Pitching Rule 8.01 (f)-Ambidextrous Pitchers

[Mad Mike]

This is an interesting story that precipitated an added rule being put in place.

 

Rule 8.01(f) states the following:

(f) A pitcher must indicate visually to the umpire-in-chief, the batter and any runners

the hand with which he intends to pitch, which may be done by wearing his glove

on the other hand while touching the pitcher’s plate. The pitcher is not permitted to

pitch with the other hand until the batter is retired, the batter becomes a runner, the

inning ends, the batter is substituted for by a pinch-hitter or the pitcher incurs an

injury. In the event a pitcher switches pitching hands during an at-bat because he

has suffered an injury, the pitcher may not, for the remainder of the game, pitch

with the hand from which he has switched. The pitcher shall not be given the

opportunity to throw any preparatory pitches after switching pitching hands. Any

change of pitching hands must be indicated clearly to the umpire-in-chief.

 

______________________________

There was a Yankees minor leaguer who was ambidextrous. In 2008, he and the batter played a little game of switcheroo repeatedly. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=

 

 

NEW YORK -- Ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte can confound hitters -- and umpires -- when he's on the mound.

The umps working a game Thursday night between the Class-A Staten Island Yankees and the Brooklyn Cyclones had nothing to go by when Venditte made his professional debut, less than two weeks after getting drafted in the 20th round by the Yankees.

He pitched the ninth, and after retiring two batters and allowing a single, a switch-hitter stepped to the plate for Brooklyn. That's hardly unusual. But it becomes intriguing against Venditte, a switch pitcher.

Things got a tad dizzying when designated hitter Ralph Henriquez, who had taken his on-deck circle swings as a lefty, entered the batter's box from the right side.

Venditte put his specially made glove (it has six fingers, two webs and fits on both hands) on his left hand, and got ready to pitch right-handed.

Henriquez then changed his mind and switched sides of the plate, because a batter sees the ball sooner when it is thrown by a pitcher using the opposite hand.

So Venditte shifted his glove to the other hand.

Then it happened again.

And again.

And again.

Apparently unsure of how the rules handle such an oddity, the umpires didn't stop the cat-and-mouse game until Venditte walked toward the plate and said something while pointing at Henriquez.

Umpires and both managers huddled and the umps decided the batter and pitcher can both change sides one time per at-bat, and that the batter must declare first.

The ruling favored the pitcher, since he gets to declare last.

About seven minutes after he first stepped in, Henriquez struck out on four pitches as a righty against a right-handed Venditte and slammed his bat in frustration. Staten Island won, 7-2.

 

Fast forward to 2010.  http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100330&content_id=8995670&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb&fext=.jsp

The umpire was prepared this time with the rule and the pitcher had to declare with which hand he would use for that batter!

 

This just goes to show it is good to know your teams and any oddities that you might be presented with.

 

[noumpere]

Old news to most of us who lived through it - and why the college and HS rules were changed before this (I think)