44-Year-Old Iowa Politician Steps In To Pitch For Local Minor League Team

Iowa State Representative J.D. Scholten is learning it's never too late to live out your childhood dream.

The 44-year-old Democrat legislator was volunteering at a music festival last week when he got a call from the Sioux City Explorers — begging him to come pitch for them. Just 90 minutes later, Scholten took the mound against the Milwaukee Milkmen and delivered 100 pitches in 6 2/3 innings, allowing just two runs.

Explorers manager Steve Montgomery compared the outing to Kevin Costner's 40-year-old character in the 1999 movie, For Love of the Game.

"I can’t even describe it," Montgomery said. "The only thing that comes to mind is Billy Chapel. You can’t wrap your head around what you’re witnessing. At 44! I’m thinking, I’m only six years older than this guy! What he was able to do, what he was able to supply us, is immeasurable in all of professional baseball."

You're probably wondering what prompted Montgomery to call Scholten in the first place.

Well, the Explorers play in the American Association of Professional Baseball, a league that is not affiliated with Major League Baseball but does partner with it. Therefore, it is beholden to a series of restrictive roster rules. When Sioux City’s bullpen covered 13 innings between Thursday and Friday, and then its scheduled starting pitcher, Jared Wetherbee, fell ill at the last minute, Montgomery was in a bind.

That's when the skipper remembered that he had recently run into Scholten, who led the University of Nebraska to a College World Series appearance in 2002. Scholten spent a few seasons with the Explorers after college while attempting to pursue a career in professional baseball. But the Big Leagues never came calling, and Scholten eventually pivoted to politics in the late 2010s.

But after that impromptu outing against Milwaukee, he has revived his baseball career. The 6-foot-6 right hander has now made two quality starts over the past week — 12.2 IP, 3 ER, 2-0 record — and signed an official contract with the club on July 7.

Scholten was elected to his current position in 2022. He is up for re-election this November — if he's not too busy playing baseball instead.