A Major League Baseball (MLB) player has made history by being the first to bat for two different teams in the same game.
Danny Jansen, 29, was signed to the Toronto Blue Jays when they faced off against the Boston Red Sox on 26 June, but the game was called off and rescheduled due to heavy rain.
Up batting for the Canadian side, Jansen only saw one pitch from Boston’s Kutter Crawford in the second innings before the game was postponed.
The Jays then sold Jansen to the Red Sox on 27 July, in exchange for three minor-league prospects, while still being technically at the plate in the paused game.
Alex Cora, manager of the Boston side, said ahead of the game he would field Jansen despite his having played for the opposition, adding: “Let’s make history.”
The game resumed on Monday – 65 days, 18 hours, and 35 minutes after play was paused – with Jansen now a catcher for the Red Sox and the Jays’ Daulton Varsho pinch-hitting in the place of the former player.
It was the first time a baseball player played for two sides in the same game in MLB history. Jansen then went on to make another historic first.
After Varsho was struck out to finish Jansen’s batting for the Jays in the second innings, the 29-year-old then returned to the field to bat in a Red Sox jersey to cheers from the crowd, marking the first time a player batted for both teams in the same innings.
While the Red Sox lost the game 7-3, Jansen said: “I was surprised when I found out I was the first one to do it. It’s cool, leaving a stamp like that on the game.
“It’s interesting, and it’s strange. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have that. And at the end of the day, it’s a cool thing.”
Mr Cora added after the game: “It was a very cool moment, just to be part of it. I don’t know if it’s going to happen again.
“It has to be… the perfect storm for that to happen – starting with the storm. And I’m glad that everybody enjoyed it.”
Jansen said he wore two jerseys in the game and added he would send one to the Baseball Hall of Fame in New York.
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Jays manager John Schneider also said about his former player: “I think it’s cool for him to kind of go down in the record books as the first player to do that.
“I’ve known Jano forever, and it’s something cool that he can always kind of say he was the first at, and he’s good at weird stuff. Pretty cool for him.”
