The Professional Baseball Umpire Corporation has released a new set of Venditte Rules developed to handle at-bats between ambidextrous pitchers like Yankees' minor league prospect Pat Venditte, and switch hitters.
- The pitcher must visually indicate to the umpire, batter and runner(s) which way he will begin pitching to the batter. Engaging the rubber with the glove on a particular hand is considered a definitive commitment to which arm he will throw with. The batter will then choose which side of the plate he will bat from.
- The pitcher must throw one pitch to the batter before any "switch" by either player is allowed.
- After one pitch is thrown, the pitcher and batter may each change positions one time per at-bat. For example, if the pitcher changes from right-handed to left-handed and the batter then changes batter's boxes, each player must remain that way for the duration of that at-bat (unless the offensive team substitutes a pinch hitter, and then each player may again "switch" one time).
- Any switch (by either the pitcher or the batter) must be clearly indicated to the umpire.
- There will be no warm-up pitches during the change of arms.
- If an injury occurs the pitcher may change arms but not use that arm again during the remainder of the game.
These rules were put in place after an amusing at-bat where Venditte and the opposing batter, switch hitter Ralph Henriquez of the Brooklyn Cyclones, played a game of cat and mouse, switching back and forth between pitching/hitting left and right-handed before a pitch was thrown.
This set of rules seems to give a small first-mover disadvantage to the pitcher since it requires him to commit first to an arm. Once that's done, the opposing manager can bring in a pinch hitter or the hitter, if he's a switch hitter, can decide what side of the plate to hit from.
Thanks to my friend Mindy for the tip.
Update: The Sports Law Blog has some thoughts on the subject here.