CARY, N.C. – At each level of baseball, there is an ultimate goal for a player to achieve. Major Leaguers want to win a World Series. College athletes want to play in Omaha. High schoolers want to win their state championships. And for many 12-year-olds, they dream about playing in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
For Tyler Shindo, though, there is a different dream. After winning the Little League World Series west regional with Honolulu Little League in San Bernardino, California, just days ago, Shindo arrived in Cary, North Carolina, for the 12U National Team Identification Series (NTIS) Champions Cup. Shindo and his father, Dustin, didn’t even go home before making the trip to North Carolina.
“It was tough because I wanted to do both,” Shindo said about choosing which competition to take part in. “But this was something I’ve never gotten to do and is a really cool opportunity.”
His Hawaii team will be competing in Williamsport, but Shindo decided to take a different path: playing at the NTIS Champions Cup in front of the USA Baseball Task Force. The fact that he would get the chance to compete for a spot on Team USA and the opportunity to play for his entire country on the international stage helped Tyler and his dad decide to stick with the commitment to come to Cary.
“Honestly it was one of the toughest decisions ever and one that we let Tyler make himself,” said Tyler’s dad, Dustin Shindo. “He started the NTIS process a few years ago and this was something he really wanted to do.”
And if all that isn’t enough, Tyler isn’t just any player: he is an ambidextrous pitcher and a switch hitter, throwing as both a left-hander and right-hander on the mound as well as hitting from both sides of the plate.
The process started when Tyler was four after his mom bought him a toy to throw balls at. He started throwing into the net with both his left and right arm and by the time he got onto the mound between ages eight and nine, he was already comfortable pitching with both. As you would expect, it’s not an easy thing to do and he says it has just been within the last year that he’s started to throw for strikes on both sides.
Honing in on this skill comes with plenty of advantages that Tyler uses to give himself an upper hand on batters. “It was so hard at first but now being able to use the breaking ball to break a certain way, it helps make things a lot easier,” he said.
When he’s on the mound, Tyler uses a specially made glove with webbing that is split down the middle, allowing him to easily switch between hands from batter to batter.
After realizing he could throw with both arms, the leap to hitting from both sides of the plate wasn’t a tough one to make. Again, it gives him a chance to adjust his approach based on the situation of the game.
And it’s all working for him in Cary, as Shindo has hits from both sides of the plate through his team’s first two games of the weekend at the NTIS and the tournament’s task force is taking notice of not only his skills, but also his desire to be here.
“It’s like having four players in one with Tyler being able to hit and throw from both sides,” said Andy Rojo, the regional director for the South and Southwest, who initially identified Tyler at a tryout in Hawaii. “It’s a credit to him and his family for sticking to their original commitment to come here and it also shows a tremendous amount of maturity on Tyler’s part that he wanted to be here.”
When Shindo’s not playing at the NTIS and on ESPN or switching from lefty to righty on a baseball field, though, he spends his free time like most 12-year-olds in his hometown of Honolulu: enjoying time with friends and playing other games and sports, like soccer. Where, of course, he’s an ace at kicking the ball with both feet.
