J.D. Scholten

“If there’s one decent thing out of 2020, it’s meeting you.”

This week’s Moonlighter is an Iowan born and bred who left the state to make a name for himself in baseball but has come back home with loftier ambitions. J.D. Scholten was born in Ames, IA and grew up in Sioux City. His pursuit of professional baseball took him outside of the state and through seven countries before hanging up his spikes and starting work as a paralegal. Tim and J.D. sat down recently in the Scholten for Congress RV that has travelled all across the 4th congressional district as he campaigns for a seat in the United States House of Representatives.

J.D. Scholten was a two sport athlete at Sioux City East. His 6’6 height helped him post up on the hardwood and made him pretty intimidating on the pitching mound. His Raider baseball teams were really talented on the diamond. His high school teams were loaded with future college baseball players and ended up in the state tournament but fell just short of a championship. After graduating from Sioux City East, Scholten had some options to play either basketball or baseball in college but he decided to stay home to play for his dad at Morningside College. The Mustangs had a talented D2 baseball team while he was there. Scholten had the measurables and the mindset to try to play in the majors. After his junior year, Scholten was projected as high as an 8th rounder by some of the guys he talked to. Five different teams called him and were interested in signing him but he actually ended up turning down the Angels so he could return to college.

“Baseball was the best and worst job I ever had.”

When he had the opportunity to finish his career with the University of Nebraska, he felt like he had to take it. The Cornhuskers were a top level program at the time and Scholten led the team in ERA coming out of the bullpen. The Huskers pulled 8,000 fans a game and made it all the way to the College World Series. After finishing his career for the Big Red, Scholten’s path to professional baseball took him through Canada, Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Cuba with some stops back in Sioux City to play for the Explorers.

“It was like a movie almost.”

When J.D. Scholten was ready to hang them up, he turned to a career as a paralegal living in Washington and Minnesota before coming back home to Iowa. That is where his path crossed with Tim and the Moonlight Graham Show. Tim and Scholten are two of a very rare breed of former ball players who throw bullpens in their backyard. That weird connection brought them together as part of J.D.’s Moonlight Graham-esque pursuit of throwing 87 mph in a return to form. After training for several weeks, Scholten and Tim met at a baseball facility in Des Moines for the real test. Down to his last three balls, and starting to feel fatigue set in, Scholten was able to hit 87 on the radar gun in front of Tim who had become his biggest baseball supporter.

“If you are open, shoot your shot.”

Now J.D. Scholten is totally focused on the upcoming election and doing what he can to win Steve King’s congressional seat. After narrowly losing to King in 2018, Scholten is now running against Randy Feenstra. Scholten’s goal is to focus on running a good campaign and getting out in his RV and meeting the people of the 4th district while trying to avoid the negative side of politics.

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