I personally hate this rule. I think the hitter should be forced to declare first. The one-in-a-million ambidextrous pitcher should have an advantage over the one-in-50 switch hitter.

If he were a starter he could throw like 70 pitches with one hand and then switch to the other and voila go like 140 pitches without damaging his elbows. Well, at least in theory.

"Okay boys, we need to come up with a rule here." "Which one will make it a higher-scoring game?" "That would happen if we gave the advantage to the batter." "Okay, we'll give the advantage to the batter then."

They both should have to tell the umpire in secret and whatever they tell him, is what they have to use

Pat Venditte is the greatest amphibious pitcher of all-time.

Pat venditte wasn't born ambidextrous. At a young age his dad trained him to do everyday actions with both hands. Already at a young age he would practice pitching with both hands for many hours. As he grew older he continued to pitch and play baseball. This eventually led to him getting drafted by the Yankees in 2008. He is still playing professional baseball as he played for the Los Angeles Dodgers as recently as 2018. Hope this helped with a little history on pat.

This story kind of reminds me of when something similar happened in the world of Snooker, only it didn't lead to a rule change because of one badass reason. It involved Ronnie O'Sullivan, who is arguably the most naturally gifted snooker player in the world. He's also ambidextrous. That is a massive advantage in a game like snooker which is all about finding the best angles on the table. O'Sullivan is also a maverick though, and often gets bored of the sport, sometimes DURING matches! He generally only loses when he can't be bothered to play well that day. He once got in to trouble with the sports governing body for 'flexing' on his opponent when he got bored during a match he was easily winning, so decided to play the rest of the match left-handed (and still destroyed his opponent). The notoriously stuffy governing body took exception to his behaviour and said he'd been "disrespectful" towards his opponent. O'Sullivan responded with "it's disrespectful that I'm better at this game with my weak hand than he is with his strongest?", and then proceded to challenge them to put forward their best player, and he would beat him using only his weak hand. The governing body agreed and put forward their current (at the time) World Number 1 (and World Champion)......... Ronnie destroyed him. With his weak hand. At that point the governing body couldn't do much more than say "umm, fair enough. carry on, then......you obviously are just *that* good!"

Inigo: "I am not lef'-handed"; Wesley: "I am not left-handed, either."

Beef History: Switch Hitters vs Switch Pitchers

Yall should know about Venditte! He also practiced for a long time and had to work at his ambidexterity.

The rule killed Venditte's advantage.

Sports organizations should hire Magic The Gathering players - they'd find all these loopholes and exploits in an afternoon

Rob Manfred: "I have the perfect solution." *Umpires hold ten-foot tall curtain between batter and pitcher prior to plate appearance.*

Pat isn't a naturally ambidextrous guy! His father made him pitch with his left hand to develop this advantage.

I love how venditte immediately sees the problem.

The fact that it took over a 100 years for there to be a situation for this rule to be put in place astounds me. Honestly, it shows how unpredictable baseball can be, and how every game is unique. Also, there are still events in baseball that will happen but haven't happened yet (e.g. Home Run Cycle in the majors or a Natural Home Run Cycle).

I hate this ruling. The rule should just be that the batter has to pick a batter's box and indicate readiness.

So actually Pat Venditte wasn’t born ambidextrous. His dad actually trained his son to throw with both hands at an early age. The story of how his glove was made is also fascinating. He might be as interesting a baseball player as Adam Dunn

I had the luck and pleasure of seeing Pat Venditte pitch in college. He went to the college in my home town and it was quite the show. The time i saw him pitch he was lights out shutting down guys. hitters didnt know what to do with his gift. it was awesome. Its one of the few in person sports happenings il always remember.

When you were speaking on the neutral stance for a switch pitcher, it reminded me of the kicker for the USA rugby 7’s team. When he kicks the ball to restart the game he has a huge advantage because he can kick left or right footed. He stands square facing the opposition so they have no idea where he’s going to kick

The craziest thing about this is that even after a century and half before writing a rule for this, they still managed to get it exactly wrong. The way they wrote this rule is massively-advantageous to the (comparatively-common-place) switch hitter at the expense of the (maybe once a generation phenomenon) switch pitcher. Personally, I think any pitcher who can throw with either hand should be allowed to throw each pitch of the at-bat with whichever hand they want, provided they set properly/avoid balking/make it clear with which hand any given pitch will be thrown. It's such a unique skill that it should be rewarded with unique advantages. But at a minimum, it should be the batter who first has to demonstrate their intentions about whether they'll be hitting right- or left-handed. This rule so thoroughly neutralizes an ambidextrous pitcher's potential advantage against switch hitters, that it seems likely to actively discourage pitchers considering it from putting the years and years of work that would be necessary to develop the skill. There's at least one switch hitter in the majority of MLB lineups. On some nights, there might be two or three switch hitters in a team's lineup. Just on principle, if one person has a one in 100,000 skill they developed to give themselves a potential advantage, and another person has a 1 in 10 skill they developed to give themselves a potential advantage, deference should go to the guy with the less commonplace skill.

a rule that doesn't benefit the pitcher? whaaaa?

