Adm. Timothy J. Keating, who will step down as the commander of U.S. Pacific Command at Camp Smith on Oct. 19 and will retire shortly after, is weighing his options.

He'd like the Cincinnati Reds to know he's available.

"I have lots of eligibility left, so if the (Reds) are looking for a second baseman. ..." Keating said last week at his Halawa Heights office overlooking Pearl Harbor.

The four-star admiral, 60, threw out the first pitch at the Sept. 11 Cubs-Reds game in Chicago.

The Dayton, Ohio, native didn't exactly bring the heat, but it was in the strike zone.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella gave Keating a compliment, which the admiral may have mistaken for a contract offer.

"I'm standing next to Lou Piniella as the 'Star-Spangled Banner' is being sung, and as the song concludes, he goes, 'That was a pretty sweet strike' — and that's from Sweet Lou," Keating said, referencing Piniella's nickname. "So, my arm's in good shape. I got lots left."

Keating was at the Pentagon during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The Cubs learned he was in Chicago and invited him out to the game in recognition of the eighth anniversary of the event that changed the nation.

"We lost 26 kids with whom I had taken the morning operations update. ... I left, the airplane hit," Keating recalled of the Pentagon attack, involving an American Airlines jetliner.

Keating, a Navy pilot who has more than 5,000 flight hours, is retiring Dec. 1 after 42 years of military service — the last 2 1/2 of which have been spent at the helm of the Pacific Command, which covers half the globe.

There have been tragedies like the 9/11 attacks along the way, but Keating said, "The resilience, the perseverance, the strength of our Navy, of our armed forces, has been a source of strength for me and my family for all these years."

He said he looks back on his career "with a great sense of pride and fulfillment."

"I'd do it again in a second," he said.

Keating, who has a down-to-earth humility, recently told a Pentagon reporter that his parents taught him "that if you figure that everybody is senior to you, and regard them that way and give them that respect ... it will allow you to develop the capacity to listen, to pay attention, and to learn."

Keating said he and his wife, Wanda Lee, will head to Virginia Beach, Va., where their children and grandchildren live, "and we'll see what happens." That's if the Reds don't call.