Pat Venditte

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Pat Venditte Jr. (born June 30, 1985 in Omaha, Nebraska) is an American baseball player. He plays Division I NCAA college baseball for Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Venditte is a "switch-pitcher", meaning he can pitch and throw proficiently with both arms. He is recognized as the only NCAA pitcher who is able to do this, and is being sought out by Major League Baseball scouts for a career in the majors (Nicholl 2007). He was drafted by the New York Yankees in 2007 but opted to return to Creighton for his senior year (Schwarz 2007b). He was again drafted by the Yankees in the 2008 Major League Baseball Draft. He was selected in the 20th round with the 620th overall pick.

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[edit] Early life

One of four children of Pat Sr. and Janet Venditte, Pat Jr. was born on June 30, 1985 in Omaha, Nebraska (Tooley & Shields 2007, p. 25). Pat Sr. noticed his son's ambidexterity when Pat Jr. was three years old, and encouraged vigorous ambidextrous athletic training throughout Pat Jr.'s childhood. Toward this end, the Venditte backyard included astroturf, a batting cage, a radar gun, and a pitching machine (Nicholl 2007). In addition to training both arms from a young age, Pat Jr. practiced punting footballs with both legs in order to establish the leg motion needed when pitching with each arm (Tooley & Shields 2007, p. 25).

Venditte used both arms when playing in little league which sometimes caused him to be confused for twins (Nicholl 2007). In high school, Venditte played for Omaha Central High School, achieving a 5-4 record his senior year and All-Nebraska second team honors (Tooley & Shields 2007, p. 25).

[edit] College career

Venditte joined the Creighton Bluejays in 2005 as a walk-on. Creighton head coach Ed Servais did not allow Venditte to pitch with both arms during his five appearances his freshman year fearing the spectacle would become a "circus" . However, Venditte has regularly used both arms in collegiate play since his sophomore year in which he attained a 3.02 ERA in 62.2 innings. In his junior year, Vendette appeared in 36 of 58 of Creighton's games before going into the 2007 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. His opponents batting average of .185 was the fourth best in the nation, and he achieved an 1.85 ERA (Pivovar 2007a). At one point during the season, Venditte had a streak of 43 2/3 scoreless innings (Olson 2007). In the 2007 season, Venditte earned first-team all-conference honors for the Missouri Valley Conference and led Creighton to their first ever conference championship in which he was named the tournament MVP (Creighton University Athletics 2007). On May 28, 2007, Collegiate Baseball named Venditte the national player of the week (Pivovar 2007a). He was named to the All-American third team for the 2007 season (Pivovar 2007b). Venditte was also voted Midwest Region Pitcher of the Year by online pitching magazine InsidePitching.com (Stone 2007).

On June 8, 2007, in the 45th Round of the 2007 Major League Baseball Draft, the New York Yankees selected Venditte with the 1345th pick of the draft. Venditte was surprised by the pick because he had told all major league scouts that he intended to return to Creighton for his senior year. The Yankees called him during the 30th round of the draft asking him how much it would take to sign him, but Venditte refused to set a price (Olson 2007). Ultimately, the Yankees were unable to sign Venditte before the August 15, 2007 signing deadline. Venditte said that he was not quite ready to turn professional and wants to build velocity with his left arm and add another pitch with his right arm (Schwarz 2007b).

Venditte played 2006 summer ball for the Quincy Gems, and 2007 summer ball for the Wisconsin Woodchucks in the Northwoods League. As the Woodchucks' closer, he had a 4-1 record, 9 saves, a 1.76 ERA, and a .154 opponents' batting average (Schwarz 2007b).

He was selected with the 620th pick in the MLB Draft by the New York Yankees.

[edit] Minor League Career

Venditte will be on the Staten Island Yankees roster to open their 2008 season.

[edit] Pitching style

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. Venditte uses a custom made glove with a thumb-hole on each side allowing him to easily switch back and forth (Schwarz 2007a). He generally pitches with his right arm against right-handed batters and left-handed against left-handed batters which minimizes his opponent's advantage when strategically ordering batters in the line-up based on which side of the plate they hit from (Nicholl 2007). Furthermore, by splitting his pitches between his arms, he is able to pitch longer than traditional pitchers before becoming fatigued (Nicholl 2007).

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