Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.Cody Ross blames his mom.
"My dad was a really good athlete (Kenny Ross, who played safety at New Mexico in the late 1960s)," said Ross, the Marlins' right fielder. "My dad was all right[-handed]. My mom's a lefty, so maybe I got that gene from her."
Ross and St. Louis' Ryan Ludwick are the only two active position players who throw left and bat right. Just 14 such players in baseball history have gotten as many as 1,000 at-bats -- and that list now includes a Hall of Famer, Rickey Henderson.
"He kind of put us on the map," Ross said.
Some of the other names are recognizable -- early 20th-century Yankees star Hal Chase, Mets outfielder Cleon Jones, and more recent players Mark Carreon, Brian Hunter and David McCarty.
Some aren't -- Rube Bressler, Johnny Cooney, Al Nixon and Delos Drake.
"I think it's something that's kind of cool, something to be proud of," Ludwick said. "It's kind of an honor to be able to be in such little company."
Why so rare? There have certainly been plenty of players who throw right and bat left (582 with 1,000 or more at-bats), so it can't be that it's hard to be opposite-handed for hitting and throwing.
The simplest explanation is that a left-handed thrower can really play only four of the eight positions -- outfield and first base -- and is even less valuable if he bats right-handed, since lefties are less common and have the advantage against right-handed pitching.
"I think being a left-handed hitter is viewed as having an advantage," Ludwick said, "so you see a lot more people who throw right and are taught to hit left because it's an advantage."
Nether Ross nor Ludwick could explain how they ended up batting right and throwing left.
"It just happened," said Ludwick, who last year joined Henderson and Jones as the only bat-right/throw-left players to make an All-Star Game. "Natural."
Said Ross: "I have no reason why I do it. Nobody ever taught me to do it."
Both tried switch-hitting as kids -- "for a minute," Ludwick said, "but I was so much better right-handed."
Said Ross, "My dad tried to get me to switch-hit when I was younger. I did for a little while. But I realized really quickly that I had a lot more power from the right side and I didn't want to waste an at-bat [left-handed]."
It's not like Ross and Ludwick can't play. Ross, 28, is third on the Marlins with 22 homers and 83 RBI. Ludwick, 31, has 20 home runs and has driven in 87 runs, both second on the Cardinals.
"I feel like you see a lot of left-handed hitters that are right-handed throwers that have a lot of pop because they're right-hand-dominant, so they can really pull that bat through the zone," Ludwick said. "So I feel like being left-hand-dominant, I can [do the same]."
The bottom hand provides the power in a swing, and some recent boppers who throw right and bat left include Jim Thome, Prince Fielder, Larry Walker, Tino Martinez, Carlos Delgado, Adam Dunn, Jason Giambi and Mo Vaughn.
But those guys who throw left and bat right -- they don't get the love.
Ludwick was a second-round draft pick out of UNLV in 1999, so he never felt a bias because of his bat/throw combination. But Ross, a fourth-rounder in the same draft out of high school in New Mexico, said it worked against him. (Louie Medina, who played 51 games in the majors while throwing left and batting right, scouted both players for that '99 draft. Medina, now a special assistant to the GM in Kansas City, was then a scout for Arizona.)
"You have scouts come to watch you," Ross said, "and I was already challenged because of my height and I wasn't your prototypical baseball player, pushing 5-10. And also throwing left and hitting right, that's a lot against you going into pro ball. Or even college. So I think it affected me a little bit when it came to drafting and stuff like that.
"It's one of those things I knew I had to overcome, and I just did. A little bump in the road."
Both Ludwick and Ross didn't get a chance to become regulars in the majors until they had gone through multiple organizations. Ludwick was traded from Oakland to Texas to Cleveland and then had to sign on with Detroit and St. Louis as a minor-league free agent.
Ross was traded from the Tigers to the Dodgers to the Reds to the Marlins, including being traded twice in 33 days in 2006.
