Glove Is Blind: How Netflix’s Greatest and Brightest Held Up In opposition to Massive League Pitching

One of the vital thrilling developments of 2025 can also be some of the shocking: Love Is Blind has its mojo again. After a white-hot begin in 2020, Netflix’s actuality relationship present put out three consecutive snoozefest seasons in 2023 and 2024. (Your entire D.C. season might’ve been an electronic mail.)

However the first six episodes of Season 8 debuted final Friday, masking the primary part of the present, and it’s been a sizzling minute since we noticed this a lot drama within the pods. Removed from the same old slate of boring {couples} taking part in alongside simply to remain on TV, this season has had (I’ll attempt to keep away from spoilers) a love quadrilateral, a stunning violation of present norms, and a number of contestants simply packing it in and going dwelling. It’s been a blast.

Right here’s one thing else Season 8 has: A number of former school baseball gamers. That’s proper, it’s not a nightmare, we’re speaking about actuality.

Each actuality relationship present has some former jocks. Athletes are usually assured and in form, and that performs nicely each on TV and in a relationship context. (Or so I’m informed. I’ve by no means had self-confidence or athletic means myself.) Factor is, every time somebody on a trashy relationship present says they performed sports activities in school, the very first thing I do is pause the TV and lookup their stats.

Normally, these sports activities credentials are — and I apologize for sounding blasé — considerably overstated. Not at all times; Clay from Love Is Blind Season 6 received fame and glory as a four-time All-American in observe at South Carolina. Then he introduced disgrace and shame upon Gamecock Nation by going to items and leaving AD on the altar. However New Jarred from Season 1 of Fboy Island was an expert soccer participant in title solely. It’s all a part of the proverbial recreation.

Speaking your self up is a giant a part of actuality TV. Discover love within the pods first, then let your fiancée know that you just by no means obtained off the bench. However the two ballplayers within the Twin Cities season of Love Is Blind each truly had fairly legit school baseball careers, each on the College of Minnesota.

The Golden Gophers have a fairly sturdy historical past for a Massive Ten workforce. They’ve received three School World Collection, albeit none extra just lately than 1964, and produced two Corridor of Famers: Paul Molitor and Dave Winfield. (In one of many weirder bits of baseball trivia I can consider, that’s as many as your entire SEC put collectively.) Massive Ten baseball supremacy is fleeting lately, although Minnesota had a latest activate the highest of the pile that I’ll get to later.

Extra to the purpose: Minnesota isn’t LSU or Florida State, however it performs at a really excessive stage in opposition to very robust competitors, together with future excessive draft picks and massive leaguers. Anybody who begins for a workforce just like the Gophers is an actual participant. In different phrases, each of those guys have a Baseball Reference web page.

David Bettenburg, a 33-year-old medical machine salesman, performed 4 years at Minnesota from 2011 to 2014, as an outfielder and designated hitter. And a decade after his baseball profession ended, he obtained engaged on TV although his icebreaker line was “So, what’s improper with you?” God bless him.

Ben Mezzenga, 28, began for about two and a half of his 4 years at Minnesota, which included two journeys to the NCAA Match. Once I began poking round Mezzenga’s stats, I spotted I had truly watched him play earlier than. As a junior, Mezzenga was a spark plug heart fielder for a Minnesota workforce that made it to the Tremendous Regional in opposition to eventual nationwide champion Oregon State.

The decisive recreation of that Tremendous Regional was a thriller that featured three future top-five picks: Adley Rutschman, Nick Madrigal, and Max Meyer. Plus Trevor Larnach, Terrin Vavra, and a handful of different large leaguers. Rutschman drove in Steven Kwan for the successful run with two strikes and two outs within the prime of the ninth. I vividly keep in mind watching this recreation on TV, however should you missed it the primary time round, right here’s a two-minute spotlight reel.

At across the 30-second mark, Mezzenga traces a game-tying single into heart area, then will get gunned down by Rutschman attempting to advance on the throw dwelling. In a couple of quick years, a type of guys shall be a two-time All-Star, and the opposite shall be giving unconvincing solutions about his religious beliefs by a wall on a actuality present.

As blissful as I’m to share that these guys performed school baseball, with a view to make it well worth the put up, I needed to study how they performed.

So I went again by the field scores, as a lot of them as I might discover, and cataloged each certainly one of Mezzenga’s school at-bats, and most of Bettenburg’s. Minnesota’s athletic division web site has game-by-game stats relationship again solely to 2012. That excludes Bettenburg’s redshirt freshman season, when he obtained into 25 video games and hit .114/.204/.273 with two dwelling runs in 50 plate appearances.

In what was an actual low level for my sense {of professional} price, I reached out to the College of Minnesota’s athletic communications division to see if that they had the 2011 field scores kicking round someplace. They didn’t. Undeterred, I spent extra time than I might’ve appreciated copying seven seasons of field scores right into a format that may enable me to attract conclusions about Bettenburg’s and Mezzenga’s careers.

Bettenburg performed 96 video games at Minnnesota, and hit .185/.246/.257 in 225 plate appearances. About half of that pattern got here in 2012, his redshirt sophomore season, when he performed 41 video games and hit .239/.300/.303. Bettenburg’s a tall left-handed hitter who performed his highschool ball at Cretin-Derham Corridor, the St. Paul parochial prep faculty that produced each Molitor and Joe Mauer.

