Left-Handed Shortstops

The following is the final in my left-handed infielder series. Check out the details on left-handed second basemen and left-handed third basemen.

Both of my previous ventures into the world of left-handed infielding have yielded interesting results that had stories beyond the concept of a man whirling around to throw to first base. Such is not true of the Baseball-Reference play index revealing left-handed shortstops since 1956. That's because there are none. Sure, the search has three men listed; but a quick investigation shows that Mark Ryal, Tom Chism, and Royle Stillman never played the field in those games. Each time, the supposed lefty shorstop batted just once, in the top of the first inning, and was removed for a replacement in the bottom of the first inning.

Two of the three men were managed by Earl Weaver, known baseball innovator. Stillman was primarily a reserve outfielder, and a weak-hitting one at that. Why a career .213/.305/.329 hitter was picked to be one of the first three hitters of six games in 1975 is unclear. It did work though, Stillman got a hit in three of those six at bats. In his book "Weaver on Strategy," Weaver says:

"When my team was on the road, I would list someone else as our leadoff hitter and shortstop. Often it ws Royle Stillman, a young outfielder we had brought up from Rochester. Stillman would bat in the top of the first, and then Belanger would go in to play shortstop in the bottom of the inning.... I used this strategy only in September, when the roster swelled from twenty-five to forty and we had plenty of players available.... Usually Mark Belanger was the one who suffered. It hurt him to lose that at bat.... Mark was too upset to think what's best for the team. What the hell, Stillman went four for nine and got on base half the time. It's hard to argue with those results."

Well, except that stubborn argument known as "small sample size." But, who am I to argue with Earl Weaver?

I also figured out a new way to search on baseball-reference.com: through the Batting Seasons Finder, I can pare down statistics for lefty shortstops. Here are the results. Clearly, it was a lot more common for left-handed throwers to play shortstop before the 20th century. Over in the "Pos" column, an asterisk notes a primary position. The most recent asterisk is for Russ Hall, who played 36 career games at shortstop in 1898 and 1901. Before Stillman, the most recent appearance of a left-hander at the shortstop position was Lou Gehrig in 1934. According to this article, Gehrig had suffered an attack of lumbago in the previous game and was inserted as the leadoff hitter (listed as shortstop), singled in one at bat, and was removed from the game to keep his streak alive.

So when was the last fielding chance by a left-handed shortstop? Hal Chase played one game at short in 1909 but had no fielding chances; he did have three put-outs in two games at short in his 1905 rookie season. Mike Donlin played until 1914 but his lefty short-stop days were over by 1902. The aptly named Lefty Davis played one game at short in 1903 (and one game at second in 1901), and everyone else on the list played prior to 1905. So it appears that Hal Chase, sometime in 1905, had the last fielding chance by a left-handed throwing shortstop. It was Donlin, in 1902, who was the last man to make a throw to first base left-handed.

Long-standing tradition is the most plausible explanation why. A google search reveals this article from the BBC, explaining that left-handed children can't play the infield (other than first base). Their reasoning- "it just doesn't happen." There's also some hand-waving about the inability of left-handed throwers to make the throw quickly enough. This I don't particularly understand. I'm right-handed myself, but in writing these I've imagined the movements necessary to play the positions left-handed. For shortstop, the distinction makes the least amount of sense. The only disadvantage I can think of is the ability to look back a runner on third before throwing to first base.

My internet investigation uncovered a few other interesting tidbits. First, there's a book called "Left-Handed Shortstop," apparently centered around a kid whose manager doesn't want to tell him that lefties can't play short. Also there was a college shortstop in softball a few years back who won the position in an open competition, despite being left-handed, and caused a sensation in the NAIA. Considering the shorter softball basepaths and quicker reaction times, I doubt that this player had the so-called problem of throwing to first-base quickly.

It's looking more and more that the bias against left-handed infielders is due to the vagaries of baseball tradition more than anything else. In addition, the notion in the article about left-handed catchers may be valid: if you're a kid and you're left-handed, chances are the manager is going to try you at pitcher. He might stick you in the outfield on non-pitching days, due to tradition, and the dearth of lefty infielders continues.

Left-Handed Third Basemen

In the year-and-a-half since I've started the blog, there have been 109 posts. According to my Stat Counter statistics, the most popular post of all is this one, on the history of left-handed second basemen in the major leagues. Well, I've never been one above pandering to my audience, and plenty of people have come here in search of answers regarding other southpaw infielders. So let us take a look at the history of the even rarer Left-Handed Third Baseman.

The play-index over at Baseball-reference.com allows one to search on a variety of parameters, and here is the result of searching for all hot-corner lefties since 1956 (the first year of full regular-season box score data). Indeed, there are just four players to have donned gloves on their right hands and played third base in the last fifty-four years. The earliest of these is Mike Squires, whose official position was third base in 13 games spread over two seasons.