But he didn't blame that bouncing around on throwing left-handed and batting right-handed.
"I think once I got into pro ball, I think all of that kind of goes out the window," he said. "If you can play, you can play, and they'll find a spot for you."
Overheard and Understood
-- If you think Derek Jeter's pursuit of the Yankees' franchise hits record was overblown, wait until next spring training. Because the Yankees seem intent on letting Jeter go into 2010 without a contract beyond this year, and it will be a season-long storyline next year: Is this the Captain's last year in pinstripes?
| Chart of the Week | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria became the ninth player to have 40 doubles, 30 homers and 100 RBI in a season before the age of 24: | ||
| Player | Year |
|
| Hal Trosky |
1934/36 |
|
| Ted Williams |
1939 |
|
| Alex Rodriguez |
1996 |
|
| Scott Rolen |
1998 |
|
| Eric Chavez |
2001 |
|
| Aramis Ramirez |
2001 |
|
| Albert Pujols |
2001-03 |
|
| Miguel Cabrera |
2005 |
|
| Evan Longoria |
2009 |
|
| Source: Rays | ||
And it's not like the Yankees have ever gotten any kind of hometown discount from Jeter; the sides went to arbitration in 1999, avoided arbitration in 2000 with a $10 million salary and then worked out his current 10-year, $189 million deal in February 2001. Considering what he means to the franchise -- and its fans -- Jeter now could have every right to ask for more than Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia.
The only way an extension would get done before Jeter's contract is up (or close to up) is if ownership -- the Steinbrenner brothers -- steps in. They did in the fall of 2007, after the Joe Torre fiasco, to bring back Rodriguez (after his ugly opt-out), and with Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera on above-market deals. But the Steinbrenners may realize now they overpaid then and hold firm on Jeter.
Which will make for a fascinating winter of 2010-11, because the next negotiations will determine how much Jeter makes compared to A-Rod, whether he will be signed for the same length of time (through 2017!) and -- as part of the whole equation -- whether he ever moves from shortstop, and when, and where.
-- With a new ballpark opening next year, the Twins plan to spend more this winter than in any recent offseason. They "won't be picking up the scraps" of free agency, as one person put it.
-- Washington (including its Montreal years) is the only franchise never to have had two teammates with 100 RBI in the same season, but that could be corrected this year as Adam Dunn has 99 RBI and Ryan Zimmerman has 94. Tampa Bay got its first 100-RBI duo this year, with Evan Longoria and Carlos Pena.
-- The Angels could be the first team since the 2005 Cardinals to make it through the season without a four-game losing streak.
-- Figure this: Seven of the Dodgers' final 18 games are against the Pirates. Three others are against the Nationals.
-- Arizona's Chris Young last Sunday became the first player to go into a game batting less than .200 and then hit three homers.
-- The Cubs did not gain ground on the Cardinals in any day from Aug. 3 through Thursday.
-- If the A's, who have 85 errors, can finish with fewer than 100, they will set an all-time record by doing that for the sixth straight year. The Phillies had double-digit errors from 2001 to 2005. -- Attendance at the Mets' new Citi Field on Thursday, for a game against the Marlins, was 37,620. But the Mets estimated 20,000 no-shows and about 17,000 in the stands.
-- The Rays are promoting right-hander Jeff Niemann (12-5, 3.57 ERA) for AL Rookie of the Year. They cite that he is in the top 10 all-time for winning percentage by an AL rookie starter; the first rookie to beat Roy Halladay twice; the first rookie in 55 years to lead the defending AL champs in wins and ERA; and that he could have three more wins but for two blown two-run leads and a blown three-run lead by his bullpen.
-- Since the start of last year, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, just two AL teams have swept four series from the same opponent (three or more games). It figures that the Yankees swept the Orioles five times, but not that the Royals have swept the Tigers four times.
-- Detroit's Brent Dlugach, called up Sept. 1, is the first big-leaguer ever whose name begins with "DL." Unless you count Mike Hampton.
