Danny Jansen is set to make MLB history by playing on both teams in the same game

[sl8]

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/24/nx-s1-5088645/baseball-red-sox-blue-jays-danny-jansen-mlb-history

Danny Jansen is set to make MLB history by playing on both teams in the same game

AUGUST 25, 2024 6:00 AM ET
Emma Bowman



The Boston Red Sox's Danny Jansen celebrates after hitting an RBI single during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers at Fenway Park, on Aug. 14 in Boston.
Charles Krupa/AP

No matter how the next Toronto Blue Jays vs. Boston Red Sox game plays out, Danny Jansen will be able to call himself a winner.

That’s because on Monday, the Red Sox catcher will be finishing a game that he started as a player on the opposing team. In doing so, Jansen will go down in Major League Baseball history as the first person to play for both teams in the same game.

The peculiar switch-up was set in motion when a game on June 26 was suspended during the second inning because of heavy rain at Boston’s Fenway Park. At the time, Jansen played for Toronto. A month later, Jansen was traded to the Red Sox, with the team hoping to both make use of his right-handed bat and strengthen its catching lineup.

Before the game was halted, Jansen was at bat for the Blue Jays. Two months later, play will resume — this time, with Jansen behind the plate and in a Red Sox jersey. The Jays will have a pinch hitter in Jansen’s place.

[...]

[ProfessorGAC]

1. This Seems Odd

Since the game only went 2 innings, wouldn't they typically just replay the whole game.
I get that after the top of the 5th, a game is official (if the home team is ahead), but they're going to resume a fame in the 3rd inning?
That's not how I remember suspended games.

[sl8]

2. I was hoping someone more knowledgeable than I would weigh in.

The best I can do is this blurb from Wikipedia:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspended_game

[...]

The use of suspended games in MLB has changed over time.[a] Originally, all games were played to completion, unless they were halted by external conditions such as darkness or weather. Halted games that had not yet progressed to the point of being an official game were replayed (from the beginning) at a later date, regardless of the score. Halted games that had become official games either had a winner declared, or in the case of ties were replayed (also from the beginning) at a later date. Since World War II, suspended games have been used, for varying reasons depending on league rules of an era, to avoid having to replay games from the beginning.

Prior to World War II, the only instances of suspended games in MLB were games that were successfully protested, and then resumed from the point of protest.[5][7]

The first instance of a curfew-related suspended game occurred in 1943, and the first instance of a darkness-related suspended game occurred in 1952.[5] Curfew and darkness remained the primary causes of suspended games through the 1970s.[5] Since then, games have rarely been suspended for those reasons: the most recent suspension due to curfew occurred in 1998, and for darkness in 1987.[5] Every instance of a game suspended due to darkness in the 1970s and 1980s occurred at Wrigley Field, which did not have field lighting until 1988.[5]

Since 1990, weather has been the primary cause of suspended games, in situations where an official game is tied at the point that play is halted.[5]

[...]

[ProfessorGAC]

3. Like I Said, Odd

From your snip:

Halted games that had not yet progressed to the point of being an official game were replayed (from the beginning) at a later date, regardless of the score.

So why is this game being picked up in the 3rd inning?

[sl8]

4. But that part was referring to pre-WWII practice. nt

[ProfessorGAC]

5. I See That

But, I still remember rainouts at Wrigley just being played from the beginning & I was born 11 years after WW2.
But, I looked it up.
The official MLB rules say the games are picked up where they were terminated.
But, that's new. I found this on the MLB website.

Prior to the 2020 season, if a regular season game was terminated early before becoming official, the results up to the point of the termination did not count and the game was started over at a later date. But as part of MLB's health and safety protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic, all games cut short before becoming official were resumed at a later date, rather than started over from scratch, during the 2020 campaign. This matched the rules that have been in place since 2008 for all postseason games and any tiebreaker games added to the end of the regular season.

[sl8]

6. Thanks for that.

Makes Jansen's case seem like much less of a big deal.

On edit:
It looks like, even before 2020, they would also resume the game from where it was suspended under certain circumstances:

https://www.mlb.com/glossary/rules/regulation-game

"If a regulation game is terminated early due to weather and the game is either tied or in the midst of an inning in which the visiting team has taken the lead, it becomes a suspended game that will be completed at a later date from the point of termination."

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Needlessly Confusing

Maybe the change in 2020 was aimed at eliminating the "but, ifs".