Scholten
The guy on the mound for the Sioux City Explorers on July 6 wasn’t just any pitcher.
It was Iowa state Rep. J.D. Scholten, who jumped in after an urgent call that day from Explorers manager Steve “Mongo” Montgomery.
“Their starting pitcher had a fluke injury, and they needed somebody,” Scholten says. “And he’s like, ‘Do you have anything?’”
At age 44, he was almost a decade older than most of the players on the American Association of Professional Baseball team. But Scholten, a college standout and pro player who last pitched for the Explorers in 2007, was undeterred.
“When opportunity knocks, you’ve got to open that door,” says the first-term Democrat, who was volunteering at a music festival when the call came. “I go, ‘Give me 10 minutes, because I’ve got to find somebody to cover my shift.’ I called him back in 10 minutes and said, ‘I’m in.’”
That evening, Scholten quickly gave up a run in the first inning, then settled down and won the game. “That gave me a lot of confidence,” he says. “It’s been 17 years since I last played in this league, and I’m a better pitcher now.”
He’s since joined the Explorers’ starting rotation and plans to keep at it for as long as they’ll have him. “Any day that I get to be on the mound at 44 years old is a blessing,” he says.
‘Huge Aspect of My Life’
The 6-foot-6-inch Scholten has been playing baseball since he was a kid. His father, Jim Scholten, was a baseball coach at Morningside University in Sioux City for almost 30 years. “He taught me the game, I fell in love with it, and it’s been a huge aspect of my life,” Scholten says.
From 2003 to 2016, he played professional baseball for numerous teams in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. “Even during the first time when I was playing pro ball, there were times where I felt like a prospect and other times I felt like a dud.”
“Any day that I get to be on the mound at 44 years old is a blessing.”
—Iowa Rep. J.D. Scholten
During that time, Scholten balanced a paralegal career with baseball, then moved into politics with an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018. “When the 2016 election happened, that’s when I decided I wanted to do more, and that started my political career,” he says. “I wanted to go home and make a difference, and then that snowballed into running for Congress.”
“I never thought I was going to get into politics. I thought it was a zero-sum game. You either win your election or you lose, but we made such a big splash in 2018 that we did it again in 2020.”
Scholten subsequently won the 2022 election for the District 1 seat in the Iowa House of Representatives. His late grandmother inspired his campaign. “My grandma was a teacher, and I just thought, ‘You know what, I need to continue this fight,’” he says. “That’s how I transitioned into the Statehouse and just doing what I can for public education in Iowa.”
At the same time, Scholten never gave up on baseball, and he played for a Dutch team in 2023 before his recent return to the AAPB. He’s the Explorers’ oldest player by about eight years, but age is just a number in his mind. As of mid-August, Scholten was leading the Explorers in wins with a 5-2 win-loss record.
“Getting a win in this league is hard. This is a hitter’s league,” he says. “I know I’m not going to overpower any of these guys, but my fastball moves, and I can locate it, and I can change speeds. As long as I keep the ball out of the middle (of the strike zone), I’ve been having success.”
Scholten’s manager is one of his biggest fans. “What he’s done is miraculous,” Montgomery says. “He’s been able to pitch in close games, and he’s been able to obviously pitch in blowout games. In the close games, each pitch is of the utmost importance. That’s what’s impressive to me.”
Baseball is an unpredictable business, but Montgomery thinks Scholten might well have a future with the club beyond 2024. “He’s handling his business the right way,” Montgomery says. “If he can keep getting us wins, he’s going to keep getting the ball every five days.”
Crossing Party Lines
When he’s wearing his political ballcap, Scholten runs an “anti-monopolist” blog on Substack. “It talks about how this economy is not working for everyday people,” he says. “That’s a huge passion of mine. And then a pet project is ending Major League Baseball blackouts.”
With streaming technology upending broadcast TV paradigms, Scholten says it’s time for a new model. “I want to grow the game, and this is not allowing us to do that,” he explains.
“This targets the state of Iowa, because we don’t have a major league team, but we’re blacked out at six different markets. So, if those teams are all playing other teams, that’s 40% of Major League Baseball games we cannot watch, even though we buy the subscription.”
He adds, “The argument is: Do we have jurisdiction as a Statehouse? And I say yes, because the blackout boundaries are the state boundaries. If you go across the river, there are different teams that are blacked out there. So, if we have control over our boundary, we have control over what they set as the blackout options.”
Scholten says he hopes to bring up the bill with Republicans in future legislative sessions, as the anti-blackout sentiment crosses party lines. “The amount of emails I get saying, ‘Hey, I’m a Republican, but I appreciate you doing this. I’m a huge sports fan’—it’s crazy. I’ve never gotten so many comments.”
Likewise, Scholten says he’s received congratulations on his pitching success from both sides of the aisle at the Statehouse.
“That means a lot to me. We are more than just a political party,” he says. “Even in a divisive age, we can come together and root for each other in all aspects of our lives.”
Eric Peterson is a Denver-based freelance writer.