The Switch Hitter vs. the Ambidextrous Pitcher

Pat Venditte is a minor league pitcher with the Staten Island Yankees. He was selected in the 20th round of the 2008 draft with the 620th overall pick. But that is not his claim to fame. Venditte’s claim to fame is that he is a “switch pitcher” in that he throws both right and left handed. He has a special glove with two thumbs so he can quickly shift the glove from hand to hand.

Only one pitcher of the modern era has ever thrown both right and left handed in a major league game and he only did it once. Greg A. Harris, in the next to last game of his career, alternated between throwing right and left handed (depending on whether the hitter was right or left handed). But he apparently did not face a switch hitter. For those of you who do not really follow baseball (shame on you) right handed pitchers are generally more effective against right handed batters and left handed pitchers more effective against left handed batters. This is why many hitters learn to switch hit (hit from both sides of the plate).

But what happens when a switch hitter faces a switch pitcher? If the pitcher throws right handed can the batter switch to bat left handed? What if the pitcher then switches too? That was the situation at the end of last nights Coney Island Cyclones-Staten Island Yankees game.



There may or may not be an MLB rule that deals with this. But if Pat Venditte makes the majors there will be.

The Effect of Gay Marriage

"It's already having a ripple effect, this gay marriage thing. In fact, since it was instituted yesterday, marriage proposals to Liza Minnelli have dropped 65 percent." --Jay Leno

Top 10 Ways The Mets Can Turn It Around

A Disgaceful Firing

While I primarily write about politics here, I am also a New York Mets Fan. The story of the week for the Mets has obviously been the firing of manager Willie Randolph.

I do not believe Randolph should have been fired. I understand why he was. The Mets, with the second highest payroll in baseball, have been playing in a mediocre fashion for over a year now. They had one of the biggest collapses in the history to end last season and with expectations of a world series this season, they have a losing record this season.

But I don’t believe that the mediocre play has been a result of Randolph’s managing. I think the problem this season has been aging injury prone players and a bullpen performing far below expectations. But sometimes a change can make a difference. You can’t fire the players so you fire the manager.

But I am not sure the Mets or GM Omar Minaya could have handled the firing in a worse way. The details of the firing were leaked almost a week in advance. But Randolph was allowed/required to fly all the way to California and manage the first game of a series against the Angels (which he won) before being fired at 3:15 am (Eastern Time). In fact, Randolph had one 3 of his last 4 games. The way Randolph was fired was disgraceful.

Here is The Daily Show’s Take on the firing.

Should Barack Choose Hillary?

"There's a lot of pressure on Barack Obama to put Hillary on the ticket. Even his advisers are telling him that Hillary can deliver the woman vote. And, of course, Bill can deliver the other woman vote. So between the two of them, that's, you know, that's a lot of women." --Jay Leno

"Now, political experts are saying that Barack Obama is hesitant to name Hillary Clinton as his running mate, because he's not sure what role Bill Clinton would want to play. Yeah. Bill says he's comfortable playing many roles, like boss interviewing secretary, or pizza guy surprising housewife. He doesn't care." --Conan O'Brien

"Meanwhile, after Hillary's meeting with Barack, Bill Clinton is now saying it's only fair he have a private meeting with Michelle Obama and Salma Hayek." --Jimmy Kimmel

"Barack Obama is set to enjoy his first weekend as the Democratic nominee for president. He and Hillary Clinton had what they called a secret meeting last night in Washington, DC. ... One of the topics they are rumored to have discussed is Hillary's $20 million campaign debt. Obama may help her cover some of that, but she's still going to be on the hook for most of it. Today, she outlined a broad-based plan for recouping that money. Her plan is to marry, and then divorce, Paul McCartney." --Jimmy Kimmel

"Barack Obama took time off this weekend from campaigning to spend time with his family. In fact, he said on Saturday night, he was going on a date with his wife. A date with his wife, Michelle. When Bill Clinton heard that, he said to Hillary, 'We need to stay away from these people. They're freaks!'" --Jay Leno

Classic Photos Recreated With Legos

An artist who goes by the name Balakov on Flickr has used Legos to recreate classic photographs. Here are three examples. See more here.

