Danny Jansen had his date with Major League Baseball history Monday.
Jansen became the first player in MLB history to play for both teams in the same game when the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays continued their suspended game at Fenway Park.
Jansen was Toronto’s starting catcher June 26 when the game was suspended in the second inning, with Jansen at the plate batting. He was then traded by the Blue Jays to the Red Sox on July 27.
When the game resumed Monday morning, Daulton Varsho took Jansen’s spot in the Toronto batting order and came up to bat with Jansen now behind the plate for the Red Sox facing his former teammates.
Jansen’s former team got the best of the Red Sox, winning the suspended game, 4-1. Jansen was 1-for-4 with a single in the fifth inning for one of Boston’s four hits.
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“When I got traded, I didn’t really think of it, but I do remember having a tweet maybe sent to me earlier on,” Jansen told MLB.com after Monday’s game. “The last couple of weeks, it’s really picked up steam, just around the press and stuff like that. I think a couple of weeks ago I saw it was definitely a possibility. And when (Boston manager Alex Cora) announced I was catching this game, then it really (became real) and then I thought about it.”
Jansen said he received a lot of text messages as the baseball world started to pick up on his impending history-making feat.
“Everybody keeps saying history is being made,” Jansen said. “It’s such a strange thing. I never would have imagined myself in this situation with it being history. I guess I would have assumed it would have happened before. That’s one of the first thoughts that went through my mind.”
Jansen’s feat will likely be documented in some way by the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
“I haven’t spoken to them directly, but I think there may be something about getting some things authenticated, and I spoke to some authenticators about maybe sending something so that’s kind of been pretty cool,” Jansen said.
Jansen, 29, who will be a free agent after this season, was a member of the Toronto organization for 12 years before being traded to Boston. He was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 16th round of the 2013 draft and made his MLB debut Aug. 13, 2018, against the Kansas City Royals.
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