It is no secret that my choice of musical preference leans heavily towards the old country classic artists. One of my favorites is George Jones and his 1999 hit song Choices. It offers a sobering poignant message that an individual’s ultimate plight in life is determined by the choices one makes along life’s highway. If you’ve never heard the song, below are the lyrics to the first verse:

I had choices
Since the day that I was born
There were voices
That told me right from wrong
If I had listened
No, I wouldn’t be here today
Living and dying
With the choices I made

I am absolutely certain Jones’ song was not intended for a Little League Baseball audience, but here, 22 years later, a choice made by one of the most interesting players earning the opportunity to advance to the Little League World Series has raised a few eyebrows.

As I watched the Little League Baseball regional action qualifying teams for the journey to Williamsport, I was fascinated by the ambidextrous abilities of Tyler Shindo a 12-year-old pitcher/infielder for the Honolulu, Hawaii Little League team that captured the Western Regional championship. Ken Sawyer and I had drawn the assignment of broadcasting Hawaii’s first game at the LLB Series and I was anxious to see this talented youngster perform.

“Tyler started pitching with both hands as a nine-year old,” Tyler’s father, Dustin, recently told a Honolulu television station. “Everything he does it a bit chop suey. He eats lefty but he brushes his teeth right, he’s a right-footer, writes left, so it’s back and forth in many of the things he does. He uses a specially ordered glove with six fingers so he can use it on either hand, allowing him to switch which hand he throws with at any time.”

As for Tyler, “Pitching took a long time to learn both sides. There’s a long time to be able to switch back and forth and throw strikes. So, it took me like a year. That made it easier, and I guess a lot of people like it.”

Indeed, people do like it and Shindo would have been the first ambidextrous pitcher to play at the Little League World Series since the famed Angel Macias led his Monterrey, Mexico team to the World Championship in 1957.

However, 12-year-old Shindo had a choice to make and the one he chose would most likely lead most Little Leaguers to shake their heads in disbelief.

Due to the uncertainty of the pandemic, the Shindos signed up for multiple squads this summer to make sure that Tyler could still play. He had a previous engagement at Team USA’s National Team Identification Series in North Carolina and chose to head there instead of accompanying his Little League team to Williamsport.

“Nine months ago, when we were signing up for things for spring and summer, no one knew what was going to happen,” father Dustin said. “So, we probably over-signed up for teams and meetings. As it turned out, a lot of these events started happening and they overlapped. So it created some pretty difficult decisions for Tyler. He wanted to do both, but the schedules conflicted, so he decided to head to North Carolina.”

The USA Baseball team championships are elite championship events, held in Cary, North Carolina, which serve as the primary identification vehicle for players to be considered for the 13U/14U athlete development program. Through these events, USA Baseball provides an opportunity for more than 400 teams the chance to showcase their talents and an opportunity to be selected to represent their county.

Interestingly, there have been eight known ambidextrous pitchers to appear in the Major Leagues and four others who pitched in the old Negro Leagues. The most recent to do so was Pat Venditte who pitched for six MLB Teams (Oakland, Toronto, Seattle, LA Dodgers, San Francisco and Miami) from 2015-2020.

Venditte began his professional career in 2008 with the Staten Island Yankees of the NY-Penn League. His two-arm pitching style caused the Professional Baseball Umpire Corporation to create a new rule regarding ambidextrous pitchers, which later was adapted into the official baseball rules as rule 8.01 That rule states that a “pitcher must visually indicate to the umpire, batter and runner(s) which way he will begin pitching to the batter.”

Had Shindo accompanied his team to Williamsport he would have most likely been thrust into the attention of the national media and become the most unique player personality since Mo’ne Davis was here in 2014. Winning the 2021 Little League World Series or playing for a chance to represent his county at a later time? Those were the choices facing 12-year-old Tyler Shindo.

As George Jones song suggests, Shindo will be living and dying with the choices he makes.