It is common knowledge that one cannot be in two locations at once. These are the laws of physics, the unchangeable laws.
Who knew that you could play in a baseball game for two different clubs at the same time? These are also the crazy suspended-game regulations that apply to baseball.
Therefore, on Monday, if all the stars align properly, Danny Jansen of the Boston Red Sox will go where no baseball player has ever gone before. At least not in the major leagues.
He might become the first player in major league history to appear in both teams’ box scores in the same game in only one week. We are pleading with the forces of the cosmos to do this: it is imperative!
“Oh, man,” Jansen told The Athletic the other day. “It’s going to be nuts.”
Since June 26, he has been trapped in baseball time, trapped in the batter’s box at Fenway Park, for the past 54 days. Naturally, not in that sense. However, this is baseball. According to the box score of that game, he is still hitting despite if everything else around him has been spinning in a million different directions.
It was inning number two. He had a runner on first with one out while batting for the Toronto Blue Jays in Boston. It was a first-pitch cutter that he had fouled off. That marked the moment the weather gods decided it was appropriate to play pranks on the baseball gods.
Consequently, the showers caused a rain delay. The game was suspended as a result of the weather delay. That game was supposed to resume on August 26. Next, though…
The trade deadline was reached. Additionally, Jansen was moved for the first time in his career to the Red Sox, who the Blue Jays were playing that evening. Friends, the past is calling. And idiocy too. We adore both of them.
So what direction might this be going? What is the meaning of it all? And are you positive that this is a first? (Warning of spoiler: Be not!) Let us examine this.
So what happens next?
One thing is certain when this game is resumed: Danny Jansen will not be allowed to complete his at-bat. Though occasionally a bit absurd, the suspended-game rule is not that absurd—certainly not absurd enough to permit a player to bat for the Blue Jays while wearing a Red Sox uniform.
This is where things may become interesting—and historic—though. The Red Sox must switch catchers as well. Their Triple-A roster currently includes Reese McGuire, who was their catcher at the time, but not their big-league roster. Thus, assuming Red Sox manager Alex Cora is as smart as we believe him to be, we are about to witness one of the most amazing P.A. announcements in history:
“Now catching for the Red Sox, Danny Jansen. Now pinch-hitting for Danny Jansen … fill in the blank, but who the heck cares!”
“Oh, man,” Jansen said, when we ran that scenario by him. “Such an oddity.”
It’s an oddity, all right. But it’s only possible because …
The suspended-game rule is the gift that keeps on giving
The suspended-game rule has to be the greatest of the baseball rulebook’s fourteen billion laws. It is the greatest rule ever, allowing for the most bizarre and interesting nuttiness.
It opens up the possibility of time travel. Juan Soto was able to make his debut prior to his 2018 debut because of this rule. On May 20, he joined the Washington Nationals in the major leagues. However, he went on to play in a game that had been postponed until May 15 and scored a home run. This indicates that he homered before his first home run and made his debut before making his debut.
Juan Soto homers in the sixth inning of a resumed game on June 18, 2018, that had been suspended five days before his MLB debut the month earlier. (2018 Diamond Images via Getty Images)
It enables team travel. Reliever Joel Hanrahan, who was playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates, was able to win a game for the Nationals because of this regulation. He pitched the Nats’ top of the 11th inning without giving up any runs on May 5, 2009. Then things got a little murky, both literally and figuratively.
It was postponed, put on hold, and concluded after two months. However, by then, he had been dealt to the Pirates. Thus, yes. Joel Hanrahan was the winning pitcher for the Nationals when they rallied to win in Washington while he was hanging out in the Pirates bullpen in Miami. What a ruse.
It opens the door to cloning. Adam Duvall and Daniel Hudson were able to play two separate games on the same day against two different teams because of this rule. And that does not even seem unusual anymore, do we, thus far into the section?
The Miami Marlins and Nationals were playing on July 21, 2021. For Miami, Duvall went 1 for 4. Hudson gave Washington a scoreless eighth inning of pitching. However,
Concurrently, in a another reality, the Braves and Padres engaged in a suspended game on the same day. Guess what had changed by September when they picked it back up?
Duvall was courageous. Hudson was also a padre. and Adam Duvall of the Braves hit a home run off Daniel Hudson of the Padres in the sixth inning of that game. They were playing each other in Washington on the same day, according to the box scores. Baseball Reference has Duvall’s game log right there. Traditional!
(screenshot from Baseball Reference)
Alright, enough of that entertaining introduction. Let us go back to Danny Jansen. The idea that a player might be substituted into a game for the opposing team right after being taken out of it defies logic. However, did we already mention how creative the suspended-game rule is? That is exactly what Rule 7.02 states:
A player who was not with the Club when the game was suspended may be used as a substitute, even if he has taken the place of a player no longer with the Club who would not have been eligible …
Yes!
