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Reply to "Lefty or Righty on 1B? Preference?"

Originally Posted by MidAtlanticDad:

I just had to look it up. I think 23 MLB first basemen have started 50 games or more this season. Of those, 15 throw right and 8 throw left.

So just over one third are lefties.

 

According to this page, which examines the lefties' natural advantages in baseball, one quarter of MLB players are lefties (vs about 10% of the population). http://www.livescience.com/266...-rigged-lefties.html

 

It seems natural that, since only 5 of the 9 positions on the field can be played by lefties, while righties can play all 9, lefties would have a higher than normal percentage at those positions they can play.   

 

In the case of the woman observed in the OP, as the parent of a youth player she probably has not been around the game all that much, and having seen every lefty on her son's teams given a tryout at first, she just figures that the position is reserved for lefties.  On a youth team with a bunch of lefties, especially slow-footed ones, that is probably true.

Last edited by JCG
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