Ryan, not one to hold back on the mound when he is pitching either, shrugged and then ‘fessed up:
“The day David was supposed to have his highway driving test, he had something he had to attend for baseball and I didn’t. I’d already passed my test, so I went and drove. They had no idea.”
With a pause, then a grin, he added: “But to this day David doesn’t drive that well on the highway.”
David just rolled his eyes and shook his head.
The two have been setting up each other’s jokes, finishing each other’s sentences, lending each other a hand their entire lives.
The stars of the 22-14 Cedarville baseball team, David and Ryan — both of whom are drawing interest from pro baseball as pitchers — are identical twins.
They look alike. When they were little, they dressed alike — “except Mom always put me in a blue outfit and Ryan in red so she could tell us apart,” David noted — and they still act a lot alike. They have the same tastes in food, in music and in some ways, even women.
This past December, David married Elizabeth Douglas, his high school sweetheart from back home in Indiana. She attends Cedarville, as well. Ryan’s girlfriend, Maddie Anderson, is his sweetheart from high school and she, too, attends Cedarville and plays volleyball for the Yellow Jackets.
Sometimes, though, the brothers take that twin thing a little too far.
“In October of their freshman year, they were playing a game where they divided their team up and Ryan was actually pitching to David when he said it felt like lightning struck his elbow,” said Sherrie Ledbetter, the twins’ mother. “He had completely torn the (ulnar collateral) ligament and would need Tommy John surgery.”
And just a month after that, David would need surgery, too.
“David was riding his skateboard on campus and was hit by a truck driven by another student,” Sherrie said. “He tore his ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) and had knee surgery. He missed a little of that season and Ryan missed the whole season.”
Yet before Ryan left the mound that day with his destroyed elbow, he insisted on finishing his business with David.
“I threw two more pitches,” he said “I wanted to strike him out.”
David pursed his lips, then nodded: “And he did, too. Those were two nasty change-ups.”
Each other’s rock
David is one minute older than Ryan and there are times he acts like the older brother.
“Some people say I’m more open minded, more the ‘free spirit,’ ” Ryan said, drawing imaginary quote marks in the air. “I show a little more feeling than David, I’m more empathetic. He’s a little sterner.”
David amended that a bit: “I’d say I’m more the Steady Eddie. He shows more feeling than I do. He’s a health major. I’m in finance. That pretty much explains it.”
When people first meet them, the Ledbetters said they have been looked at more as a twin package than two individuals. But that quickly changed during their Little League days growing up in Fishers, Ind.
“During the players’ draft it used to be that you got both Ledbetters for one pick,” Ryan said.
David laughed: “After a while people complained. They said it wasn’t fair — and they were right. So the new rule was you can have both Ledbetters, but you lose two picks to get them.”
In college — with different majors — they’ve gotten to know different groups of people, Sherrie said: “But then when those people first see them together, they think it’s kinda cool. Their dad and I like to see them together. I don’t know if it’s necessarily true or even if they feel like that, but when they’re together, it feels like they are complete.”
Ryan agreed: “For me, having an identical twin is like having your best friend with you all the time. David knows everything about me, same as I know everything about him. We’re able to push each other, but we also know when the other one is being fake and we’re not afraid to call each other on it. You could say we’ve both been each other’s rock.”
The two brothers transferred to Heritage Christian in Indianapolis, a half hour south of their hometown, when they were juniors and they promptly helped lead the school to two straight Class AA state titles. They also were the starting safeties on the football team that won a state crown.
Although several larger colleges showed baseball interest in them, including Butler, Ball State and Indiana, they said they chose Cedarville because they liked the Christian fit and that they were able to get much of their schooling paid for. Most of that money comes from Cedarville, but their mom said the boys also get scholarship money because of their Native American heritage.
“My grandfather was a full-blooded member of the Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi Indians,” she said of the federally-recognized, Algonquin-speaking tribe from southwestern Michigan and northern Indiana. “The boys say, ‘Oh, Mom, no one cares about that,’ but I’m proud of it and I think the Potawatomi are proud, too. The boys are good representatives.”
Both getting looks
Although they are best known as pitchers — a junior right hander, David is a two-time National Christian College Athletic Association All-American and is 5-5 with a 3.68 ERA and Ryan, a redshirt sophomore, is 6-2 with a 3.35 ERA — they both played in the field Wednesday.
Ryan was at second base and David, usually the designated hitter when not on the mound, volunteered to play right when the regular fielder came up hobbled. Early in the game he threw out an Ohio Christian runner at the plate. The next inning Ryan added some razzle-dazzle, turning a tricky double play.
At the plate, each had two hits and they combined for five RBIs.
“As you saw today they’ll do anything for the team,” said Cedarville coach Mike Manes. “They’ll play anywhere and their leadership and work ethic are contagious. They can both hit pretty well (Ryan has a .318 average, David .308) and they certainly can pitch. David is definitely getting looks now and though Ryan is a little behind because of the redshirt year, he’ll get the same looks. His arm is as good if not better.”
When David starts, as he likely will in one of the games in today’s double-header against visiting Point Park, major-league scouts are usually in the stands. Ryan, used more as a reliever this year, may pitch as well today.
Should they both end up in professional baseball, they finally could be on different teams in different organizations in different parts of the country.
The first stage of separation began when David got married five months ago and he and Elizabeth got their own place in Cedarville. Ryan said he lives just “two minutes away” and is over at their place often.
But if that driving instructor was baffled by the brothers a few years back, that’s not the case with Elizabeth. She knows the two brothers are so much alike that they even eat the same foods.
“Sometimes when there’s a snack I really like and she knows Ryan is coming over she’ll say, ‘David, hide that stuff because I know Ryan will like it too and he’ll eat it all,’ ” David said with a laugh. “She doesn’t want to have to go out and get more right away.”
Ryan listened with a bit of open-mouth astonishment, then said: “That’s hilarious … but you never told me that. How long you been doing that?”
Turns out the Ledbetter twins don’t know “everything” about each other.
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