Actually, the rule book already covered that. After the umpire declares "play ball" the batting team has exactly 5 minutes to "establish play", i.e. for the batter to get in the box. If they fail to do that, intentional delay may be declared leading up to a forfeit. Something that hasn't happened since 1995.

The Laura Dern T-Shirt is everything 😂

You can train to be ambidexterous

It's alot more specific than he states. The Pat Venditte rule (sorry if I spelt wrong) is where the pitcher has to decide BEFORE the batter even steps up to the plate, and then once the pitcher has made it clear which hand he is pitching with, the batter can choose which side he goes on to bat, and the pitcher has to stick to the hand he chose before the inning began until that batter either gets on base, or strikes out, or if he walks him. He has to start every inning like that, indicating if he's gonna switch hands, or stay before ever batter gets in the box. I find this actually puts the switch pitcher (generational talent) at a disadvantage against switch hitters especially.

Every few years I find myself researching different pitch mechanics for fun. Pros and cons of each arm slot and etc, and no matter what happens, when u start down that rabbit hole, u end up back at Pat Venditte lol. And every time I stumble upon him, I remember having watched this video when it was new.

Wish the umps were mic'd up for that. That must have been one interesting conversation.

There's a similar situation in cricket. At the beginning of the game an ambidextrous bowler is bowling the first over, the bowler has to declare their action. The batting side have sent out one left handed batsman and one right handed batsman. (Essentially left bowling is better to right batting vice versa) So the batsmen are permitted to switch ends before the ball is bowled. I don't think there is actually any solution to this in the rules, spirit of the game and all that bollocks comes into it.

I love the end of the description.😂⚾️

This is actually an insane rule that I've never even heard of until now. Yet another excellent video SB Nation!!!

SF GIants just signed Pat Benditte for the 2019 season. Pablo Sandoval is also ambidextrous.

WE LIKE SPORTS AND WE DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS

I personally think the pitcher should have final pick

Thoroughly entertained boys. Subbed.

Bruh Pat Vindetti’s dad was my driving instructor 😂

Here's a great idea. Have two guys who hate baseball talk about baseball.

Like most of the other rules covered in this series, I'm more interested in the consequences of the new ruling than the incident that caused the change. Have there been any pitchers that have been forced to pitch with their opposite hand because they walked up to the plate with the ball in the wrong hand?

I love this series!!!

The end was actually hilarious 😂

"This is one of the hardest things to do in sports. Oh, and I can do it with either hand. Cause that's how much work I have put into this."

Fun Fact: Michael Vick is actually right-handed. He just throws the football left handed.

Great analysis!

Love this! Outside the box on a new level here for sure! ;)

Still waiting for a switch throwing QB

Imagine the odds of this happening

Ok that OHHH YEAHHH was hilarious

I trained myself to be ambidextrous and managed to get a left handed scholarship for school. Took me 5 years for it to be second nature simply because I had to start over with learning everything on one hand while making sure my skills didn’t get rusty on the other.

"All he did was just be born ambidextrous" ... yeah. He didn't work his ass off for 20+ years to reach the majors. He was just born able to switch pitch at a professional level.

HEY! Rich Hill trained himself to throw with his non-dominant left hand. And he threw the world's saddest perfect game.

That last bit with the samurai batter had me rolling.

This is my favorite baseball video.

This is awkward as all hell. I feel like I'm watching an overly passionate but serious hipster trying to explain something to a high school stoner.

I don't watch sports but I love this channel

It would have been way more fun if they told both players to turn their backs to one another, pick a side, and then turn around and be committed to it for the rest of the at bat. You could get the PA announcer into this and turn it into a fun fan activity where they cheer for which side they think their man should go. Put a timer on it and now we've got us a fun way to resolve a rare dispute. Also, you guys are hilarious. Your imagining of live-switch baseball feels straight out of a Judd Apatow script.

I wanted to see this. Never new there really was one. Not only ambidextrous but throws both normal and submarine style.🤯

Ambidextrous training is real and not a hard skill to aquire but to say that it's just 'luck' that got Venditte into major league baseball is disrespectful even as a joke. Btw he is still RH dominant and throws hardest with his right but his release is different from his left so his RH slider works as his LH changeup.

The dude in the hat contributes 0% to these videos, he's like "oh wow" 😂

I saw him pitch at a Ray's vs blue Jay's game at a preseason game in 2016. It was fun to watch him switch

Its a blessing to be a switch pitcher, especially to throw off the opposing coach and his team by confusing them, like striking out a right or left handed batter. The only batter that might have a chance against him is a switch hitter, that's what makes the game more exciting and challenging, a switch pitcher going up against a switch hitter.

