Pat Venditte opens up on retirement, family, and his baseball journey
What's the "amphibious" pitcher up to, nowadays?
It’s been over 900 days since we’ve seen an ambidextrous pitcher take the mound in a Major League Baseball game. Back in August of 2019, facing the New York Mets, Pat Venditte, pitching for the Miami Marlins, opted to throw with his right hand against Mets third baseman J.D. Davis.
A quick sidenote: if you didn’t know about the ‘Pat Venditte rule’ already, it’s time to educate yourself, folks.
Now, back to the at-bat. The two dueled it out to a full count, before the Omaha native Venditte delivered a pinpoint, 87 mph fastball into the bottom left-hand corner of the strike zone. Davis swung and missed in what would end up being Venditte’s final career strike-out. An inning later, the ambidextrous ace (coincidentally, also the name of his fantasy football team) secured the final out in his nearly 13-season journey: a flyout to deep centerfield off the bat of his former New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners teammate Robinson Cano.
Venditte exited in the following at-bat after just one pitch, straining his right oblique. The pitch, against ‘Polar Bear’ Pete Alonso, would end up being his last in not just the majors, but professional baseball altogether.
Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Pat—since retired—and ask him some questions about how retirement’s treating him, further delving into the relationship between his ever-growing family and baseball career of years past. In addition, we reflected back on the chaotic journey he endured across a plethora of major & minor league teams (seven organizations!).
Come for the rather vulnerable memories Venditte shares, and stay for the “amphibious pitcher” meme.
Pat, your exit from baseball was rather quiet—not too different from Larry Fitzgerald’s so-called ‘quiet quitting’ of the NFL.
Fitzgerald, after realizing he wasn’t in the physical state to continue playing at a high level, spoke on having to “grapple with your humanity.” Despite leaving his playing days behind him, he saw it as “never saying goodbye to the community, just see you later.”
Did you share a similar worldview as your days on the mound drew to a close—like Fitzgerald, amid the COVID-19 pandemic?
Pat Venditte: As far as the quiet quitting goes, not a big fan of that, so I will not liken it to that. However, how athletes decide to leave is different in every situation, as you get older and you see opportunities become less. You have to analyze it from a time, financial, and family decision. The amount of time and dedication it took to train to play at that level—I’d be proud to take every last ounce of what I had. I felt as I was in my mid 30s that time and effort would be best spent on the next phase of my life, which is the business world. And more importantly, providing a life and memories with my family that we are proud of.
What’s it been like being able to spend more time with your family? Your oldest son, Dom, was born in 2017, right after a trade sent you to the Phillies. Your oldest daughter, Ella, joined the Venditte squad the next year, amidst your stint with the Dodgers. However, your youngest, Clara—born in early 2021—never knew her dad as a pitcher.
How’d it feel in terms of your ability to truly enjoy that aspect of your life both during & then following your MLB career?
The time at home has been priceless. However, being able to play professional baseball and take my family with me were some of the best moments of my life. To walk out on the Dodger Stadium with my son, Dominic, and get pictures together that I will be able to show him down the line is something you can’t put a price tag on.
The thing about baseball is you have eight days at home, and then eight days on the road. Unlike a typical 9 to 5, most of the day I was able to spend with Dominic and Ella—until it was time to go to the ballpark, around 2PM every day. So, while I was gone a lot, I also got a lot of quality time with them as well as with my wife. Not to mention, being able to travel the country and sometimes the world, playing a game that I loved, with the people I cared about most. I don’t miss being away for eight days at a time, but I do miss some of the good restaurants and coffee shops I found along the way.
While your professional baseball days may be over, the game will surely never leave you in full. From the “Grad-itude” baseball camp you led last year, to throwing balls in the yard with your kids—and even your dad’s continued softball ventures—how much do you see the sport having an impact on the rest of your life, albeit your playing days now behind you?
Baseball will forever be a major part of my life. I still watch many games throughout the season. I have a lot of good friends still playing, so it’s a nightly occurrence at our house to have a game on.
