May was a crazy month in our house. 3 of the 4 people who live here had birthdays within 9 days of each other, life revolved around track meets and baseball games (until my son broke his foot, putting an early end to his season), and a trip to Nationals Park on Mother's Day was thrown in there as well. I've also been busy with a new writing project, but just like those ants that invade your kitchen every spring, I always keep coming back. This blog is very dear to me, and I am never going away (sorry, folks, you just can't get rid of Mudville Mom!).
It's been an interesting baseball season so far - Bryce Harper is living up to his hype and leading the Majors with 18 home runs (along with Nelson Cruz and Giancarlo Stanton); the Orioles' Matt Wieters came back after a one-year recovery from Tommy John surgery (it's not just pitchers who get that done!); and Alex Rodriguez passed Barry Bonds in the all-time RBI list. As much as I dislike A-Rod (and you should all know that by now!), I hope he realizes that he can be just as good a player without performance-enhancing drugs. Same for Nelson Cruz - without the PEDs he's still hitting home runs, so let that be a lesson to you all: You can be pretty good without PEDs.
OK, so what about this pitcher that the Oakland A's just called up from the minors? Well, Pat Venditte is a switch-pitcher, something that Major League Baseball hasn't seen in 20 years. In his first big-league game, he entered the game in the eighth inning against the Boston Red Sox. He started throwing warm-up pitches with his right hand, then he switched to his left to face a lefty batter who grounded out. Then Venditte pitched right-handed to the next two batters, one who got a single (Hanley Ramirez) and the other who hit into a double play (Mike Napoli).
Because switch-pitching is such an oddity, the "Venditte Rule" had to be implemented (hopefully the guy will be known for more than just a rule with his name on it - kind of like poor Tommy John, who had a decent pitching career but is mostly known for his surgery. And don't even mention Lou Gehrig, one of the greatest Yankees ever who had to have ALS named after him after he died from it way before people started foolishly pouring buckets of ice water on themselves for charity). Anyway, the "Venditte Rule" states that before each at-bat, the pitcher tells the umpire, batter, and baserunners what hand he will throw with for that batter. If the player at the plate switch hits, he is free to hit from either side. The pitcher cannot throw with the other arm in the same at-bat.
So we'll have to see how good Venditte ends up being and if he tends to favor one arm over the other. One positive note is that if he injures one arm, he still has the other one that he can use (Remember Jim Abbott, the one-handed pitcher back in the 90s who went from college ball straight to the Majors after pitching in the 1988 olympics? It can be done!). Let's keep an eye on Pat Venditte and see how he does - I definitely find this guy interesting.
In other baseball news, the All-Star voting is well under way. I plan to submit my ballot as soon as school is over, when I can sit down and analyze all the players without any work-related interruptions. I usually vote earlier in the season, and then someone I voted for ends up in a slump or with an injury, so I'm going to wait a little this year. I know that the Giants' Buster Posey and the Cardinals' Yadier Molina are in a dead heat for the starting catcher position, and I'm not sure if I'll go strictly Puerto Rican on that one or if I will give my sentimental vote to cutie-patootie Posey. I also have to decide if I should vote for Bryce Harper because he's having a great season, or give my vote to Nick Markakis of the Braves, because he's not an ass like Harper is (and my step-daughter took care of Markakis's dog when she worked in an animal emergency room). Luckily we get three votes for the outfield, so I may vote for both.
So until I cast my vote in a couple of weeks, enjoy the nice weather (it finally stopped raining here in the mid-Atlantic), catch some games on TV or in person, and feel free to go to www.mlb.com and cast your own vote for this year's All-Stars. Maybe next year we'll see Pat Venditte on the All-Star team.
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