Burke Waldron's swift jog out to the pitcher's mound at Seattle's Safeco Field betrayed nothing of his age. The 92-year-old World War II veteran was invited to throw out the first ball at the Mariners' Memorial Day game against the Padres, and he turned in an admirable performance.
"92 years old and still bringing it," the Seattle Mariners tweeted. After he sailed the ball to home plate, Waldron didn't waste a moment, uncapping a pen to get the ball autographed by catcher Steve Clevenger.
The month of May tends to be busy for Waldron, who served as a Navy 2nd Class Petty Officer from 1943 to 1946. On May 21, he walked the several-blocks-long Armed Forces Day Parade in Bremerton, Wa., as he has for the past 16 years.
"I dress in my whites and fall in somewhere along the parade route and just go with it," Waldron says in an interview with the Bainbridge Island Review. "It’s quite an honor to represent all those who didn’t come home."
A Utah native, Waldron served on a troop ship that invaded the Makin Islands southwest of Hawaii, according to the Review. He and his wife, Taye, who died in 2010, had five children, and moved to the Pacific Northwest 16 years ago. Waldron started a general contracting business, and he's still regularly going to job sites after waking at 5:30 a.m. to exercise.
