Defying Convention: Left-Handed Double Play Combinations

When Lefty Marr replaced shortstop Henry Easterday for 17 games on the 1889 Columbus Babies, they became the only major league lineup known to include a left-handed second baseman, shortstop, and third baseman. (Wikimedia Commons)

In the world of sports, left-handedness can be a decided advantage. For centuries, left-handed fencers have had a “frequency-dependent” edge owing to their scarcity.1 Left-handed setters are coveted at volleyball’s highest levels for their inherent advantage in attacking second balls.2 Left-handers are similarly favored in certain aspects of baseball. Southpaws are often called on to retire the toughest left-handed batters and lefties are considered by many to make the best first basemen; 84 of the 137 Gold Gloves ever awarded for that position have gone to left-handers.

Unlike the situation at first base, conventional wisdom has long held that middle infielders should be exclusively right-handed throwers. This has been true at virtually every level of the sport, wherever it’s played. A century ago, that bias was so strong that eventual Hall of Fame shortstop Luke Appling, who debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 1930, switched in high school from throwing left-handed to right-handed so that he could play the position he loved.3 More recently, Pablo Sandoval, beloved San Francisco Giants third baseman from 2009 to 2014, learned to throw right-handed so he could play shortstop and catch as a Venezuelan Little Leaguer.4

Left-handed-throwing second basemen have appeared in only eight regular season major league games since 1950, and not since 1954 has a major league team relied on a left-handed thrower at shortstop.5

[Note: Subsequent references to handedness in this article refer to throwing arm unless otherwise stated.]

Figure 1. Instructions for running the bases from J.C.F. Gutsmuths, Spiele zur Uebung und Erholung des Körpers und Geistes (1796), with English translation.

The paucity of left-handed middle infielders (LHMIs) is the direct result of the bases being run counter-clockwise. That immutable aspect of baseball makes it necessary for left-handed shortstops and second basemen to pivot on most throws to first base, costing precious seconds that could turn outs into base hits. Running the bases counter-clockwise has been the norm since baseball rules were first codified. A late-1700s German text titled Spiele zur Uebung und Erholung des Körpers und Geistes[Games for the Exercise and Recreation of Mind and Body], brought to light by David Block in Baseball Before We Knew It, clearly shows a counter-clockwise course for navigating the bases in describing how to play “English baseball.”6

Base-running direction was omitted from the landmark Knickerbocker Rules of 1845, but Rule 4 of the expanded rules adopted by the National Association of Base Ball Players (NA) in 1858 explicitly defined the bases to be run counter-clockwise.7 That specification didn’t foreclose the option of using LHMIs, but it did provide the underpinning for influential journalist Henry Chadwick to criticize the practice. In comparing two highly regarded second basemen, Fred Crane and Al Reach, shortly after the Civil War, Chadwick—whose contributions to baseball rules and practices were manifold—said “[O]f the two, I should prefer Crane, on account of his being a right hand player, Reach’s left hand play being against him in the position he occupies [second base].”8

A few years later, Chadwick articulated a position that has held sway since the late nineteenth-century. “[L]eft handed players are out of position in the in-field any where but at first base.”9 Yet despite his outsized influence in the baseball community at that time, several prominent clubs of the 1860s and early 1870s came to rely on left-handed middle infielders.

NOTABLE LH MIDDLE INFIELDERS PRIOR TO 1871

Reach, the second baseman for the champion Eckfords in 1862 and 1863, and later the Athletics of Philadelphia, was just one of several prominent LH second basemen on top-tier amateur teams of the 1860s. The Rockford Forest Citys had lefty Bob Addy at second base from 1866 to 1870. Playing behind 16-year-old pitcher Albert Spalding, Addy made several noteworthy defensive plays in Rockford’s stunning upset of the Washington Nationals on July 25, 1867.10 During the five years that Addy toiled for the Forest Citys, another lefty, Lip Pike, manned second base for three high-profile opponents: the Athletics of Philadelphia, Mutuals of New York, and Atlantics of Brooklyn. Pike collected a game-high seven assists in the Atlantics’ June 14, 1870, win over the Cincinnati Red Stockings that ended the first openly professional team’s string of 81 games without a loss.11

