Poor Gabe Kapler. He’s a career .272 hitter, but struck out to end an at-bat that featured six straight change ups (that’s how they were listed in the box score, but they were probably Swisher’s “fastball”).
He was definitely a fan favorite in Oakland. He always seemed like he was having a great time, all the time, playing baseball. We made the trip up to Oakland last summer for his first trip back with the Sox and he got a huge ovation from the crowd. A pretty stark contrast to the reception that Giambi, and to a lesser extent Tejada, got.
Lots of people claim that Canseco’s pitching attempt killed what was left of his career at that point by over-thowing and stressing his shoulder, and never recovered to hit well again.
Did anyone else have a problem with Swisher chuckling the way he did? The Yankee announcers (or at least, from what I recall, Michael Kay) seemed to get bent out of shape about it – that he was laughing while they were losing so poorly and “showing up” Kapler in the process. Eh. I don’t see what the big deal is – how seriously is he supposed to take the situation? Or Kapler, for that matter?
I’d worry more about the Yankees’ defensive incoherence than whether or not my first baseman can keep a straight face while pitching. I don’t recall seeing the Yankees having too many near-misses in the field like that.
Canseco hurt himself pitching in 1993 and had lots of years after that when he hit very well indeed.
He was injured frequently after 1993, but if I recall correctly, not in connection to his throwing arm (not usually, anyway.) He just got hurt a lot. Prior to 1993 he’d gotten hurt a few times and missed significant chunks of a season. He was just one of those guys.
He was just never quite right again after letting that ball hit him on the head in Cleveland. 
Brooks Kieschnick was a reliever who pitched in 74 games for the Brewers in 2003-2004 compiling a 4.59 ERA. Oh, in those two years, he also had 133 at-bats (LF, DH, and pinch hitter) and hit .286 with 8 home-runs.
The Chicago stations are saying that Swisher was a pretty accomplished HS pitcher and when he was with the Sox he always lobbied for the chance. So from the sounds of things it’s not a shock that he went in there and was successful. Especially being a lefty. His motion looked like Terry Mulholland’s.
Position players as pitchers tend to pitch fairly well, and it’s through very little fault of their own. Tony Pena Jr. pitched for the Royals a while back and, though I can’t find the article, he said something like, “Guys are up there waiting for a 90mph fastball and then we throw it by them at 75.” If position players pitched every game, guys would be less thrown off by the very occasional outfielder or backup catcher pitching. (Then, of course, there’d be a market premium on guys who could throw 90mph fastballs. Funny how markets work.)
It’s essentially the same reason the occasional changeup works, but throwing a changeup every pitch would lead to a very short career.
Of course, most major league ballplayers throw very hard, and you’ll find a surprising number of position players pitched in high school and sometimes as far as college. The few people who make it to the big leagues were usually head and tails above their peers through Little League and high school ball and were the best at pretty much everything on the baseball field.
You laugh at a Nick Swisher 77-MPH fastball, but 77 is much, much harder than most adult males can throw a baseball. Even most reasonably good regular amateur baseball and softball players cannot throw a ball that fast. To a normal person, 77 is a pretty damned quick fastball; 85 is terrifying. Watching the Rays hit against Swisher, you can tell that half the reason they didn’t score on him is every guy was winding up and trying to hit the ball 600 feet, which is what beat them; 77 is slow in the majors but it’s still way too fast for you to add a hitch to your swing.
Kieshnick was a wasted talent. A guy who can be a league-average pitcher and hitter at the same time is tremendously valuable; he should have been in the league for ten years.
Really, in this era of bullpen overspecialization, it’s a shame more teams don’t do this – find guys who aren’t going to be anything special as hitters or pitchers, and see if they can be semi-competent at both. Get a left-handed guy who can hit .250 and play a couple of positions, teach him the knuckleball, and you have an extremely valuable tool in the hands of a good manager.
Hell, Mike Hampton is a lifetime .241 hitter.