ICYMI: Oakland's Ambidextrous Relief Pitcher, Pat Venditte, Made His Major League Debut This Weekend

That wasn’t a typo. Oakland Athletics relief pitcher Pat Venditte pitches lefty and righty — depending on which side of the plate the hitter is standing on.

To elaborate: in the bottom of the 7th inning at Fenway Park on Friday night, Venditte entered the game to face Brock Holt, a left-handed Boston Red Sox outfielder. So, as you can imagine: Venditte pitched to Brock as a southpaw.

Then, after he retired Brock, right-handed slugger Hanley Ramirez stepped in. Venditte quickly switched his special “made for both hands” glove, to fit his left hand…

…and pitched to Hanley as a righty.

Here it is, animated:

This is absurd. I don’t even know how to comprehend it — not only because I’ve never seen it in my lifetime, but, the fact that he’s able to pitch at a major-league level from both sides of the plate has to be a hall-of-fame worthy achievement in itself, no?

Before Friday Night, Pat had been in the minors since 2008 … and while many may think this was just another instance of Billy Beane making a mockery of every baseball scout in America/flaunting his superior ability to evaluate, grow, and showcase talent — I don’t think this is not one of those times.

"“There’s a little bit of a sideshow to it for good reason,” Oakland A’s Manager Bob Melvin said before the game. “But the reason he’s here is because he’s performed.” "

What the A’s manager is referring to here is the “freak-show” vibe that follows Venditte to every single ballpark he pitches at. Truth is: Beane brought up Venditte to the majors because the guy can flat out pitch.

Per ESPN:

"“In 17 outings (16 in relief) this season in the minor leagues, Venditte was 1-0 with a 1.36 ERA and held opponents to a .167 batting average. In eight minor league seasons, the first seven in the New York Yankees’ organization, he had a 2.37 ERA with 52 saves and nine starts.”"

Those aren’t stats you can just small-wave/file away in the “Yeah, it’s the minors who cares” drawer…especially when he has the ability to pitch with both arms.

The best part about all of this is that the last time a pitcher threw with both hands in a major league game was Sept. 28, 1995, when Greg Harris did it with the Montreal Expos. Per the same ESPN article:

"“It was the next-to-last game of a career in which he appeared in 703, and he is the only pitcher in the modern era to do that. In an interesting coincidence, Harris also pitched parts of six seasons (1989-94) with the Red Sox, but the general manager at the time, Lou Gorman, refused to let him throw with both hands, saying he would make “a mockery of the game.””"

Only appropriate that Billy Beane, baseball’s Troll God of Gods, would let Venditte make his major league debut in the ballpark that’s franchise once called his kind “a mockery of the game.”

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(h/t @nick_pants)