Switch pitcher! > General Discussion

Posted: 6/21/2008 10:31:21 AM EDT

Man i'd love to see this kid pitch. I wonder how they'll deal with this in the future if he makes it the bigs?

NEW YORK — Ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte can confound hitters — and umpires — when he's on the mound.

The umps working a game Thursday night between the Class-A Staten Island Yankees and the Brooklyn Cyclones had nothing to go by when Venditte made his professional debut, less than two weeks after getting drafted in the 20th round by the Yankees.

He pitched the ninth, and after retiring two batters and allowing a single, a switch hitter stepped to the plate for Brooklyn. That's hardly unusual. But it becomes intriguing against Venditte, a switch pitcher.

Things got a tad dizzying when designated hitter Ralph Henriquez, who had taken his on-deck circle swings as a lefty, entered the batter's box from the right side.

Venditte put his specially made glove (it has six fingers, two webs and fits on both hands) on his left hand, and got ready to pitch right-handed.

Henriquez then changed his mind and switched sides of the plate, because a batter sees the ball sooner when it is thrown by a pitcher using the opposite hand.

So Venditte shifted his glove to the other hand.

Then it happened again.

And again.

And again.

Apparently unsure of how the rules handle such an oddity, the umpires didn't stop the cat-and-mouse game until Venditte walked toward the plate and said something while pointing at Henriquez. Umpires and both managers then huddled and the umps decided the batter and pitcher can both change sides one time per at-bat, and that the batter must declare first.

The ruling favored the pitcher, since he gets to declare last.

About seven minutes after he first stepped in, Henriquez struck out on four pitches as a righty against a right-handed Venditte and slammed his bat in frustration. Staten Island won, 7-2.

the rest of the strory

Posted: 6/21/2008 10:33:57 AM EDT

[#1]

That's awesome. LOL.

Posted: 6/21/2008 10:34:54 AM EDT

[#2]

IT would be fun to see him pitching to a switch batter.

Posted: 6/21/2008 10:35:01 AM EDT

[#3]

That's some pretty awesome skill to be able to throw professionally with both hands like that. I would love to see inside the mind of the ump in that situation, I'm sure he was like "oh shit, they didn't go over this in ump school

"

Posted: 6/21/2008 10:36:09 AM EDT

[#4]

Pretty crazy. See how quick he gets up to the Bigs...

Went to the link in hopes of some pictures of his glove. Someone get some pics of this kid.

Posted: 6/21/2008 10:37:29 AM EDT

[#5]

tell me there is a video of this going down.....

Posted: 6/21/2008 10:43:24 AM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
tell me there is a video of this going down.....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkPbJV2dffI

Posted: 6/21/2008 10:43:54 AM EDT

[#7]

I can switch bat (or at least I used to) and shootings no prob..............but for the life of me ,I cant see HOW someone can throw both ways

That kind of back -and-forth in a game would be comical at first,but then it would get old

Posted: 6/21/2008 10:46:01 AM EDT

[#8]

thats pretty freakin' cool, I hope he makes it to the majors

Posted: 6/21/2008 10:48:29 AM EDT

[#9]

I'd love to see that.

Posted: 6/21/2008 10:48:39 AM EDT

[#10]

I'm glad the Yankees got him!

Posted: 6/21/2008 10:51:05 AM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
I'm glad the Yankees got him!

That team he's on, is that triple A ball?

Posted: 6/21/2008 10:54:32 AM EDT

[#12]

Single A

http://www.siyanks.com/

Posted: 6/21/2008 10:55:19 AM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I'm glad the Yankees got him!

That team he's on, is that triple A ball?

yeah, it's a yankee's Farm Team

Posted: 6/21/2008 10:57:33 AM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
IT would be fun to see him pitching to a switch batter.

Did you read the story?

Posted: 6/21/2008 11:05:28 AM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
I'm glad the Yankees got him!

That team he's on, is that triple A ball?

Slow-mo double tap.

Posted: 6/21/2008 11:11:13 AM EDT

[#16]

He has an amazing talent, but I find it funny that in the youtube video, he starts getting pissed when he comes up against a batter who does the same thing he does and keeps switching sides.

He's using what he's got, but he gets upset when somebody else does it.

Posted: 6/21/2008 1:08:33 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:

Quoted:
tell me there is a video of this going down.....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkPbJV2dffI

Thanks, Poob.

That is really, really cool.

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