Oakland Athletics pitcher Pat Venditte became an overnight sensation, thanks to the East Oregonian newspaper.
The East Oregonian, circulation about 7,000, printed an unfortunate-turned-infamous headline on Venditte, the eight-year minor leaguer who was the first pitcher in 20 years to throw the ball with both arms.
Favorite headline of week. He pitches righty, lefty — and evidently, also underwater. Faces Aquaman in next outing. pic.twitter.com/efxaQxFp8Z— Neill Woelk (@NeillWoelk) June 8, 2015
It's one thing to post a mistake online. Even in the age of social media where mistakes can be captured and transported globally, making the mistake in print has a permanency about it. It's debatable whether the East Oregonian would've created news had they posted the wrong headline online and then changed it later.
Chances are the small newspaper wouldn't have garnered the attention.
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But when the headline appeared in print, coupled with social media, Venditte became the first player with "the ability to live on land and in water," as Sports Illustrated's Extra Mustard reported.
"It's just kind of a silly mistake, and I'm trying to craft a column about it now," East Oregonian managing editor Daniel Wattenburger told jimromensko.com. "There was just some confusion [about amphibious vs. ambidextrous] from the person laying out the page on Friday night.
"A former colleague (Neill Woelk) shared it on his Twitter feed and that's how it got picked up" by, well, just about everyone else on Twitter (Woelk is now Rocky Mountain Student Media adviser).
The newspaper apparently had just received some viral attention after posting a letter to the editor about farting. Wattenburger's column noted the top-of-the-world, bottom-of-the-barrel ride for the paper.
"Sure, we're a little red in the face," Wattenburger wrote in the East Oregonian. "It's one thing to have a slip of the tongue, it's another to put a mistake into print, and it's still another to see that mistake splayed across the World Wide Web. And to think: Just a few weeks ago we were Internet heroes, showing the courage and temerity to publish a letter about farts. Now, we're lowly Internet zeros, publishing unconsciously about frogs."
It's not the first time "amphibious" has been mistaken for "ambidextrous."
"Some 30 years ago, while former NBA player Charles Shackleford was at North Carolina State, he told reporters, 'Left hand, right hand, it doesn't matter. I'm amphibious.'" Extra Mustard reported.
The victim is poor Venditte, who's unique talent was overshadowed by as unique a headline.
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