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Show NOTED STARS IN HEAPDEBATE Right Hander and Left Hander Discuss Relative Advantages Advan-tages of Hitting. DISPUTE NOT SETTLED Merits of Right vs. Left Hand Battling Presented by Famous Batters. (By MONTY ) New York, Jan. U. Two noted big league stars met here the other day. Both are famous batters. One is a right handed clouter, the other a left hander They became engaged In a discussion over the relative advantages advanta-ges of hitting from one side of the plate or the other. The right hander said the left hander had "all the bet ter of it " This the left hander disputed dis-puted It is the other way around he said. Right eg. left hand batting has been a subject Tor conversation among ball players since the game began to grow, but the two sides of the question ques-tion probably never have been presented pre-sented more completely and intelligently intelli-gently than on Uii occasion To begin be-gin with, each had his own firm opln ;on, and each backed his up with a Hue of logic. Rlgh Hand Argument. The right hauder presented his case thusly ; ' A good right liander deserves much more credit than a good lefthander left-hander because he is under a natural disadvantage In the first place, being on the left side of the plate, he has to run farther than the left hander in order to reach first base, and therefore 10866 a lot of hits by raargins of half a step or so That matter of distance Is only a slight element, though. When the right hander whirls his bat, the swing naturally nat-urally turns him around facing toward third base instead of first. Then he has to plant his feet again and begin moving in the opposite direction This sudden stop and reverse twist occupies occu-pies only a Traction of a second and is hard to notice offhand, but It means a difference of about three yards in getting away toward the base. The left hander, however, naturally whirls around and has initial Impetus in the direction of first base, picoting as ha does on his right foot just after he steps forward into the ball There Is no stoppage of motion for him. lie just keeps on " Left Hander's Opinion. The left hander spoke in this fash- . ion. "It is true that we fellows have an "dge In the matter of getting on the move toward our destination. 1 grant that much. But making speed toward to-ward the base will not help a man if ho can't hit the ball. It is In this most important thing of all that the right hander has the margin on his side. A lft handed batter can hit a right handed pitcher harder than can n right handed batter and a right handed batter can hit a southpaw harrier than can a left handed hatter That in because of the way the curves break in relation to the angle of the bat. It works the same way with tho fast ball as with the curve. "Right versus right and left ver-eus ver-eus loft means scant hitting; right versun left and left versus right meane heavy hitting. In the latter case the ball breaks parallel to the angle of the bat; in the former, it breaks across the bat angle and therefore there-fore ho does not havo to swerve as much in order to make a batter miss. That seems to figure fifty-fifty for both types of battora, but It doesn't for the reason that there are more right handed pitchers than southpawa snd therefore the right handed hatters hat-ters get more chance to practice against that kind of pitching. Accordingly Ac-cordingly they can learn to hit It. But it is not so with us left banders. Southpaws appear so seldom in proportion pro-portion that they never cease to be a puzzle when they do pitch " Examples to Prove. Each principal to the argument offered of-fered examples to prove his point The southpaw batter pointed to the double shitting outfield used by Geo Stallings on the Boston Braves. He would send in three right handed batters bat-ters to the garden posts when a southpaw pitched and three left handed swingers when a right hander hand-er was on the mound. The right hander named Ty Cobb as a conspicuous example of a left handed batter who can get to flr.st base in a flash and make hits out of measly little infield rollers. That 13 the principal reason why he excels so far, according to the talker In his opinion. Cobb would be a .300 hitter, hit-ter, just barely a 300 hitter, if he swung from the other side of the plate for many of his little hits would be turned into putouts under those circumstances cir-cumstances Tris Speaker, who has been on Cobb'H heels for nearly every year, is another left handed batter of the same type who was named. Stone an Apt Illustration. George Stone, who led the American league for one year, in 1907, just before be-fore Cobb bobbed to the force, is still another. Many credit him with having hav-ing been even speedier going to first base than is Tyrus. the Terrible. Stone is an apt illnstration of the point made by the right hander about the southpaw batters pivoting on the ball of the right foot juet at the finish fin-ish of their swing and Just as they gain momentum toward their destination. desti-nation. It will be recalled by this one-year star of the St Louis Browns that he ruined his baseball career by twisting his ankle one day when he pivoted as mentioned while wearing a pair of new sharp spikes which caught in the earth. The case is presented Jury, get together on your verdict. Odds, 20 to 1, that you disagree. 00 |