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(20 votes, average: 3.95 out of 5)
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Apparently, Mr. Harris was a switch-pitcher! From Baseball Library:
Harris’ unusual ability to pitch with both hands led to some tension between him and the Red Sox, who forbade the ambidextrous hurler from throwing lefty. GM Lou Gorman insisted it would “make a mockery” of the game, leading Harris to grumble, “Boston is so conservative. People are afraid to try anything.” In a muted show of defiance, Harris usually chose to wear an ambidextrous glove on the mound.
But just before his retirement, while pitching for the Expos in 1995, the veteran hurler finally became the only twentieth-century pitcher to throw from both sides of the mound. After Harris (pitching righty) retired Reggie Sanders to start off the ninth inning of a game against the Cincinnati Reds on September 28, 1995, he turned around to face the left-handed Hal Morris.
Harris issued a free pass, thus becoming the first ambidextrous major-league pitcher since Elton “Ice Box” Chamberlain of the American Association in 1888. Nerve-wracked, he stayed a southpaw and induced a ground-out from Eddie Taubensee, closing out the inning by retiring Bret Boone as a righty. The last pitcher to use both hands in a pro game had been Bert Campaneris, who did so in 1962 while playing for Daytona Beach in the Florida State League.
Pretty awesome stuff. Hopefully we’ll see something similar from Yankees farmhand Pat Venditte in the not-too-distant future.
Tags: 1990, Boston Red Sox, distorted faces, facial hair, glasses, Greg Harris, hat placement, nerd, pitcher, switch pitcher, topps
(4.88 out of 5)
I kinda feel like, from this angle, if you took away the glasses and the mustache, and jimmied the hair a little, you’d have Owen Wilson. Which is funny, because this guy was one of my favorite players when I was a kid, and I always felt he was the epitome of nerdiness. It was a bit disappointing that he never got to pitch from both sides while with the Sox.
Apparently his nerdiness and his regular guy physique allowed him to take public transit to the park.
Greg lives near us in So Calif, and gave my then-12 yr old son pitching lessons back in 2003. A good guy with a good sense of humor, he made comments at the time that echoed exactly his sentiments towards Red Sox hierarchy concerning their stuffiness in not letting him pitch from both sides in a game.
He threw from both sides of the mound for my video camera, btw– a fun little keepsake for when my son has a son of his own…