the only man to earn both a World Series ring and a Purple Heart.
Donny Tidwell: A Life Cut Short, A Legacy That Endures
Gleason’s story is remarkable. But Donny Tidwell’s is heartbreaking.
Drafted by the Dodgers in 1966, Tidwell was a promising young pitcher under the guidance of Tommy Lasorda in Ogden, Utah. That same year, he felt a stronger call—and enlisted in the Army. He was deployed to Vietnam and assigned to the 25th Infantry Division. Just 72 days after arriving, on April 12, 1968, he was killed in action.
He was 21.
Lasorda would never forget him. In a letter to Tidwell’s family, he wrote: “His decision to enter the Army took courage as he set aside his dream of playing baseball to serve his country… While several of his teammates eventually played in the Majors, Donny decided there was something bigger than baseball.”
That courage still echoes in Diana, Texas, where his high school renamed its baseball field in his honor.
Capt. John Sax: A New Generation’s Sacrifice
That spirit of service didn’t end with World War II or Vietnam. It lives on in the families who carry the Dodger legacy today.
In June 2022, Steve Sax—longtime Dodgers second baseman and fan favorite—lost his son, Capt. John Sax, in a tragic Marine Corps Osprey crash during a training flight near Glamis, California. John, a father with a second child on the way, had dreamed of flying since childhood.
“He was my hero and the best man I know,” Steve Sax said.
Capt. Sax wasn’t alone. Also killed were Cpl. Nathan Carlson, a crew chief and former high school swim team captain; Cpl. Seth Rasmuson, a 21-year-old father from Wyoming; and Lance Cpl. Evan Strickland, just 19. All of them were part of Marine squadron VMM-364—the Purple Foxes, with a legacy dating back to Vietnam.
They were young men who lived fully and loved deeply. Men whose names we must never forget.
The Dodgers Remember
Memorial Day is not simply about the fallen. It is about remembering why they fell—and how we honor them.
For the Dodgers, that means more than a ceremonial flyover or camouflage caps. It means remembering that behind every story of service is a human life: a rookie with dreams like Donny Tidwell, a war hero like Roy Gleason, a beloved son like John Sax.
It means opening our gates to every servicemember who walks into the stadium, acknowledging their presence not as guests—but as family.
Because from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, from the trenches of Normandy to the jungles of Vietnam to the skies above the California desert, the Dodgers have always been part of the American story—not just as players, but as patriots.
This Memorial Day, we remember them all.
They played for us. Then they fought for us.
And some never came home.
May we live in a way that honors their sacrifice—not just today, but every day.
Have you subscribed to the Bleed Los Podcast YouTube channel? Be sure to ring the notification bell to watch player interviews, participate in shows & promotions, and stay up to date on all Dodgers news and rumors!
