Last week The Final Score introduced me to Pat Venditte a switch pitcher for the Staten Island Yankees. This is intriguing to me but I think begs the question why hasn’t this been done before? Long before Billy Wagner was was a professional ball player be was a right-handed pitcher. He taught himself to throw left-handed only after breaking his throwing arm twice. Just think what he could be doing now if he were able to pitch with both arms.
The Cyclones / Yankees game was aired on SNY last night. Pat Venditte came in to pitch in the 9th inning. With two outs and a five run deficit switch hitter Ralph Henriquez comes to the plate. Pat has his glove in his left hand. Ralph decides to bat right-handed. Pat switches his glove. Ralph moves to the opposite box. This went on a couple more times. Yelling ensued. Managers out of the dugouts. More yelling. Obviously no one knows what is supposed to happen in this situation. There’s likely nothing in the rule book about this. This could have gone on forever. Thankfully Ralph appeared to be fed up with all the nonsense and decided to hit right-handed and ended the game with a strike out.
It’ll be interesting to see what the rule book eventually says about this. Should the advantage go to the switch hitter who has always had the advantage in the past? Or will it go to the pitcher who has the advantage over all the other non-ambidextrous hitters? I’m leaning towards the offense on this one.
UPDATED: To add video below.
[ thanks to hot foot blog ]
