Why we’re a nation of lefties — at least on the diamond
Canadian ballplayers more likely to bat left, researchers find Toronto-born first baseman Joey Votto bats left.
Canada produces more Major League Baseball players who bat left than any other country, a new study from Canadian researchers indicates.
The finding lends some credence to the theory that those exposed to ice hockey early in their lives are more likely to be left-handed batters, says the study published last week in the journal PLOS One.
John Cairney, the lead author and a kinesiology and physical education professor at the University of Toronto, said the “hockey influence on batting hypothesis” has been around a long time, discussed on sports talk shows and in the sports pages. “People will say we know this already, but we didn’t because no one has done the analysis,” Cairney said. “We have by far and away more left-handed batters than any other country.” Nine of 13 Canadian players in Major League Baseball batted left in the 2016 season, the study found, or about 69 per cent. Only about 37 per cent of Americans in the big leagues bat left, while 33 per cent of Asian-born players and 30 per cent of Dominican Republic-born players are left batters.
Of all baseball players in 2016, only about 25 per cent bat left, the study found. Joey Votto, the big-hitting left-handed slugger from Toronto who plays for the Cincinnati Reds, is the poster child for the analysis, Cairney said. A left-handed batter is thought to be at an advantage because they are close to first base, increasing the likelihood of making it there before a throw can be made, the study said, noting other benefits existed as well.
“While there are many possible explanations, the fact remains, batting left confers a sta- tistical advantage,” it said. Researchers examined all bigleague ball players from 1917 — the year when the NHL began and when hockey had really taken root across Canada — to 2016, Cairney said. There have been 154 Canadian-born players in the majors since 1917, and 53 per cent of those players batted from the left side, Cairney said.
“Over time, Canadians who bat left are about double that of the league average,” he said. “This may be due to the fact that they grew up playing hockey before they picked up a baseball bat.”
The hockey influence hypoth- esis is consistent with action theory, Cairney said, which holds that the development of a skill in one sport affects development in another. The fact that most Canadian left-batting ball players are right-handed throwers, showing right-hand dominance, also gives more credence to the effect of hockey on baseball hitting styles, the study suggests.
Shooting one way in hockey has similar hand placements in baseball. For example, hockey players who shoot left have their right hand at the end of the stick. Left-hitting ball players have their right hand at the end of the bat.
The study also dived into data on U.S. states where hockey is popular, such as the northeastern states, compared to the Midwest and southern states, where hockey participation is lower. They found a higher pro- portion of baseball players who hit left in the hockey-playing states, although the differences weren’t statistically significant.
“It’s just a trend in the United States, but worth exploring further,” Cairney said.