By: Carlos Marcano
Have you ever tried to throw anything, let’s say a baseball for the purpose of this exercise, with your non-dominant arm?
I have, and the one thing I can compare it to is with having the aliens from Space Jam suddenly appear next to me and making their way to steal all of my, already very limited, ability to make any coordinated movement: I can’t aim or throw with any resemblance of proficiency at all.
I’ve done some asking and it looks like everyone I did ask just fares the same way; it’s just part of our nature, nothing to be ashamed of (fortunately).
Now, imagine being able to, not only throw with your non-dominant limb at the same capability as your dominant one, but do it at a level in which less than 0.000015% of the people in the world can do it.
Imagine doing this:
What Pat does is something so scarce that only 8 players in MLB history have done it, and that includes him: Tod Brynan, Larry Corcoran, Elton Chamberlain, Greg Harris, Tony Mullane, Moxie Manuel, Pat Venditte, and George Wheeler.
The last one to do it before Venditte was Greg Harris in 1995 but he only did it in the final game of his career. Before him, the latest one was Moxie Manuel in 1908! And it has been referenced that Venditte is the only real full-time ambidextrous pitcher ever.
In comparison, two-way players like Shohei Ohtani while still rare, have happened almost thrice as Baseball-Reference lists 21 players to do it (min. 300 games pitching / 300 games fielding-batting). You can check the list here. Granted, those players were also mostly playing during the 19th and 20th centuries, but it still remarks the difference.
Venditte’s ability is a combination of disposition and encouragement; a natural-born right-hander, he was trained by his father relentlessly to be able to throw also left-handed since he was a child.
This was, as time would prove, a wise decision as even when Pat doesn’t have a high-speed 4-seamer by today’s standards (he hits the upper 80’s right-handed), his unique ability opened opportunities for him that otherwise would have been hard to get due to the competitiveness of the field.
He had an auspicious road in the minors where he compiled during his whole career a 40-32 W-L record, 58 SV, and a 2.57 ERA in 641 IP. He even played a little in Winter Leagues like in my homeland, Venezuela, and in Mexico with some success.
Unfortunately, this did not translate well to the big leagues. After debuting in 2015 with Oakland, Pat played 72.1 IP at MLB level, until his retirement in 2020. He finished with a 2-2 record, a 4.73 ERA, 3 HLDs, and a 4.88 FIP.
It’s tempting to say that the lack of velocity was the main hurdle that held him back, which of course is undeniable. He was a better LHP vs LHB (.582 OPS against) than RHP vs RHP (.867) and, as we know, there are a lot more right-handed batters so that placed the odds against him from the beginning, and not having an overpowering fastball put him in disadvantage.
But one thing I can’t stop thinking about Pat is, what if the coaching world was not prepared to help him bloom? What if the people in charge of potentiating this extraordinary ability (starting with his own father in his childhood) were not ready to give the best possible guidance to maximize this talent?
I don’t think that would be such a crazy thought, to be honest. I mean, look at how Los Angeles struggled at the beginning on how to properly use Ohtani in a situation that “looks like” a less complicated one.
I’m not sure if that’s a good enough answer to make Pat feel better about the outcome of his career, which by all means is still very successful, especially compared with the rest of us mortals. But at least could bring some peace of mind in terms of that he did the best under the circumstances.
Meanwhile, we will always have this piece of history that even led to a change in the rules:
Switch Hitter VS Switch Pitcher Pat Venditte
The change was to add the OBR Rule 5.07(f), known as the “Pat Venditte Rule”, which currently reads:
“A pitcher must indicate visually to the umpire-in-chief, the batter, and any runners the hand with which he intends to pitch, which may be done by wearing his glove on the other hand while touching the pitcher’s rubber…”
That’s something that Patrick Michael Venditte Jr. will have forever.