Marine who proposed & threw 1st pitch at Angels/CWS ALCS game dies...

Marine dies in war

CASUALTY: Cpl. Jason Morrow, of Riverside, was killed Tuesday in Iraq. He was 27.

10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, June 28, 2006

By MELANIE C. JOHNSON
The Press-Enterprise

Cpl. Jason W. Morrow's love of baseball prompted him to pop the question to wife Evelyn on the field at Angel Stadium of Anaheim last year.

The Riverside Marine's love of country carried him through three tours in Iraq.

Morrow died Tuesday in combat against enemy forces in Iraq's Al Anbar Province, officials said. He was 27.

Morrow joined the Marine Corps on Dec. 9, 2002, and was a machine gunner assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Pendleton, officials said.

William Morrow said he last spoke to his son the Monday after Father's Day. Jason had been home in February for a visit and was expected to make a return trip to Riverside in 35 days, he said.

William Morrow said he got word in person of his son's death at 5 a.m. Tuesday morning and said while the family is "devastated" by the loss, they are proud of Jason's service.

"I'm very proud that he was a Marine and served our country," he said. "I have no regrets at all. ... We come from a military family."

William Morrow said not only was Jason in the military, but he has a daughter and a son-in-law in the Navy and another son-in-law in the Marines.

Jason Morrow's medals include the Iraq Campaign, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary, Global War on Terrorism Service, Marine Corps Good Conduct, and National Defense Service. He also earned Combat Action and Sea Service Deployment ribbons, officials said.

William Morrow described his son as family oriented and a sports enthusiast who loved to surf and golf. The 1998 graduate of Buena Vista High School in Corona also had attended La Sierra High School and wrestled, and played baseball and football, William Morrow said.

Jason Morrow lived another dream last year when he threw the opening pitch at an Angels versus White Sox game, his dad said.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/corona/stories/PE_News_Local_H_morrow29.208669d.html

From MLB.COM

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20051015&content_id=1251001&vkey=ps2005news&fext=.jsp

CEREMONIAL FIRST PITCH: Today's ceremonial first pitch will be delivered by JASON MORROW, a lifelong Angels fan and U.S. Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton...Morrow is awaiting his third deployment to Iraq and proposed to his girlfriend in May here at Angel Stadium after returning from his second tour of duty...His participation represents the long-standing commitment on part of the Angels to honor military and troops serving the United States around the world.

 

Damn. Condolences to his family and fiance.

 

This story received little play at the time, but I thought I'd link to today's LAT, which featured it (FINALLY!) on the cover of sports...For the life of me, I can't understand why this didn't receive more attention from MLB...

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-me-jason8jul08,1,1969477.story?coll=la-headlines-sports

 

Because MLB is run by a bunch of rich white Republicans who don't want to point out their boy's war is our biggest disgrace of the last 30 years?

 

You're an idiot.

 

The fuck he is....

 

Jesus Christ. And another thread goes down the "let's trash the Republicans" path. Might I point out, FWIW, that Bud Selig gave $20,000 to Democratic candidates in the 2000 election?

 

Actually, the LAT put it on A1 yesterday, not sports.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2004-10-26-campaign-contributions_x.htm

Seems sports team owners hedged their bets by donating to both sides. If your mayor, state rep or Congressman is a Democrat, makes sense to get in his good graces in the future. That explains Selig (Sen. Feingold) and a few others.

But WTF are we talking about that for? Any loss in Iraq is a tragedy. It would be a shame to make this American hero's death in vain by cutting and running from an Islamic republic under sharia law that doesn't want us there.

 

Every single death was in vain once we invaded the wrong country. About 20,000 American lives ended so we could haul in Saddam and get Dubya to squirt. However, now that we have actually stepped on the ant pile, we are dead meat. As long as Islamic extremists are willing to kill themselves to take dozens of people with them, we are going to have to cut and run at some point. This will only get worse.

 

Oh, I agree on team owners (I didn't see Selig listed under the GOP, but I could've been looking at the wrong link). I also agree it's a damn shame to see this. That's a tragic story.

 

The real reactionary is the guy who owns the Tigers. (Also, the DeVos clan elsewhere). The rest of them are apolitical, by and large.