The first game was on August 23, 1983. Squires had played over five seasons in the majors at this point, primarily at first base, even earning a gold glove in 1981. But on this day Squire's White Sox were getting blown out by the Royals, and manager Tony LaRussa decided to clear his bench. Between the sixth and eighth innings, LaRussa replaced all but two fielders. Quizzically, he did not replace first baseman Greg Walker with Squires, instead having the latter replace Vance Law at third base. In doing so, Squires was noted at the time for becoming the first left-handed third baseman in over 50 years, which reaches back beyond the baseball-reference.com data.

That Time Magazine article notes that Washington Senators first baseman Joe Kuhel attempted one game at third base in 1936. BR.com does record Kuhel's fielding at first base but not third; however, retrosheet.org records Kubel as having two assists in a game in 1936. The box-score of this game has, presumably, been lost to the sands of time.

Mike Squires, meanwhile, did not record a putout or assist in his first action at third base; that would have to wait until 1984. On April 8, LaRussa pinch hit Squires for Law in the bottom of the seventh and then sent him to third for the eighth. Squires was immediately tested as Tigers' hitter Lance Parrish grounded one to third. Squires fielded and threw cleanly for the first assist by a left-handed third baseman in 48 years. In total Squires made 3 putouts and had 9 assists from third base in his 38 innings there, earning a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage. Notably, Squires played two innings at catcher in the major leagues, another position with very few southpaws.

Squires also managed to have an interesting three-position gambit in one game: first-base, third-base, pitcher. Yes, on April 22, 1984, Squires was asked to finish a game against the Detroit Tigers. He had started the game at first base; moved to third in the eighth, and then with two outs in the eighth LaRussa called on Squires with runners on first and second. Squires threw one pitch to Tom Brookens and induced a fly ball to centerfield to end the inning and Squires' pitching career. Surprisingly, this position combination has been tried four times since 1956; and two of them are by a friend from the last paragaph-- Vance Law.

The world would not have to wait another half-century for the next lefty third-baseman. Just over a year after Squires' final game at third base, Montreal Expos manager Buck Rodgers followed LaRussa's lead and inserted left-handed Terry Francona at third base. It was October 6, 1985, the last game in a third-place season for the Expos, and the starter at third base was-- Razor Shines. The 28-year old had a name much better than his ability (hit .185/.239/.198 in 81 career at bats). Wikipedia notes that he spent sixteen years in the minors, and is currently a manager for the Clearwater Threshers of the FSL. Anyway, Rogers must have seen enough (or there was an injury) and replaced Razor Shines with utility player (and current Red Sox manager) Terry Francona. It was the only appearance at third base in Francona's career, and he made good on all three of his assist chances. Francona was then replaced himself in the bottom of the eighth by.... Vance Law. Cue creepy music.

It would be a not quite a year after Francona's game at third, when the New York Yankees suffered an injury to regular third baseman Mike Pagliarulo on August 25. The Yankees then left for a west-coast trip, and in a game on August 29, suffered another injury, this time to shortstop Mike Fischlin. Mattingly himself vaguely recalled the circumstances in a November 2004 interview on his website. From the boxscore, it seems as though the players were shuffled around the field, with Mattingly moving from first to third. Mattingly started an around-the-horn double play to end his first inning of work at the hot corner. He would have five other assists and a putout in the rest of the game. The next day, Mattingly actually started the first game in a doubleheader at third base, though he moved to first in the sixth inning. Wayne Tolleson replaced him at third and started the second game. Pags did pinch hit in both games but did not return to regular action until September 4. Mattingly played one more game at third and that was it for his career.

Another decade passed before the next, and latest lefty third baseman. Mariners' utility man Mario Valdez pinch hit in the 8th and then played his only inning of third base in the ninth inning, but did not have a ball hit to him. And that's all for left-handed third basemen. The prospect of having to turn your back to the plate to throw across the diamond must not be appealing to most managers. One would think it would be an advantage on reaction plays down the line, while a disadvantage over a ball between third and short. Fielding bunts down the third base line would also be quite difficult for a lefty, I suppose.

Next time, we'll check out the even shorter list of left-handed shortstops. I find these investigations extremely interesting, because I get to pick out some of the rarer things in baseball history, and they always seem to coincide with other wacky events!

UPDATE: Be sure to check out the final installment, left-handed shortstops!

Left-Handed Second Basemen

This is the first in our series on left-handed infielders. Be sure to check out Left Handed Third Basemen! And don't forget, Left-Handed Shortstops!

EDIT: July 1, 2009. A helpful commenter pointed out that Thad Bosley has no record of being a second baseman, according to MLB. I went to check it out, and the game that I said he was a second baseman (July 5, 1987), now only lists him as a pinch hitter, replaced in the ninth inning by reserve Frank White. A new search of lefty-second basemen reveals just five games with them!

