Left Out On The Mound Indians’ Right-Handed Chapman Excels As Left-Handed Pitcher

From the Indiana cornfields comes the mythical tale of a young boy who learned to throw with his opposite hand during the middle of a baseball game.

As the story goes, the exuberant 9-year-old shortstop covered so much ground that his miraculous, other-handed throw came from the right-field fence.

It’s said the boy’s father was so consumed with the game that he didn’t notice the feat until his son repeated the stunt a few innings later.

The next season, storytellers claim, the father turned his 10-year-old, right-handed son into a left-hander, paving the way to a successful high school baseball career.

Silly story, eh?

Obviously the product of a wild imagination.

One part is, anyway: That bit about the little tyke succeeding in high school.

In truth, the subject of this yarn, Jake Chapman, is much more than a high school pitcher.

Since starting his first game for the Spokane Indians July 26, Chapman (4-0) has been nearly unstoppable.

Saturday, his third start, Chapman limited Yakima to one hit while becoming the first Indians starter to last eight inning. In his three starts, Chapman has allowed four hits and one earned run in 19 innings. He has walked three and struck out 24.

Counting relief appearances, since July 21 Chapman has allowed six hits and one earned run in 24 innings. He has fanned 29 and walked six.

Those numbers would catch anyone’s attention, but put in perspective, they’re harder still to believe.

Southpaw Chapman doesn’t use his left hand to do anything but pitch a baseball. He eats, writes, bats and shoots a basketball with his right hand.

Until that magical game 13 years ago, Chapman didn’t know he could throw with his left hand. He was, indeed, a right-handed shortstop who reacted spontaneously one day when his daydreaming teammate in right field stared blankly at a ball hit over his head.

Chapman, who had discarded his glove, caught up to the ball at the fence. He spun and threw the ball, on the fly, back to the infield.

He’d used his left hand, but nobody really noticed - including his father - until he repeated the play later in the game.

“The next year I was throwing the ball left-handed,” said the native of Rensselaer, Ind. “I don’t even remember adjusting because I was so young.”

Don’t ask Chapman to try throwing righthanded from the mound. “I think I can throw it better right-handed than most people can throw with their opposite hand, if you know what I mean, but there’s no way I could go out to the mound and throw strikes,” Chapman said.

For that reason, Chapman doesn’t consider himself truly ambidextrous. Oddly, right before Chapman’s days at St. Joseph’s (Ind.) College, the Division 2 school had a pitcher who could alternate pitching arms each inning.

“The coach made him change because he thought it was a circus act,” Chapman said.

There’s been no clowning around in Chapman’s Airway Heights apartment, which is also the home of Indians starters Steve Hueston and Jason Simontacchi.

The talk centers almost 100 percent on baseball. During a recent pregame workout with pitcher Donald Quigley,

Chapman’s been fortunate to hook up with his pitching friends because the Northwest League is no Hoosier hotbed. Chapman met two Indians booster club members from near his hometown, but just one NWL player Southern Oregon pitcher Willy Horton - is familiar from school days in the midwest.

The two met briefly while both toiled for a corn farmer.

Funny the stories that come out of midwest cornfields.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo