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Ryan Perez - Switch Pitcher News

News articles about Ryan Perez - a college ambidextrous pitcher from Illinois.



2014

Aspiring major leaguer can bring the heat with both arms
By Jim Axelrod | CBS News | July 26, 2014


Ryan Perez is a natural righty, but growing up his father knew his son the aspiring pitcher would have an advantage if he learned to throw with his left arm as well.
"I would grab something right-handed and try to throw it right-handed, but he would stop: 'No, no, no, no, put it in your left. Throw it with your left,'" Perez said.
His dad was on to something. Perez became an all-state pitcher in Illinois, and now - heading into his junior year at Judson University - he has an arsenal of pitches he can throw with either arm.
"Four-seam fastball both ways, change-up both ways, curve and slider both ways," he said.


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2013

From left or right, Perez feels normal
Ambidextrous pitcher back from injury, ready to go for Miners
By Gary Fauber, register-herald.com | July 10, 2013

BECKLEY — When Ryan Perez was a three-year-old boy growing up in Illinois, he would throw rocks in the pond in his backyard.

Just normal kid stuff.

But there was something altogether abnormal about an otherwise simple act of boyhood.

“To a kid, that’s cool. (But) every time I would pick up a rock right-handed, he would switch it,” Perez said, smiling as he demonstrated how his dad would take the rock from his right hand and place it in his left.

Perez is the youngest of three brothers, none of them naturally left-handed. Lefties are a valued commodity in baseball, prompting Perez’s dad to start the experiment.

“That’s how it started,” he said.



Ryan Perez - Judson University


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2011


News articles about Ryan Perez - a high school ambidextrous pitcher from Illinois.

Elgin-area POY Perez one of a kind


By Erick Jacobsen, suntimes.com, June 24, 2011

By definition, talent is a special natural ability or aptitude.
When it comes to what Ryan Perez possesses on the baseball field, that entry in the dictionary doesn’t quite seem to do the Westminster Christian junior justice.
Merely calling Perez talented is an understatement considering his ability to dominate on the pitching mound with both his right and left arms. As the regional and national media members who covered Perez in recent months now realize, the 6-foot, 170-pound ambidextrous kid from Hampshire isn’t just some sideshow act playing high school ball out in Elgin.

Illinois prep pitcher well-armed as a lefty or a righty
nptelegraph.com  May 10, 2011

Ryan Perez uses a 90 mph fastball to dominate his high school opponents.
And that's just with his right arm.
Perez throws 87 mph with his left and has four pitches he can throw for strikes with either arm.
Major colleges have been interested in the 17-year-old Chicago-area junior for a year, and his goal is to become the first switch pitcher in the major leagues since Greg Harris two decades ago.

Suburban Switch Pitcher
By Eric Olson, Shaw News Service, May 7, 2011


People have been making a fuss over Perez’s rare ability since his first days in youth ball. A freak, they would call him.

“I hear people say it all the time still,” he said. “This is me. This is who I am. Other people are stunned and say, ‘You can throw both ways. How do you do it?’ I don’t see how it’s a shock. I’ve been doing it all my life.”

Perez is among the very few players who make a serious attempt to throw with both arms.



POTW: Perez pitches left- and right-handed
By Scott Powers, ESPN, May 22, 2011

Ambidextrous pitcher Ryan Perez is ESPNChicago's prep player of the week.

ELGIN, Ill. -- Wearing his Wilson glove on his left hand, Westminster Christian junior pitcher Ryan Perez stepped on the mound on a recent Saturday and began his practice throws before the fifth inning. 

After a couple of warm-up pitches, one of the opposing fans noticed something different in Perez from the previous inning. 

“He’s throwing right-handed,” the fan remarked. “He was left-handed last inning.” 

The fan’s eyes weren’t deceiving him, and Perez doesn’t have a twin. Perez is a right-handed pitcher, and he’s a left-handed pitcher. In other words, he’s an ambidextrous pitcher, which is also known as a switch pitcher. 

“To them, it’s so weird,” said Perez, who wears a Rawlings glove when he pitches left-handed. “To me, it’s natural.”



Ambidextrous pitcher proves nearly unhittable with either hand
By Cameron Smith, Rivals  April 13, 2011

The first time a batter saw Westminster (Ill.) Christian High pitcher Ryan Perez stop warming up right-handed, pick up another glove and start warming up left-handed, the hitter's jaw dropped with a wide-eyed reaction. The man outside the batter's box had good reason for the reaction, too: Perez is a top flight pitcher with either hand, one of the few -- if not the only -- legitimate ambidextrous pitching prospects in the United States.

Ryan Perez Stats - maxpreps.com
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