Left-handed, right-eyed

In article <8wvDc.15744$bs4.6794@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net>,
"M. Scott Eiland" <eilandesq.TakeThisOut@earthlink.net> wrote:

> Seems like Mickey Mantle might be a good case study for this, since he was
> obviously a great hitter from both sides of the plate, but substantially
> superior as a right-handed hitter (substantially higher BA with more-or-less
> identical HR rates). Did anyone ever determine whether he was right-eyed or
> left-eyed?
>

Apparently, a good portion of the time the Mick was pie-eyed.
 >> Stay informed about: Left-handed, right-eyed 

George Brett was cross-dominant.

Barry Bonds signs autographs with his right hand.
 >> Stay informed about: Left-handed, right-eyed 

Colin Campbell <colin.DeleteThis@colin.org> writes:

> George Brett was cross-dominant.

>Barry Bonds signs autographs with his right hand.

So did Babe Ruth. A person's writing hand is not a good indication of his
true hand dominance, as some teachers force naturally left handed people
to write with their right hands. Catholic schools are or were notorious
for this, which is where Ruth learned it. (FWIW, writing right handed
works much better when using a quill, dipping pen, etc. that uses smeary
ink, so teaching everyone that way made sense when most writing was done
that way.) Supposedly the best way of quickly telling somebody's natural
handedness is to have him fold his hands with the fingers interlaced; the
non-dominant thumb will be on top.

In the absence of other information, throwing hand is a good proxy for
true handedness, as many fewer players are taught to throw "wrong" handed
than bat that way. I certainly wouldn't be surprised to hear that more
players were taught to write wrong handed than to throw that way. ISTR
that the study of cross-eye dominance that I saw was thorough enough that
they actually tested the players for their true handedness, rather than
relying on throwing hand.

--
Roger Moore | Master of Meaningless Trivia | (raj@alumni.caltech.edu)
I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the
people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by
violent and sudden usurpations. -- James Madison
 >> Stay informed about: Left-handed, right-eyed 

"Bob Koca" <bob_koca RemoveThis @hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:81b9aee3.0406271304.6f4b726c@posting.google.com...
> raj RemoveThis @alumnae.caltech.edu (Roger Moore) wrote in message >
> > ... IIRC, cross dominance was about as common in batters who hit wrong
> > handed (e.g. TR/BL) and thus were disadvantaged by cross dominance as in
> > those who batted proper handed and should have benefitted. ...
>
> Perhaps the batters whom you say hit wrong handed actually threw wrong
handed.

Possible, but the overwhelming majority of "cross handed" players are TRBL,
not TLBR,
and I suspect in most cases were natural righties who learned to bat
left-handed
because batting left-handed is an advantage. Isn't the overall population
something
like 90% right-handed? It may be hard to tell because lefties are often
forced to use their right hand, but my guess is this doesn't happen as often
as it used to.

- Gary Rosen
 >> Stay informed about: Left-handed, right-eyed 

"Gary Rosen" <garymrosen.RemoveThis@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:JSLDc.120488$eu.117142@attbi_s02...
>
> "Bob Koca" <bob_koca.RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:81b9aee3.0406271304.6f4b726c@posting.google.com...
> > raj.RemoveThis@alumnae.caltech.edu (Roger Moore) wrote in message >
> > > ... IIRC, cross dominance was about as common in batters who hit
wrong
> > > handed (e.g. TR/BL) and thus were disadvantaged by cross dominance as
in
> > > those who batted proper handed and should have benefitted. ...
> >
> > Perhaps the batters whom you say hit wrong handed actually threw
wrong
> handed.
>
> Possible, but the overwhelming majority of "cross handed" players are
TRBL,
> not TLBR,
> and I suspect in most cases were natural righties who learned to bat
> left-handed
> because batting left-handed is an advantage. Isn't the overall population
> something
> like 90% right-handed? It may be hard to tell because lefties are often
> forced to use their right hand, but my guess is this doesn't happen as
often
> as it used to.
>
> - Gary Rosen
>
>


