Whenever I play either baseball or softball, I am one of the privileged few who can hit from both sides of the plate. But when I tell people that I can do it, a lot of them tell me that it's "so cool!", but other in their naivete tell me that I should stick to one side or the other. That, of course, is the wrong thing to say, because there is nothing I love more than a challenge.
When I was younger, I was naturally a right-handed hitter. But then when I was about seven, I insisted that I was a lefty because everybody I knew was a righty and I wanted to be different. So in one such conversation in the front yard, my dad gave up trying to argue and told me that if I wanted to hit left-handed I needed to be on the other side of the plate. I stepped across and the rest is history.
Switch-hitting has been around for more than a hundred years. In 1870, a right-handed hitter named Bob Ferguson of the Brooklyn Atlantics wanted to avoid grounding to the Cincinnati Red Stockings rangy shortstop. So he hit left-handed to try and hit away from him (he singled past the second baseman, driving in the tying run of the game). There have been some famous ballplayers have been switch-hitters. The most famous one was Mickey Mantle, who lit up baseball during the 1950s and 60s. Others include Eddie Murray, Chipper Jones, Mark Teixeira, and Walt Weiss. Some ballplayers like Mike Schmidt, Rickey Henderson, and even the Rangers' current shortstop Michael Young have hit ambidextrous in high school or the minors, but were talked into giving it up to stick with one side. It's not like switch-hitting destroys you as a player.
Besides, it's more fun to hit from both sides. This past season playing softball, I had all sorts of fun with my opponents. I would hit lefty my first at-bat, then for my second time up, I would stand as if I were to hit that way again. Then while every one shifted right, I would walk across the plate, and stand ready to hit right-handed. Then I'd watch their faces when they looked up and find out I switched up on them. It was so hilarious to hear, "Lefty! ... whoops, never mind."
Switch-hitters, in my opinion have an advantage over hitters that hit just one way or the other. If you hit the same hand as the opposing pitcher is throwing, you have to look more over your shoulder to find his release point and the ball. If you hit on the other side, you don't have to crane your neck as much because the pitch is coming from the other side of the plate. So it's easier to hit a righty pitcher left-handed and vice versa. You're still on your own though if you get a pitch in on your hands; it's still tough to fight off. But for this reason, I feel like I'm a step ahead of the pitcher every time I step in the batters box.
In the majors, a switch-hitter also complicates thing when it comes to pitching changes. Here's a hitter that can hit both ways, are you going to bring in the righty reliever or the lefty? It's a complete chess match. Kind of reminds me of an Abbott and Costello routine where Abbott is drilling Costello on coaching. It goes something like this:
Abbott: Come on, Costello, what do do you know about coaching? If I were to put in a left-handed pitcher, what would you do?
Costello: I'd put in a right-handed batter.
Abbott: And if I put in a right-handed pitcher, what would you do?
Costello: I'd put in a left-handed batter.
Abbott: But now I trick you. I take out the right-handed pitcher, and put in a left-handed pitcher.
Costello: Then I double-cross you. I take out my left-handed batter and put in a right-handed batter.
Abbott: Wait a minute, where are you getting all these right-handed batters?
Costello: The same place you're getting all those left-handed pitchers!
If it were me in the middle of that, instead of telling Abbott that I would be double-crossing him with a switch of my own, I would have simply said, "I'm a switch-hitter, what do I care?"
But with every list of pros, comes a list of cons. First off, switch-hitters are usually much better hitters from one hand than they are the other. The aforementioned Great One, Mickey Mantle, always thought that he was a much better hitter right-handed, and a quick look at his stats for either side confirms it, but will also tell you that he had a lot more power hitting left-handed. Another pitfall that you can fall into is feeling much more comfortable from the left-handed side because most of the pitchers are right-handed throwers. This is my usually downfall, because every baseball-savvy person who has seen me hit both ways says I am a much better hitter from the right, my natural side. But to me, because I hit the other way so much, it takes a second or two for me to feel comfortable in the right-handed batter's box.
Downfall #3 is that switch-hitters can get schizophrenic in their swings. According to both the free agent Scott Spiezio (as told to "This Week in Baseball"), and the Chicago White Sox's Nick Swisher (Athletics magazine), the most important thing is to keep both swings the same. In other words, be one hitter, not two. To accomplish this, both swings need a lot more maintenance. This gets me weird looks at times, as I'll be waiting in line somewhere, and to kill time I'll start swinging an imaginary bat. I'm not retarded, I'm just working on my swings, but I'll still get people looking at me like I'm weird.
Besides, which is better: switch-hitting or switch throwing? (or should I have asked which is weirder?) The New York Yankees have a pitcher in their minor league system by the name of Pat Venditte. He wears a custom-made six finger glove (two thumbs), and is a switch-thrower. Things got really interesting when he faced his first switch-hitter. They went back and forth for about a minute, until the umpire finally told Pat to pick a side and pitch from it (Pat eventually struck the hitter out.) So there are switch-throwers out there, in fact I throw pretty well from both sides myself (left-handed has near--but not the quite the same--velocity as right-handed, but is just as accurate).
To me though, it's an advantage to hit both ways. You see the ball much better, and it changes the whole spectrum of the game. People will always tell me to stick to a side, but I'm so used to it and want to be different, that I don't think I'm going to change. Or switch.