Raising the flag on Iwo Jima

V.J. Day Times Square
Tiananmen Square

Hillary Drops Out

"Hillary Clinton is ending her campaign, but really in the bigger sense it's sad because, think about it, there goes right down the drain the Clinton dream of a being a two-impeachment family." --David Letterman

"Hillary is taking it pretty well, I think. She actually said she's looking forward to spending more time with Chelsea, Bill, and Gina Gershon." --David Letterman

"There's a new Vanity Fair article coming out that insinuates, among other things, that he has been canoodling with actress Gina Gershon. Clinton lashed out at the reporter who wrote the story. I guess he's furious about this accusation, in particular, with Gina Gershon, because now he's gonna have to explain it to Megan Fox." --Jimmy Kimmel

"But, you know, people are now talking about the ticket, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Would that be a good ticket? Would you folks like that ticket? And I think this would be the first, if you think about it, first combination of an African American man and a white woman since, well, Michael Jackson." --David Letterman

"There's been a lot of speculation about John McCain's possible running mate. Experts say he wants someone who's not afraid to attack Barack Obama. That's who he's looking for, yeah. Which explains why McCain has decided to pick Hillary Clinton" --Conan O'Brien

"The good news: the whole voting process ended. The bad news: the 2012 Democratic primary starts on Thursday." --Jay Leno

The Importance of Voting

Voting was important to my father. In November of 2000 he was very ill and living in a nursing home in Manhattan. A worker at the home had helped him fill out an application for an absentee ballot. As of Election Day, he hadn’t received it, but he wanted to vote. I called my state senator asking what I could do. I ended up driving to the Bronx County Board of Elections, obtaining an absentee ballot and application, and driving to the nursing home, before helping my dad fill out the application and ballot. Then I drove back to the Bronx County Board of Elections to drop off them off.

By the way, my dad voted for George Bush, though I would have helped him just the same if he wanted to vote for Gore. It might seem like an awful lot of trouble to go to. After all, we lived in NEW YORK and it wasn’t like Bush had much of a prayer of winning the Empire State. But my dad felt, and I agree that it is both a civic responsibility and a privilege to vote. So my dad voted. Gore won New York, but Bush won Florida (after some controversy) and the presidency. I watched Bush being inaugurated as I dressed for my father’s wake.

The following November, I was once again exercising my right to vote. I bent over to sign the voter roll and saw my dad’s name above mine. Then I saw someone had signed his name. That’s my dad for you, not even being dead would keep him from voting. He didn’t even live in Chicago.

I think about someone using my Dad’s name to vote whenever I hear a Democrat complain about the idea of requiring a photo ID to prove your identity before you vote. The Supreme Court upheld an Indiana law requiring photo ID in April. I previously wrote about it here.

Democrats complain there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. I say why does there need to be evidence fraud is widespread to make it difficult. We require a government issued photo ID to fly, to enter many government buildings, or to simply buy alcohol or tobacco. I really have no idea how many registered voters do not have a photo ID, but I imagine it is a small number, probably a smaller number than the number of dead people voting.

As Fox News has reported: Dead Voters Still Showing Up on Election Records, Puzzling Officials. The story talks about a woman that discovered here deceased mother was recorded as having voted in Connecticut The story continues:

Journalism professor Marcel Dufresne, at the University of Connecticut, led a class investigation into dead voters and said his group of 11 students discovered 8,558 deceased people who were still registered on Connecticut’s voter rolls. They discovered more than 300 of them appeared somehow to have cast ballots after they died.

“We have one person who appeared to have voted 17 times since he died,” Dufresne said. Dufresne said there is no evidence of any election fraud, but the number of dead voters “shows the system is vulnerable and it shows that people who are clever and have a little cooperation in the town level, you could use this and get people to vote for people who died.”

Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz is adamant that “actually no dead people voted.”

“I want to be very clear about that,” she said, explaining that while votes were cast and counted in the names of the dead, “there was no voter fraud at all in the state of Connecticut.”