Jeffrey Dahmer schooling us about switch pitching.

My daughter is right handed and from a young age I have taught her to pitch and catch with both hands. You can absolutely become both handed

Ambidexterity is trainable, it just takes repetitive action with a particular rule-set in your mind that you follow until it becomes standard. Baseball is one of the BEST examples of something that changes up the paradigm, because many people try to catch things with their dominant hand. It's natural. But here you are training yourself for years to catch with your off hand, safely, so that you can throw with your main hand. After doing it for years myself, I still find that I usually attempt to catch objects with my left. In fact there are a LOT of things that I can only do normally with my left hand, and when I do it with my right I have to think through it and it doesn't work.

The last two minutes was hilarious.

I always wondered what would happen if this happened

Left handed people were forced to be right handed all the time in like our grandparents’ lifetimes. You can definitely be trained to use your non-dominant hand. In sports, the most successful player using his off hand is probably Rafael Nadal, the greatest clay court tennis player of all time and potentially the second best player behind Federer

I don't even know where baseball is played, but this was extremely amusing.

I used to read a lot of sports trivia and facts as a kid in the 90's and I remember reading about the guy in the 1800's who could "switch pitch" and they made a rule back then that switching arms would be treated the same as a pitching change. I was suprised when Venditte came along and they made a new rule for him because I expected to see the rule that I read about be in effect.

Sir Donald Bradman please SB. I love you and it would make me really happy.

bruh, does your shirt say "Laura Dern"? edit: is SHE the one holding Bois hostage?!?

lol i remember watching this when i was in middle school, it was hilarious haha

I play basketball as a lefty, struggled with off hand layups so I practiced. Now I can easily do both left and right hand layups and advanced layups.

"That looks... good"

How was the rule not made to be "the batter gets into the box then the pitcher gets to decide what he pitches to the batter" like it is with every other pitch? Dumb ruling by the MLB.

I love how Will's shirt just says "Laura Dern". Why not. She's awesome.

5:15 that's f***ing hilarious!

Nadal is right handed and plays tennis with his left! So yea you could possibly train to ambidextrous

Try learning guitar with your right hand as picking hand and after a few years just switch it up.....you're gonna struggle to the point of drowning amounts of tears :D But if you start off practicing both at the same time it might work. And there are kids who switch the hand "just for fun" and are reeealllly good at it.

In baseball's cousin, Cricket, it's actually quite common for a player to bat right handed but bowl (pitch) with his left. You could definitely train for being ambidextrous

Honestly, I'd be interested in seeing you talk about obscure and weird sports. Finnish baseball immediately springs to mind

I always thought it was pronounced VANDIGHT not VANDITEE *my life is a lie

Look at all the right handed boxers who have good left hooks

I am ambidextrous and it was definitely an advantage in high school basketball. I averaged 26.2 assists a game on my way to 01-02 3A player of the year award and a state title. I was also the starting quarterback of our 2000 football team. It did not help me very much there. It did not matter which arm I threw with while getting sacked 86 times and throwing 42 interceptions. I believe most interceptions came with my right hand. But it was most likely pretty even.

I played Co-Ed Softball a long time ago and I actually was just as strong batting the opposite side of the plate .

How did it take SB Nation so long to talk about the Pat Venditte rule? Also you can train for this but its super difficult, it's not something you are born with. I play Ultimate Frisbee and can throw with both my right and left hand. We need some Ultimate Frisbee weird rules shows, our rules are pretty strange.

How is this dude saying it’s easy to train to be a professional ambidextrous picture

Billy Wagner was born a righty, broke it twice in football and had to learn southpaw in H.S. and is one of the greatest closers

I really wanted to start with “Did Pat Venditte do something that has not been done in 100 years?” “Oh Van DID HE!”

Judging by the sweater, I'm guessing he bats from both sides of the plate as well...

Guy on the right seems like he’s never played a sport in his life

I loved you guys best in the Maury show.

Shoutout to the Laura Dern shirt. That's pretty good

Where are the Jon Bois videos?

What if you have no dominant hand?

The guy on right is the type that gets stoned everytime and laughs at everything hahahargh

I do believe the original rule was that once the batter declares a side to hit from he cannot change until his next at bat. Because of that one can argue that the batter make the decision based on the pitcher he is facing and thus the pitcher must declare first.

I like these videos but maybe get people who actually like baseball and know the game?

Where do I buy a "LAURA DERN" t-shirt?

Someone saw this dude with the backwards hat and thought..."man this guy sure knows his stuff! He isn't the slightest bit obnoxious either! Get him in front of a camera!"

Hey! The rule that screwed me over! I can also switch pitch really well. Bonus points I can also switch throw a football. It comes in handy sometimes. Not often though.