Find yourself a baseball player who can switch hit. How about one better? Find yourself a baseball player who can switch pitch. How about one BETTER? Find yourself a baseball player who can do both.
That player's name is Tyler Shindo. Shindo plays for the Honolulu Little League team and caught national attention for his ambidextrous skills. It's not every day you see a 12-year-old as versatile and skilled as he is.
Tyler Shindo Baseball
Tyler Shindo pitches left AND right-handed and has a six-finger glove ? pic.twitter.com/jASeo5uezt
— Little League (@LittleLeague) August 14, 2021
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Being ambidextrous requires some special equipment. In Shindo's case, his glove is truly one of a kind.
The Little Leaguer from Hawaii has a mitt with six fingers. Yes, you read that right. Six.
He had it custom made so he can easily switch arms when he's on the mound. There are only a handful of people on Earth who have the same problem.
Shindo began pitching with both arms when he was 9 years old. He got the hang of it over the next year. Oh, and he can also switch hit.
Now 12, he was able to put his unique pitching skills on display during the Little League West Regional in San Bernadino, California. Shindo threw a scoreless inning in the West Regional championship game against Southern California. The video of him throwing with both arms went viral, racking up more than 400,000 views on Twitter.
Hawaii ended up winning the game by a decisive score of 7-2 to punch its ticket to Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, Shindo won't be making the trip.
The uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic caused the Shindos to sign up Tyler for multiple teams. He has a commitment to Team USA's National Team Identification Series in North Carolina at the same time of the Little League World Series.
"Nine months ago when we were signing up for things for spring and summer, no one knew what was going to happen," Tyler's father Dustin said. "So, we probably over-signed up for teams and meetings. And as it turned out, of course, a lot of these events started happening and they overlapped. So it created some pretty difficult decisions for Tyler."
Even though Tyler won't star alongside other big names like South Dakota pitcher Gavin Weir and Texas catcher Ella Bruning, he said he's going to stay in contact with his teammates and cheer them on.
It's a bummer Shindo won't be at the LLWS. I have a feeling this won't be the last time we see him, though. He's one of the most uniquely skilled players we've seen at any level from high school to the MLB.
We've seen a switch-pitcher in Pat Venditte. We see switch-hitters all the time. Tyler Shindo might be the only person out there who can do both.
