"I know something you don't know: I am not lefthanded!"

by Slurvey on May 7, 2009 9:52 PM PDT Comment 11 comments

I'm talking about an ambidextrous pitcher!

His name is Pat Venditte, he's 23, and he's pro baseball's only ambidextrous pitcher. This living piece of history is more than a YouTube star; he's throwing almost daily for the Charleston RiverDogs, the Yankees' Single-A club. And he's not just throwing: He's blowing through hitters like a Cub Scout through Skittles. At one point in April, the closer's ERA was 0.00 in 6 1/3 innings, and he hadn't blown a save in five games.

That we such an awesome site to see a guy switching between his right and left arm.(hehehehe That sounds dirty for some reason.)

There are a lot of "never befores" with Venditte. The pitching coach has to file two reports: Venditte the lefty and Venditte the righty. And he should; they're two different pitchers. The righty has a 90 mph fastball, a curve and a nice change. The lefty comes sidearm and has a murderous slider and a change. He's a five-pitch pitcher! Once, in Little League, the other team's coach came up to Pat Sr. and said, "Your twins pitched a heck of a game."

Of course the Yankee's have him in their system so that automatically docks awesomeness points away from you and adds douchebaggery points a little and whether he can actually make it the the majors is another question as well but seeing a guy switch arms in the middle of an inning will be an interesting sight.

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Felix isn't lefthanded either.

by Fett42 on May 8, 2009 7:45 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Recced for gratuitous Princess Bride reference

I think I read somewhere that if a switch pitcher faces a switch hitter, the hitter must pick which side they bat from before the pitcher throws. I’d love to see a big league switch hitter face a same handed pitcher for the first time in years. It would probably make the hitter have an aneurysm.

Even if the pitcher wasn’t great, he might be effective as a SPOOGY (switch pitching one out guy?).

by PDXTai on May 8, 2009 7:50 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs

I think it's the other way around.

About 10 or 15 years ago there was a guy on the Red Sox who was allowed to switch pitch after being a RHP (or LHP? I can’t remember) his whole career. He was always able to do it but was never allowed to until he came into a meaningless game.

I wish I could remember his name.

by Double06 on May 8, 2009 9:08 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs