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That Awkward Moment When An Ambidextrous Pitcher Gets Outed For Being Amphibious

By Rachel Tsoumbakos
Published on: 16:53 PST, Jun 9, 2015

Ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte expected a bit of excitement about the fact that he can pitch with both his left and right hands. However, what he didn’t expect was being outed for being amphibious by the East Oregonian newspaper. While the ambidextrous pitcher isn’t amphibious, it appears the person who wrote the article made a typo of epic proportions.

Just to clarify, to be ambidextrous means you can use both hands for a task (eg. when writing). To be amphibious, or an amphibian, is to be able to breath and survive on both land and under the water.

Neill Woelk, a “recovering sports writer, current journalism adviser at Colorado State U,” was quick to post a picture of the blunder in relation to ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte, and share it on his Twitter account.

The Washington Post was kinder about the journalistic blunder however, suggesting that the typo from ambidextrous to amphibian occurred either because the East Oregonian hired Charles Shackleford (a North Carolina State basketball player who once famously called himself amphibious instead of ambidextrous) or the writer had what is known as a “brain fart” (where one forgets something they already know) when typing out amphibious pitcher instead of ambidextrous pitcher.

After all, typos happen all the time in the media circuit as well as via the internet. There are hilarious sites dedicated to auto-correct fails as well as countless memes about grammar Nazis. Many people also see the need to correct punctuation and spelling on Facebook statuses.

So yes, it happens. Just sometimes it is funnier than others. Having an amphibious pitcher instead of an ambidextrous pitcher, of course, is one of the funnier ones. Some of the best replies to the amphibious pitcher typo have invariably ended up on Twitter:

The East Oregonian also posted on the hot topic:

However, there is some merit behind using amphibious over ambidextrous by accident. Both words originate from different languages yet mean similar things. “Ambi” is Latin in origin and means “on both sides”. “Amph” or “amphi” is Greek in origin and also means “on both sides of” or, alternatively, “both kinds”. So while ambidextrous and amphibian sound quite different when spoken, there is evidence to suggest why some people can confuse the words and their meanings.

What’s the worst typo you’ve ever made? Let us know by commenting below!

[Image credits: AP / Twitter]

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