Soccer Dad

Venditte, vidi, vici

The Yankees have a fascinating prospect at Single A Staten Island, Pat Venditte Jr. He's a relief specialist. But he's no LOOGY. He's ambidextrous.

The pitch was nothing remarkable: Pat Venditte, Creighton University's
temporarily right-handed pitcher, threw a fastball past a Northern Iowa
batter for a called strike three. It was his next windup that evinced
this young pitcher's uniqueness and, perhaps, professional future.

As his teammates whipped the ball around the infield, Venditte
smoothly, unthinkingly, removed his custom glove from his left hand and
slipped it on his right. Moments later he leaned back, threw a strike
left-handed to the next batter, and finished the side in order.

Venditte is believed to be the only ambidextrous pitcher in N.C.A.A.
Division I college baseball, the ultimate relief specialist. A junior,
he throws left-handed to lefties and right-handed to righties, and
effectively. In a home game in Omaha last Friday, he allowed only one
hit in five and a third shutout innings to earn the victory against
Northern Iowa.

Go to the article not just for the pictures of him pitching, but also for his custom glove. In addition to the standard finger slots, it has two thumbs.

Practically speaking, what happens when he goes up against a switch hitter? That question occurred Thursday night:

Still pitching right-handed, Venditte allowed a single by Nicholas
Giarraputo. Up next was designated hitter Ralph Henriquez, and he and
Venditte engaged in a routine more vaudeville than Mudville.

As
Henriquez walked to the plate, Venditte, assuming Henriquez would bat
left-handed, stood behind the pitching rubber with his glove on his
right hand and the ball in his left. Henriquez, looking out at
Venditte, then stepped across the batter's box, determined to hit
right-handed and gain a righty-lefty advantage. Seeing this, Venditte
quickly switched his custom-made glove to his left hand and put the
ball in his right, hoping to gain a righty-on-righty advantage.

Henriquez
stepped out and began asking the home-plate umpire, Shaylor Smith, to
lay out his options, then summoned his third-base coach. With the
matter unresolved, Henriquez again stepped across the batter's box in
an attempt to bat left-handed. Again, Venditte switched glove and ball.
The cat-and-mouse game reached full comedic gear when Henriquez again
strolled across the batter's box to hit right-handed, and Venditte
responded with the old switcheroo, setting up as a righty.

The question is, if there a player's allowed a single switch, who must commit first?

On Thursday night it concluded:

McMahon, who said Friday that he was waiting for an official ruling
from higher baseball authorities on the subject of switch-pitching to
switch-hitters, said that the way he understood it, "the rule dictates
that the hitter establish the box and the pitcher establish the throw,
and then each team can make one move, and then it's play ball."

"That's the rule that we got from the rule book of minor league baseball," he said.

Apparently that will be the rule in MLB too.

h/t Brother in Law

Crossposted on OTB Sports.
Posted by SoccerDad at June 22, 2008 4:12 PM | TrackBack