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Pat Venditte, The Six-Fingered Man

Essentially a post about a wickedly badass glove.

By James Fillmore
Actor Christopher Guest, who played the "Six-Fingered Man" in "The Princess Bride." That character had a proper name. I don't remember what it was and neither do you.
Actor Christopher Guest, who played the "Six-Fingered Man" in "The Princess Bride." That character had a proper name. I don't remember what it was and neither do you.
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Since we, as Twins fans, are currently digging after season high points like a 2 AM stoner checking under couch cushions for Taco Bell change, I was pretty thrilled this week when the Blue Jays called up reliever Pat Venditte. Venditte, you may recall, is the first modern-era, full-time MLB switch-pitcher. He can throw with both arms.

He doesn't throw especially hard with either, and he's something of a novelty player, but so what? These guys are the stuff baseball lore is made of.

Really, this post is just a means of sharing some nifty visuals. First is this fun TV graphic:

Even better is this custom-made glove Venditte uses, which he can switch to either hand:

So, the saints and heroes at San Diego Studio put Pat Venditte and his bi-curious dextrousness in their lifesavingly great PlayStation game, "The Show." It took programmers two months to write the code. Why do it for a AAA relief pitcher? Because "The Show" is awesome, and so is Pat Venditte. You can read more about the odd video-game quirk (and, for "The Show" fans, see some cool video) here.

Our friends at "Athletics Nation" provided us with this post about the Pat Venditte Rule. In a minor-league game, the switch-hitter and Venditte kept changing which side they were playing from, so the rule expressly states how Venditte and switch-hitters have to declare handedness for an at-bat. Witness the confusion, or a clip from the majors which is pretty darn charming:

ESPN did a little featurette on Venditte a few years ago. Not much in it you couldn't read above, but it does say his custom glove was made in Osaka, Japan (neat!) and Spanish-speaking teammates nicknamed him "El Pulpo," or "The Octopus," since he has close to eight arms (neater!)

Oh, and Venditte's dad also taught him to punt footballs with either foot. That must be either the coolest or the weirdest dad ever. Possibly both.

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