Todd Van Steensel

Todd Bertram Van Steensel is an Australian professional baseball pitcher in the Minnesota Twins organization.^[1]

Career

Van Steensel was born 14-1-1991 in Sydney, Australia. Van Steensel has represented his native Australia on several occasions, most notably in the MLB opening series in 2013/14. Todd plays for the Sydney Blue Sox in the Australian Baseball League where he garnered the nickname "Hop Scotch" after one if his superstitions of not stepping on the foul lines.^[2] To escape from the popularity of being a professional baseball player, Todd often uses the pseudonym "Tug" when ordering coffee.^[3] Todd revealed later in the year that due to his further rise in popularity he could no longer check in to team hotels using his actual name, In a personal tweet on an away trip Todd revealed he often uses the spelling Bansteensil.^[4] Speculation grew that this was in fact the original spelling of his surname.

Van Steensel started the American season in the extended roster and worked his way into the closers role which he has coveted from 2011. Todd finished the year with 9 saves out of 10 opportunities and an impressive ERA of 1.39 for the year.^[5]

European Sojourn

2012 saw Van Steensel head to Europe to play for Corendon Kinheim in the Dutch National League. In his first trip to the mound (June 2012) he pitched 2.2 innings, giving up just 1 hit and no free passes whilst striking out 6 (six).

By mid July Todd was headed back to Australia after an off field incident, It was decided by team management and his mother the best thing was to go home. The off field incident was unlike most seen by Australian sportsmen, in that it involved no lewd act, he simply failed to hang onto the ring whilst showing off his dunking skills in a game of 1-on-1 with visiting Australian Luke Wilkins. The result was surgery and an elbow reconstruction.

Corendon Kinheim went on to win the championship.^[6]

Australian Baseball League

In 2013 Todd unsuccessfully attempted to stop a face off between Sydney Blue Sox catcher Daniel Arribas and Brisbane Bandits runner Patrick Leonard. The incident escalated rapidly after Josh Roberts charged from the Brisbane dugout and tried to remove Arribas' head. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD1FW7y-klY^[7]

In late 2014 Todd announced he would sit out the rest of the year after a long minor league season. Todd still remains very much a part of the Sydney Blue Sox and has attended every home game since his announcement.

References