Imrem: Whole seasons once were intercepted for military service

Chicago Cubs slugger Kris Bryant was the National League rookie of the year in 2015 and most valuable player in 2016.

Bryant also recorded an assist on the final out of last year's baseball season to secure the Cubs' first World Series title since 1908.

Now try to imagine - oh, no! - Bryant having to leave baseball this year and next to serve in the United States military.

That's how Yale Lary's career arc went in the 1950s.

The former Detroit Lions safety didn't go to war in some faraway place, but he did lose two NFL seasons to the Army.

Lary died a couple of weeks ago at 86, and the fourth paragraph of his Associated Press obituary might interest you on this Memorial Day.

"Mr. Lary had 50 interceptions during an 11-year career that was interrupted during the 1950s by service in the Army."

That's stunning in the context of today's sports world. Current premier athletes don't lose time to military service unless they attended one of the military academies.

Instead of sending men off to the Armed Forces, and maybe into combat, sports leagues play the national anthem, introduce veterans at games and express how much they "appreciate what our troops do to protect us."

For Bryant, two years in the Army would cost him something like 70 or 80 home runs and a few million dollars.

For an accountant or truck driver or plumber, two years represent about 5 percent of their careers. For an NFL player, two years out of what overall would have been Lary's 13-year career represent about 15 percent.

Try to wrap your minds around a great athlete like Lary going from the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Texas A&M to the Lions for two years to the Army for two years back to the Lions for nine more years.

Heck, many athletes today don't even know what ROTC is, and you have to be around 50 years old to remember how the military draft disrupted the lives of young Americans.

After 1953-54 with the Lions, Lary was a reservist called to active duty for 1955-56.

Lary was such an outstanding football player that he still made the Pro Bowl nine times, the league's all-decade team of the 1950s and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Not to single out Kris Bryant, but he is similar in baseball to what Yale Lary was in football.

Bryant won a World Series with the Cubs to cap his second major-league season; Lary won NFL titles with the Lions during his first two seasons.

Can you even start to envision Bryant serving in the Army during what otherwise would be his third and fourth Cubs seasons?

Me neither.

That's what makes Pat Tillman such an exceptional exception for leaving the Arizona Cardinals in 2002, becoming an Army Ranger and dying in Afghanistan.

I recall Lary playing against the Bears but don't recall a big deal being made of him going from the NFL to the Army back to the NFL.

It was a path many athletes had to take in the 1940s, '50s and '60s.

On this holiday - every day, for that matter - we should honor all those like Yale Lary who exchanged for however long the number on his uniform for the one on his dog tags.

Especially remember on Memorial Day the men and women who weren't fortunate enough to make it back alive and resume their civilian careers.

mimrem@dailyherald.com