Even some of the best hitters don’t have an answer.
If you start naming baseball players with the sweetest swings, you will soon discover that most are left-handed, players like Ken Griffey Jr., Stan Musial, Ted Williams, Keith Hernandez, Tony Gwynn, Mark Grace, Darryl Strawberry, Barry Bonds, John Olerud, Will Clark, Don Mattingly, Fred Lynn, Larry Walker, Rafael Palmeiro, Eddie Matthews, and Carlos González.
But why?
Mattingly: “I don’t know. It just looks different, I’m not quite sure why.”
Walker: “I wish I could give you a good reason.”
González: “I don’t know why. It just looks cool from the left side.”
Lynn: “If you asked Bill Lee, he’d probably say because the earth is spinning the opposite way from the way left-handers are swinging.” Lee, nicknamed “Spaceman,” was an eccentric character, adding to the stereotype that left-handed pitchers are wacky.
But there are several theories.
Sweet! (photo courtesy Pro Baseball Insider)
Camera Angle: The left-handed batter’s swing is more visible to the camera, providing a clearer view of the swing’s mechanics and path. The camera angle often comes over the pitcher’s right shoulder. With this left-center field camera view, the left-handed batter is slightly “open” to the camera angle. You see the front hip clearly, the back hip rotates, the weight transfer more clearly, and most importantly, the swing plane and path of the bat from nearly the start of the swing. That’s a nice theory, except that when I played baseball in high school, the sweetest swings on my team were by three lefties—Mitch Harley, Rich Toscano, and Mickey Shaw. And I saw them in person, not through the lens of the camera.
Physiology: Left-handed batters may have stronger non-dominant arms (their right arm), which can help them drive the ball well, especially on low pitches. Research has shown that the dominant hand is significantly stronger in right-handed subjects, but no such significant difference between sides could be documented for left-handed people. Even so, I’m not sure that explains the beautiful fluidity we often observe in left-handed swings.
Rarity of Left-handers
Walker: “Maybe it’s just because there are more right-handed hitters than left-handed hitters. So when a lefty comes along, it seems rarer, which makes it sweeter.”
González: “When you have so many right-handed hitters, everything with them becomes normal. That’s the reality—just being rare is what gets everybody’s attention.”
That may be true. Then again, not every lefty has a fluid-looking swing. Tom D’Arminio, a tremendous hitter and All-County shortstop on my high school team, batted from the left side. But his swing, while just as effective, did not look as fluid as that of Harley, Toscano, or Shaw.
Great Left-handed Batters Stayed Longer in the Hitting Zone
Clark: “All of the good hitters, when they came down to first base, they always talked about staying on plane with the baseball, the reason being you don’t have to have absolutely perfect timing. You can catch it a bit late, you can catch it on time, you can catch it out front—you’ve got a good chance of getting a base hit that way.”
All of today’s hitters focused on launch angle while striking out a ton would do well to heed Clark’s words. Could that be part of the reason lefty swings often look so good? Perhaps by staying longer in the hitting zone, the great lefty batters display a more attractive motion. Maybe. But wouldn’t that apply to right-handed batters as well?
Lefties Have a Longer Time to See the Pitch
Fred Lynn back in the day (photo courtesy Yahoo! Sports)
Lynn: “You see a lot of right-handed pitchers, a lot of off-speed and breaking stuff coming at you, especially if you can hit the fastball. You have more time to review it. When I faced lefties, I had less time because you don’t see it as well, and you’re a little bit quicker with the swing because you don’t see it quite as well.”
Others are doubtful.
Mattingly: “Hitting left-handed, you see way more righties in your life. That’s definitely an advantage. But I think the swing mechanics really are the same from both sides. Like you look at a guy like Manny Ramirez and then you compare him to a really good left-handed hitter—the mechanics of that are gonna look a lot alike, like with the time you touch down and when you actually get the bat through the zone.”
Lefties Are Naturally Moving Toward First Base. This seems like the best theory. Left-handed batters can naturally move into their stride toward first base after completing their swings. Right-handed hitters have to turn their hips back toward the plate to begin running toward first base. The lefty swing seems more natural due to the follow-through.
Mattingly: “That is really interesting, because that’s kind of true, right? Because as a righty, you hit it and you kind of have to think about getting out of the box, and with the lefty, it’s more like hitting it and then just sliding right out of the box.”
But why does Ramirez, a right-handed batter, have as smooth-looking a swing as any left-handed batter? A blogger has the answer, saying, “That would definitely explain Manny Ramirez’s swing. He’s always expecting a home run, so running doesn’t matter.” Perhaps that also explains the beauty of right-handed hitting Edgar Martinez’ swing. As a designated hitter, Martinez wasn’t too concerned with trying to beat out a groundball to first, as speed wasn’t his asset. He was more interested in driving the ball into the power alleys (he led the league in doubles twice). So, like Manny, he could completely follow through on his swing.
But some beautiful things defy explanation and are better left that way.
As Lynn summed it up: “It’s a right-handed world. There aren’t that many lefties. But in baseball, when you see a certain lefty swing, it’s like, ‘Man, that’s just smooth as butter.’”
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Quotes are from an article by Manny Randhawa on MLB.com.
