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Sports Law & Ambidextrous Pitchers

sports law picPat Venditte, a truly ambidextrous, pitcher baseball was recently called-up by the Oakland A’s. His ability to throw MLB pitches with both arms has raised not only numerous eyebrows but also many questions. For the first time, Venditte’s ability as a switch-pitcher has had many asking what will happen when he faces a switch-hitter in the major league. Back in 2008, Venditte was pitching for the Staten Island Yankees and got into an entertaining exchange switching hands with a batter that was switching sides of the plate.

In response to all the speculations regarding the matter, the Professional Baseball Umpires Corporation soon after announced a new rule to address the situation: The pitcher must indicate which arm he will throw with (usually by stepping onto the rubber with his glove on a given hand), after which the batter can choose which side of the plate to hit from. After throwing one pitch, the pitcher and batter can each change once during an at-bat.

Interestingly, back in 2008, the umpires decided to get the game moving by requiring the batter to choose his hitting side first and permitting Venditte to respond. Obviously, the reacting player gets the benefit of making the final decision, which made many wonder about the subseqent rule giving the batter the advantage. The reasoning behind the rule was that the pitcher always goes first, so the batter has always had the advantage of responding. In other words, the batter has always known in advance which hand the pitcher was going to use before going to the plate since all other pitchers have only thrown with one hand. As a result, the batting team has had the advantage of deciding whether to use pinch-hitters or in determining which side of the plate a switch-hitter will hit from. The end result is that Venditte will be required to decide whether he will throw as a righty or a lefty, which essentially eliminates the surprise element of having a switch-pitcher.

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