Boozer
06-07-04, 09:46PM
southpaw • \SOUTH-paw\ • noun
: left-hander; especially : a left-handed baseball pitcher
Example sentence:
With the tying run on second, the manager decided to bring out his best southpaw from the bullpen to face the next two left-handed batters.
Did you know?
"Southpaw" is of obscure origin. A popular theory holds that it comes from the onetime position of ballparks in relation to the sun. Supposedly, late 19th-century ballparks were laid out so that the pitcher looked in a westerly direction when facing the batter. The throwing arm of a left-handed pitcher would then be to the south—hence the name "southpaw." This theory of its origin is undermined, however, by the fact that the original use of "southpaw" does not involve baseball at all. Rather, the term was used as early as 1848 to describe, simply, the left hand or a punch or blow given with the left hand. Today, we often use "southpaw" as a good-natured term for a left-handed person, but the word is sometimes viewed as stigmatizing by left-handed people.
My dad's a southpaw.
: left-hander; especially : a left-handed baseball pitcher
Example sentence:
With the tying run on second, the manager decided to bring out his best southpaw from the bullpen to face the next two left-handed batters.
Did you know?
"Southpaw" is of obscure origin. A popular theory holds that it comes from the onetime position of ballparks in relation to the sun. Supposedly, late 19th-century ballparks were laid out so that the pitcher looked in a westerly direction when facing the batter. The throwing arm of a left-handed pitcher would then be to the south—hence the name "southpaw." This theory of its origin is undermined, however, by the fact that the original use of "southpaw" does not involve baseball at all. Rather, the term was used as early as 1848 to describe, simply, the left hand or a punch or blow given with the left hand. Today, we often use "southpaw" as a good-natured term for a left-handed person, but the word is sometimes viewed as stigmatizing by left-handed people.
My dad's a southpaw.