That love for the game was instilled for me from my father. Along with that love for the game, he instilled the importance of going over and beyond at work in your competition and having faith in a process that things will eventually work out. Those are things that I will have taken with me and try to pass on to my children for the rest of my life.
The Graditude camp was a camp that I had set up last year in memory of my former teammate. The plan is for it to be an annual event happening again this June in Omaha, Nebraska. Former major-league players, college coaches and high school coaches all take part in a day of learning the game with young children to promote the memory of Chris Gradoville. It’s a very important day, and I’m proud of what we did last year for Chris and look forward to another great year.
I’ve got next to no doubt that your love of the game (baseball) holds the crown of being the mainstay reason for why you played as long as you did—nearly 13 seasons in the minors and MLB combined. Aside from that, what do you find yourself missing the most from your playing days? Teammates, the comradery, competition, fans, etc. What is it?
Baseball consumed the first 35 years of my life and I do miss it quite a bit. There’s no one thing that I miss more than another. It was a mix of competition, adrenaline that pumps through your veins in big moments, fabulous teammates, coaches, trainers, and staff—not to mention the fans you get to meet and interact with all over the world.
I miss all of it. I miss the late night meals and fun restaurants, and cities both big and small. Miss the bus rides. Miss the plane rides actually, way more than the bus rides. It was a fun ride.
I wanna touch on the minor leagues for a second. You spent nearly your entire stint with the New York Yankees on assignment, across all the “A” leagues, and other notable periods with the Athletics and Phillies in the minors. What’s an underrated/not talked about-enough aspect of the divide between the MLB & minor leagues?
I would say the biggest difference between the minor leagues and the major leagues—for a pitcher—lies in the talent of the hitters.
For example, one through nine in the major leagues, for the most part, are extremely hard outs. Whereas in AAA, you may find two or three hitters in a lineup that truly give you a challenge. That leaves six spots you can manage and attack, while not giving those best hitters much to look at. In the major leagues, you do not have that luxury.
Touching specifically on your stint with the Yankees, you spent over six years with the organization, yet only pitched one game in the majors: a 2010 spring training game against the Atlanta Braves. What kept you motivated and hungry, per se, throughout such a long stretch of your career with major league action next-to-none?
Major league spring trainings don’t count towards major league service time, so I technically never pitched in the big leagues for the New York Yankees.
I always told my wife that when I felt the competition had passed me, I would stop playing. Throughout my time in the minor leagues, I did not feel that was the case with the Yankees. I never felt slighted by them, but they never called me up. I truly think I was not ready to pitch at that level while I was with them.
They instilled how to be a professional baseball player in a way that no other organization does. From the discipline, to the way you carry yourself, they get you ready to play for any of the other 29 teams if you never get that opportunity in the Bronx, and for that I will be forever grateful. I knew that I wanted to one day pitch the big leagues, and the only way to make that happen was to continue to stick it out and trust the work I had put in. Two months after being with the A’s, fortunately, that dream became a reality.
Speaking of those A’s, following both the end of the 2014 season and your contract with the Yankees, your career took a massive turn. Signing with the Oakland Athletics, you began the 2015 season with some of the best numbers of your career, pitching a 1.36 ERA and 33 strikeouts in Triple-A Nashville before receiving your first-ever regular season call-up to the major leagues. Just how hot (on fire) did your hands feel, shining in a new organization, kicking ass and taking names?
My time with the A’s was unforgettable, especially those first two months in Nashville. When we opened the new stadium downtown, we played in front of sold out crowds every night, with a group of guys that were some of the most fun teammates I’ve ever had.
It was a joy to go to the field every day, and I think that helped my performance. I felt like I was pitching the best I had pitched in my entire life and the timing was perfect. Nashville is a great city and Erin and I had a lot of good memories there.
Everyone’s seen the headline. “Amphibious Pitcher Makes Debut.” A June edition of The East Oregonian put you into the ranks of all-time baseball memes, following your major league debut which saw you pitch two shut-out frames in Fenway Park. Two-parter for you: what’s your favorite amphibian, and on a scale of 1-10, how easy would it be for you to strike it out swinging?
