BOSTON (AP) — Former Blue Jays and current Red Sox catcher Danny Jansen has not only played for both teams in the same game, he’s become the first in major league history to do so.
He played for both teams in the same innings.
In a statistical oddity made possible by two of the strangest things on earth — baseball’s rule book and New England weather — Jansen became the only player in history to appear on both sides of a baseball box score when he started for Toronto in June before being traded to the Red Sox, and then took the field in Boston on Monday after a rain-delayed game resumed.
“I was surprised to find out I was the first to do it,” Jansen said after going 1-for-4 at-bats in Boston and part of another at-bat in Toronto in the Blue Jays’ 4-1 win. “It’s cool to leave your mark on the game like that. It’s interesting and it’s weird, and I’m grateful I had the opportunity to do it.”
On June 26, while playing for Toronto, Jansen fouled off the only pitch thrown by Boston starting pitcher Cutter Crawford in the bottom of the second inning after the Tarps were removed. On July 27, Jansen was traded from Toronto to Boston in exchange for three minor leaguers.
After the sports world was abuzz about the possibility of Jansen making his major league debut, Red Sox manager Alex Cora said last week that Jansen would be available when games resumed after being suspended, saying, “Let’s make history.”
“It was such an amazing moment just to be a part of,” Cora said Monday. “I don’t know if it’ll ever happen again. It’d have to be like a perfect storm starting with a storm for it to happen. And I’m glad everybody enjoyed it.”
Before game play resumed at 2:06 p.m. Monday (a delay of 65 days, 18 hours and 35 minutes), Red Sox media relations coordinator Deiveson Perez announced the changes in the press box at Fenway Park: “Pinch-hitting for Danny Jansen: Doulton Barshaw. Defensive change: Danny Jansen at catcher.”
Jansen played as catcher and Nick Pivetta struck out Varsho to end Jansen’s at-bat, then Jansen came to bat with two outs and, to cheers from the sparse substitute crowd, hit a slow liner to first base to end the inning.
“My preparation up to that point might have been a little weird,” Jansen said. “Once I got in the box and it was ‘game on,’ I just tried to stay focused.”
Jansen’s wife, kids and some friends had come to watch him put his name in baseball’s record book, or at least a footnote. When they arrived, they saw a picture of Jansen in a Blue Jays cap on the scoreboard.
“Today, when I walked out on the court, I definitely knew I was there,” Jansen said. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is where we are.'”
Before the first pitch, the umpires had a lengthy discussion with the coaches at home and pulled out some of the strangest batting order charts in baseball history. Blue Jays manager John Schneider said he was pleased to see the attention being given to a former career backup with a .222 career batting average.
“I think it’s great that he’ll go down in history as the first guy to do that,” Schneider said. “I’ve known Jano my whole life, and it’s great that he can always say he was the first, and he’s good at unusual things, so that’s pretty cool for him.”
Jansen singled in the fifth inning, Boston’s first hit of the game, then flied out in the seventh and reached base with two outs and a runner on second in the ninth, but struck out on a pickoff attempt to end the game.
The 29-year-old right-hander said he wore two jerseys in games (three if you include the one he wore in Toronto in June), one he’ll keep for himself and one he’ll send to the Baseball Hall of Fame. An appraiser was on site to tag all of Jansen’s equipment.
The Cooperstown shrine said it had requested the scorecard from official scorer Bob Ellis, who also kept score when the game began in June.
“This scorecard, with Danny Jansen’s name on both teams, will be a great tool to document and explain this history,” said Hall spokesman John Shestakowski.
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