Letter June11

Switch pitching

To the editor:

I had not heard of Creighton's unique switch pitcher, Pat Venditte Jr. [featured in the April 28 edition of the Southeast Missourian] before a segment on NBC's "Today" show this week. What a talent. He is an inspiration to both young and old ballplayers and enthusiasts.

What I can't understand are the rules of today's baseball that say a pitcher has to declare which arm he is going to throw with before a batter comes up to bat. This rule takes away the very essence of the game. Is not a pitch that a pitcher makes to a batter supposed to be a mystery? Why all the coded hand signals from catcher to pitcher if the batter knows what the pitcher will deliver?

R. SANDERS

Mendham, N.J.

(The rule is in place not to let opposing batters and managers know which pitch is coming, but which arm it will be coming from for matchup purposes. Plus, imagine the eternal stalemate of a switch-hitter moving from batters box to batters box while the pitcher switches gloves on the mound.)