Japanese ambidextrous pitcher honoured by Canadian baseball league

Bob Becken · CBC News

· Posted: May 29, 2025 11:19 AM EDT | Last Updated: 9 hours ago

While increasing up successful Japan, Mizuki Akatsuka, who's people right-handed, started throwing baseballs with some arms aft his dada watched a shot crippled and took enactment of players kicking with some legs.

His dada thought it could be an advantage.

It wasn't until precocious schoolhouse that Akatsuka attempted to "switch pitch" successful a game.

Fast guardant to today, and the 27-year-old continues to transportation with his close and near hands.

Switch hitters are communal — that's batters who hit from either broadside of location plate. However, ambidextrous pitchers are highly uncommon successful baseball. There's lone been a fistful of radical to bash it successful Major League Baseball (MLB) history.  There are circumstantial rules for ambidextrous pitchers.

Akatsuka plays for the Chatham-Kent Barnstormers of the Intercounty Baseball League (IBL), and was precocious named the league's pitcher of the week. 

Since coming to North America successful 2022 from a Japanese nonrecreational league, he's played 2 seasons successful the Frontier League successful the U.S., past past twelvemonth successful the IBL with Hamilton.

Speaking done a translator, who's besides his teammate, Yuri O'Connor Yokoyama, Akatsuka says helium doesn't bash thing other consistently with some hands, but determination was a clip helium did.

"Just to get a amended feeling … helium did signifier eating and penning from his near hand," explained O'Connor Yokoyama.

Akatsuka says his velocity is greater with his ascendant close hand. He throws the aforesaid fig of antithetic pitches — four — with both.

"Every league he's played in, he has to take which manus he's going to transportation with and decorativeness the astatine bat with that hand. Until that regularisation existed, you were capable to power hands each pitch, truthful helium was practising switching hands each time."

Akatsuka uses a customized six-fingered glove, truthful helium tin power it from manus to hand.

"Basically, there's similar nary pinky digit … each broadside fundamentally has a thumb. It's benignant of similar reasoning of it arsenic if you were to enactment 2 gloves connected apical of each other, stack them connected apical of each other," said Akatsuka, done translator O'Connor Yokoyama.

Akatsuka believes his crippled and mindset are a amended acceptable successful North America, compared to backmost home.

"In Japan, they're precise focused connected moving arsenic a team, playing arsenic a squad and worldly similar that. Versus successful North America, it's precise overmuch individualized, truthful if you messiness up, it's connected you. In Japan, if 1 idiosyncratic messes up, it's connected the team."

O'Connor Yokoyama, who's besides a pitcher connected the Barnstormers, says Akatusuka's quality to power the mitt from 1 manus to the different is creaseless — on with his transportation connected either side.

"If you play drawback with him, you don't recognize erstwhile helium switches hands due to the fact that it looks truthful natural. Most people, you tin archer if they're throwing from the incorrect side, but due to the fact that you can't archer which broadside is his close side, he'll conscionable abruptly power and you don't adjacent announcement that he's throwing from the different arm.

'Two hands' is 'one of a kind'

Akatsuka is "certainly 1 of a kind," says Harry Muir, the wide manager for the Barnstormers.

"I person been pitching my full beingness with 1 hand, and that's proven to beryllium hard enough," Muir told CBC News.

According to Muir, "Two Hands" — arsenic the squad "affectionately" calls him — has acceptable successful good with the enactment and is an highly hard idiosyncratic who takes his trade seriously.

"This feline is bully capable to vie successful this league with some [arms]," helium added.

"Watching him arsenic a pitcher, you can't archer by his mechanics if he's really close handed oregon left, his mechanics are identical, it's rather incredible."