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Why Lefties Make Better Baseball Players

newsweek.com — Although only one in 10 civilians are left-handed, one quarter of Major League Baseball players are southpaws. That's no accident, says Washington University aerospace engineer David Peters, who has used math and physics skills to confirm that lefties have a considerable advantage on the diamond.

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miranda622 34 days ago, made popular 33 days ago

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billjimbob, on 07/18/2008, -2/+13Lefties aren't better baseball players, they are just better against right-handed pitching... just as right-handers are better against left-handed pitching (in most cases). So, obviously, lefties have an advantage over the majority of other players in the league, but they aren't "better baseball players."

If it was a 50/50 split of lefties and righties, neither would have any kind of advantage.
- SolituSneiku, on 07/19/2008, -2/+3what's funny is that my uncle was a minor leaguer pitcher for the Danville Braves and was a lefty and me being a righty I could always hit off him, but lefties have a natural swing, just ask Ortiz, Howard, Thome, Bonds, Edmonds, it seems like the ball just flies off the bat on what look like fly ball hits.
- wrzhydr, on 07/19/2008, -0/+3same goes for boxing. southpaw is prone to take shots from the right, and a righthanded boxer is prone to take shots from the left. neither can see the punch coming.
  - Karmavs, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1but if you’re boxing; you’re both trying to do the same thing to each other; so there’d be no advantage for either boxer. (just shorter matches, maybe)
  - DephexTwin, on 07/19/2008, -0/+2But shouldn't a left-handed boxer be really used to fighting righties whereas a right-handed boxer might only rarely meet a lefty? So that would give the lefty an advantage.
  - lamiaconfitor, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1Martial arts too, but with training, you can learn to get over it.
- Niz1, on 07/19/2008, -3/+1What your saying makes sense but if you can take advantage of the game which causes you to win more then in my book you are better, but take it how you will the definition of better.
- calibration, on 07/19/2008, -0/+3That's basically what the article said.
  - Karmavs, on 07/19/2008, -0/+2bob’s much more concise though.
  - jebudas, on 07/19/2008, -0/+2Actually the article said this: "Twenty-five percent of players are left-handed, where in real life only 10 percent [of people] are left-handed, so that's proof that they are two-and-a-half-times better."
    
    Which is why I didnt finish the article.
- MtheoryX, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1See also:
  
  http://digg.com/baseball/How_Baseball_Is_Rigged_Fo ...
- Hollowpoint, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1So what you're saying is they're better baseball players?
- BTraina, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1I'm surprised that they didn't mention pick offs on first, and how lefties have the advantage
average650, on 07/18/2008, -0/+2he only talked about advantages for hitters being lefty, there are more left handed pitchers than in the general population. Against all those left handed pitchers, being right handed would be an advantage, and it's not like the ratio of right handed pitchers to left handed pitchers is very high, it's also lower than the general population. I think there is a lot more this guy needs to talk about to write this kind of an article, there's far too much he doesn't consider.
- LoungeActx, on 07/19/2008, -1/+1Lefties don't have as much of an advantage on the field. They are limited as to what position they can play. In the infield the only 2 positions they can play are first base, and pitcher. If you were to put a lefty at say, 3rd base, they'd field the ball and have to turn their body all the way around to make the throw to first. They are also clear to play the outfield.
Pusod, on 07/19/2008, -3/+3I have to confess that I'm a lefty and I was the homerun king on my High School baseball team. Other than the fact we are good in baseball, I also would like to point out that our ***** lean to the left just like yours leans to the right.
- moonguidex, on 07/19/2008, -0/+8I'm a righty and mine leans to the left. Am I going to die?
  - Stevo592, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1Talk to your doctor about it. lol
- minox, on 07/19/2008, -0/+9Actually, almost all penises have a leftward tilt because of the way the balls hang. The left nut invariably hangs lower, encouraging your penis to tilt left.
  - lamiaconfitor, on 07/19/2008, -0/+2Where did you get that information?
  - Shadic, on 07/19/2008, -0/+2In his pants?
CrazyChair, on 07/21/2008, -0/+14Burns: Wait! You, Strawberry! Good effort today. Take a lap and hit the showers - I'm putting in a right-handed batter to hit for you.
Smithers: What?!
Strawberry: You're pinch-hitting for me?
Burns: Yes. You see, you're a left-hander and so is the pitcher. If I send up a right-handed batter, it's called "playing the percentages". It's what smart managers do to win ball games.
Strawberry: But I've got nine home runs today!
Burns: And you should be very proud of yourself. Sit down.
Pusod, on 07/19/2008, -6/+1fap fap fap fap.
- djholybolt, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1Dude WTF. Does baseball and thinking of little boys on the field get you going? You sick *****.
Abomonog, on 07/19/2008, -2/+2The outfield and shortstop shifts towards right field when a lefty bats. Any lefty who can then hit one between the shortstop and third will rule the diamond. Such a lefty is an excellent 3rd position hitter.

