Pat Venditte: Two pitchers in one
Charleston Riverdogs player is professional baseball’s only ambidextrous pitcher.
The late Ted Williams, the last major league baseball player to bat over .400, always said, “Hitting a baseball is the single most difficult thing to do in sport.” One year after Williams passed away, the USA Today published a comprehensive case study and agreed, of the 10 Hardest Things To Do In Sports, hitting a baseball was No. 1.
A panel of experts including scientists, mathematicians and physics professors explained that a batter has 1/10 of a second to determine whether he/she will swing, anywhere from 1/10 to ¼ of a second to determine where the ball is going and how to swing and ¼ to ½ second to actually swing.
In baseball history, those athletes who have done this with perfect precision three out of ten times are called Hall of Famers. Baseball legends.
All these decisions and actions must happen – literally – in a split second by swinging a cylindrical wooden object at a round, white ball, 9 ½ inches in circumference traveling at roughly 90 miles per hours. Sometimes the pitched ball will dip and dive, like dropping off a table. Other times it will float and knuckle in cartoon-like fashion.
Pitchers, too, come in all shapes and sizes. From pint-sized Pedro Martinez to Randy “The Unit” Johnson standing 6-foot-10. Their pitches come from all angles – overhand, side-armed, right-handed, left-handed.
Then there’s Patrick Michael Venditte Jr., a 23-year old pitcher for the Charleston Riverdogs. He is not physically gifted. Opposing batters do not step to the plate in fear. When they look 60 feet, six inches to the pitchers mound batters see a 6’ 1” 190-pound kid who looks like he could still pass as a high school student.
“I reflect back on the recipe that many scouts use and a lot of it has to do with speed,” said father of the Yankees prospect Pat Venditte Sr. “If the kid doesn’t have the speed and the size, they’re not interested. In order for Pat to be successful he has to do two things: locate this pitch, paint the corner and two, throw the kind of pitch that will disrupt the batter.”
Venditte “disrupts the batter” by throwing right-handed … and left-handed. He is ambidextrous. For the record, Venditte is the only pitcher in professional baseball to throw with both arms.
“For me to even get here it took pitching left-handed and right-handed,” said Venditte. “I don’t have overpowering stuff. To have that advantage, and to say that I’d have the same success without it, would be foolish.”
Yankees star Joba Chamberlain is the same age as Venditte, but 6’ 3” and 230 pounds, His fastball has been clocked anywhere from 95-100 miles per hour on a radar gun. Now, that is intimidating.
“In the last 10-15 years the prototypical closer comes out throwing 95 miles an hour,” explained Riverdogs pitching coach Jeff Ware. “With Venditte, he’s not a flamethrower but he has great command. The most fascinating part about him is, not only can he throw with both arms, he can locate and command pitches with both arms.”
Venditte does it out of necessity.
Command and location. Pitching to his strengths is responsible for Venditte’s success to this point. He is 1-1 with seven saves in 10 games for the Riverdogs. Command and location. In 11 innings pitched he’s allowed just seven hits and has struck out 21 batters, nearly two an inning.
It was command and location that led to success for future Hall of Famers Jamie Moyer (Philadelphia Phillies), Greg Maddux (Atlanta Braves) and Tom Glavine (Atlanta Braves). Just the mention of those names makes Venditte smile, seemingly embarrassed by the comparison. “I’m not at that point but, hopefully over time with hard work, I can get better and see what happens,” he said.
“In college I was fortunate to have a guy like Eric Wordekemper (a 25-year old right-handed pitcher now in the Yankees system). He took me under his wing my freshman year. His control is impeccable. When you go to the big leagues you look at Maddux … I think the location is a mental thing, it’s up here (pointing to his head) and that’s what I’m going to continue to work on and get better at that.”
He’s no freak
His Dominican teammates call him Pulpo, Spanish for "octopus."
“I’ve been doing it so long that … I see where other people can see the big difference but, for me, it’s what I’ve had to do to compete here. Just to get there is all I worry about. I am so far away from the big leagues right now. I have so much to work on.”
Dad knew what the outside world would think when they saw Junior.
“The fact that he was home-schooled, his attitude was very positive. He only continued to keep doing what he was doing because he thought it to be natural. Had he been in a public school setting, I think he would have been mocked and ridiculed. I think when a young man or young woman gets that kind of feedback from another kid it breeds any attitude that wouldn’t be very conducive to the kind of thing we were attempting to get done.”
“It’s almost like watching two complete different pitchers out there because the mechanics are so totally different,” said Ware. “All the charts are P. Venditte ‘R’ and P. Venditte ‘L.’ I treat him like two totally different pitchers. You know its one guy but you still have to treat him like its two different pitchers.”
“Outside opinion -- how people see me -- isn’t that important. The only thing that’s important is that I’m getting my job done. That’s really the only thing that matters. How I get it done, being a closer, I just do it both ways.”
If his Little League, high school and college coaches resisted the concept of pitching ambidextrous it would have stunted Pat’s development?
“You hit the nail right on the head.”
