Venditte's Rare Pitching Talent Rewrites Rules
Switch Pitcher Prefers Legacy To Be On the Field, Not the Rule Book
For those unfamiliar with the name, Venditte is a minor league pitcher in the New York Yankees organization who has played for the club's Charleston, SC and Staten Island, NY affiliates. Some scouts say he has only marginal velocity and fair stuff, but his overall numbers are solid and only time will tell if he can prove himself and make the leap to the majors.
If this sounds like every minor league pitcher's story, it pretty much is, but with one major exception. Venditte is a switch pitcher. He's currently the only player in professional major league baseball who can throw using either arm.
Switch Pitching A Rare Feat
Over the course of baseball history, not many pitchers have pulled off this feat. The Montreal Expos' Greg Harris did it in 1995 when he faced four batters in one inning against the Cincinatti Reds and allowed a walk but no runs.
Using a reversible, specially designed, two-thumbed glove, he was the only major league pitcher in the 20th Century to throw both righty and lefty in a game. Three other professional players in the late 1800s were also reported to have this rare ability. The best-known was Tony Mullaney, who worked bare-handed so hitters wouldn't know which arm he was using until his wind-up and delivery.
According to Japanese baseball information source NPB Tracker, there are a couple of current young prospects in Japanese baseball who are switch pitchers as well.
All in all, it’s a select club with very few members.
Opponents Vexed by Venditte
Teams that face Venditte are understandably confounded by his dexterity and eventually acknowledge the futility in trying to formulate a game plan to counter his effectiveness from either side. Some have resorted to a tiresome cat and mouse game in which pitcher changes glove hand, followed by hitter changing batter’s box, over and over again. It was enough to drive the umpires, well, batty.
Hence, the establishment of the Venditte Rule, recently adopted by the Professional Baseball Umpires Corporation (PBUC) after consulting with Major League Baseball's Rules Committee.
Basically it states that the pitcher must visually indicate to the ump which arm he'll use at the beginning of the at-bat and the hitter can then select from which side of the plate he'll swing. After one pitch is thrown, the hitter and pitcher can only switch one time during the at-bat.
Venditte Putting Up Impressive Numbers
Even with a specially-designed rule to level the playing field for teams facing him, hitters aren't having all that much success against the pitcher who was cleverly nicknamed "Dexter" by his college pitching coach at Creighton University.
After playing in the Yankees' farm system for two half-seasons, Venditte had 43 saves in 45 outings, an 0.74 earned run average, has struck out 80 batters and walked 11 over 60 2/3 innings. His velocity approaches 90 mph as a righty, a bit less as a sidearm-throwing lefty, and between both arms he has five commanding pitches.
Even Venditte admits he can't be certain he has the right stuff to make it in the bigs. If he does, it won't be because he's getting this attention as some side-show attraction. He knows that doesn't get major league batters out. He's happy for the time being to have the talent and opportunity to play professional baseball and get paid for it.
Whatever does happen, at the very least someday he can take great pride in knowing that he once had enough of an impact on the game of baseball to actually change the rules.
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