# Switch hitter faces switch pitcher **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 21, 2008, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652 "2008-06-21T01:52:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/1 "2008-06-21T01:52:29Z")
And [uncertainty ensues](http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/25291718/). What would be the major-league rule for this situation? ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/2 "2008-06-21T11:43:21Z")
The article says that the MLB rule book is unclear on the subject. I’m going to NYC next week and am now going to go and see a game with the Staten Island Yankees! The park sounds awesome and you can see the NYC skyline from it. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/3 "2008-06-21T13:37:11Z")
[Deleted post] I really need to learn to check the link in the OP before posting something snarky :smack: ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/4 "2008-06-21T13:43:34Z")
The burden of choosing first should be dependant upon whether you want to emphasize offense or defense. Making the batter choose first would be consistent with the fact that the defense gets to set up based upon who is hitting, and from what side. Making the pitcher choose first would be consistent with the concept that the offensive team gets to make its decisions on substitution according to who is on the mound. Interesting to see which way MLB goes with this. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/5 "2008-06-21T16:30:35Z")
I’ve never heard of a switch pitcher IRL. Anybody know of any? ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/6 "2008-06-21T16:31:59Z")
Yeah, the guy in the article. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/7 "2008-06-21T16:41:03Z")
[QUOTE=Snarky\_Kong] Yeah, the guy in the article. [/QUOTE] My bad. Looked right at the link and didn’t realize it was a link. It seems correct to me that the batter has to step into the box for play to begin. Then the pitcher in this case can choose which arm to throw the ball with. I wonder if there’s anything about that special glove he uses. E.g. no major league players are allowed to use aluminum bats or corked bats. Or is there any rule against taking two gloves on the field? From Wikipedia: \*When using his right arm, Venditte delivers over the top and can throw a curveball as well as a fastball reaching up to 91 mph. His left-handed delivery is side-armed in which he throws a slider and a relatively slower fastball. \* > **[Pat Venditte](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Venditte)** > > Patrick Michael Venditte Jr. (/vɛnˈdɛti/; born June 30, 1985) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics, Toronto Blue Jays, Seattle Mariners, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, and Miami Marlins. After attending Creighton University, Venditte was drafted by the New York Yankees in 2008. He signed with the Athletics as a free agent before the 2015 season and made his MLB debut that year. > Venditte was a switc... His right handed pitching sounds more daunting. Another interesting tidbit from Wiki: _Furthermore, by splitting his pitches between his arms, he is able to pitch longer than traditional pitchers before becoming fatigued (Nicholl 2007)._ ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/8 "2008-06-21T16:58:27Z")
Here’s some video about him…gotta love youtube! [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/8U2xkHOTvvw/hqdefault.jpg "Ambidextrous Pitcher") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U2xkHOTvvw) ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/9 "2008-06-21T17:19:27Z")
Major League Baseball addressed this when Greg Harris announced his plans to switch-pitch toward the end of the 1995 season. They published “guidelines” for umpires which, so far as I know, were never incorporated into the official playing rules. Unfortunately I can’t find the guidelines online. The gist of it was that the pitcher had to commit first–he could switch arms from one batter to the next, but had to commit to pitching one way or the other before an at-bat began. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/10 "2008-06-21T17:30:41Z")
[QUOTE=Darryl Lict] The article says that the MLB rule book is unclear on the subject. I’m going to NYC next week and am now going to go and see a game with the Staten Island Yankees! The park sounds awesome and you can see the NYC skyline from it. [/QUOTE] The park is great, a tremendous view of the Southern Tip of Manhattan. I saw the game between the Cyclones & Yanks on Thursday night on SNY. It was a very humorous moment and to make it worst it was 2 outs in the 9th. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/11 "2008-06-21T23:03:22Z")
[QUOTE=Freddy the Pig] Major League Baseball addressed this when Greg Harris announced his plans to switch-pitch toward the end of the 1995 season. They published “guidelines” for umpires which, so far as I know, were never incorporated into the official playing rules. Unfortunately I can’t find the guidelines online. The gist of it was that the pitcher had to commit first–he could switch arms from one batter to the next, but had to commit to pitching one way or the other before an at-bat began. [/QUOTE] I don’t see why it has to be that way. The batter steps into the box batting whichever way, and the pitcher should be allowed to change hands if he wants to. Then the batter should be free to switch sides before the next pitch, and resetting the action by again stepping into the box. Once in the box and ready, the only thing a batter should be able to do is call time. And IIRC, he can only do that a couple times. ---
