Southpaw

Posted by Boomer February 08, 2003In reply to Southpaw posted by Bob 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.

That is exactly the explaination that I had been using. Thanks for the confirmation!!