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Show IP8F1 iLj i. . V ACE Jj I HORNSBY'S entry into baseball's Hall of Fame brings up once more an ancient argument Who have been the greater hitters the right-handers or those who swing from the left side? The left-handed swingers offer you Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, George Sisler, Lou Gehrig, Joe Jackson, Tris Speaker and Ted Williams for a starting lineup. This is quite a collection col-lection of talent to move against. The right-handers counter with Rogers Rog-ers Hornsby, Hans Wagner, Napoleon Napo-leon Lajoie, Ed Delehanty, Harry Heilmann and Joe DiMaggio a pretty fair crop also. The left-hander, being closer to first base, has more than a full stride's advantage. I'd say the left-handed left-handed hitting side had a slight edge, but nothing to rave about. For Hornsby, Wagner, Lajoie, Delehanty Dele-hanty and DiMaggio could also lean against the leather. Don't forget that Hornsby aver-I aver-I aged above .400 for four consecutive years, taking in his average for that time, which is something. An Odd Turn Baseball happens to be the one game in which the left-handed hitter hit-ter takes a high place in any all-time all-time ranking. In golf, no left-hander has ever won a big championship. No lefthander left-hander has ever won the U. S. Open or British Open, the U. S. Amateur ROGERS HORNSBY or the British Amateur crown. In fact, no left-hander has even come close to any major golf event. There have been good left-handed golfers. But no great ones no Jones, Vardon, Hagen, Hogan or Nelson. The portside entries can play in the low 70s, they can break 70 here and there, but they are lost In major events. In golf there are no such left-handed left-handed stars as Cobb, Kuth, Jackson, Jack-son, Speaker and many others. Just why this is no scientist seems to know. If so many people can handle a baseball bat so effectively as lefthanders, left-handers, why not golfers? In Other Sports The same is true in tennis. There have been good left-handed tennis players, but few champions. Norman Nor-man Brookes was one. The Australian Austra-lian was a star. R. L. Murray was another. But the crushing preponderance is all on the other side Bill Tilden, Bill Johnston, Rene Laeoste, Ellsworth Ells-worth Vines, Don Budge, Maurice McLoughlin, Bill Larned, Fred Perry, Per-ry, Anthony Wilding, Norris Williams, Wil-liams, on through the present generation. gen-eration. The star right-handers in tennis outnumber the present generation. gen-eration. The star right-handers in tennis outnumber the star left-handers by ten to one. The same is true in polo. Ail great polo players have been right-handed swingers Devereux Milburn, Tommy Hitchcock, Cecil Smith, Luis Lacey. I can't recall any left-handed polo players. Maybe there are none. In games where you pick up some form of a bat to hit the ball, baseball base-ball is the only sport that can show you a line of top-notch left-handed swingers. There have been great left-handed pitchers Waddell, Grove, Ruth, Pennock, Gomez, Plank. And football foot-ball has known fine left-footed kickers kick-ers and fine left-handed passers. But outside of baseball the left-handed hitter is far below the average of his right-handed rival. We'll still let the scientists figure this out About Hornsby Hornsby has been something more than a great hitter, a fine inficlder and a winning manager. He also Is one of the best instructors that baseball base-ball ever has known. For some unknown un-known reason baseball never has been too hot on the instruction side. The main idea in baseball is to swing the bat on a line, not np or down. I've seen Hornsby correct this fault more than once. If baseball base-ball ever bad the training and the teaching that golf gets the improvement improve-ment would be terrific. |