Strange But True: The Switchers

All baseball fans know about switch hitters. As a general rule, left-handed batters can hit right-handed pitchers better than they can hit left-handed pitchers. That’s because a lefty pitcher’s curveball will break away from a lefty batter, and break inside to a righty batter. The same holds true for right-handed batters facing left-handed pitchers.

Down in the minor leagues during the 1920s, there was a young player named Paul Richards. He was one of the very few players in history who could throw equally well with either hand. However, since he was a shortstop, he threw right-handed.

One day Richards’ manager had a problem with his pitchers. A couple of them were sick and the rest had been pitching almost every day. He asked Richards to play one game.

Richards disposed of the first two batters he faced. The next one was a switch hitter. Since Richards was pitching righty, the batter went up to the plate as a lefty.

After thinking for a minute, Richards put the glove on his other hand and went into his windup as a southpaw. Immediately the batter called for a time-out. Then he took his stance from the other side of the plate. Richards promptly put the glove back on his other hand. The batter stepped across the plate and got ready to bat from the left side again.

Both pitcher and batter kept switching until the umpire became dizzy. “How about it, boys?” he snapped. “Are you going to keep this up all day?”

“I can switch any time I like,” retorted the batter. “There’s no rule that says I can’t.”

“That goes for me too,” Richards insisted.

Finally Richards gave in. He decided to hurl the first pitch as a southpaw, the next pitch with the other hand, regardless of where the batter stood.

The count went to 3 and 2 and then the batter walked.

From The Giant Book of More Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1642365/switch-hitter-vs-switch-pitcher-paul/