Scouts are always combing the globe look for pitching prospects...but the maternity ward?

Two California parents got a little bit more than they were expecting earlier this week, when their son was born with twelve fingers and twelve toes.

 

In the aftermath of the birth, major league baseball scouts were already comparing the boy to relief pitcher Antonio Alfonseca, the relief pitcher who won the 2000 NL Rolaids Relief Man of the Year Award and who closed games for the 1997 World Champion Florida Marlins.

The presence of extra appendages, known as polydactyly, is reported in about 2 per 1000 children.

Wow, I didn't know it was that common.

The story goes on:

Scouts who are looking into this California birth have high hopes that the 6th finger will develop fully – and that this young man may one day be able to pitch a true “six finger sinker.”

As far as I know Alfonseca is the only six finger pitcher in the majors today.  And given the fact that 1 in 500 children in the world are born this way, I don't think this is the best indicator of pitching prowess.

It is kinda the same deal that if you cut off two fingers you probably won't duplicate the results of Mordecai (Three Fingers) Brown.

But you have to admire the scouts for trying.