Baseball may favor southpaws

ST. LOUIS, July 8 (UPI) -- A U.S. mechanical engineer who specializes in aircraft and helicopter engineering says baseball was designed to favor left-handers.

David A. Peters of Washington University in St. Louis found that a right-handed batter facing a right-handed pitcher actually has to pick up the ball visually as it comes from behind the batter's left shoulder.

"The left-handed batter facing the right-handed pitcher has the ball coming to him, so he has a much clearer view of pitches," Peters said. "Ninety percent of the human population is right-handed, but in baseball 25 percent of the players, both pitchers and hitters, are left-handed.

"The left-handed batter has a five-foot advantage over the right-handed batter and that means the lefty travels the 90 feet to first roughly one-sixth of a second faster than the righty. That translates to more base hits for the left-hander."

Positions advantageous to southpaws are pitching, first base and right field -- the advantage is the favorable angles lefties get, enabling them to throw the ball more quickly across the diamond to second, third and home, Peters said.