One of the Major League Baseball’s standout pitchers wasn’t even thinking about playing professionally not even a decade ago.
Now, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes is viewed as one of the best young arms in the game, and his fame has transcended the game of baseball. Obviously, that’s helped out by his high profile relationship with LSU gymnast and social media influencer Olivia “Livvy” Dunne.
Believe it or not, both Dunne and Skenes are 22-year-old, and it already seems like they’ve got the world around their fingers. That was made evident by their recent interview with GQ. You’ve probably seen some of the pictures from it on social media.
Paul Skenes, Livvy Dunne and Roux stun for GQ
pic.twitter.com/D6PVkLXh78
— MLB (@MLB) April 2, 2025
And it was in that interview that we learned a little bit more about Paul Skenes and his aspirations outside of baseball.
Now, it’s hard to imagine that a guy like Skenes – who can throw triple digits and boasts and unreal control of the strike zone – wouldn’t be playing baseball professionally. It sort of seems like he was born to do it, but the idea of playing professionally wasn’t always in the cards for the baseball player.
In his early high school years, he had yet to hit a growth spurt and was under 6-foot tall and weighed less than 160 pounds. During that time, he played catcher just as much as he stood up on the mound. However, a growth spurt and a newfound interest in weight training quickly made him a lucrative pitching prospect.
Skenes started out at Air Force, and his talent was quickly catching the eyes of teams across the country. It was actually one of his coaches that encouraged him to transfer out of Air Force, because if Paul would have stayed more than two years there, he would have had no other choice but to stay there for a full four years (even if he was drafted).
Paul Skenes said in the GQ interview that he remembers the conversation with his coach going something like this:
“He was like, ‘You either stay here and when you get drafted, you walk across the stage in your flight suit, and every time you pitch you’re a recruiting ad for the Air Force, or you go somewhere that’s going to make you the first overall pick.’”
Initially, Skenes didn’t see the same vision as his coach, and was skeptical about leaving. However, he decided to trust that his coach had his best interest in mind, and decided to transfer out to LSU for his third – and ultimately final – year of college. If it weren’t for the coach stepping in, Paul Skenes’ baseball career could have looked a lot different.
But at the end of the day, the talented baseball player wasn’t always entranced with the thought of being a big league pitcher. In fact, Skenes was very content with staying at Air Force and potentially serving his country after his baseball playing days were over.
Or as he so eloquently put it:
“I want to go fly planes and kill bad people, and if baseball opens up, then I’ll do that.”
Maybe knowing that Paul Skenes was willing to put his life on the line and “kill bad people” will make it easier for baseball fans when they watch the pitcher rain fire on the strike zone against their favorite team.
I certainly find that to be a rather cool tidbit about Paul Skenes, and I’m sure most people would agree that there are bad people out there that need to be… dealt with. It’s just not going to be Skenes flying that plane and dealing with those types of people.
He’s too busy living the exciting life of an MLB pitcher and the significant other to Livvy Dunne:
The post Pittsburgh Pirates Ace Paul Skenes Wanted To Serve His Country Before Baseball Took Off: “Fly Planes & Kill Bad People” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.