This Week's Sports Hero & Zero: The One Where the Politician Actually Isn't the Zero

by Julian Spivey

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​Hero

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​I know that seeing something positive about a politician in an election year, particularly one as fraught as this one, might be eye-roll-inducing, but Iowa State Representative J.D. Scholten is our sports hero of the week for coming in in a pinch to pitch for his local independent league professional ballclub, the Sioux City Explorers, who were in desperate need of a pitcher.

On Saturday (July 6), the 44-year-old Scholten, who represents District 1 in the Iowa House of Representatives, received a call from Explorers manager Steve Montgomery just 90 minutes before the first pitch of that evening’s game with the plea to help, as the team’s bullpen had been forced to cover 13 innings the two nights before. Its scheduled pitcher for Saturday had become ill.

Scholten had been a star pitcher in Sioux City as a high schooler before going to college at the University of Nebraska, where he led the Cornhuskers in earned run average his senior year. Following college, Scholten bounced around in independent pro baseball leagues in seven countries, including some time on the mound for the Explorers. In 2022, Scholten became the District 1 representative for Iowa. He’s running for re-election this year.

Helping out the local ball club in a pinch should be a good way to help win that re-election. Not only did Scholten pitch on Saturday, but he was terrific, pitching 6.2 innings on less than two hours notice and leading his team to an 11-2 victory against the Milwaukee Milkmen.

It’s the kind of thing Hollywood movies are made of … maybe we’ll see it on the big screen someday? 

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​​Zero

In the half year we’ve been doing this sports hero and zero piece for The Word on Pop Culture we have featured some really bad folks as the sports zero of the week – racists, misogynists, dimwits, etc.   
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I’ve said some harsh things about these sports zeroes, all justified in my mind. But sometimes you have to point the finger at yourself.

Sure, what I did isn’t as bad as the Kansas City Chiefs kicker acting like all women belong at home in the kitchen, or Aaron Rodgers babbling on about whatever dumbass conspiracy theory of the week he has, or boxer Ryan Garcia last week offending virtually anybody and everybody … but I think it still puts me firmly in a sports zero of the week category of the fantasy sports competitor who isn’t paying enough attention to his fictional squad and it costs him dearly.

So, what did I, Julian Spivey, do to deserve being this week’s sports zero? I failed to realize the Pittsburgh Pirates had a noon game on Thursday (July 11) and that the team’s phenom ace, Paul Skenes, sat on my fantasy team’s bench while having one of his and baseball’s most fantastic pitching performances this season. Skenes went seven innings without allowing a hit in Thursday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers while striking out 11 Brewers. It was one of the most incredible pitching performances in Major League Baseball history by a rookie, and it was wasted on my fantasy squad, Hammerin’ Hank. If I lose this week’s matchup because of my fantasy faux-pas, I’ll have no one to blame but myself.

Oh, by the way, as long as we’re giving out sports zeroes, can we also talk about removing a pitcher with a no-hitter after seven innings and 99 pitches because they’re on a pitch count? Baseball has gotten weak when it comes to babying its pitchers, leading to one of the game’s most exciting and rarest moments, the no-hitter, being impacted. It should be illegal to remove a pitcher with a no-hitter.