P.S. I only know this because I was that lefty in little league.
jordan153, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1and here i thought baseball players were civilians...
minox, on 07/19/2008, -0/+2The one place lefties aren't popular in baseball is as the catcher. With all those right-handed batters, they'd have a hell of a time throwing out runners trying to steal second because of the interference.
- SolituSneiku, on 07/19/2008, -0/+3Joe Mauer is a lefty but throws right for that very reason
  - DephexTwin, on 07/19/2008, -1/+1Seriously? I couldn't find anything when I googled that, but it sounds really remarkable if true. Many players throw right and bat left like Mauer, but normally they are righties who learned to bat left for the statistical batting advantage. Learning to actually throw with the opposite hand at a major league skill level sounds nearly impossible.
- MikeL123, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1Also, if you're a lefty with a good arm, it's a lot better (for you and your team) if you give pitching a try first.
- rsengel, on 07/25/2008, -0/+0thats so incorrect, throwing out runners at second is the same for both a righty and a lefty catcher. the right handed batter does not interfere with a lefty's throw if his mechanics are sound. left handed catchers have more advantages than they do disadvantages.
imdeanlabouty, on 07/19/2008, -0/+10"Twenty-five percent of players are left-handed, where in real life only 10 percent [of people] are left-handed, so that's proof that they are two-and-a-half-times better"

Haha. Nice "proof."
bapplebo, on 07/19/2008, -0/+5Because lefties are minions of the Devil!
bigsteve3OOO, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1the medical term for a "southpaw" is "Those afflicted with Left Handedness" please be kind to those folks suffering from this malady and use the correct term. Words can hurt people on the inside. Especially those with severe handicaps.
- s5demigh, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1As a kid, people always made fun of me and called me southpaw and always said "Oh, why don't you just point your hand towards the south, lefty!!!!!"
  
  I am emotionally scared for life :-(
bsmang, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1Conservatives can't throw!
chrisw1, on 07/19/2008, -1/+1Being left handed is great if you're a pitcher... but it sucks if you are a good fielder. I played SS and 3B as a lefty until I was 12 or 13, then I was told that I could no longer play any position on the infield other than 1B. I soon realized playing baseball was like watching paint dry and concentrated on basketball, soccer and football.
- s5demigh, on 07/19/2008, -0/+0I'm a lefty and play 3rd base. Sometimes in order to cover my area, I had to play really close to first. During softball, sometimes (if the SS didn't show up) I could cover both postions. It was kinda fun because if a ball was shot towards the 3rd base, I got to dive. If you don't dive during baseball and if you don't cut or hurt yourself in the process, then you are not helping the team and you should just off yourself!
XISUPERMANIX, on 07/19/2008, -0/+4This is ridiculous stop reposting dupes and making it hit the front page.
http://digg.com/baseball/How_Baseball_Is_Rigged_Fo ...
- kitkatsavvy, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1it does suck that the original stories never seem to make the front page anymore, but most digg readers ONLY read the front page! how are you supposed to dig the original story when all most people do is read the front page?
  
  anyway im in a family of 12, and 6 of us are left handers (write with left hand)..some others are ambidextrous sportswise (ie one bowls right handed, writes left handed etc etc)...50% left handedness in our family..freaky ***** :)
  - Peaco19, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1This already hit the front page though
cquilliam, on 07/19/2008, -0/+11 in 10 civilians are left handed?

Well, i'm right handed in everything except Hockey, Baseball and Golf. So how do those numbers work? I'm technically not left-handed cause i write with my right hand
Bazookadub, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1This article is awful. He calls lefties 2.5x better than righties? And where is there any science in this? Everything he said was obvious and the stuff that wasn't quite so obvious seemed incorrect. Here is the entire article; "lefties see righties at the plate better"and "being closer to a location gets you there quicker"
Bravo Scientition, bravo. What next, 225 pound guys that run very fast are better at football than young girls?
seventhc, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1Lefties do have an advantage in certain areas since they are much more likely to be ambidextrous. I am a lefty and I can use both hands equally well, which is the result of a lefty growing up in a right handed world.
It doesn't make me a better ball player, that comes from practice. I played baseball and I sucked until I started to really love the game and practiced everyday.
gkiltz, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1The only reason there ARE so many left-handed baseball players is actually pretty simple!
The perfect batting lineup, all else being equal(never going to happen!) would be four righties, four lefties and a switch hitter, who could bat equally well from both sides!
However, there's a problem: Only every FIFTH person in the recruiting pool(the general population) is left handed! Sooo, if you find a good, overall athlete, who has the raw talent, you have to try harder to recruit him if he is left handed. If he's right handed, you can essentially let the NFL or the NBA get him! If he's left-handed, you can't afford to let that happen! Because the NFL or NBA can have lefties in proportion to the general population, or less! You need lefties disproportionately to the general population!
That's also why, if he's a lefty, and can throw a fast ball, and anything else, he has a future.
If he can throw well, is big and strong, he may be able to do as well as a quarterback in the NFL, but baseball has no choice but to hard-sell a lefty, where they can let a righty go by the boards!

