Ohio High School Boasts Switch-Pitcher
Tyrone Daily Herald, 27 May 1989
Tallmadge, Ohio (UPI) - You've seen switch-hitters in baseball. Mickey Mantle and Pete Rose are the most famous of the bree who could hit from either side of the plate. ...
Now get ready for a switch-pitcher.
Jeff Schley of Tallmadge High School near Akron is this ambidextrous rarity, who can switch arms form game to game, inning to inning and sometimes from batter to batter.
Last week, the 6-foot-3, 190-pound junior hurled a no-hitter with his left arm in an Ohio high school state tournament game against Springfield Local.
When his left arm felt tender a few days later, he made his next start against Akron Ellet as a right-hander and raised his record to 4-1.
"I've never seen a kid like him," says Dave Young, who in 26 years as the Tallmadge coach has
consistently turned out some of Ohio's best schoolboy teams.
Earlier this season he pitched four innings as a left-hander," Young says. "In the fifth inning the
other team had their big right-handed hitters coming up so I had him switch to the right hand
and he struck out the side."
"I have thrown left and right in the same inning," says the 16-year-old phenom, who simply changes his floppy old glove from one hand to the other.
Schley says he has had this ability for as long as he can remember. He can eat with either hand. He'll never get writing cramp because he can even write with either hand.
"The first time I ever pitched with both arms was in Little League when I was 12 years old," Schley says. "I had been a right-hander until then but one day I forgot my glove. The only glove I could borrow was a left-hander's. I told them not to worry about it. So I pitched with my left arm and I've been switching ever since."
"Actually, he's a little better with his left," Young says.
When he's not pitching, he's the team's regular left fielder and was hitting .302 through 20 games with four hour runs and 18 RBI.
No doubt he's a switch-hitter, right coach?
"No," Young says.
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