Good question. Is Aquaman considered an Amphibian? If so, it would be him—and surprisingly, I feel like he’d be tough to strike out.
After the A’s era of the Venditte biopic had concluded, we saw you bounce from Toronto, to Seattle, Philly, LA, San Fran, and finally: Miami.
What was it like going from organization to organization, year-to-year? How easy was it for you to adapt to new teams—could you just show up, clock in, clock out, and feel comfortable, no matter the setting? Or, was there more of a ‘feeling-out’ process for each new clubhouse (and/or bullpen) you found yourself in?
Throughout my time with the Yankees, I was fortunate to play winter ball for four different teams: two in Mexico, one in Venezuela, and one in the Dominican Republic. Along with that, I was used to going from team-to-team in the Yankees system, so walking into a room with 25 new guys was something I was used to.
Fortunately, I got along well with all of my teammates along the way, and it made going to a new clubhouse and organization something that I never found that difficult.
I think the hard part was on my wife, who had to pick up the pieces and get our lives packed up from whatever city we were in before. She did that countless times and is a rockstar.
Backing off of that, was it difficult for you to connect with teammates amidst such an ever-changing, chaotic path of your career? The last time we spoke, you mentioned how nice it was to reunite with former Team Italy & Yankee ‘mate’ Francisco Cervelli, following your signing with the Marlins. Any other ‘mates’ that stuck out, or better-phrased, stuck with you, as your baseball cap changed colors?
Professional baseball, like it or not, is a competition day in and day out. So with your teammates, you’re competing every single day. Some you were closer with, and others—I would say the one that was most influential was Jesse Chavez.
I played with him in multiple organizations, and he took great care of me, instilling what it means to take care of rookies when they get to the big leagues. I tried to do the same when younger guys would get caught up, as I got older.
Another one was Stephen Vogt. These guys are the epitome of class and showcase the truly great side of baseball. Vogt is now the bullpen coach for the Seattle Mariners and Jesse Chavez will probably pitch till he is 60 in the big leagues.
Let’s bring this back to where I began, tying the conversation back into what matters the most: family. Is this me channeling my inner Vin Diesel/Dom Turetto? Maybe. I know you got the chance to have your wife, parents, cousins, second cousins—and in the later stages of your career, even your kids—attend your games. What’s it like comparing the feeling between a game you knew you had family in the stands, as opposed to a regular, run-of-the-mill outing?
Another really good question with this one. In the moment of the game, it honestly doesn’t feel any different, or at least it didn’t to me. The biggest difference is after the game, good or bad performance, it’s better to have those you care about to spend your time with.
I got my first major league win in Arizona, in front of my parents and sisters. I got to make my major league debut in front of my in-laws, my wife Erin, my college teammate & roommate Dan Stanley, and my parents—and it’s the time after the game where it is the most special to celebrate those moments.
On the flipside, one of the lowest moments of my pitching career was getting a walk-off home run hit head-off me by Chris Davis, on a Friday night in Baltimore in 2015. Erin was waiting for me right there outside of the clubhouse. We skipped the bus back to the hotel and took a long stroll through Baltimore back to the hotel. She took good care of me, and I tried to not look at any TVs for 24 hrs, because the highlight was everywhere in Baltimore and deservedly so.
Pat, you achieved some of your biggest dreams, in terms of playing in the major leagues for the years that you did. You became the first completely ambidextrous MLB pitcher. You struck out Prince Fielder. Now that baseball is all but behind you, what dreams do you have for yourself & your families’ future?
My dream has always been to make the most of this life for my family. I feel like a new journey has begun, where that is going to take me, I don’t know. I do know that I want our lives to be special and will find a way to make that happen. I approach the business world the same as I did baseball: day to day. Take care of what you can take care of today to make sure tomorrow will be better than today.
Nowadays, you can stay up-to-date with Pat on his Instagram and Twitter. Check out my 2020 interview with him on Spotify or Apple.