A switch-pitcher faced a switch-hitter and chaos ensued | Weird Rules

Baseball games are already long, so why not just take all the time needed to sort out a rule when there's one-out left in a blowout victory? That's exactly what the umpire did when Pat Venditte, an ambidextrous pitcher, faced off against a switch-hitter, and no one knew what to do. The result was a 6-minute standoff as each player attempted to get the upper hand (pun intended). This led the MLB to immediately amend their rulebook, guaranteeing to keep play moving the next time this comes up. And as a result, baseball is the quickest sport in the world.

Written and produced by Ryan Simmons and Will Buikema
Shot by Mike Imhoff
Edited by Jiazhen Zhang
Animations and graphics by Phil Pasternak

[CUMBICA]

If he were a starter he could throw like 70 pitches with one hand and then switch to the other and voila go like 140 pitches without damaging his elbows. Well, at least in theory.

[naterk]

"Okay boys, we need to come up with a rule here."
"Which one will make it a higher-scoring game?"
"That would happen if we gave the advantage to the batter."
"Okay, we'll give the advantage to the batter then."

[handasakravit]

Pat venditte wasn't born ambidextrous. At a young age his dad trained him to do everyday actions with both hands. Already at a young age he would practice pitching with both hands for many hours. As he grew older he continued to pitch and play baseball. This eventually led to him getting drafted by the Yankees in 2008. He is still playing professional baseball as he played for the Los Angeles Dodgers as recently as 2018. Hope this helped with a little history on pat.

[miketaylor]

They both should have to tell the umpire in secret and whatever they tell him, is what they have to use

[billydu]

Pat Venditte is the greatest amphibious pitcher of all-time.

[BadgerOff]

This story kind of reminds me of when something similar happened in the world of Snooker, only it didn't lead to a rule change because of one badass reason.

It involved Ronnie O'Sullivan, who is arguably the most naturally gifted snooker player in the world. He's also ambidextrous. That is a massive advantage in a game like snooker which is all about finding the best angles on the table. O'Sullivan is also a maverick though, and often gets bored of the sport, sometimes DURING matches! He generally only loses when he can't be bothered to play well that day.

He once got in to trouble with the sports governing body for 'flexing' on his opponent when he got bored during a match he was easily winning, so decided to play the rest of the match left-handed (and still destroyed his opponent).

The notoriously stuffy governing body took exception to his behaviour and said he'd been "disrespectful" towards his opponent. O'Sullivan responded with "it's disrespectful that I'm better at this game with my weak hand than he is with his strongest?", and then proceded to challenge them to put forward their best player, and he would beat him using only his weak hand. The governing body agreed and put forward their current (at the time) World Number 1 (and World

Ronnie destroyed him.

With his weak hand.

At that point the governing body couldn't do much more than say "umm, fair enough. carry on, obviously are just *that* good!"

[mattsnyder]

I personally hate this rule. I think the hitter should be forced to declare first.

The one-in-a-million ambidextrous pitcher should have an advantage over the one-in-50 switch hitter.

[olaalcantara]

Inigo: "I am not lef'-handed"; Wesley: "I am not left-handed, either."

[bennypanella]

Beef History: Switch Hitters vs Switch Pitchers

[deezynar]

The rule killed Venditte's advantage.

[reidlapekas]

Yall should know about Venditte! He also practiced for a long time and had to work at his ambidexterity.

[sylvernale]

Sports organizations should hire Magic The Gathering players - they'd find all these loopholes and exploits in an afternoon

[toddbiesel]

Rob Manfred: "I have the perfect solution."
*Umpires hold ten-foot tall curtain between batter and pitcher prior to plate appearance.*

[howardbaxter]

The fact that it took over a 100 years for there to be a situation for this rule to be put in place astounds me. Honestly, it shows how unpredictable baseball can be, and how every game is unique.

Also, there are still events in baseball that will happen but haven't happened yet (e.g. Home Run Cycle in the majors or a Natural Home Run Cycle).

[burningphoneix]

Pat isn't a naturally ambidextrous guy! His father made him pitch with his left hand to develop this advantage.

[lexusblacklist]

I love how venditte immediately sees the problem.

[ZackN]

The craziest thing about this is that even after a century and half before writing a rule for this, they still managed to get it exactly wrong. The way they wrote this rule is massively-advantageous to the (comparatively-common-place) switch hitter at the expense of the (maybe once a generation phenomenon) switch pitcher. Personally, I think any pitcher who can throw with either hand should be allowed to throw each pitch of the at-bat with whichever hand they want, provided they set properly/avoid balking/make it clear with which hand any given pitch will be thrown. It's such a unique skill that it should be rewarded with unique advantages. But at a minimum, it should be the batter who first has to demonstrate their intentions about whether they'll be hitting right- or left-handed. This rule so thoroughly neutralizes an ambidextrous pitcher's potential advantage against switch hitters, that it seems likely to actively discourage pitchers considering it from putting the years and years of work that would be necessary to develop the skill.

There's at least one switch hitter in the majority of MLB lineups. On some nights, there might be two or three switch hitters in a team's lineup. Just on principle, if one person has a one in 100, 000 skill they developed to give themselves a potential advantage, and another person has a 1 in 10 skill they developed to give themselves a potential advantage, deference should go to the guy with the less commonplace skill.

[LordJudgement]

I had the luck and pleasure of seeing Pat Venditte pitch in college. He went to the college in my home town and it was quite the show. The time i saw him pitch he was lights out shutting down guys. hitters didnt know what to do with his gift. it was awesome. Its one of the few in person sports happenings il always remember.

[doktarr]

I hate this ruling. The rule should just be that the batter has to pick a batter's box and indicate readiness.

[RamonGuerrero]

When you were speaking on the neutral stance for a switch pitcher, it reminded me of the kicker for the USA rugby 7’s team. When he kicks the ball to restart the game he has a huge advantage because he can kick left or right footed. He stands square facing the opposition so they have no idea where he’s going to kick