I read a story the other day about Pat Venditte, a minor league pitcher trying to make the Oakland A's in Spring Training. He pitched against two batters on the defending World Champion San Francisco Giants, and got both out. Nice, but no big deal. Except that against one batter he pitched with his right arm, and against the other with his left. He's ambidextrous.
Venditte has been in organized baseball for seven years, previously with the New York Yankees, but hasn't made the major leagues yet. But his minor league statistics are solid.
(As it happened, yesterday he pitched against the Chicago Cubs, and he retired all three batters he faced -- including switch-hitter Dexter Fowler, in what was clearly a battle of the twisted. Because of Venditte's unique skill, a rule was added that he has to declare with which hand he'll be pitching to a particular batter -- otherwise he and a switchhitter would be playing a non-stop game of cat-and-mouse, changing back-and-forth without a pitch being thrown.).
I wish I could post the video of him pitching on Tuesday, but this is the MLB website that has the video embedded in it with the play-by-play call. Just click here.
However, this is a very good 6-minute story that ESPN did several years back for their E:60 show.
Venditte has been in organized baseball for seven years, previously with the New York Yankees, but hasn't made the major leagues yet. But his minor league statistics are solid.
(As it happened, yesterday he pitched against the Chicago Cubs, and he retired all three batters he faced -- including switch-hitter Dexter Fowler, in what was clearly a battle of the twisted. Because of Venditte's unique skill, a rule was added that he has to declare with which hand he'll be pitching to a particular batter -- otherwise he and a switchhitter would be playing a non-stop game of cat-and-mouse, changing back-and-forth without a pitch being thrown.).
I wish I could post the video of him pitching on Tuesday, but this is the MLB website that has the video embedded in it with the play-by-play call. Just click here.
However, this is a very good 6-minute story that ESPN did several years back for their E:60 show.
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