Milan Dinga: You’re in the Army Now
 Angels minor league pitcher Milan Dinga and other West Point graduates in professional baseball will have to report for duty at season’s end. |
Baseball America reports in its current issue that Angels minor league pitcher Milan Dinga and other West Point graduates will have to report for duty at season’s end.
Reporter Kary Booher wrote:
The Army rescinded a program that allowed cadets who were athletes to swap out military service for playing professional sports after graduation … The option had been available since April 2005, as the Army reasoned that its former West Point cadets could generate positive media attention — and enhance recruiting — by serving on athletic fields instead of battlefields.
The Pentagon, apparently pressured by athletes from the Naval and Air Force academies who did not have similar options available, reiterated that the Army fall back under the same rules, which require at least two years of active service after graduation.
Dinga appeared in only two games this year — one for Cedar Rapids, one for Salt Lake. A 10th round draft pick by the Angels in 2007, he pitched in only four games last year with Orem, allowing one run in 6 2/3 innings with six strikeouts. He’s been battling a rotator cuff injury since May.
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