Pat Venditte’s major league debut was such a monumental occasion from a national perspective.
The best part for the A’s ambidextrous reliever, personally, had to be just how non-eventful the outing actually was. Venditte breezed through two scoreless innings in Oakland’s 4-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox, registering five outs pitching right-handed and one as a southpaw.
With that, he became the first full-time “switch pitcher” to throw with both hands in a major league game in the modern era (from the year 1900 on). Greg Harris, a right-hander, threw left-handed in one game in his final season of 1995 with the Montreal Expos.