Where Did This Pat Venditte Come From???????

Have you heard about this Guy?  Pat Venditte has been in pro baseball since 2005.  He played his college ball at Creighton University in Omaha Nebraska the home of the college world series.  If you haven't heard you sure have missed something.  Venditte is a switch pitcher!  What in the world is a switch pitcher?  He can throw the baseball with either hand.  How good is he at it?  He can chunk it to the plate at between 92-94 miles and hour with either arm. Venditte pitches for the Oakland A's.
 So why if he can do all of this how come now we are hearing about him for the first time????  He is 0-0 on the season with a 2.37 ERA. 

 We know all about switch hitters where if you are a left handed batter and a right handed pitcher is on the mound you have the ball breaking at you instead of away.  That would make sense that if I am a right handed batter then I have the same going for me when a left handed pitcher is throwing.  There are time when teams change pitchers in the middle of an inning or even during a turn at bat.  They change from a right handed pitcher to a left hander then any switch hitter can change sides of the plate and hit the other way.

How ever as a switch pitcher the pitcher must announce before each batter which way he is going to pitch.  Doesn't seem fair does it that  a batter can switch at any old time but the pitcher can't.  Venditte has a seven finger glove made to fit right on the mound every time he switches from right hander to a lefty.

I just don't understand as news hungry that this world is why we didn't hear about him when he was in high school. He should have been news worthy every step up the ladder all the way to the majors.  I have not actually seen him pitch but just the high lights he is amazing how well he throws from
either side with no side better than the other.

There was a period in my life that I bowled in leagues and of course you go as teams to tournaments.  I remember years ago the bowling ally in Wilson had a tournament on a Sunday afternoon.  You shot one game  getting your high score.  The next game was the third, sixth and ninth frame were strikes and you tried to add to a strike given to you.  Then had to bowl a left handed game.  In those days I averaged about 182 and in this tournament I had a 139 as a lefty.  There are not many people opposite hand can break 100.  Then the final game was low score where the least pins were subtracted from all of your other games.  If you got nothing but gutter that counted for a strike on you first ball or spare on the second.  I shot a 39 which is a great low ball score.  I won the tournament mostly because of the low score and my lefty game.

I know you have to practice twice as much when you are trying to pitch from both sides or bowling either way.  It is kind of funny the few times I ever bowled from the left side your approach speed and release are the main elements.  Left handed I had a natural curve but from my natural right side I have to really force myself to get it to curve like bowling balls do.  Right handed I am a natural straight ball thrower but you can never get any score without the ball breaking into the pocket.

Years ago the there was a major league pitcher who had only one arm and had to hold his glove under his arm pit and grab his glove after he released the ball.  He got all kinds of attention going up the ladder of baseball but not Pat Venvitte.  I guess the news media has become so entrenched in the bad news they have forgotten how good, good news can be.