Southpaws

Baseball Digest, August, 2000 by Gerry Fraley

Why Left-handers Are Different

According to former catcher Tim McCarver, "they have a natural tailing action on every ball they throw"

THE WISDOM HAS BEEN PASSED ON from generation to generation: You win in baseball with left-handed pitchers.

Clyde King, a New York Yankees special assistant who has been in the game for 57 years, said he learned the lesson from Hall of Famer Branch Rickey. Gene "The Little General" Mauch, who managed 26 seasons in the majors, picked up the teaching from Hall of Famer Clark Griffith.

"Clark, one of the wisest men in baseball, once told me, `Give me all the left-handed pitchers, and I'll beat you to death,'" Mauch said. "This search has gone on since the first big league manager."

The Rangers are the latest club to join the trend. General manger Doug Melvin said the club needed to have more of a left-handed bent, and he kept his word by adding three left-handers for the rotation: Darren Oliver, Kenny Rogers and Justin Thompson.

Left-handers toil in a world made for right-handers. School desks, car ignitions and voting booths are built for right-handers. Nothing is built for left-handers.

To be right-handed is to be normal. The Latin word for right is dexter, meaning skill.

To be left-handed is to be different. The Latin word for left is sinister.

It all changes in baseball.

Most team sports look to fill positions. In baseball, handedness matters most. The game values left-handers overall and left-handed pitchers in particular.

"The good Lord smiled on me when he gave me left-handed genes," said left-hander Tommy John, who won 288 games in a 27-year career.

What makes left-handers so special, or so different?

Check the numbers

The more left-handed pitching, the better a team's chances.

Says who?

The standings.

Left-handed starters win more often than right-handed starters. In the American League over the past three seasons (1997-1999), left-handed starters had a winning record (608-581) and a 4.49 ERA. In that same span, right-handed starters had a losing record (1,773-1,893) and a 4.98 ERA.

"After a certain point in the draft, I'd tell our people, `Take all the left-handed pitchers you can get,'" former New York Mets general manager Frank Cashen said. "We'd corner the market if we could. A southpaw is a commodity."

Why southpaw?

Left-handers became known as "southpaws" in the sporting press of the 1890s. To keep the sun from blinding spectators in the most expensive seats, teams positioned their parks so that pitchers faced west. The left-handers' elbows pointed south.

How do they work?

There are practical reasons for left-handers' success.

The left-hander holds runners at first more effectively than right-handers because he faces the base from the stretch. The shorter lead decreases the possibility of a runner going from first to third on a hit.

The left-hander usually faces right-handed hitters. Those batters are less likely to take advantage of the hole on the right side, caused by the first baseman holding the runner, than left-handed hitters.

There is also the neutralization factor.

Left-handed hitters have advantages equal to what left-handed pitchers enjoy. The best way to stop left-handed hitters is with left-handed pitchers. Through the last generation, left-handed hitters annually hit about 25 points lower against left-handed pitchers than against right-handed pitchers.

Against the world ...

The word left carries a negative connotation in many languages.

In German, linkisch translates to left and clumsy, awkward or socially inferior. In Spanish, the word for left-handed, zurdas, also means wrong way. The Italian word mancino means both left-and dishonest.

... and the Earth

True or false: Left-handers cannot throw a ball straight.

True, says former major league catcher Tim McCarver.

"They've got a natural tail on every ball they throw," McCarver said. "I'm not talking myth here."

False, says former major league lefthander Tug McGraw.

It is all an optical illusion, McGraw said. Left-handers look different because they are the minority, McGraw said. Their pitches seem to move more than they really are.

Most baseball people agree with McCarver, with the reasons ranging from the force of the Earth's movement in the Northern Hemisphere to deliveries.

Some of the best left-handers of the last 50 years--Sandy Koufax, Sam McDowell, Warren Spahn--used an overhand delivery. Most left-handers have a low three-quarters delivery, releasing the ball from a lower point than right-handers.

Former major league manager and pitching coach Ray Miller said left-handers probably gain a "body lean" as they cope with a right-handed world. That gives left-handed pitchers the lower release point and allows left-handed batters to handle low pitches.

The lower release point gives the pitches more movement, making the left-hander more effective.

"A left-handed pitcher has an advantage because his ball moves," King said. "You don't know why, but it does. There's no answer. I've asked Mr. Rickey that question, and he could not answer it. It's the only question I asked him that he didn't answer."