Ours is a mixed household: I’m right-handed, my wife isn’t.
I hesitate to call her left-handed because she does many things like a righty. This is not unusual among generally left-handed people, I understand. While I’m generally oblivious to the situation, it’s more perplexing for her as we share a computer mouse, scissors and potato peelers, all of which favor a right-hander.
Left-handers are an exceptional minority in my mind. They seem to generally be more creative, more adaptable and have a likeable quirkiness. Your perception may be different.
Rick Mathews, the bullpen coach of the Colorado Rockies who I met when he was coaching baseball at a junior college in Iowa, once told me how much he loved having left-handed pitchers because their mental approach to the game gave them a competitive edge. Rick must love Pat Venditte, a truly ambidextrous pitcher in the Yankees organization. Check out this amazing video of a showdown between the switch-throwing pitcher and a switch-hitting batter.
Left-handedness is considered a virtue for a first baseman but left-handed catchers have appeared in only 11 major league baseball games since 1902. Current French Open and Wimbledon tennis champion Rafael Nadal is a left-handed player (although he does virtually everything else right-handed) but a left-handed standout in professional golf is a rarity.
On the other hand, three of the last four U.S. presidents were left-handers, as was the greatest guitarist of the rock & roll era, Jimi Hendrix.
Left-handers have their own day and it’s coming up on Aug. 13. Famous left-handers also have their own web site. Do any southpaws stand out in your family history?
Quiz answers: 1. 1952; 2. Bob Horn and Lee Stewart; 3. 1929; 4. The Mickey Mouse Club; 5. Beech-Nut Spearmint. (Check the Passing It On newsletter for the questions. If you don’t get the newsletter, send me an e-mail and I’ll send you one.)
Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand -- Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. His book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon.
Flickr photo courtesy of Josh Sommers.