My brother is a policeman. When he went through the academy, his shooting
scores were so low, he was in danger of flunking because of them. One of
his shooting instructors finally figured out he was cross-dominant. He is
right handed, but left eye dominant. They taught him to shoot left handed,
and not only did he not flunk, but he got a medal for marksmanship. Make of
that what you will. Oh, and after finding all of this out, the remaining
three members of the family took the informal test, and found out that 2 of
the 3 of us, (my mom and I) are also right handed and left eyed.


--
Truebluestef
with new e-mail address, and temporary blah sig
 >> Stay informed about: Left-handed, right-eyed 

In article <cbnrok$3qu$1@naig.caltech.edu>,
raj DeleteThis @alumnae.caltech.edu (Roger Moore) wrote:

> >Barry Bonds signs autographs with his right hand.
>
> So did Babe Ruth. A person's writing hand is not a good indication of his
> true hand dominance [snip]
> In the absence of other information, throwing hand is a good proxy for
> true handedness,

The one contrary case I know about is Mickey Lolich, who broke his
right arm in a childhood accident and switched to throwing lefty well
enough to win 217 games. He's listed as a switch hitter but batted .110
in 821 career at-bats. His only major league home run was in Game 2 of
the 1968 World Series against Nelson Briles into the left field stands,
but I don't know if he hit it lefty or righty.
 >> Stay informed about: Left-handed, right-eyed 

raj.TakeThisOut@alumnae.caltech.edu (Roger Moore) writes:

> Colin Campbell <colin.TakeThisOut@colin.org> writes:
[...]
> >Barry Bonds signs autographs with his right hand.
>
> So did Babe Ruth. A person's writing hand is not a good indication of his
> true hand dominance, as some teachers force naturally left handed people
> to write with their right hands. Catholic schools are or were notorious
> for this, which is where Ruth learned it. (FWIW, writing right handed
> works much better when using a quill, dipping pen, etc. that uses smeary
> ink, so teaching everyone that way made sense when most writing was done
> that way.) Supposedly the best way of quickly telling somebody's natural
> handedness is to have him fold his hands with the fingers interlaced; the
> non-dominant thumb will be on top.

Dale Murphy (BRTR) writes left-handed, and apparently is left handed with
respect to everything except baseball. I wonder what would have happened
if he had been a lefty for baseball -- on the one hand, lefties hit better,
on the other hand a lefty-throwing high school catcher is never going to
get drafted in the first round.

When I fold my hands together, the right-handed thumb is on top. To my
knowledge, I've never done anything better left-handed.
--
Dale J. Stephenson
dalestephenson.TakeThisOut@mac.com
 >> Stay informed about: Left-handed, right-eyed 

"Roger Moore" <raj.DeleteThis@alumnae.caltech.edu> wrote in message
news:cbnrok$3qu$1@naig.caltech.edu...

> In the absence of other information, throwing hand is a good proxy for
> true handedness,

Isn't it possible that a natural lefiy would learn to throw RH because
some fielding positions are difficult to play LH? It's hard to play
the left side of the infield throwing left-handed - I think I read once
there hasn't been a left-handed throwing SS in MLB since the
1800's. And there are very few LH catchers - Yogi was a BLTR,
but I don't know his natural "handedness".

- Gary Rosen
 >> Stay informed about: Left-handed, right-eyed 

Colin Campbell <colin.DeleteThis@colin.org> wrote in message news:<colin-E7CEA1.22234427062004.DeleteThis@news6.west.earthlink.net>...
> The one contrary case I know about is Mickey Lolich, who broke his
> right arm in a childhood accident and switched to throwing lefty well
> enough to win 217 games. He's listed as a switch hitter but batted .110
> in 821 career at-bats. His only major league home run was in Game 2 of
> the 1968 World Series against Nelson Briles into the left field stands,
> but I don't know if he hit it lefty or righty.

