Salt Lake Tribune | 1916-06-11 | Page 42 | Left-Handers Rank Highest with Bat

LEFT-HANDERS RANK HIGHEST WITH BAT Right-handers Hit Hardest, but Starboard Clouters Reach First Fastest. By Tribune Special Sport Service. NEW YORK, June 10. A perusal of tho maco-wielding records brings out a peculiarity. pe-culiarity. It uncovers the fact that the majority of the greatest sluggers the pame has produced have been right-handed, right-handed, yet the bulk of high percentage hitters are left-handers. The left-handed batting stars, for the most part, are speedy afoot, the righthanders right-handers are clumsy to an extreme. Most of the right-handers have been big men; the left-handers run to the diminutive on the average. Old Cap Anson was a right-hander. Po was Ed Delehanty, who could drive a ball as far as any man in the game. Iajoin and Wagner, the veterans, are starboard clouters. "Cactus" Cravat, who lammed the fences over and anon, last summer, is a right-hander. Fred Merkle. the longdistance long-distance banger of the Giants, is a right-handed right-handed swinger. On the other hand, Cobb is a southpaw clou ter. So are Collins, Baker, Kauff, Speaker, Daubert, Luderus and Doyle. With the exception of Baker; and Lu- derus, all are fast men. Kxcepting those 1l two, none can be classed as a terrific slugger; at least none is in the Cravatb, Lajoie, Wagner, Delehanty division. They hit the ball hard and far but it is their speed that enables them to take unto themselves each year a husky average. Once upon a time Wilbert Robinson, the brainy Dodger leader, was asked, "If a youngster, aspiring to become a big leaguer, asked you from which side lie should swing at a ball, what would you tell him?" Robinson, who lias been in hasebali since 1SS2, answered: "My first advice to him would be to swing from the side in whicli he packed the most shoulder power. That's the main essential in hitting. In cases where a youngster has almost equal power in his shoulders, I would advise that he bat left-handed, especially if he f were somewhat speedy. "A left-handed hitter always Is from three to six feet nearer to first base than- is the right-hander. When a righthander right-hander takes his position lie is on the far side of the ptate; the left-hander is on the near side- When the right-hander hits the ball, the swing pulls him farther far-ther away from first, whereas, a swing actually sends a left-hander nearer to the initial bag. "When you take into consideration how often during a season that a throw beats a man to first by just one stride, you can appreciate the great advantage there is in hitting left-handed. "But this fact shouldn't influence a youngster who bats left-handed normally to shift to the other side unless he lias as much power, or greater, in his left shoulder as in his right. And then the subject was shifted to Lajoie and Wagner. "How much better do you thing those two men would have batted if they had been left-handed hitters and fast afoot?" "From 20 lo 40 points each season during dur-ing their prime." answered Robby. "Both men rank among the greatest sluggers tiie game has . produced. They never scored fluke hits. When they made safeties safe-ties they earned them by terrible walloping. wal-loping. "At least twenty-five times each season sea-son Lajoie and Wagner have been beaten jt out of hits to the infield because thev arrived at first just a fraction of a second sec-ond behind the ball. That means the ; stride. Batting from the left side would have put that stride in their favor and , those outs would have been hits. "But both those men are normal righthanders. right-handers. They have the real swinging power in their shoulders. Had thev shifted to the port side thev would have gained that stride, but would have sacrificed sacri-ficed their mighty slugging ability. So. in their case, as in the case of any normal right-hander, it would be folly to change to the left side."