by One of baseball’s best stories continued on Saturday night in Sioux City, Iowa, as 44 year old Iowa State House Representative J.D. Scholten continued his magical summer of balancing pro baseball and repping the people of his district, improving to 3-0 with 5.1 innings of two-run ball and leading the Sioux City Explorers to an American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB) doubleheader sweep over the first place Sioux Falls Canaries.
Scholten, a veteran minor leaguer who last pitched in The Netherlands last summer, was summoned by the hometown Explorers just three weeks ago and hurled six solid innings on just three hours notice to restart his career. His work has garnered a great amount of attention, and the Explorers, who head into the AAPB All Star break after their game Sunday, even did a tshirt giveaway Saturday night in honor of their new…older…star pitcher.
He will next take the hill next week, while continuing his work on The Hill in Iowa as well.
“They made ‘The Rookie’ about Jim Morris making it to the Majors with the Tampa Rays at age 35, J.D.’s story should at least merit a special on C Span,” joked AA Commissioner Josh Schaub. “The story unfolding, given the quality of players he has faced in Milwaukee, Sioux Fall and Fargo- Fargo-Moorhead’, is quite amazing.”
