You love baseball. Tim Kurkjian loves baseball. So while we await its return, every day we'll provide you with a story or two tied to this date in baseball history.
ON THIS DATE IN 1950, things were ambidextrous, not amphibious.
President Harry Truman threw out the ceremonial first ball at the Washington Senators game. He made two throws -- one right-handed and one left-handed. In his honor, we will briefly examine the world of ambidextrous baseball players, or as former infielder Jim Morrison called it, "amphibious,'' which he described as "being able to throw underwater.''
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Babe Ruth threw and hit left-handed, but he ate and wrote with his right hand. Craig Biggio is the opposite, as is Brooks Robinson.
"The first time I met Brooksie, the first thing I noticed is that he ate and wrote with his left hand,'' former Orioles second baseman Davey Johnson said. "I thought, 'Brooks is the best third baseman ever.' So I ate and wrote with my left hand for a year to see if it would make me a better second baseman. It didn't.''
Third baseman George Brett used to throw batting practice left-handed. Catcher Victor Martinez can throw 75 mph left-handed. Right-handed pitcher Vince Velasquez had his glove knocked off by a line drive in 2018, picked up the ball and threw a strike left-handed to first, which then-Phillies manager Gabe Kapler called "the greatest play I have ever seen.'' Velasquez in college sometimes played the outfield and threw left-handed when he didn't pitch. Right-hander Greg Harris pitched left-handed in a major league game in 1995; he used a reversible glove. So does switch-pitcher Pat Venditte, who has pitched with both arms in major league games for several years.
"I watched him throw a bullpen this morning,'' said A's manager Bob Melvin, joking. "He started off throwing right-handed wearing No. 46. Then I looked back and he was throwing lefty wearing No. 64.''
Joey Rickard, most recently with the Giants, throws a baseball left-handed but throws a football right-handed. Tom Foley, a former middle infielder, throws right-handed but played quarterback in high school as a left-hander. He was once teammates on the Pirates with left-handed pitcher Steve Cooke, who played quarterback in high school right-handed. Foley was a coach with the Rays, and the first baseman on that team, Travis Lee, threw a baseball left-handed but played quarterback in high school right-handed.
"It is weird,'' Foley said.
Weird describes Mark Mulder, once a terrific left-handed pitcher. Everything he does below the waist, as he put it, he does right-handed -- such as bowl or swing a golf club. Everything he does above the waist he does left-handed, such as throw a baseball. He once pitched in a celebrity softball game. Since that motion is underhand, he pitched with his right hand. But when a ball was hit back at him, he would have to switch his glove to his other hand, à la Jim Abbott, so he could throw to first base.
"I'm completely screwed up,'' Mulder said.
But in baseball, and with presidents, that's good.
Other baseball notes for April 18
In 1923, Yankee Stadium, The House That Ruth Built, opened. The Babe hit a three-run homer. The Yankees won 4-1.
In 1916, Grover Cleveland Alexander threw the first of his 16 shutouts that season. There were 26 individual shutouts thrown in the major leagues in 2019. In 1964, Sandy Koufax recorded the second immaculate inning of his career -- three strikeouts, nine pitches total.
In 1983, Miguel Cabrera was born. Max Scherzer calls him "the greatest hitter ever to hold a bat.'' Cabrera is the only player to hit a walk-off homer in his major league debut. He, Ty Cobb and Juan Soto are the only 20-year-olds to hit cleanup in a World Series game.
In 1987, Mike Schmidt hit his 500th home run. He, Willie Mays and Ken Griffey Jr. are the only players to hit 500 homers and win 10 Gold Gloves.
In 1981, Tom Seaver struck out Keith Hernandez for his 3,000th strikeout. Hernandez had been drafted by the Cardinals 10 years earlier. As he was leaving to go to his first spring training, he packed his Strat-O-Matic game. His father told him, "You can't take that, you're a professional baseball player now!'' Hernandez said, "But Dad, I'm halfway through the 1970 season!''