While reading recaps from major league baseball games, an item toward the bottom of one of the articles caught my eye. I would have put it higher in the story.

Cincinnati Reds outfielder Jacob Hurtubise got his first major league hit with a single in the third inning of the 4-0 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 18 in LA. I can hear you saying so what. But the 26-year-old U.S. Military Academy graduate made history when he was called up May 13. He became the first major leaguer to use a new exemption policy allowing West Point grads to defer their military service while playing professional sports.

This is huge news. I’ve been told football players have already used this exemption. Hurtubise is the first major league baseball player to do so. As a West Point grad, your commitment is at least five years of active duty and three years in Army Reserve Component, for a total of eight years.

“Initial thought is just how blessed I am to be in this situation,” Hurtubise said in a phone interview Friday. “I truly thank God for just the timing and all of it.”

The policy change was announced in November 2019, seven months before he graduated in the West Point class of 2020. “That’s really what opened up the door for me to be able to do this,” he said. He majored in operations research, which is like applied mathematics, and planned to enter air defense artillery.

Hurtubise played for the U.S. Military Academy from 2016-20, but the 2020 season was cut short by COVID.

He’s from Zionsville, Indiana, just northwest of Indianapolis. His parents, Francois and Lisa Hurtubise, also have an older son, Alec, 28. Hurtubise was called up from the Reds’ High A affiliate, the Dayton Dragons, and he received the call when he was at home for Mother’s Day.

While playing for the Reds’ Double-A affiliate, the Chattanooga Lookouts, Hurtubise traveled to Toyota Field in Madison to face the Rocket City Trash Pandas. He said Phil Nelson of Huntsville is a mentor and friend.

Nelson, 80, graduated from West Point in 1966 and he was a left-handed pitcher on the baseball team from 1964-66. The retired major, who was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, came to Huntsville in 1997 and he retired from working in the tech management division of the Apache Project Office at Redstone in February 2013.

“Jacob is an incredible individual,” Nelson said. “He’s a treat to have on any team. He’s a hard worker. He’s very, very thankful for the four years and the education he got at West Point. He’s a very good representative of someone who’s a graduate of West Point.”

Jacob Hurtubise, an outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 2020.

There’s another local connection to this story, too. Hurtubise’s teammate Graham Ashcraft, 26, the starting pitcher for the Reds on May 18, is a Huntsville native. I remember covering an Ashcraft game for a statewide website when he was pitching for Huntsville High.

We’ve had football players from our area who have played at West Point. With the new exemption policy, young men and women everywhere have an opportunity to pursue a professional sports career before serving our nation as Army officers.

“The draw for me (to attend the U.S. Military Academy) was just the opportunities I knew that I would have coming out of West Point,” Hurtubise said. “I would say the opportunities and the people I have met.”