Catcher Danny Jansen has made history as the first player to play for both teams in the same Major League Baseball game.
Yes, you read that right…
The 29-year-old was batting for the Toronto Blue Jays on 26 June when their game against the Boston Red Sox was suspended because of rain.
A day later he was traded to the Red Sox – and appeared for his new team when the fixture resumed on Monday.
“I’m just going to put my head down and play,” Jansen said before the game restarted. “It’s definitely a cool thing.”
New signings have come in midway through suspended games previously in MLB, but there has not been a scenario where a player featured against his old side.
Remarkably, Jansen was the player batting at the plate for the Blue Jays when the game was halted two months ago.
That meant his former side had to put up another batter – pinch-hitter Daulton Varsho – in his place, while Jansen, now in the Red Sox’s uniform rather than Toronto’s, was the catcher for the hosts at Boston’s Fenway Park.
The Blue Jays won the fixture 4-1, with Jansen appearing in the box score and line-up for both teams.
After the match he told MLB.com the situation had been “strange”, adding: “I never would have imagined myself in this situation with it being history. I guess I would have assumed it would have happened before.”
