Japanese ambidextrous pitcher honoured by Canadian baseball league

While growing up in Japan, Mizuki Akatsuka, who's naturally right-handed, started throwing baseballs with both arms after his dad watched a soccer game and took note of players kicking with both legs.

His dad thought it could be an advantage.

It wasn't until high school that Akatsuka attempted to "switch pitch" in a game.

Fast forward to today, and the 27-year-old continues to pitch with his right and left hands.

Switch hitters are common — that's batters who hit from either side of home plate. However, ambidextrous pitchers are extremely rare in baseball. There's only been a handful of people to do it in Major League Baseball (MLB) history.  There are specific rules for ambidextrous pitchers.

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

Since coming to North America in 2022 from a Japanese professional league, he's played two seasons in the Frontier League in the U.S., then last year in the IBL with Hamilton.

Speaking through a translator, who's also his teammate, Yuri O'Connor Yokoyama, Akatsuka says he doesn't do anything else consistently with both hands, but there was a time he did.

"Just to get a better feeling … he did practice eating and writing from his left hand," explained O'Connor Yokoyama.

Akatsuka says his velocity is greater with his dominant right hand. He throws the same number of different pitches — four — with both.

"Every league he's played in, he has to choose which hand he's going to pitch with and finish the at bat with that hand. Until that rule existed, you were able to switch hands each pitch, so he was practising switching hands each time."

Akatsuka uses a customized six-fingered glove, so he can switch it from hand to hand.

"Basically, there's like no pinky finger … each side basically has a thumb. It's kind of like thinking of it as if you were to put two gloves on top of each other, stack them on top of each other," said Akatsuka, through translator O'Connor Yokoyama.

Akatsuka believes his game and mindset are a better fit in North America, compared to back home.

"In Japan, they're very focused on moving as a team, playing as a team and stuff like that. Versus in North America, it's very much individualized, so if you mess up, it's on you. In Japan, if one person messes up, it's on the team."

O'Connor Yokoyama, who's also a pitcher on the Barnstormers, says Akatusuka's ability to switch the glove from one hand to the other is smooth — along with his delivery on either side.

"If you play catch with him, you don't realize when he switches hands because it looks so natural. Most people, you can tell if they're throwing from the wrong side, but because you can't tell which side is his right side, he'll just suddenly switch and you don't even notice that he's throwing from the other arm.

'Two hands' is 'one of a kind'

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

"I have been pitching my entire life with one hand, and that's proven to be hard enough," Muir told CBC News.

According to Muir, "Two Hands" — as the team "affectionately" calls him — has fit in well with the organization and is an extremely hard worker who takes his craft seriously.

"This guy is good enough to compete in this league with both [arms]," he added.

"Watching him as a pitcher, you can't tell by his mechanics if he's actually right handed or left, his mechanics are identical, it's quite incredible."