Friday, February 25, 2011

Box score of the week

You know the drill.

Can you tell me the historical significance of the baseball box score I've linked to here?

This may be a tough one, but see if you can come up with the answer without perusing the vast resources of the Internet.

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Ambidextrous pitcher Greg Harris, then of the Montreal Expos, pitched both right and left-handed in this game from the 1995 season. In the ninth inning, Harris retired the Reds' Reggie Sanders pitching right-handed. He then switched to his left hand for the next two hitters, Hal Morris and Ed Taubensee, who both batted lefty. Harris walked Morris but got Taubensee to ground out. He then went back to his right hand to retire Bret Boone to end the inning.

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5 comments:

  1. Mr. D2/26/2011 8:13 PM

    That explains it. I studied that boxscore for 15 minutes and couldn't come up with anything.

    (word verification: ashouse)

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  2. Douglas3/02/2011 2:31 PM

    This game was in the last season of Harris's career. Baseball Reference noted that this was the only time Harris did this. Is it the only time anyone did this?

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  3. Douglas3/02/2011 2:53 PM

    On further review, Pat Venditte is an ambidextrous pitcher at AA level in the Yankees farm system. There is no rule as to how many times the pitcher and batter allowed to switch against each other. The umpires made up a rule that each could only switch once.

    Baseball Reference says he pitches with whatever hand gives him the platoon advantage. But what if it changes during the game?

    In his previous assignment at A+ level, he pitched 72 innings with a 1.72 ERA, 0.867 WHIP. (Is that a good WHIP? I don't know.)

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  4. Brad Carlson3/03/2011 6:25 AM

    Yes, Harris throwing with both hands in the same game is the one and only time such a thing happened in a Major League contest.

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  5. Douglas3/03/2011 6:32 PM

    I just looked up the all-time career WHIP's. Since the lowest all-time career WHIP (2000 innings pitched minimum) is Addie Joss at 0.97, I grasp that Pat Venditte is on his way to the bigs.

    On the other hand, Cy Young's WHIP was only the 30th lowest all-time, next to Fergie Jenkins. This leads me to be suspicious of WHIP.

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