Voices in his head
Venditte’s unique pitching style is the result of 20 years of work, hard work, dedicated work that started with a question in the mind of Pat Venditte Sr.
“We were in the batting cage working out and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be something if he could do with both arms what he’s doing with one?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ Why couldn’t someone throw with both arms?’”
The younger Venditte was really young. “I was three years old,” said Pat Venditte. “My dad started working with me. He actually built a batting cage. We started working out everyday, even at that age.”
Pat Sr. began taking the notion seriously.
“I started setting up a schedule, a routine, navigating where I don’t think anyone has ever navigated before. I think my interest in the game allowed me to incorporate some of the motor skills necessary to be effective throwing with both arms. We plowed through the work stages of that development. Everyday, and when I say everyday, I mean 2-3 times a day.”
The workout was not baseball-exclusive, nor was it arm-exclusive. Pat Sr. designed a program that developed skill and timing using both arms and both feet.
“I bought him a kicking tee and he would place kick, both legs, 25 times,” he said. “Then he would punt the ball with both legs. I know it sounds easy but, let me tell you, try and punt with both feet, it’s not easy.”
Before long the Venditte’s backyard was outfitted with Astroturf, a batting cage, a radar gun, and a pitching machine.
It was effortless – and fun – for both father and son.
The Octopus
Pat Venditte’s baseball glove has received as much attention, if not more, than the man who wears it. The custom-designed black hunk of leather has six finger holes, two thumbs and the pocket in the middle.
Venditte stepped on a Little League mound at the age of seven for his first competitive appearance, carrying two gloves, one for his right hand and one for his left hand. That trick lasted through warm ups.
“He set one behind him and the umpire called timeout and asked him what he was doing,” remembers his father, Pat Sr. “He made him put one away, the umpire said it could create interference.”
No Little League rule was going to halt the progress father and son made. Soon after, Pat Sr. sat down at a table with his son and asked him to place his hand on a piece of paper. With Junior’s fingers spread wide, he traced an outline around his hand.
“I contacted a guy in Japan,” said Pat Sr. “It was about a 13-hour difference and finally I hooked him one night. It was 12 or one in the morning here when I called. It took me three calls and they’d answer the phone in Japanese. I varied my approach in trying to get a hold of him.”
It’s amazing what a little ingenuity, some patience and a positive attitude will do. In just a few months, the glove problem was solved. Venditte now owned his first ambidextrous glove, stitched together by a “master craftsman” at Mizuno headquarters in Osaka, Japan. The standard Mizuno infielders glove that you’d find in a local sporting goods store costs $50, give or take a few dollars. The cost for a custom-designed ambidextrous glove: $400.
“When he was playing high school ball in Omaha Central high school, he came home one day and said, ‘Dad, when I’m not pitching they’ve got me playing first base. Which way do you want me to go?’ I said both.”
The only problem was the coach wanted Venditte to use a first baseman’s glove. “I got back on the horn to Japan,” said Pat Sr. and a few months and a few more hundred dollars later, Junior had a glove. “I think I have the only ambidextrous first baseman’s glove in the world.”
Another glove, another $400. “Now I am fortunate enough to have a deal with Mizuno,” said Venditte.
Learning baseball’s greatest lesson
Being a professional baseball player was never Pat Venditte’s “goal.” He loved the game but, as Venditte says, “I just knew I wanted to keep playing.”
“When I was in high school I tried out for Creighton Prep, a premiere high school in Omaha. I didn’t make the team. I weighed my options and decided to go to a public school and I made the team, but I still didn’t make varsity until I was a junior. I didn’t have great high school numbers, but I loved the game.”
“I was lucky enough to play for a good coach who taught me a lot about hard work. We’d get to high school early in the mornings. When the weather wasn’t nice, we’d go to the gym and throw. At the time I didn’t have any set goals in mind.”
When he was in high school, Pat’s uncle approached his father and said, “I don’t know what you’re doing but I think you are making a big mistake. He’s not going to be effective with both arms but if you work with him with one arm he’s going to be strong.’ That was the only time in my entire life working with him that I ever heard anything negative. It planted a seed that made me think are we making a mistake that is not allowing him to perform at peak level with one arm?”
“The passion came when I was in high school. I love the game. It’s a dream come true, because it’s something I love to do.”
“My senior year I had a decent season. I was either going to go to a Division II school or an NAIA school. I had small scholarship offers for both. Lucky for me, coach Servais from Creighton University (a block away from Venditte’s high school) gave me a chance to walk on. That’s when things took off.”
Long before Pat Venditte ever threw a pitch as a professional, he learned his greatest lesson about the game of baseball. He was humbled.
“He guaranteed me a spot on the team. It was my job to make the 25-man roster. I had a decent Fall and I made the first couple trips with the travel team but then I tripped up in my first outing, it didn’t go very well and I didn’t make another trip until May.”
Venditte was all right-handed his freshman year. “Coach Servais didn’t want to make a mockery of the game and I hadn’t proven myself to go out and switch during a game. I had to work on that to prove that I could do it.”
