Baseball Question

[The Reservoir Dog]

You have a switch hitter. Has there ever been a switch pitcher? Would it be allowed?

[bob6572]

It is allowed, but there has never been. I think it was Gregg Harris, a 90's reliever for the Red Sox who had a special glove that could be worn on either hand and claimed he could do it. But he never tried. Hard to throw 95 MPH or great breaking stuff either way.

[missymouseworld]

Sounds dangerous to me.

When a pitcher has a ball get away from him and is wild above 90mph normally, it is scary....imagine using the "other" arm. I wouldn't want to be in the batter's box.

[Speedy1998]

Sounds dangerous to me.

When a pitcher has a ball get away from him and is wild above 90mph normally, it is scary.....

Reminds me of a college pitcher I saw this weekend. He could throw a 97 MPH fastball, but he had no idea where is was going.

[Disney Goof]

Yes it is legal, but the pitcher has to declare which hand he is going to pitch with per batter. So, he can't change hands during the same batter's at bat.

[cubbie]

There is a pitcher in the Oakland farm system (he's currently at AAA Nashville) who does this. His name is Pat Venditte. He was a switch pitcher at Creighton in college, and although he didn't have an overpowering fastball, he was still an incredibly effective pitcher. He has a specially designed glove that allows him to easily switch.

The real fun starts when a switch hitter comes up to the plate. There was an incident a few years back where a switch hitter stepped into the box as a righty, so Venditte put on his glove to pitch as a righty. The batter switched to the left side, so Venditte did the same. This continued for a while, until the umpire eventually made Venditte commit first. After this incident, MLB released "Venditte Guidelines" to prevent this from happening again. As was said before, the pitcher does have to declare first.

Hopefully the A's call Venditte up at some point. It really is neat to see.

[manutd1]

If there ever was a switch pitcher.....and is great at it,he will make a huge amount of money!!!

[cubbie]

Just to follow up on this topic. Pat Venditte was called up by the A's and pitched tonight. I'm sure there will be some attention on him, so keep an eye out.