I seem to recall some anecdote during a broadcast which involved
coaches strongly discouraging (or even forbidding) pitchers from
batting with a different hand than the one they throw with. The
theory was that the throwing arm should not be exposed to the incoming
pitches for fear of injury. The pitcher in the anecdote (Gooden?) had
said that they batted better from the other side, but was not allowed
to do so for this reason.
 >> Stay informed about: Left-handed, right-eyed 

On 27 Jun 2004 14:04:55 -0700, bob_koca DeleteThis @hotmail.com (Bob Koca) wrote:

>raj@alumnae.caltech.edu (Roger Moore) wrote in message >
>> ... IIRC, cross dominance was about as common in batters who hit wrong
>> handed (e.g. TR/BL) and thus were disadvantaged by cross dominance as in
>> those who batted proper handed and should have benefitted. ...
>
> Perhaps the batters whom you say hit wrong handed actually threw wrong handed.
>
>,Bob Koca

Not likely...

Tom
 >> Stay informed about: Left-handed, right-eyed 

On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 01:20:20 +0000 (UTC), raj DeleteThis @alumnae.caltech.edu
(Roger Moore) wrote:

>Colin Campbell <colin DeleteThis @colin.org> writes:
>
>> George Brett was cross-dominant.
>
>>Barry Bonds signs autographs with his right hand.
>
>So did Babe Ruth. A person's writing hand is not a good indication of his
>true hand dominance, as some teachers force naturally left handed people
>to write with their right hands. Catholic schools are or were notorious
>for this, which is where Ruth learned it. (FWIW, writing right handed
>works much better when using a quill, dipping pen, etc. that uses smeary
>ink, so teaching everyone that way made sense when most writing was done
>that way.)

We had right-handed and left-handed desks, complete with holes for the
inkwell, when I was in elementary school.

>Supposedly the best way of quickly telling somebody's natural
>handedness is to have him fold his hands with the fingers interlaced; the
>non-dominant thumb will be on top.

It worked for me.

>
>In the absence of other information, throwing hand is a good proxy for
>true handedness, as many fewer players are taught to throw "wrong" handed
>than bat that way. I certainly wouldn't be surprised to hear that more
>players were taught to write wrong handed than to throw that way. ISTR
>that the study of cross-eye dominance that I saw was thorough enough that
>they actually tested the players for their true handedness, rather than
>relying on throwing hand.

I can't do much of anything with my left hand. I briefly tried to
switch-hit the last year I played organized baseball. I saw the ball
differently, and had a totally different hitters' zone on either side
of the plate. Dominant eye made the difference...?

Tom
 >> Stay informed about: Left-handed, right-eyed 

On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 05:23:47 GMT, Colin Campbell <colin.TakeThisOut@colin.org>
wrote:

>In article <cbnrok$3qu$1@naig.caltech.edu>,
> raj.TakeThisOut@alumnae.caltech.edu (Roger Moore) wrote:
>
>> >Barry Bonds signs autographs with his right hand.
>>
>> So did Babe Ruth. A person's writing hand is not a good indication of his
>> true hand dominance [snip]
>> In the absence of other information, throwing hand is a good proxy for
>> true handedness,
>
>The one contrary case I know about is Mickey Lolich, who broke his
>right arm in a childhood accident and switched to throwing lefty well
>enough to win 217 games. He's listed as a switch hitter but batted .110
>in 821 career at-bats. His only major league home run was in Game 2 of
>the 1968 World Series against Nelson Briles into the left field stands,
>but I don't know if he hit it lefty or righty.

I don't know what Lolich's rationale was for switch-hitting, but
Nelson Briles threw right-handed. Assuming normal switch-hitting
rationale, that'd be an opposite-field home run.

Tom
 >> Stay informed about: Left-handed, right-eyed 

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 >> Stay informed about: Left-handed, right-eyed