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BY MARK CHIN

In print | Published April 15, 2010

Being left-handed has proven to have its positives and negatives. For example, studies have suggested that being left-handed leads to improved mental capacities and functions, such as an improved ability to multi-task and to think creatively. According to Stacy Z of Associated Content Online, left-handed individuals experience perks such as the ability to celebrate their own holiday (International Left-Handers’ Day, August 13th!), earn paychecks up to 26 percent higher than right-handed individuals (as seen from the study comparing men who graduated from college, “Sinister and Rich: The evidence that lefties earn more”) and experience an advantage at toll booths over us lesser right-handed individuals, who find ourselves struggling throwing change into the toll booth buckets with our weaker hand.

To offset these incredible benefits, studies have also shown that lefties are “more likely to be schizophrenic, alcoholic, delinquent, dyslexic and have Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, as well as mental disabilities” and “more likely to die young and get into accidents” (Amanda Onion, ABC News Online). One commonly held perception is that being left-handed gives you an advantage in sports where athletes are frequently matched with just a single opponent (sports such as baseball, tennis, and boxing). The reason for this advantage stems from the fact that only about 10 percent of the adult population in the world is left-handed. As a result, righties face lefties less often than they face other righties, and are less familiar with striking patterns and tennis angles that come from these “southpaws.” Are these perceptions supported by the numbers?

*Fact or Myth: It is advantageous to box using a southpaw stance. *

Fact. It appears that the “left-handed advantage” holds in boxing, as four of the current top 10 pound-for-pound boxers fight in a southpaw stance as opposed to an orthodox (right-handed) stance. This proportion of lefties in the top 10 is much larger than the proportion of lefties in the normal adult population.

Fact or Myth: It is advantageous to play tennis with your left-hand as your forehand side.

Myth. The lefty-advantage seems to fall when looking at the best tennis players in the world. Only two left-handed players in the past four years have finished at least once in the top 10 in the end of year rankings for the Association of Tennis Professionals. Fernando Verdasco and Rafael Nadal finished in the top 10 in 2009, but only Nadal managed to reach the top 10 from 2006-2008. (It’s also interesting to note that Nadal did not naturally favor a left-handed forehand. His uncle convinced him to switch from playing with his right to his left hand when he was young as an attempt to gain an advantage over other players. If only he had read my column.) Of 40 potential spots in the men’s top 10 these past four years, only half of them were lefties, a percentage about equal to the amount of lefties in the general adult population. Similarly, only one left-handed player (Pattie Schnyder, 2006) has managed to finish the year ranked in the top 10 of the Women’s Tennis Association in the past four years.

Fact or Myth: It is advantageous to be a left-handed batter in baseball.

Fact. Besides the incredible historic examples that exist (Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams), the notion that lefties are more successful batters in baseball is supported by two facts. One, left-handed hitters have an innate advantage over right-handed pitchers because the pitcher is breaking balls in general sweep towards the lefty batter, and they are easier to see. (An optical illusion occurs when a lefty faces a lefty. The left-handed batter sees the release of the pitch to be in line with him because it comes from the same side.) Because most pitchers are right-handed (242 of the 328 pitchers on the current MLB rosters pitch with their right hand), being a lefty batter is a boon. Second, left-handed hitters are a step closer to first base than right-handed hitters. As a result, less time is necessary to safely record a hit.

This perception that lefty batters are more successful batters in baseball holds: for the past four years, lefties have had wild success in achieving a top-10 ranking in On-Base Percentage (a statistic that essentially measures how often a batter records an out). Of 40 potential spots in the MLB’s top 10 leaders in OBP these past four years, lefties have comprised of 22 of them, a percentage way above both the percentage of left-handed adults in the general population and the percentage of left-handed batters in the MLB (122 of 336 batters are left-handed on current MLB rosters). For consistency’s sake, I did not include switch-hitters in my analysis.

Fact or Myth: It is advantageous to be a left-handed pitcher in baseball.

Myth. If we assume the previous statement about left-handed batters to be true, it seems that left-handed pitchers should be at a disadvantage in baseball as the majority of the batters they face will be right-handed. Even the fact that right-handed batters may not be as experienced facing southpaws doesn’t seem to give a benefit to these pitchers, as seen in the top 10 leaders in Earned Run Average (a statistic that measures the frequency a pitcher gives up runs) these past four years in the MLB. Of 40 potential spots in the MLB’s top-10 leaders in ERA from 2006-2009, southpaws have comprised only 11 of them. This percentage is more or less equal to the percentage of left-handed pitchers that throw in the MLB.

One argument that might challenge the lack of success left-handed tennis players or left-handed pitchers have had in their respective sports is that there are just a lower number of left-handed athletes that do either of those activities in the population. But as we’ve seen in particular with left-handed pitchers, the percentage of successful southpaws isn’t even greater than the percentage of left-handed pitchers in general playing in the MLB.

It would also seem to be true that, if left-handed athletes in these sports did hold some natural advantage due to their physical orientation, there would be an influx of successful southpaws into their respective sports, as coaches would groom lefty tennis players, and teams would draft more lefty hitters and batters. As tennis and baseball (pitching, at least) show, this simply just doesn’t always seem to be the case.

So, at least in respect to sports, the commonly held perception that being left-handed is advantageous isn’t completely true. While lefty batters in baseball may be better hitters and might have easier times at toll booths, there’s no denying that only six of the top 25 highest-paid baseball players are left-handed.

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