Italian Baseball Team Denies me the Freakshow I've Been Waiting For

I did not know until today that Pat Venditte, the Yankees minor-league prospect, had applied for and received his Italian dual-citizenship, and will be playing on the Italian team in the World Baseball Classic.

You may recall that he's the ambidextrous trick-pitcher I've wanted to see pitch since he played in college, down the road from my hometown in Iowa, at Creighton in Omaha.

These days, he pitches in Staten Island, Charleston, or Scranton, PA, for the Yankees farm system.

... he's injured, though, (torn labrum) so he's merely a lefty pitcher now. Which, if you think about it, is pretty cool. He's a pitcher with a torn labrum, so he just uses his hot-spare pitching arm.

I'd have loved to see him throw from both sides in the WBC, though. I guess I'll be rooting for Italy to win at least one game (in a tough bracket with the US, Canada, and Mexico) , which would mean they qualify for the 2017 WBC, without having to play-in in the qualfying rounds.

... Even though the prospect of seeing an ambidextrous professional pitcher flummox some Czech or South African Baseball team for several innings in some stadium in Germany in November is kind of the obscure-baseball ultimate combo-move. I'd probably pay anything, and fly any distance to see that kind of stuff.