The last few days watching the KC Royals feed on Extra Innings has been pretty brutal. While you have to feel for guys who watch the Royals play 162 meaningless games year after year, having to listen to Herm Edwards talk about football for two innings is a bit infuriating. Would it kill MLB to let us choose which feed we get to see? Anyway, for some reason the Royals felt the need to mark the Twenty-fourth anniversary of The Pine Tar Game by giving away powder-blue Royals t-shirts with "pine tar" stains all over them. First of all- ugly. Second of all- 24 years? Huh? Third of all- the Royals ended up winning the game! Get over it!

So anyway, they showed some clips from the continuation of the "suspended game" in which Billy Martin staged sort of a protest by running out Ron Guidry into CF to finish the game, and a young Don Mattingly at second base. The announcers noted that it was weird seeing a left-handed thrower play second base. Baseball-reference.com says that Mattingly didn't get a chance to make any plays at second in that half-inning, but I would imagine it is pretty weird. Imagine a left-handed second baseman making a play on a grounder up the middle. He would then have to stop, turn counter-clockwise 270 degrees, and throw to first off their back foot (with their backs to the rest of the infield). There's a reason there haven't been many left-handed second basemen. I wanted to find out exactly how few there were.

Thanks to B-R.com's Play Index, we can see that, since 1957, there have only been six major league games played with a left-handed second baseman. Mattingly shows up, even though he only played one half-inning. There's also Gonzalo Marquez, who played two games at 2B for the Athletics in 1973. Here's the first game, in which Marquez reached on an error in the top of the first and then A's manager Dick Williams replaced him for the bottom of the first inning, so Marquez never saw the field. The next day, Williams did the same thing, using four different players at 2B in the game. So Marquez never fielded a ball at second either.

The next entry is Thad Bosley, an OF/DH for the Royals (among other teams) in the 1980s. A left-handed thrower, Bosley pinch-hit for the starting second baseman (Buddy Biancalana) in the bottom of the eighth inning. He then stayed on and played the top of the ninth and did not see a play at second base, and was later replaced for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the ninth.

The oldest case listed is George Crowe, a first-baseman with the Cincinnati Reds who, in a 1958 game, was briefly switched with second-baseman Johnny Temple for one play. Following a single by Bobby Thomson (yes, of shot-heard-round-the-world fame), the two switched positions for a play cryptically described as a "Double Play: Pop-fly, 1B to 2B." What happened here? Was there some kind of trickery going on? The two men switched back after the play and Crowe never played second base for the rest of his career. Since there are no reliable box scores prior to 1957, we do not know if this sort of thing happened a lot.

Finally, the strangest case of all, that of Sam McDowell, left-handed pitcher. On July 6, 1970, McDowell was pitching for the Indians in the eighth inning of a game agains the Senators with a 6-4 lead. To that point McDowell had scattered 11 hits in 7.2 innings striking out 12 while allowing the four runs. With runners on second and third and two out, Cleveland manager Alvin Dark called to the bullpen for a righty, Dean Chance. Powerful righty Frank Howard was up next, followed by righty cleanup hitter Rick Reichardt. But Dark didn't send McDowell off the field; instead, he sent off third baseman Greg Nettles and told McDowell to go play second base. Chance then intentionally walked Howard to load the bases, then induced a groundball to third from Reichardt. Eddie Lemon, who had been playing second base, fielded the ball and threw to McDowell at 2nd for the force to end the inning. McDowell would then re-take the mound for the ninth, striking out the side to end the game. I'm not sure it's officially in the rules somewhere, but I suppose one cannot be charged with both a Win and a Save in the same game...

Suffice it to say, all six occurances have weird circumstances. Further, it is extremely interesting to us at Immaculate Inning that of the hundreds of thousands of putouts registered in Major League Baseball since 1957, only two have been registered by left-handed second basemen. Compare this to the dearth of left-handed catchers. Since 1957, only four left-handed catcher's mitts have been worn in nine different major league baseball games. Journeyman 1B/OF Benny Distefano is the latest, catching three games for the Pirates in 1989. Diminuitive first baseman Mike Squires caught two games for the White Sox in 1980, registering just one putout. Similarly, Dale Long was used for two games at catcher in 1958.

The theory as to why there are very few left-handed catchers is harder to grasp. There used to be a lot more of them in the early days of the game. One theory is that it is almost impossible for a lefty to make a snap throw to third base on a steal attempt- but isn't it just as hard for righties to make similar throws behind the runner at first? A better theory is that catchers typically are the second-best throwing players on your average little league team. If those guys were left-handed, it is likely that they would be groomed as pitchers, and would play 1B or OF when not pitching. For the most part, this one seems a lot more like tradition and is not hampered by practical problems.

Xenod would like to add that he plans on having a left-handed son and that he will grow up to be the first full-time left-handed catcher in the history of baseball. Good luck to him on that quest.