fullcountpitch.com

By Andrew Armida, 13 year old Correspondent

Well, it feels good to be back.  With school and school ball over I’m happy to be making a return.  Today I’ll be providing you with a pretty cool story.  Some of you may have seen this but for those who haven’t, I think you’ll find it pretty interesting.

For those of you who don’t know, Pat Venditte is a 23 year old pitcher from Omaha, Nebraska.  He attended Creighton University and was drafted by (20^th round/620^th overall pick) and signed by the Yankees this year. He was drafted last year but he didn’t sign.  He currently is playing a Class A level minor league baseball with the Staten Island Yankees.  And for his most intriguing feature, he is an ambidextrous pitcher.

During his early years his father, Pat Sr., worked with Pat to acquire this useful skill.  Pat would throw pitches from both sides to gain arm strength and punt footballs with both legs to gain the motions to establish his pitching craft with both arms.  Venditte uses a six-fingered glove with two webs and two thumb holes.  As a toddler, Pat Sr. traced Pat’s hands onto a piece of paper and sent it to Mizuno, who then developed the glove.  They continue to trace his hands when new gloves are needed.

Venditte is a natural righty.  From the right side he is usually in the 86-89 MPH range but can touch 90-91.  He throws over the top and has much more power from the right side.  As a lefty, Pat throws with a side-arm delivery and is usually in the high 70s-low 80s range.  He has a sweeping frisbee-like slider and relies on his off-speed and braking stuff more from the left side.  Pitching from both sides, he is much more durable.  Throwing pitches with both arms takes away a lot of wear and tear.

Creighton Coach Ed Servias had seen Pat pitch in high school and didn’t feel he would be able to pitch for a D-1 college team.  Venditte finally earned a walk-on role.  He only pitched right-handed during his freshman year with Servias fearing things would get out of hand.  But from his sophomore season on he pitched with both arms and pitched effectively.  Out of the pen Venditte was a strikeout artist.  In his career at Creighton he struck out batters with both arms during the same game 39 times.

As I mentioned before Venditte is currently in the Yankees farm system playing for the Staten Island Yankees.  Right now he is doing a great job. Hitters are finding him confusing because as of 7/3, he has pitched 6 1/3 innings and given up one hit, one walk, has struck out six batters, recorded one win, three saves, and hasn’t given up a run. 

This rare occurrence may bring out some rule changes.  In his pro debut, there was quite a predicament when a switch-hitter came to the plate.  Constant switches led the umpire to come to the conclusion that each player could switch once per at bat, with the hitter having to announce first giving the pitcher the advantage.  I’m not sure if this rule will hold up or if there is an existing rule but the league will eventually have to deal with this headache.  There is also the question if Venditte’s custom glove is legal or not. 

 Well there you have it.  It is good to hear stories of these hard workers and amazing feats once in a while.  Once again I’m glad to be back and I look forward to giving my input on some stories throughout the summer and beyond.