In baseball, what makes left-handed hitters so successful?
This may not be a true statement, but here is a possible ex- planation: A left-handed hitter faces the home plate from a different side. For a pitcher who is not yet used to pitching to lefties, His standard arsenal of pitches do not have the same affect. A normal outside fast-ball to a right-hander becomes an inside fast-ball to a leftie and the same is true for an inside fast-ball. Also, a curve ball curves out for a rightie would curve in for a lefty. The resulting confusion is what makes left-handers better at hitting. Edward Brekelbaum (eb3z@andrew.cmu.edu) adds: Also, batters in the right side of the plate (lefties), are about one step closer to first base (a righty must step over the plate to be where a lefty started). This may not seem like a huge advantage, but how many times has a runner been out “By one step”.
