Former Seattle Mariners Pitcher Makes Appearance For Savannah Bananas
The Savannah Bananas have been one of the most successful stories in the baseball world over the last several years.
The one-time summer collegiate league team has become baseball's version of the Harlem Globetrotters with their own set of baseball rules and viral pregame, in-game and postgame performances.
The Bananas have transferred that success to a successful world tour that will head to the Seattle Mariners' home field of T-Mobile Park from Sept. 19-20, 2025.
And in a recent exhibition, a one-time Seattle pitcher and one of the most infamous players in recent league history took the mound for Savannah.
Switch-pitcher Pat Vindette made an appearance for the Bananas and faced switch-hitter Bronson Balhom, generating one of the exhibition team's trademark flashy ground outs.
Balhom plays for the Party Animals, one of the teams that Savannah plays during its exhibitions. Not dissimilar to the Washington Generals playing the Globetrotters.
The @MLB's FIRST switch-pitcher @PatVenditte faced off against a switch-hitting @balholm and it was as eventful as you'd expect 🍿 pic.twitter.com/OIWXhOLKoP
— Banana Ball (@BananaBall_) October 20, 2024
Venditte is one of the few legit switch-pitching prospects in MLB history.
He played six seasons from 2015-2020 after getting drafted in the 20th round of the MLB draft by the New York Yankees in 2008 out of Creighton.
Venditte played for six teams across his career: the Oakland Athletics, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Mariners, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the San Francisco Giants and Miami Marlins.
Venditte appeared in seven games for Seattle in 2016. He had a 6.08 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 13.1 innings pitched.
Pat Venditte, Sliders (LHP/RHP, overlay). pic.twitter.com/ecfJ3pUaZR
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 31, 2018
Ironically, the first legitimate switch-pitching prospect since Venditte is Jurrangelo Cijntje.
Seattle drafted Cijntje out of Mississippi State with the 15th overall pick in the 2024 draft. Cijntje projects as a starter with a higher ceiling than Veditte.
Venditte looks to be on a special appearance-basis with the Bananas. Still, it would be fun to see him return to T-Mobile Park with Savannah in 2025.
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