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Re: Southpaw

Posted by Bob on February 07, 2003

In Reply to: Southpaw posted by Boomer on February 07, 2003

: Realizing that this refers to a left handed pitcher in baseball, can anyone confirm the origin? I believe I know what it is but I want to see if I get an independent concurrence before posting my opinion.

: ... Thanks
To minimize the handicap of having to squint into the sun, most baseball diamonds were laid out with the direction of pitcher to batter (note to UK: bowler to batsman) east to west. A left-handed pitcher, therefore had his throwing arm on the south side. Slangy newspaper writers shortened that to southpaw.