**Author:** ![UTejas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UTejas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UTejas)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/12 "2008-06-21T23:14:01Z")
The other switch pitcher of note (well, if you follow Frontier League baseball in Johnstown, Pennsylvania 10 years ago) was Jamie Irving. I saw him pitch in several games for the Johnstown Steal. He’d start a game right handed (and pitch only with his right) then start the next day’s game left handed. He was the only pitcher I knew of who was ambidextrous until this guy. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2008, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/13 "2008-06-21T23:24:42Z")
[QUOTE=UTejas] The other switch pitcher of note (well, if you follow Frontier League baseball in Johnstown, Pennsylvania 10 years ago) was Jamie Irving. I saw him pitch in several games for the Johnstown Steal. He’d start a game right handed (and pitch only with his right) then start the next day’s game left handed. He was the only pitcher I knew of who was ambidextrous until this guy. [/QUOTE] I didn’t think of that. How interesting that would be. “Hey Skip, I can pitch two days in a row, one day as a lefty, the other as a righty”. I suppose he would need an extra day or two of rest until he could do that again, though. Man, would that come in handy for a World Series playoff or what? “Call up Wild Thing, he only used his right arm yesterday, we need him in there as a lefty!” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2008, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/14 "2008-06-22T01:49:26Z")
The closest thing I found to a definitive answer was from the St. Petersburg Times. > [@](#): > > There is no rule prohibiting a pitcher from switching hands from batter to batter. But under major-league regulations, he can’t do it pitch to pitch; once he “declares” which hand he’ll use for that batter, he has to stick to it. > > Also, there are no rules prohibiting a hitter from moving from one batter’s box to the other between pitches except, according to Rule 6.06(b), “while the pitcher is in position ready to pitch.” > > Unlike major-league baseball’s rules, its regulations aren’t carved in stone, said Dennis Bingham, former chairman of the rules committee for the Society for American Baseball Research. The definitive moment for both the pitcher and the batter is when the pitcher steps on the rubber. So until the pitcher steps up to deliver his first pitch, both of them can switch from one side to the other until the umpire decides they’re delaying the game. ---
**Author:** ![UTejas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UTejas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UTejas)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2008, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/15 "2008-06-22T03:19:33Z")
[Hijack] Here is an article about the other ambidextrous pitcher of note. The article makes reference to how he started and, more importantly, his how he deals with it in-game [http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1138211/index.htm](http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1138211/index.htm) [/Hijack] ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2008, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/16 "2008-06-22T03:35:03Z")
[QUOTE=lobotomyboy63] I’ve never heard of a switch pitcher IRL. Anybody know of any? [/QUOTE] Greg Harris is the only one who came close to doing it in MLB. He had a double-thumbed glove, and messed around with it in the bullpen, but never tried it in a game. I was under the impression that MLB rules prevent a batter from changing sides during an at-bat, unless the pitcher is changed first. ---
**Author:** ![Obeseus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbce88/32.png) [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2008, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/17 "2008-06-22T05:20:46Z")
Harris switch-pitched on September 28, 1995, the penultimate game of his career. His previous requests to switch-pitch had been turned down by his teams. While with Boston, his manager told him he could switch if he was able to throw 7 out of 10 pitches for strikes in warmups. He was able to do it, but he still was denied permission. There were other switch-pitchers in MLB in the 19th century, but none did it regularly (despite the old, errant listings of Tony Mullane being listed ‘TB’ for threw both.) MLB came out with guidelines (not actual playing rules) for umpires to use in case Harris were to switch-pitch. Those guidelines specify that the pitcher must pitch with the same arm for each at bat. (A batter may switch boxes after every pitch up until the pitcher is set to pitch.) ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switch-hitter-faces-switch-pitcher/453652/18 "2008-06-22T19:58:30Z")
It turned out that none of the four batters Harris faced on 9/28/1995 were switch-hitters, so despite the “preparation” by MLB, the issue never arose during a game. The Harris action, it should be noted, was something of a publicity stunt, and the Expos had announced in advance that they wouldn’t do it in a game that was important in the standings. If we get to a point where a _serious_ switch-pitcher reaches professional baseball, I imagine that MLB will take another, longer look at this. I still think they’ll end up favoring the switch-hitter, though, just because switch-hitting is a long-established tradition and switch-pitching is . . . a novelty.