“Three months (down time) and two innings of experience and I find myself in the conference championship game against Wichita State. Things didn’t go very well. I didn’t perform well. It cost us the conference tournament – and that’s when things really turned around for me. I looked at myself and I felt that I needed to change. Coach Servais told me some things I needed to work on, it really motivated me to work harder that summer.”
Venditte’s poor performance in the conference tournament was humiliating. The loss challenged him and changed his mission. Venditte no longer wanted to “just keep playing,” he now had a desire to win. He arrived at Creighton his sophomore year with a goal: win.
“It paid off,” said Venditte, relaxing on a leather couch in the Riverdogs clubhouse. “Two years later, I got the same chance to start against Wichita State in the conference tournament and we won that game.”
Pitching for Money
In 2008, Venditte was selected as the 620th pick in the MLB Draft by the New York Yankees. Two weeks later he threw his first professional pitch for the Staten Island Yankees against their crosstown rivals the Brooklyn Cyclones.
Venditte pitched a scoreless – and bizarre – inning, recording his first professional save.
With two outs Venditte faced Ralph Henriquez, a switch-hitter. When Henriquez stepped in to bat right-handed, Venditte switched hands to pitch right-handed. Henriquez called time out, switched his ankle guard and stepped in as a left-handed hitter. Venditte shuffled his glove to the other hand and gripped the ball with his left hand. This strategic charade continued several times until the umpire instructed the Henriquez to select which side of the plate he intended to hit, and that the pitcher would then be allowed to declare with which arm he would pitch. Venditte struck out Henriquez (who slammed his bat in the dirt in anger) to end the game.
The episode prompted the Professional Baseball Umpires Corp. (PBUC) to amend the rule book to include “The Pat Venditte Rule.” A rule Venditte can recite in his sleep.
“The hitter and I are each allowed one switch per at-bat but I have to declare first,” described Venditte. “So, if a switch-hitter comes up I have to declare visually which arm I am going to throw with and he can decide which hand he wants to hit with.”
The rule was part of the learning curve for Riverdogs pitching coach Jeff Ware, when he learned Venditte would be assigned to pitch in Charleston this summer.
“Spring training for him, was spring training for me,” said Ware. “It was like nothing I’d ever been a part of. Learning the rules, seeing the reactions of players who’d never seen him before was kind of fun. Seeing Pat move the glove from one hand to the other and watching the hitter’s reaction … it was a lot fun.”
Blazing Trails
“From the phone calls I get from parents, grandparents, who are working with their kids, are working diligently to get them to become ambidextrous. They are 9, 10, 12, 14 years of age.”
“I really had a great deal of interest in having my daughters become ambidextrous, so I ordered two gloves for them, Katie (18) and Anna (17). But they took a liking to the stage more than they did athletics and during their formative years they were in the theatre, home-schooled and their summers and all their spare time was spent on the stage. I really believe that I could have made them ambidextrous softball pitchers if simply given the time. That would have truly been something to be able to throw that ball underhand, fast pitch!?”
“We’re in the infant stages of learning what the athlete can do with both arms. Do I think there’s going to be some kids in the future who are doing what Pat is doing? Yes. I think they’ll be bigger and stronger and faster.”
“You know what Facebook is? I have guys on there that throw with both arms that have contacted me asking me what to do. I get kids on Facebook from eight to 20 years old. I made contact with a kid from Japan/China asking advice on pitches.”
“He is a little herkie jerky from the left side, but that helps him out,” said Ware. “Any type of deception a pitcher can use to his ability to help him out as long as he can repeat the mechanics.”
His senior year at Creighton, and since entering professional baseball, Venditte has been strictly as closer. His role was limited to one inning or less in most cases. His responsibility: secure a victory for the team by recording the final out.
“For the first time I was taken aback when I was in Charleston watching him pitch. When he would pitch all the fans would switch seats to the left and to the right depending on which way he was throwing.”
“I’ve learned that once you think you have the game figured out it will come back to kick you. That’s something that Coach Servais always taught us, ‘Once you think you have this game down is the second it’s going to stomp on you’ and at this level, you can have a two-run lead, two out and two strikes, but the second you back off is the second it falls apart.”
“I like to market myself by the product on the field,” said Venditte, who has a marketing degree from Creighton University. “As long as I’m getting the job done and help us win games, that’s all that matters. I like to think my actions speak louder than my words.”
“For me, I hope I don’t have to choose but if one day they make me pick one arm, I’ll deal with that then. I hope I can continue, because it helps me compete.”
“My weakness is velocity. You don’t see a lot of guys with my velocity in the big leagues. But that’s not something I can think about right now because if you think about the long picture you’ll get buried. All I can worry about is coming out here everyday and trying to get better. I am trying to build velocity but, more importantly, I need to focus on locating my pitches. If the velocity doesn’t come, I need to rely on locating pitches and throwing two or three pitches for strikes.”
Why don’t you think anyone has done it yet?
“Time, time, time,” said Pat Sr. “The time we spent doing this … I mean, there are some kids who come in to this ambidexterity that have a lot of naturalness toward that end, but in Pat’s case we really had to work at it.”
Grab a bat. Here we go …