LEFTIES FINALLY FOIL DIXIE WALKER
As Hitter, No - As Pilot, Yes
"Pose any theoretical baseball argument and head for the cellar. It kicks up a tornado because every fan, writer and announcer fancies himself an expert ... you know, 'I've been following baseball closely for forty-six years.' From the grandstand the game looks simple, so when the question of why a left-handed batter does not hit left-handed pitching as well as he does right-handed pitching is announced, the answers come roaring in from both sides.
Dixie Walker, who pilots the Atlanta Crackers from the third base coaching box, recently touched it off when he played a radical version of the old custom and replaced Junior Wooten, a right-handed batter, with Country Brown, a left-handed batter in the first inning of a game with Chattanooga. It was a counter-move to the appearance of a right-handed relief pitcher.
Dixie is himself a man well qualified to discuss this right-left phase of the game. He was a left-handed batter of rare ability for years in the major leagues (1931-1949, Yankees, White Sox, Tigers, Dodgers, Pirates).
'It would be a great idea if left-handed batters could hit left-handed pitching well, but they just can't,' Walker began. 'Maybe they ought to, maybe it is a mental twist, but the fact remains the percentage is against them. If you know any way to cure them, you can make a fortune.'
Dixie was reminded that he had hit left-handed pitching pretty well in his best years, to which he replied:
'Well, I got into a spot where I could not be relieved with a right-handed batter and I HAD to learn. It was hard work and I hated to see those lefties out there throwing at me.'
Right there in Dixie's experience is an argument that they can learn: by hard work. My position is that it was a question of ability rather than a left or right operation.
'Now there is reason why left-handed batters are not as good against left-handed pitching,' Dixie continued. 'They see more right-handed pitching. There are fewer left-handed pitchers in baseball. They have to readjust their sense of timing, and after a long run of left-handed pitching, a left-hander's stuff looks queer.'
What about the mechanics of a left-handed batting against left-handed and right-handed pitching and vice versa? Is there anything inherent in the pitching and batting that creates difficulty?
'There is, as I can say from experience,' Dixie said. 'A left-handed pitcher throws from the side on which a left-handed batter stands. It tempts the batter to pull away from the plate when a curve ball comes right at him, then breaks over the plate. A left-handed batter can hit right-handed pitching better because he can stay in there close and meet the ball as it comes in.
'A left-handed batter does not see enough left-handed pitching to get used to the difference. It took me years to control my urge to pull away from a left-hander's curve ball.
'A right-handed batter sees so many right-handed pitchers that he becomes accustomed to seeing pitches coming in close and does not pull away as often.'
Do managers use left-handers in batting practice? Walker said he did and so did all managers as often as possible, especially when expecting to look at left-handed pitchers that day.
'We have six right-handers and two left-handers on our staff,' Dixie said. 'That's about the percentage for all the Southern Association clubs but Little Rock, which has more left-handers. We have our left-handers throw whenever they are not expected to start a game that day. All of us have been trying for years to cure that left-right condition. Only the good ones can do it. They just cured themselves by working at it.'
Dixie is right on his facts. He is a realist and percentage is on his side. Yet the styles of batting and pitching can be equalized by hard work as Dixie himself demonstrated in his major league days."
-Ed Danforth, condensed from the Atlanta Journal (Baseball Digest August 1951)
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