BASEBALL HAS A FASCINATION with pitchers who can hit and hitters who can pitch. Shohei Otani -- "Japan's Babe Ruth'' -- is generating cross-cultural anticipation as he moves closer to free agency next winter. Madison Bumgarner creates a stir whenever he lobbies to take part in a Home Run Derby. And who can forget the grand theater Jose Canseco provided as a Texas Ranger in 1993, when he threw 33 pitches against the Boston Red Sox on his way to Tommy John surgery?
Inevitably, two-way phenoms have been forced to make a choice, because it would be too difficult to ply both skills on a regular basis.