PASADENA, Calif. • When the Navy wouldn’t let Mitch Harris leave it for baseball, Mitch Harris made sure to bring baseball with him.

He wasn’t going to be inactive on active duty.

For five years and a handful of deployments around the world, Harris served his country with honor and brought two baseball gloves and a few baseballs so that he could do whatever possible to keep his arm in shape and his professional chances afloat. On one deployment, the Naval Academy grad found a catcher, the ship’s cook. Whenever he had leave, he would do what he could to report to Jupiter, Fla., and get any innings or bullpens available, just to show the Cardinals that he was as interested in following through with baseball as they were in having him, years after selecting him.

Twice, Harris put together an appeal to the U.S. Navy to allow him to serve in the reserves, to complete his five-year commitment in another way so that he could pursue a career in baseball while young, before baseball abandoned him.

Each time, his request was rejected.

Once at the same time, an NFL player’s request was approved.

“There are questions why two different decisions were made,” he told me.