Reasons lefties in baseball rule

July 8th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

Being left-handed has held many advantages in my life. For instance: when I am involved in icebreaker conversations — I imagine hell to be one long icebreaker conversation complete with ice cream that has nuts in it as our treats — one of my three interesting facts is: “I’m left-handed.”

And sometimes people treat you like you are really special or different: “Look at how all the ink is all over the side of his pinky after taking notes!”

It’s a cherished life I’ve led.

But I will say this: playing baseball left-handed had many advantages growing up. And thankfully, an aircraft engineer decided to compile all these reasons succinctly on the Internet. Below is a copy and paste job on some of them.

Getting going: After a right-hander connects with a ball, his momentum spins him toward the third-base side. He must regroup to take even his first step toward first base. A left-hander’s momentum carries him directly toward first. “The left-handed batter has a 5-foot advantage over the right-handed batter,” Peters calculates. “And that means the lefty travels the 90 feet to first roughly one-sixth of a second faster than the righty. That translates to more base hits for the left-hander, whether singles or extra base hits because lefties are getting to the bases more quickly.”

And if you drag bunt, you can get there even faster!

Pitching: The left-handed pitcher generally is much more difficult to steal off. From his stretch, he peers directly at the runner; the right-hander must look over his shoulder and wheel to first base, giving the runner more of a warning of the pitcher’s intent.

One time I picked the same dude off twice in one game.

Fielding: First base and right field favor lefties. The favorable angles lefties allow them to throw the ball more quickly across the diamond to second, third and home.

I always thought I played right field because I was the worst fielder.

Sadly, I have yet to find an advantage to left-handed blogging.

{HT: BBTF.}