In the NFL, the only real difference, if your QB throws left, it then becomes your right tackle who is the focus of your pass blocking, because he has the QB's blind spot when he's in his passing stance! If your QB throw's right, it's the left tackle, for the same reason. There are some good tackles who can play both sides! If you are lucky enough to have one of those, or even luckier, and have two all-pro tackles, you can do what the Raiders did in the late 70s and early 80s, and go back and forth between a righty and a lefty and never miss a beat!
- MikeL123, on 07/19/2008, -1/+1Wouldn't the ideal batting lineup be 9 switch hitters? Also, you use too many exclamation points. Lay off the Red Bull for a bit.
- theImmodiumGuy, on 07/19/2008, -0/+0Well, I'm not surprised the Raiders pulled this off. There's a large supply of switch hitters for them to pick from across the bay in San Fransisco.
p51d007, on 07/19/2008, -0/+2Lefties have an advantage in bowling also. For those of you who have never bowled, ABC rules that the lanes have oil a certain distance down the lanes. Over the course of a league night, the oil gets carried down the lane in the area the ball tracks. 99% of the time, that is on the right side of the lane. For someone like me who is left handed, my ball breaks a lot better toward the end of the night, than right handed bowlers.
podperson, on 07/19/2008, -0/+0His basic argument is that 10% of the population is left-handed and 25% of MLB players are left-handed, THEREFORE left-handers are better and must have an advantage because of their left-handedness; everything else in the article is speculation based on the conclusion based on the statistics.

But, you see similar statistics for top mathematicians and physicists and many other "elite" populations -- where abstruse arguments about why being left-handed is useful are much harder to fabricate. It may instead be that left-handedness is correlated with certain other abilities (a majority of people with IQs over 140 are left-handed) or that left-handers are more likely to have followed their natural inclinations than to have conformed to societal norms or that being left-handed forces you to constantly engage in extra levels of problem-solving in a right-handed world. I don't know, but the "left-handers have an advantage" argument doesn't hold much water.
prolinecapper, on 07/19/2008, -3/+0Stats dont lie and it is pretty smart to speculate (like podperson) said

maybe if I was lefty I would of made the big leagues ;)

www.prolinecappers.com
handicapping site to the stars
Zoshchenko, on 07/19/2008, -0/+2I throw right and bat left. This has always served me well because I could play any position and always felt I had a slight advantage at the plate over my right-handed teammates. Also I was almost always the only left-handed batter on my teams, so I usually was put in a low spot in the order. I guess it helps that I could also hit and on youth leagues the right fielder was often not the best defensive player you had to face.

On major typo in the article: A left-handed hitter facing a left-handed batter means double trouble. Huh?
boshuda, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1Speaking as a southpaw, I can tell you, for a fact, left handers arent better baseball players.
Sure, I could hit the ball against a right handed pitcher, I mean I could really whack it. No one could stop me! outfileders had no idea which way to run!

But I usually ran to third base first...
Shadic, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1As a lefty myself, I can say that being closer to first base when at the plate is a pretty great advantage. When I played, I had a decent amount of calls that could have gone the other way if I had to start running from another 3 feet away.
jakkyl, on 07/19/2008, -0/+1This is what happens when nerdy physic dudes trying to explain sports. My question to him, what are you going to do with all those lefties when you need middle infielders? I'd like to see a pair of lefty infielders turn a double play. Aint gonna happen. That's why you see many of those lefty 'studs' playing first base. First is a good place to 'hide' a player that's not gonna get the job done in the middle infield or 3rd base side....unless they can play outfield.
Ablue, on 07/19/2008, -0/+2Lefties make better everything. WE RULE!
traceymclain, on 07/20/2008, -0/+0I love playing baseball and I'm a lefty! we Rock!
TroyPatterson, on 07/21/2008, -0/+0I disagree with the step closer to first. Lefties who don't run like Ichiro when they swing have to turn their body after swinging. Righties are in position to head straight to first base.
Nono1121, on 07/24/2008, -0/+0lefties are amazing baseball and softball players. i am a lefty and i do just fine against both right and left handed pitchers! and lefty pitchers dominate in softball so the article is so right.
monkeybelly, on 07/29/2008, -0/+1I agree that left-handed people have an advantage.
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Why Lefties Make Better Baseball Players

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