Coming left and right: Pat Venditte paving the way for switch-pitching in MLB

Gregg Patton overviews the emergence of Pat Venditte, the ambidextrous long-time minor leaguer who's finally getting a shot in the bigs with the Oakland A's.

Oakland Athletics relief pitcher Pat Venditte has struck out four batters and walked two without giving up a run in his first 5.2 innings pitched in the Major Leagues. (Photos: Ben Margot / AP)

Most right-handed people would have trouble eating a bowl of soup with their left hand – which explains why anyone who watches Pat Venditte pitch to Major League Baseball hitters with either arm finds it unfathomable.

The ambidextrous Oakland Athletics pitcher made his American League debut last week after nearly eight seasons in the minor leagues. The marvel isn’t that he has impressed with 5.2 scoreless innings in four relief appearances. The marvel is the sight of it.

Teammate Drew Pomeranz was in the Oakland bullpen when Venditte first took the mound against the Boston Red Sox, and witnessed fans’ reaction.

“It’s pretty funny seeing the look on people’s faces,” Pomeranz told USA Today, after Venditte switched from left-hander to right-hander between batters. “Kind of like, ‘What the hell’s that?’”

For Venditte, 29, it’s called vindication. A natural right-hander, he was encouraged at age 3 by his father to start throwing with his left hand, as well.

Venditte said: “I think he just wanted to see if there can be a switch-hitter, why can’t there be a switch-pitcher to have that advantage?”

The Nebraska native proved it possible, at least at low-profile levels. He developed a similar style from each side, throwing with a side-arm motion to enhance his manufactured advantage. His best pitch is a sweeping curve that starts at the batter and bends away.

His perceived liability is his fastball. It is sub-par by miles-per-hour standards, ranging from the mid-to-high 80s. He wasn’t offered a baseball scholarship to his hometown Creighton University but was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 45th round after his junior season.

He stayed in school, got better and the Yanks drafted him again in the 20th round in 2008. Oddly, he was a success at every minor-league level but never impressed the organisation enough to get a chance with the Major League club. He did, however, inspire a rule change after a stand-off with a switch-hitter in 2008. The batter kept changing sides and Venditte kept switching his custom made glove to the other hand.

Now the “Venditte Rule” makes a switch-pitcher declare first.

Last winter, the Yankees let him go. Oakland quickly signed him and tried him in spring training games.

Said manager Bob Melvin: “You’re curious to see if this was really functional. All he did is perform for us.”

Still, the A’s had him pitch two more months in the minors. Finally, after seven-plus seasons with a fine 2.37 minor league earned-run average, and a slightly better than one-strikeout-per-inning rate, he is a big-leaguer.

Only one MLB pitcher since 1900 has used both arms: Greg A Harris, a right-hander with the Montreal Expos, who, as a novelty, pitched one inning in 1995 using his left arm to a pair of batters.

Venditte is making a career of it, aware there are still sceptics.

“A lot of people think: ‘This probably isn’t going to work’,” in the majors leagues. “It’s my job to show them otherwise.”

He may already have done that. This week, in the 12th round of the amateur draft, the Cleveland Indians picked Ryan Perez, an ambidextrous pitcher from tiny Judson University in Illinois.

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