Southpaw (Sporting News, 1886)

[Page Stephens]

The origin of southpaw originated because of necessity baseball fields are
oriented from east to west with the batter facing east so that the sun is
not in his face.

Thus a left handed pitcher's arm would be on the left side thus to the south
because it would be dangerous to the batter if he had to look directly into
the sun and might not be able to get out of the way of an errant pitch since
most baseball games in the old days, i.e. before night games and artificial
lighting were played in the afternoon rather than in the morning.

Had more baseball games been played in the morning then baseball fields
possibly might have been oriented west to east and a south paw might have
been called a north paw.

My guess is that the reason that left handers were singled out for special
consideration as opposed to north paws is that they are rarer than right
handers.

Anyone have any better ideas on this subject?

Page Stephens


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Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 10:20 AM
Subject: Southpaw (Sporting News, 1886)


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> Subject:      Southpaw (Sporting News, 1886)
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>
> http://www.left-handersday.com/pop_up.html
>
>    Lefthander's Day was August 13th.  I was a little busy, and then there
was
> a blackout.  I forgot to celebrate.  Oh, they're all a lefthanded bunch of
> leftists, anyway.
>    Merriam-Webster's 11th has 1891 for "southpaw."  Way off.
>    I think David Shulman has an 1885 SPORTING LIFE citation in Paul
Dickson's
> BASEBALL DICTIONARY.  There are some (mostly bad) hits in ancestry.com.
This
> is from THE SPORTING NEWS in Paper of Record.
>
>
>    17 May 1886, THE SPORTING NEWS, pg. 1, col. 2:
>    Harvey Walbridge, he of the south paw, from Ventura, will some day find
> himself the bright particular star on some Eastern diamond.
>
>    5 July 1886, THE SPORTING NEWS, pg. 1, col. 5:
>    Parsons the "South Paw" twirler of the Bostons, has signed with the
> Rochesters.
>
>    18 October 1886, THE SPORTING NEWS, pg. 5, col. 3:
>    The championship season closed last Sunday with O'Neil in the lead in
> batting, Comiskey in fielding, and George Munson, the phenomenal south
paw,
> scoring.
>
>    13 November 1886, THE SPORTING NEWS, pg. 1, col. 4:
>    De Pangher (Danger) has been down there ever since the Californian woke
up
> that sleepy old town by winning every game but one they played with their
> champions, and is now catching for that southpaw cyclone, genial Harvey
> Walbridge.
>
>    31 December 1886, THE SPORTING NEWS, pg. 1, col. 2:
>    South Paw Morris says Ramsey, of the Louisvilles, is the only pitcher
> whose delivery will not be affected under the new pitching rules next
season.
>
>
> (Perhaps Gerald Cohen's 19th century baseball group has the earliest
> citations?...I could check the Los Angeles Times for Harvey Walbridge, but
the tiny
> print is nearly illegible--ed.)