Jerry Coleman

Early 1953. Jerry Coleman is strapped into a Corsair over Korea, flying close-support runs for Marines fighting below. Flak comes up black and ugly. Two years earlier, he'd been standing on second base at Yankee Stadium, the toast of the Bronx, months removed from being named Most Valuable Player of the World Series. Now the only scoreboard that mattered was whether he came back.

He always came back. Gerald "Jerry" Coleman played second base for the New York Yankees from 1949 to 1957 under Casey Stengel, won four World Series rings, and is, by every account anyone's ever managed to check, the only major leaguer to see combat in both World War II and Korea. Ted Williams flew fighters in both wars too, but he never saw combat in the first one -- the shooting stopped while he was still stateside training pilots. Bob Feller and Warren Spahn fought in World War II and stayed home for Korea. Coleman is the one name that clears both bars.

Stirnweiss Gets Spiked, a Rookie Gets His Shot

Coleman made the Yankees out of spring training in 1949 as George "Snuffy" Stirnweiss's backup. On Opening Day, Stirnweiss got spiked. Coleman took over second base and never really gave it back -- 128 games, a .275 average, and a fielding reputation that had Stengel raving before the season even ended.

The Sporting News named him the American League's Rookie of the Year that fall. He'd actually finished third in the BBWAA's inaugural balloting, behind Roy Sievers and Alex Kellner (the first year the award ever split into separate AL and NL votes -- bad timing to finish third in a brand-new category nobody remembers arguing about). Coleman spent the next several Octobers making the distinction irrelevant anyway.

The MVP Series, Then the Recall Notice

By 1950, Coleman had made his only All-Star team and helped the Yankees sweep the Philadelphia "Whiz Kids" in the World Series. Game 3, October 6, bottom of the ninth: his two-out single to left-center scored Gene Woodling for a 3-2 walk-off win. The BBWAA handed him the Babe Ruth Award as the Series' best player -- what everyone since has simply called the World Series MVP.

In May 1952, the Marine Corps called him back to active duty. He'd already flown 57 dive-bomber missions in the Pacific during World War II. Now, assigned to Marine Attack Squadron 323 -- the "Death Rattlers" -- he trained on the Corsair and flew 63 more combat missions over Korea in early 1953: 120 missions across two wars, and a combined two Distinguished Flying Crosses, thirteen Air Medals, three Navy Citations. He missed most of the 1952 season (just 11 games before the recall) and most of 1953. The Yankees won the World Series both years. He doesn't have the rings.

The Colonel Behind the Microphone

Coleman returned in September 1953, then played out his career as a part-time infielder through 1957, picking up one more ring along the way. He retired from the Marine Corps Reserve a lieutenant colonel, and the nickname followed him into his second career. He called Yankees games in the 1960s before landing in San Diego, where he spent 42 seasons -- 33 of them consecutive -- as the voice of the Padres. "Oh, Doctor!" became as recognizable in San Diego as anything he'd ever done with a glove (so did "He slid into second with a stand-up double" -- the malaprops, San Diego decided, were half the charm). In 2005, the Hall of Fame gave him the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence.

Nobody else can say they did both wars. Nobody else needs to.