Iowa state rep J.D. Scholten reps middle-age with gusto as pro baseball pitcher

Netflix, we’ve got a ready-made sports movie for you.

A 44-year-old member of the Iowa House of Representatives is volunteering at a music festival in his hometown on a Saturday afternoon. He gets a phone call from the manager of the town’s minor league baseball team who desperately needs a pitcher that night because of a worn-out bullpen.

A month later, that man is 4-0 and the ball cap he wore during his first start was requested by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. The cap, in fact, that was recovered in an Iowa ditch by the team’s general manager two days after the team bus caught fire and was destroyed in the middle of the night on a trip to suburban Chicago.

This isn’t based on a true story. The whole thing is a true story.

“When opportunity knocked I had to open that door,” said Iowa state representative J.D. Scholten of Sioux City.

And so it was that Scholten was scheduled Tuesday night to make his sixth start for the Sioux City Explorers of the professional American Association baseball league when the X’s played the Kansas City Monarchs in Kansas City, Kan.

Two of Scholten’s Sioux City teammates briefly played in the major leagues. It’s a good independent pro league with players from around the country and beyond.

Scholten took a 4-0 record and a 2.82 earned-run average on the team’s bus ride to Kansas City, pretty good not only for a 44-year-old, but also for someone who was only supposed to be a one-night emergency replacement.

He was volunteering at the Saturday in the Park music fest in Sioux City on the afternoon of July 6 when he got a phone call from Explorers Manager Steve Montgomery.

Montgomery’s pitching staff was shot, with 10 pitchers combining to allow 34 runs over the previous two games. Scholten had previously told Montgomery he was available if they ever needed him. So the skipper called the legislator less than three hours before game time when the scheduled starting pitcher was ailing and unable to go.

Scholten hurried to Sioux City’s Lewis & Clark Park. He pitched 6 2/3 innings, threw 100 pitches, and allowed just two runs in his team’s win over the Milwaukee Milkmen.

Said Scholten: “It went from ‘We need somebody, just a body,’ to ‘Hey, what are you doing in five days?’ ”

Scholten got a standing ovation after he was taken out of that game.

“I got so emotional,” Scholten said. “It was just so overwhelming. It was one of the most-meaningful things in my life. Because I don't think people understand how much I've put into this in the last four years. It wasn’t for publicity.”

“He has been an unreal story,” said Explorers radio announcer Dan Vaughan. “I’ve called over 1,700 games and I have not had anything like this story. Sure, comebacks happen, but with his story line it is amazing.

“I say this on the air a great deal. This is the kind of example our kids need.”

Scholten played at the University of Nebraska two decades ago, then went into pro ball, including a stint with the Explorers. He gave it up in his mid-30s. While unsuccessfully running for U.S. Congress in 2019, he was at the Iowa State Fair with his staff.

“We walked past a miles-per-hour thing and they kind of challenged me,” he said. “After not touching ball for six or seven years, I ended up throwing above 80 miles an hour.”

“Once COVID hit (in 2020), I went down a rabbit hole on YouTube watching pitching mechanics. That’s kind of the nerd I am. I ended up buying a couple dozen balls and a net, and I just started throwing. My goal was to hit 87 at the next State Fair.

“Since there was no State Fair that year, I just found a baseball academy. It took me a few throws, but I hit it.”

He kept working on his pitching. (Today, his fastball reaches 89 mph and he also throws a sinker, cutter, slider and change-up.) A few years ago, he got a roster spot with a town team in the Twin Cities called Lyon’s Pub Warriors.

Townball, as it’s called in Minnesota, has been popular in the state for a century. Scholten’s parents live in Bloomington, so he combined trips to see them with pitching for Lyon’s, and he pitched well.

He also pitched in a pro league in the Netherlands last summer.

Now, at 44, he has a professional contract for his league’s minimum of $1,400 a month, a teammate of men who are 20 years younger.

“I’ve been welcomed as one of the guys,” he said, though he’s the only one of them taking calls on the team bus from constituents asking for help.

The Explorers needed help of their own early last Friday morning. Their team bus caught fire about 2:45 a.m. near Earlham, 30 miles west of Des Moines, as they were on an overnight trip to Kane County, Ill. Earlham’s volunteer fire department quickly arrived and got the blaze put out, but not before some of the players’ possessions were damaged or destroyed.

Baseball’s Hall of Fame asked Scholten for the cap he wore during his first start. Explorers General Manager Tom Backemeyer had driven to Kane County. Scholten asked Backemeyer to stop in Earlham and try to find he cap, and he did. A teammate had tossed it and a few other damaged objects in a ditch before a replacement bus arrived to finish the trip to Illinois.

Scholten is running for a second term as a state representative. Sept. 2 is the X’s last regular-season game. After that?

“Then I’ve got to hit the pavement with my re-elect campaign,” he said. “We have an off-day Thursday, so I’ll be door-knocking that night.”

The state legislature session and the American Association season don’t overlap. So what’s ahead for Scholten in baseball, besides being recognized in the Hall of Fame?

“I’m just trying to go day by day,” he said.

“To be 4-0 is absolutely crazy to me. If I’m dreaming, I don’t want to wake up.”

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com