His afternoon of pitching finished, CC Sabathia took a seat in the Yankees’ dugout at Champion Stadium and watched the skinny minor league left-hander who replaced him warm up.
The next thing Sabathia knew, a skinny kid was out there throwing right-handed. It could not be the same pitcher; that would be crazy. Had Sabathia missed something?
Sabathia might have been the only player in the Yankees’ traveling party who did not know that Pat Venditte, the team’s ambidextrous Single-A pitcher, was making his first appearance in a major league exhibition game.
Coming in with two out in the fifth against the Atlanta Braves, Venditte threw four warm-up pitches left-handed, switched his six-fingered glove to his left hand, then tossed four more right-handed. Sabathia missed the glove switch, and he knew nothing about Venditte’s rare talent.
“I thought maybe the guy got hurt and I didn’t see it,” Sabathia said. “It freaked me out a little bit. I had no idea.”
Venditte worked one-and-a-third innings, allowing one run and two hits. He faced three right-handed hitters, three left-handers and one switch-hitter, Brooks Conrad, who brought both batting helmets to the on-deck circle in a state of confusion.
Baseball created a protocol for ambidextrous pitchers two years ago after Venditte, playing for Single-A Staten Island, and the switch-hitter Ralph Henriquez of Brooklyn repeatedly changed sides in an at-bat. The pitcher must declare which hand he will use first, and then the batter must choose a side.
On the first pitch, Conrad, batting left-handed, grounded out hard to first.
“That was just a weird feeling because I had no idea what the rule was, and I went up there and said: ‘All right, do you guys know the rule here? I’m a switch-hitter, what’s going on?’” Conrad said.
Venditte’s appearance livened up an otherwise mundane game the Braves won, 9-6.
Scouts say Venditte, who will probably pitch for Single-A Tampa, lacks the velocity to be a major league prospect. Venditte does not dispute that.
“I don’t have overpowering stuff from either side,” he said, and thinks switch-pitching remains his only shot at the majors.
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