How could she possibly be sure? Well I agree the dead people didn’t actually vote themselves, at least not without help. The story continues:

In Washington State, Republican Dino Rossi ran for governor in 2004, and lost by only 133 votes. Officials confirmed that the names of 19 dead people somehow cast ballots. Rossi is running this year for governor and reflected on his experience in 2004.

“It was the closest governor’s race in U.S. history. After the fact we found a number of dead people voted. I don’t know how they voted — you have to talk to Shirley MacLaine about that,” Rossi said.

Much as my dad might have liked to continue voting from beyond the grave, I am not sure he would have approved of who he was voting for. Perhaps it would it would be best if we restricted voting to the living and required poll workers to check ID. Voting is too important not to do that.

If the NBA Eastern Division Playoffs Were Like The Race for the Democratic Party Nomination

From the New Republic.

A Sports Parable

A statement from Detroit Pistons general manager Joe Dumars:

I wanted to say a few words about the Michigan Solution. No, not that travesty of justice. I'm talking about a fair, common-sense resolution of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Some in the media are declaring the series over because the Boston Celtics have won four of the six games played so far. But I don’t understand why, with a series this close and hotly contested, anyone would want to shut it down before we play a seventh game and have all the results in. As anybody who follows the NBA knows, a seven-game series would be good for the league, and the added competition would make the eventual victor, whomever it might be, a stronger opponent against the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals.

Read the rest here.

Mr. Met Needs Your Help

In honor of the Draft Day and the Mets vastly improved play of late, here is more baseball related blogging. Home Run Derby is currently running a bracketed competition for the best baseball mascot. Number I seed Mr. Met is competing against Number 8 seed Homer the Brave. Mr. Met was introduced at Shea Stadium in 1964 and is believed to be the first baseball mascot to be portrayed by a live human. Homer was introduced in 1988 after the Braves were forced to drop their former mascot Chief Noc-A-Homa because of political correctness. But Homer is clearly a knock off of Mr. Met and cannot be allowed to win. So please vote here early and often.

Here is a video of Mr. Met in action.

By the way I voted and saw that Mr. Met was winning 99% to 1%. But don't let that stop you from voting. Crush Homer the Brave!!!

MLB Amateur Draft Starts Today At 2:00 pm Eastern

The Mets have the 18th, 22nd, and 33rd picks in today's draft. As the Mets pretty much depleted the upper echelons of their farm system acquiring Johan Santanna, we Mets fans are hoping that Omar Minaya will choose wisely.

Here is a draft preview from ESPN's Baseball Tonight. The first round of the Draft airs on ESPN 2.

George Will On the Colbert Report

Impact of Inflation

With perhaps the exception of those that regularly fly First or Business Class, the first reaction of a person reading an article titled “Airlines May Start Treating Passengers `Like Freight” might be “Start?”

I think most people who have flown have had the experience of being treated more like cargo than people. But what this article is talking about is an idea being floated by airlines to cut cost and raise revenue. Airlines have already cut meal services, and American Airlines is charging $15 for each checked bag, but this new idea is worse.

Imagine two scales at the airline ticket counter, one for your bags and one for you. The price of a ticket depends upon the weight of both.

That may not be so far-fetched.

``You listen to the airline CEOs, and nothing is beyond their imagination,'' said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group. ``They have already begun to think exotically. Nothing is not under the microscope.'' He declined to discuss what any individual airline might be contemplating, including charging passengers based on weight.

As a horizontally challenged American, I can tell you I really don’t like that idea. It’s not even the money so much as the idea of having to get on a scale at the airport. That, I think, is why it would never actually happen. It would risk offending far more people than just raising fares.

Also speaking as a horizontally challenged American, I must object to what I perceive to be a horrible conspiracy in the Ice Cream Industry. When I was a kid I remember Ice Cream being sold in half-gallon containers. At some point those containers shrunk, becoming 1.75 quarts. First I noticed that Edy’s containers had shrunk to 1.5 quarts. Now I see Breyers has done the same thing.

If this keeps up I might not even get charged extra to fly….

Searching For Life In The Solar System