Come his time in school, although, Bettenburg by no means exhibited the ability essential to make it as a nook outfielder and DH. He had one season as a semi-regular starter, then spent his final two years as a bench bat. However he did face 4 future main leaguers within the closing three seasons of his school profession, throughout which period he did one thing extraordinary:

That’s proper, sports activities followers. I simply spent six hours watching this man undergo a persona disaster in a well-carpeted closet, and on a regular basis he’s gone by life figuring out he obtained a success off Corbin Burnes. You understand who doesn’t have a success off Corbin Burnes in his pocket? Anthony Rizzo (13 profession PA). Max Muncy (10 PA). Aaron Choose (8 PA). Aaron freaking Choose doesn’t have a success off Corbin Burnes, however Dave from the Netflix relationship present does!

In the beginning of this season, I believed David was a bit immature and boastful. I used to be improper. If I have been 1-for-2 lifetime off a Cy Younger winner, I’d get it tattooed on my brow. I’d legally change my title to Michael “Acquired A Hit Off Corbin Burnes” Baumann. Conserving that to your self needs to be the problem of a lifetime. Nonetheless, you may see what that accomplishment does for a man’s mojo. Have a look at our man, not solely pulling off the Hawaiian shirt, however carrying it with the highest three buttons open.

That’s a complete lot of swagger for a Minnesotan.

Bettenburg performed with some fairly good gamers, however the perfect Minnesota workforce of latest reminiscence was that 2018 workforce. And Mezzenga was an integral a part of it.

Mezzenga was a daily pinch-runner and defensive substitute from the beginning of his freshman yr, and labored his manner into the common lineup as a sophomore. Going by his profession recreation by recreation, I used to be struck by an ironic discovery: Similar to Love Is Blind duties its members with discovering love sight unseen, Mezzenga is such an ideal instance of a selected school baseball archetype that you understand what his recreation is like simply by taking a look at his stats.

These of you who solely watch the majors may not be too accustomed to the OBP > SLG man as a category of participant, however they’re throughout school baseball. In 177 video games at Minnesota, Mezzenga batted 621 occasions — roughly the equal of a full main league season. He posted a 14.1% stroll charge and hit .315, however in 4 years, he produced simply 20 extra-base hits and 0 dwelling runs.

That 2018 Minnesota workforce usually was extra on-base over energy. That yr, Mezzenga posted a .464 OBP and hit in entrance of Vavra, a future large leaguer who batted .386/.455/.614 and accounted for 10 of Minnesota’s 46 dwelling runs. You’ll rating a number of runs that manner.

Mezzenga’s offensive recreation was a bit bizarre even past the contact-over-power side. Out of these 671 school plate appearances, at the least 62 resulted in bunt makes an attempt. And that’s simply what obtained logged within the field rating; it doesn’t rely gradual rollers and Baltimore chops and swinging bunts and infield hits, which have been quite a few. The primary two balls Mezzenga put in play as a school hitter have been bunts, the primary of 11 video games during which he laid down two or extra bunts.

And I’m undecided Mezzenga’s spectacular stroll charge was the results of distinctive plate self-discipline. As a substitute, I feel his strategy was simply sort of passive.

Mezzenga posted a profession strikeout charge of 17.8%, which is regular for a giant leaguer however actually excessive for a singles hitter who hits .300 in his sleep and punches out one extra-base hit a month. He shouldn’t swing and miss that a lot, particularly not with two strikes.

Right here’s the factor: He didn’t. Mezzenga obtained caught wanting an astonishing quantity:

In 4 years of faculty, Mezzenga struck out swinging on simply 56.9% of his whole strikeouts. The main league common final yr was 76.3%, and out of 364 hitters with 50 or extra strikeouts, solely seven left their bat on their shoulder extra often than Mezzenga. Even accounting for the lower-strikeout setting of late-2010s school baseball, and the truth that school umps change the zone from pitch to pitch primarily based on no matter makes them really feel highly effective, that’s a stunning quantity.

The subsequent batch of Love Is Blind episodes goes to function the remaining {couples} happening trip collectively at some Caribbean all-inclusive resort. Each season, one of many guys will get in large hassle by getting hammered and flirting with another person’s fiancée. Like clockwork. One hopes that Mezzenga has kicked his behavior of getting caught wanting.

Joking apart, I’m certain you wish to see how varied main leaguers did in opposition to this actuality TV man. Just one season separated Bettenburg’s tenure at Minnesota from Mezzenga’s, however in that point, the extent of play within the Massive Ten went by the roof. Minnesota additionally made deeper runs within the Massive Ten Match and the NCAA Match within the late 2010s, and as a daily starter, Mezzenga obtained extra taking part in time. Consequently, he confronted no fewer than 26 future large league pitchers, and counting:

There’s no Burnes on this listing, however Mezzenga did have a fairly thrilling three-year working battle in opposition to Matt Waldron, and reached base (on a bunt single) in his solely matchup with Tylor Megill.

These of you who have been into the draft or school baseball within the late 2010s would most likely acknowledge extra names: Jared Janczak, Burl Carraway. Bettenburg truly put bat to ball in opposition to legendary UCLA nearer David Berg. There was additionally an Iowa pitcher named Cam Baumann who walked Mezzenga thrice in a row. Alas, we might keep in mind some guys all day.

No place participant with so little recreation energy is ever going to get drafted, and even scouted significantly. Which is why Mezzenga’s Netflix bio lists his occupation as “developer,” regardless of the hell which means. However by bunting and working and drawing walks, he was in a position to put collectively a wonderful school profession.

Within the subsequent couple weeks, we’ll discover out if being good at baseball has any correlation with being a great companion. I’ve my doubts, as the blokes usually haven’t precisely lined themselves in glory up to now this season. However anybody can get married; solely a choose few can get a success off Corbin Burnes.