Not that Jansen knew any of that very well when he was dealt to Boston on July 27. But it only took him a single day in his new clubhouse to understand he would need to brush up on this, since those Boston scribes had a lot of questions about an accomplishment he had no idea was feasible.
“I didn’t know (much about this) at first,” he said. “I was like, ‘What — am I going to have to go on the other team?’ I didn’t know what was going to happen. It just kind of caught me off guard about the whole situation. Because when I got traded, it was just a whirlwind at first, and I didn’t think about it. But then, once that stuff settled, I heard about (the suspended-game scenario). And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool. That’s a unique thing that’s going to happen.’”
Okay, so how special is it? Please take your time responding, as there is actually…
Another living human who actually did this
Dale Holman is a name that most people are unlikely to be familiar with unless they were avid fans of International League baseball in the 1980s. However, did you know that the Baseball Hall of Fame presently houses a number of his career artifacts?
True story. And why is that? Because in 1986, Holman did something that might sound familiar if you’ve read this far:
He played for both teams in the same game.
Playing right field for Syracuse in June, he got the game underway. On August 16, while playing left field for Richmond, he completed the game. Indeed, we have located the box score.
However, in contrast to the story of Danny Jansen, who was simply traded from one team to another, Holman’s accomplishment required a number of celebrities to align. He was not exchanged. He was set free. Therefore, it is not necessarily a guarantee that you will make history.
He was locked in his fifth season at Triple A at the age of 27, and he was not even sure he would find work again. Rather, he became involved with Greenville, South Carolina’s Double-A Braves squad. When the Braves’ Triple-A team in Richmond needed an outfielder quickly, a month later, he was still there. Who do you think was called up?
Naturally, Holman’s new squad was going to play his former team, Syracuse, in a suspended game that was scheduled to restart in only two days. It is reasonable to assume that, compared to what Danny Jansen is going through, there was a lot less hype surrounding that historic occasion. Actually, it was hardly noticed at all, save from…
That afternoon, Paul Runge, an infielder for Richmond, was struck by a fortunate lightning bolt. Hold on, he thought. When this game started, was not the new outfielder in town playing for the other team?
“Until then, nobody had remembered it, even myself,” Holman told The Athletic when we tracked him down at his home in Miramar Beach, Fla. “But then Paul Runge did. I remember we were sitting in the clubhouse, and he said something about it. He said: ‘You’ve got to get in there!’”
Before he knew it, Holman was in the lineup and had singled in his previous two at-bats, both against a team he had just started to play for in the third inning. However, that was not even his greatest accomplishment.
He had smoked a two-run double against Richmond in the second inning while still in the Syracuse starting lineup. He had not only participated in the game for both sides, but he had also scored a hit for each of them. Even more bizarrely, at the conclusion of the game, he was credited with scoring the game-winning run against the side he was playing for.
This seems less like actual events and more like a script from Brockmire. However, it is continuing to perpetuate the mystique of Dale Holman some 40 years later. Even he is astounded that anyone is even vaguely aware of this.
“It’s just one of those crazy things,” he said. “It could have happened to anybody, but it happened to me. I was in the wrong place at the right time, or whatever.”
He would have become an overnight sensation on TikTok if it had happened today. However, this was 1986—a period before Tik-ing, Tok-ing, and tweeting. It is therefore astonishing that news of this amazing achievement spread outside of Richmond.
“I really don’t think anything would ever have been known about that, if not for a woman in our office (in Richmond), and she sent something in to USA Today,” Holman said. “On the front page of their sports, they used to have a little column that was something like ‘Today in Sports.’ So they had a little paragraph about it.
“Then the next Saturday, one of my old roommates called me and said: ‘I’m watching the (NBC) Game of the Week. And I just heard Joe Garagiola mention your name about playing in a game for both teams.’”
At the time, that was about as viral as Holman’s amazing feat could go. Fortunately, Jansen arrived to encourage dedicated media organizations like us to resurrect it from the past. It seems sense, then, that as soon as we connected, Holman said, “I got your message.” I was eager to speak with you.
So here’s an idea. Let’s try the first-ever…
Danny Jansen vs. Dale Holman Tale of the Tape
Holman has had this room all to himself for almost forty years. He was the lone member of the Two Teams in the Same Game Club, as far as even seasoned minor-league historians can tell. We wondered, then, if he was hoping Jansen would follow him or not.
“Well, he can’t join me,” Holman said, cheerfully. “He didn’t get a hit (before changing teams). You know, that’s the deal. So he can go ahead and play for three or four teams in a day. It doesn’t matter.”
We relayed those words to Jansen. He found them pretty amusing.
“He’s not wrong,” Jansen said, laughing. “I mean, I ended my day with the Blue Jays 0 for 1 — no, wait. I’m 0 for 0, and down, 0-1, in the count. So I didn’t get a hit for both sides.”
Yes, Holman has that specialty covered if earning a hit for both teams in the same game is the key area. Now, though, let us argue for Jansen—assuming, that is, that he is starting this game at catcher.
