Always a Falcon at heart: Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Paul Skenes values Air Force connections as he launches to MLB stardom (2024)

DENVER• Two of baseball’s best rookie pitchers toured the Air Force Academy on Friday, bringing an early Father’s Day moment to coach Mike Kazlausky.

Former Falcon and current Major League Baseball phenom Paul Skenes led the proceedings, showing his Pittsburgh Pirates teammate Jared Jones all the top attractions.

They watched cadets jump from planes from the airfield. They sat in a glider. Jones took his turn in a virtual-reality flight simulator. Skenes showed off his former dorm, the footprints where cadets are whisked into basic training, and together they paid their respects at the wall of fallen graduates.

“I’ll be honest, I was a pretty proud dad yesterday— pseudo dad,” said Kazlausky, an academy grad, former Air Force pilot and coach of the baseball program for the past 14 years— including the stint from 2021 to 2022, when Skenes starred for the Falcons. “Having Paul here on campus and listening to him speak of his experiences and how proud he is of being here, it made me proud.”

The only moment of chaos on the brief visit came when Skenes came to say goodbye to Kazlausky in full view of the youth assembled for a baseball camp. The campers were oblivious of Jones’ identity, but none seemed to miss the 6-foot-6, 240-pound Skenes— already making a claim as the most famous former Air Force athlete just six games into his big-league career— as they flocked toward him before Kazlausky insisted the 22-year-old rookies head out of town for their Friday night game in Coors Field.

“When we drove in, there were some memories that popped up,” Skenes said Friday from the Pirates dugout, surrounded by about a dozen media members, an unheard- of throng for a mid-June matchup between last-place teams.

“I was also thinking about how I could have just graduated from there. I think either way it was a pretty good decision for me: graduating from the greatest school on earth or being here right now. Those are some pretty good options.”

Skenes also knows, and frequently stresses, that the rocket ship he has ridden since departing Air Force following his sophom*ore year in 2022 might not have been possible had it not been for the foundation set there.

One “leadership opportunity” in particular comes to mind for Skenes as he contemplates how his time at Air Force continues to fuel his growth.

With the Falcons, Skenes famously starred as a two-way player, earning the John Olerud Award as the top player who impacts the game as a pitcher and hitter. As a freshman, he hit .410 and led the team in home runs while primarily serving as the team’s catcher and closer.

The Air Force coaching staff insisted their catchers call the pitches.

“We were memorizing scouting reports and all of that,” said Skenes, who has abandoned hitting since transferring to Louisiana State University. “I thought it was just trusting me as a player, which was part of it, but It’s also a leadership opportunity.

“Forcing us to do that can only make us grow as baseball players. It definitely hasn’t hurt me on the pitching side.”

Coupling that knowledge of how best to attack hitters with Skenes’ rare talent has allowed him to become far more than a thrower, though he could probably thrive if that were the case considering he has already thrown 60 pitches at 100-plus mph this season in the brief time since his debut, while no other MLB starter has eclipsed 40 such pitches.

An example of Skenes applying his knowledge came immediately in the majors. He made his first start against the Chicago Cubs, giving up six hits and three runs in four innings. He faced the same team six days later and struck out 11 in six hitless innings.

“Big arm, good stuff,” Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black noted. “I saw a lot of the college stuff. It's real stuff. It's a delivery that looks repeatable, his arm action is fairly clean and it comes out hot — upper-90s with a hard breaking ball and feel for a changeup. And he's throwing strikes which is, I think for him and the Pirates, a good thing that he's throwing the number of strikes he's throwing as a young rookie pitcher. A lot of times you don't see that. It's a real pitcher."

The biggest jump Skenes made as a pitcher came in the year after he left Air Force.

It was then, as the academic grind lessened and his military responsibilities went away, that he had time to commit himself to his physical development and accompany it with adequate rest and recovery.

His velocity, which had generally hovered around 95 mph for the Falcons, jumped consistently to 100 mph for the Tigers as he led them to a College World Series title.

But as Skenes sees it, he was only able to maximize that opportunity because of the time-management skills and self-discipline he had acquired through Air Force. That extra time would have gone for naught had it not been channeled in the right direction.

“You have to learn how to take things one day at a time and be present at the Air Force Academy,” he said. “You can’t play pro ball if you’re not present. There have been a lot of really great lessons that I’ve gotten at the Air Force Academy that I couldn’t have gotten anywhere else.”

Growing philosophical two weeks after his 22nd birthday, Skenes then contemplated why the academy produces young leaders with similar traits.

“I’ve thought about the type of people at the Air Force Academy in kind of the chicken-or-the-egg way,” he said. “Is the type of person that’s at the Air Force Academy so impressive because of the people who apply and are accepted there? Or is it because of the Air Force Academy itself? I think it’s a little bit of both. That’s something I think about a lot.

“You can’t get worse there.”

Skenes also thinks he benefited from what he learned pitching at Air Force, where Falcon Field sits at 7,200 feet above sea level and the elevation affects the break on the ball.

