Oakland A’s Call Up Switch-Pitcher Pat Venditte

The Oakland Athletics have called up switch-pitcher Pat Venditte, who is the league's very first ambidextrous pitcher in 100 years.

MLB.com reported that the A's bought Venditte's contract from triple-A Nashville on Friday. While with the Nashville Sounds, Venditte made 17 appearances and pitched 33 innings. He recorded a 1.36 ERA with 33 strikeouts and 13 walks. His opponent's batting average was a .167.

The 29-year-old relief pitcher can throw a fastball, slider and changeup from both sides of mound and uses a glove with two thumb holes. The story of his special glove goes like this, told by Chris Jones in the May Issue of ESPN The Magazine:

"The man can remember the first time he held a six-fingered glove. He was 7 years old. His father had searched for one that could accommodate the skills of his special boy, and he discovered that Mizuno in Osaka, Japan, had made one...

The father had called Osaka several times before he found someone who could understand or perhaps believe his request and its consequences: There is another one. He had his boy put each of his hands flat on a piece of paper and traced them, and then he faxed the pages to Mizuno. Several months later, he took a trip from the family home in Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco and picked up the glove after its journey across the ocean. It was in a black box. When the father came home, his boy was waiting for him at the airport. Now a 29-year-old man, he can remember perfectly the moment he opened the box and saw the glove that had been made just for him."

Venditte would become the first ambidextrous pitcher to play in a game since Greg A. Harris of the Montreal Expos did it in 1995. During that game, Harris pitched one inning.

Venditte was drafted by the New York Yankees in 2008 and played in the Yankees' minor league system for seven years. Venditte's ERA, in 417 2/3 innings over eight minor league seasons, is 2.37.