Jesus Take The Wheel: The Yanks Have A Switch-Pitcher
Minor leaguer Pat Venditte put on his big boy pants and his freaky moon-man glove and took the bump in his first appearance with a major league franchise.
Behold! Venditte's six-fingered switch glove. It's the way of the future.
The reason this is a story – besides him pitching for the Yankees, where friggin’ everything is a story – is because Venditte is an ambidextrous pitcher. Dude can throw with either arm.
He came on in relief for CC Sabathia against the Braves in one of the team’s final Spring Training games before Sunday’s Season Opener and didn’t fare so well. He lasted 1.1 innings, gave up a run, two hits and a walk.
Venditte earned 22 saves last season for Class-A Charleston and Tampa, which was good enough for Yankee skipper Joe Girardi to request the kid make his March appearance in Florida.
Frankly, I hope he chokes. Not because its easy to experience schadenfreude against the Bombers and not because Venditte somehow emasculated me among or near a group of attractive women (he hasn’t … yet), but because I wanted to be the proud papa of the league’s first successful “switcher.”
If Venditte maintains a consistent presence in the league, things could get interesting. How long can a guy stay in a game if he’s using both arms? If a normal middle reliever pitchers one or two innings before his arm tires, does this mean Venditte can go two or four? There’s already a Venditte Rule in place because of the guy:
On July 3, 2008, the Professional Baseball Umpire Corporation issued a new rule to limit the number of times a switch-pitcher and switch-hitter can change sides during one at-bat.
- The pitcher must visually indicate to the umpire, batter and runner(s) which way he will begin pitching to the batter. Engaging the rubber with the glove on a particular hand is considered a definitive commitment to which arm he will throw with. The batter will then choose which side of the plate he will bat from.
- The pitcher must throw one pitch to the batter before any “switch” by either player is allowed.
- After one pitch is thrown, the pitcher and batter may each change positions one time per at-bat. For example, if the pitcher changes from right-handed to left-handed and the batter then changes batter’s boxes, each player must remain that way for the duration of that at-bat (unless the offensive team substitutes a pinch hitter, and then each player may again “switch” one time).
- Any switch (by either the pitcher or the batter) must be clearly indicated to the umpire. There will be no warm-up pitches during the change of arms.
- If an injury occurs the pitcher may change arms but not use that arm again during the remainder of the game.
At some point a switcher hitter and pitcher are going to meet up and make nine minutes of adjustments before two pitchers are made. It will be awesome the first time and then ridiculous each time after that.
*sigh*
Ain’t nothing to be done about raising the league’s first Armbidextrous player – that dream died after Montreal’s Greg Harris threw one inning of switcheroo ball in 1995 to become the first switcher in league history of the 20th Century. But if Venditte maintains his 6.77 ERA, my kid’s still got a shot at being the first successful one.
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Photos courtesy of Flickr Images
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