“You get away with less,” he said. “So you have to be better.”

As Skenes addressed the media for nearly 20 minutes from the Pirates dugout on Friday afternoon, he provided thoughtful, lengthy remarks, and even grew emotional at one point while reflecting on the state and its role in his development.

The Skenes of two years ago darted in and out of answers as quickly as some of his signature pitches now dance away from big-league hitters.

It was this side of him, along with the physical growth that has him filling out his Pirates jersey far more stoutly than he did when his jersey bore the Air Force letters, that illustrated his growth to those who had seen the before-and-after versions of him. Everyone tracking baseball knows the leaps he has made as a pitcher, but this was the opportunity for a firsthand look at his growth, even though he didn’t take the mound during the series (the Pirates opted to shift him back a day from his spot in the rotation, so he’ll pitch Monday against the Cincinnati Reds instead of Sunday against the Rockies).

“When he showed up here, he was 18. He was a boy,” Kazlausky said. “There’s a maturation process that has taken place, but I do believe the academy has laid the foundation for him where he was thrown into a tremendous amount of adversity and stress and pressure. Whether it’s going through basic training or boxing class or just going through our academic and our military rigors as a whole, you have to become an old soul very quick. And he grew up while he was here.

“Has he gotten better with being a little more articulate when he talks? Yes, but that does come with a little bit of maturation process and age. I’m very proud of him.”

Skenes’ actions have long spoken for him.

Part of a family with strong patriotic and military connections, he wanted service in his life. So he homed in on Air Force and Navy as his top college choices and ignored the overtures from other NCAA Division I programs.

When he opted to leave the academy, the decision was accompanied with genuine tears.

“I know he didn’t graduate from here, but he didn’t want to leave here,” Kazlausky said. “Unfortunately, his baseball talent became too good. And I say unfortunately, because there is still a big service piece that he wants to provide, because he knows everything he has is because of those who wear our nation’s uniform.”

How good is Skenes? A year after he left Air Force, he was taken No. 1 overall in the MLB Draft and received a record $9.2 million bonus from the Pirates. He then vaulted through the minor leagues with a 1.85 ERA in 34 innings across three levels. He was called up in early May and owns a 2.43 ERA in six starts and has struck out 46 of the 130 batters he has faced while walking just six. He’s already in the thick of the Rookie of the Year race, if the pace continues, he’ll land in the Cy Young Award mix.

But his connection to Air Force has remained a priority. He invited Kazlausky and his top two assistants to his draft party at his California home. He has now visited the academy twice in the past eight months, visiting in October with his girlfriend, LSU gymnast and social media influencer Olivia Dunne. He brings up his experiences as a cadet frequently in interviews.

“Absolutely,” Skenes told The Gazette when asked if he still sees himself as an ambassador for Air Force’s program and views that as something akin to service. “Anything that I can do or any of us can do to bring eyes to the Air Force Academy is good. Especially with how much it affected me— I owe them that much. I want to keep that going as long as I can.

“The tough part is, for me, I get labeled as the LSU guy because obviously I got drafted out of there. But I’m just as much an Air Force guy as I am an LSU guy. I’m very fond of my time at LSU, but I definitely want people to know how fond I am of my time at Air Force and the relationships I have there, too.”

Skenes’ talent was apparent immediately at Air Force. In the first month of his freshman year, he hit a ball with 100 mph exit velocity and registered a pitch at 100 mph in the same weekend.

But even with those abilities, taking the leap to leave the path he had long envisioned for himself represented a risk. He wanted to fly jets. But he also knew his baseball skills were unique.

He could never have guessed the velocity with which things have transpired since.

“I think how quickly everything has happened is the thing that has surprised me the most,” he told The Gazette. “Really, the thing that’s helped me the most is having this background and this base.”

And something about him has struck a chord with the baseball world.

He received a standing ovation on the road when departing a start against the St. Louis Cardinals. The handful of baseball cards that have been issued to this point are among the most valuable in their sets, according to Beckett Baseball.

From an apparel standpoint, it’s still too early to see a trend. A manager at Rally House in Pittsburgh said they’ve received inquiries about Skenes jerseys but don’t yet have them in stock.

“I think people understand his background and what he’s done,” Kazlausky said. “People really want to buy into that piece. They want that a real American gets it.”

Skenes has taken the time to appreciate the ride and the perks like chartered flights and top-end hotels that come with it. Soaking it all in on a beautiful Denver afternoon, he reflected on this state’s role in his life.

“Colorado is unlike anywhere else that I’ve ever been for a number of reasons,” he said. “The nostalgia and the memories it brings back and the relationships it brings up for me and the lessons that I’ve learned here … it gets me emotional. This has been an awesome, huge part of my life.”

And Kazlausky, again assuming the role of proud papa, knows this is only the beginning.

“He’s still a growing adolescent person that’s trying to learn how to become an adult,” Kazlausky said. “But he will always, always be a Falcon at heart.”