The Secret Life Of Steve Sitter

Steven Sitter has broken a school record. He has also been named Pitcher of the Week in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association, as well as Division II All-American and USCAA All-Tournament. This summer, he played semi-professional baseball in northern California. And you wouldn’t know any of this unless you asked him.

“Most people see me and think ‘Really? He plays baseball? Like, well?’ It’s always funny to see people’s reactions,” the 20-year-old closing pitcher stated Wednesday.

But this is nothing new to Steve. He’s been making people change what they think baseball should look like since he was 12.

“I throw submarine, which is a style of pitching that only about twelve major league players use. I look more like a softball pitcher than a baseball pitcher.”

And yet the 6’3”, 155 pound senior is arguably the most accomplished pitcher at Washington Adventist University. Last year, he broke the single season save record, set by Scott Elliot in 2008. The old record was four. Steve recorded six, not including one in the postseason. But if you ask him, the statistic he is most proud of is not his record or earned run average.

“I’m most proud of my strikeout-to-walk ratio. In the majors, a really good ratio is two strikeouts for every walk. Well, I had forty strikeouts to two walks, making my ratio twenty to one, which is unheard of.”

Steve is a Broadcast Journalism major at Washington Adventist University. He wants to enter the radio industry, assuming baseball doesn’t work as a profession.

“I’ve been listening to classic rock since I was really young, and since then, I’ve just been soaking up classic rock knowledge,” Steve said. “Being able to use that knowledge in my career would be too good to be true.”

When asked why he chose this university over one in his home state of California, Steve responded by saying, “To be honest, no other school or baseball program really wanted me,” admits the closer. “I tried contacting the coach at Chico State University, but he basically blew me off. I guess a lot of programs don’t want a pitcher that can only throw eighty [miles per hour], even if it’s from the side and I have plaques to prove that it works.”

Because Steve’s pitching style is so, in his words, “weird,” a lot of coaches are thrown off by it and don’t know how to coach it, which explains the reluctance of many to even look twice at him.

But Steve, unlike many of his teammates past and present, has a life outside of baseball. He has bowled in leagues, played golf, tennis, and soccer, and is even an accomplished chess player. When asked about the future, Steve laughed and replied, “I feel bad for trying to cheat at life. My top three career goals are professional baseball player, radio disc jockey, and professional bowler. This should not be allowed.” But we know that no matter what Steve does, he will do it in his own unique way and change people’s perceptions of what “normal” really is.