He is doing it in the major leagues, to start. That is undoubtedly a huge plus for Jansen.
Second, Jansen had the opportunity to begin this at-bat as the hitter and end it as the catcher. So, in a game, who the hell has ever caught and batted in the same at-bat? No one. Of course. What makes doing that cool, then?
“Ooh,” Jansen said. “That would be very cool.”
Then he had a question for us: If the pinch-hitter goes in for him and strikes out, “does that go on my stats? … Because if it did, I was thinking we’re going to have to get that guy to roll one over to third base.”
However, the response to that is no. Anything that occurs in this at-bat will be attributed to the pinch hitter because there was just one strike. That appeared to relieve Jansen.
But what if, before the rain came, he had seen one more pitch in that game? What if he had been struck by two strikes rather than just one? He would then have had the opportunity to do some truly strange things. He had a chance to catch himself out after the third strike.
“Wow,” Jansen said. “That would be wild.”
Or consider this even more bizarre scenario that might have occurred. (For this one, special thanks to devoted reader Frank Mercogliano.) Theoretically, Danny Jansen the catcher could have tagged himself out if there had been two strikes rather than one and he was unable to hold onto the pitch that struck out Danny Jansen the hitter. At least that is what the official baseball play-by-play archives would have said, anyway.
“That’s so funny to think about,” Jansen said, laughing again. “Good thing it’s all theoretical, right?”
Hold on. There is more. Jansen would receive credit for playing one game in which he was with the Blue Jays and another in which he was with the Red Sox, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He would only be credited for the one game that he really played. When does one plus one become one, then? only in baseball!
Perhaps even stranger, we have video proof that Jansen entered the Blue Jays’ batter’s box during this game. and, properly speaking, has been stuck there for the past seven weeks. However, he will not be given credit for the Blue Jays plate appearance. Friends, do not believe what you see. Baseball is played!
Yes, it is as odd as it gets, but it is cool nonetheless. But just when we thought Jansen was certain his achievement would surpass Holman’s, Jansen actually jumped to the defense of Mr. 3-for-3 himself, Dale Holman (for two separate teams).
“Yeah, but three knocks, though,” Jansen said. “It’s going to be tough to top that.”
All right. Props to them both. Because what everyone needs to contemplate here is that …
Moments like this reverberate through baseball history
The first to acknowledge that he is not the brightest baseball star in the universe is Holman. However, you ought to be aware that he did have his moments. He once had an OPS of.908 in the Texas League and hit.344. He once played for a Syracuse club that played two games in a row, one lasting 27 innings and the other lasting 23. Shortly after, he made his professional pitching debut. The Louisiana Tech Hall of Fame includes him. However, moreover
“You’re a baseball guy,” he told us. “Research this one.”
Then he related a story about his days as a traveling teacher for the Braves. All kinds of strange things started happening while he was visiting their South Atlantic League club. Due to several ejections, sicknesses, and emergencies, he was forced to fill in as a manager, coach, umpire, and even player during the course of four games.
Has anyone else ever done that? he asked. Hard to say. But at least Danny Jansen hasn’t.
Despite this, Holman is aware that no aspect of his career is more vividly remembered as the legendary Richmond game in which he became so entangled in the actions of both sides that, at the conclusion, “I did not know whose hand to shake.” Almost forty years have passed. And now here we are, still discussing this. Incredible.
As his two-team moment draws near, what is it that Dale Holman would like to say to Danny Jansen?
“I don’t know how his career will play out. You know what I mean?” Holman said. “But it kept my name in the news for a few decades. And I wouldn’t be known otherwise. I started out my baseball career as a prospect with the Dodgers. But then everything faded after that. So (this game) kept me in the news.
“So with him,” Holman said of Jansen, “with the way the internet is now, it’ll be all over the world. So even if he doesn’t start that game for Boston, I’m sure they’ll figure out a way to get him in there for an at-bat or to catch an inning, or whatever. I mean, they’d be crazy not to.”
But will things really turn out that way? No hand has been tipped by Alex Cora. Thus, we might not find out until the lineup is announced.
Being the only player to play for both teams in the same game is one of baseball’s greatest future trivia questions, but Jansen has had far more on his plate during the majority of his tenure with Boston. Would he, however, love to end up being that response? Who wouldn’t?
“It’s pretty cool,” he said. “It’s a cool thing to be part of something that lives on and is just a rarity, something that does not happen very often at all. That would be awesome. You know, I try to be in the moment as much as possible. But one day, if this happens, it’s going to be a cool thing regardless … but especially later on. It’s going to be a cool thing to look back on.”
And how would he explain to his grandchildren in the future how it is even feasible to play in the major leagues for two teams in the same game?
“Baseball is incredible,” he said. “It’s always incredible. You can’t expect that anything in baseball can’t happen. Anything’s possible.
“This game,” said Danny Jansen, “is nuts.”
(Photo: Getty Images / Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe)