In contrast to the situation at second base, LH shortstops on prominent amateur teams of the 1860s tended to be part-timers who spent most of their time at other positions. Fergy Malone was the Philadelphia Athletics regular shortstop in 1862, but played the position infrequently after transitioning into catching.12 John McMullin, a pitcher/outfielder destined to be the National Association’s first southpaw to pitch regularly, was one of three shortstops for the 1869 Athletics, and Ed Pinkham, a pitcher/outfielder for various Brooklyn teams during and after the Civil War, dabbled at shortstop for the Eckfords in 1869.13,14

So why did lefties find regular roles at second base during this period but not at shortstop? Individual circumstances aside, two factors would appear to apply: 1) shortstops have less time to make throws to first base than second basemen do, so the extra steps taken by shortstops to get into position end up being costly, and 2) LH second basemen can more often take advantage of their simpler footwork (as compared to righties) in making throws to second base, than LH shortstops can with their similar advantage in making throws to third base.

PREVALENCE OF LH MIDDLE INFIELDERS AFTER 1870

Statistics compiled at Baseball Reference enable a more quantitative sense of the prevalence of LHMIs beginning with the advent of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in 1871. As illustrated in Figure 2a, LH second basemen made 296 game appearances in the 1870s across the NA (1871–75) and National League (1876–79), as compared with LH shortstops, who made 257. Ratioed to the 2,031 championship (regular season) games played over that span, LH second basemen appeared in roughly 1 out of every 7 contests, LH shortstops about 1 in 8 (Figure 2b).

 

Figure 2a. LHMI Game Appearances NA, NL, AA, UA, PL AND AL

 

Figure 2b. LHMI Game Appearances Ratioed to Total League Games NA, NL, AA, UA, PL AND AL

In the 1880s, LH second basemen made nearly four-times as many appearances across the three major leagues of that decade (the NL, American Association and Union Association), but at a slightly lower frequency owing to the far greater number of games played. LH shortstops made 739 appearances, about one in every 12 contests. The number of LHMI appearances dropped significantly in the 1890s and by the 1900s, just a handful of games were played with LHMIs; about one in every 330 games for second basemen and once in every 1900 games for shortstops. Though not shown here, LHMI appearances in subsequent decades were even fewer.

Table 1. LHMI Game Appearances by Decade

BILLY BARNIE AND HIS LHMIS

The franchise most reliant on LHMIs was the American Association Baltimore Orioles, which put them in lineups 620 times. Nearly all of those came between 1883 and 1891, under manager Billy Barnie.

Barnie installed lefty Jimmy Macullar as his regular shortstop between 1884 and 1886, used lefty Bill Greenwood as his regular second baseman in 1887 and 1888, and in his final year as Baltimore manager, 1891, started the season with lefty George Van Haltren at short.15 He also wasn’t afraid to plug in other lefties at second base and shortstop for a game or two.

So, why might Barnie have used LHMIs so often? His faith in them may have been a product of his connections to Lip Pike and Al Reach. In 1874, Barnie shared catching duties on the Hartford Dark Blues, a team managed by Pike, and it was Reach who hired Barnie in 1882 to be the manager of his Philadelphia entry in the League Alliance, a team later dubbed the Phillies.16 The author has yet to find quotations from either Barnie or Pike touting the use of left-handed middle infielders, but Reach was known to favor them. In 1898, the then-57-year-old sporting goods mogul was quoted as preferring the use of southpaws at all positions in the infield, reportedly saying that lefties are “in the best natural position to throw to first after making a stop.”17 Perhaps not coincidentally, Reach’s Phillies would be the third-most frequent user of LHMIs after the Baltimore and the Brooklyn franchises.

Table 2. Franchises with the highest number of appearances by LHMIs (1871–2024)

 

Table 3. Baltimore Orioles LHMIs (1883–91)

RECORD OF TEAMS THAT RELIED MOST HEAVILY ON LHMIS

Forty-eight professional teams between 1871 and 1905 had one or more LHMIs appear in 10 or more games (Figure 3): 10 National Association teams, 21 National League teams, 15 American Association teams, one Union Association team and one American League team. Of those 48, only 16 had records above .500. The median winning percentage of the 48 was a lowly .435—equivalent to a 70-win team in a 162-game schedule.

The winningest such team was the 1871 Athletics of Philadelphia (.750 winning percentage), first champions of the NA, whose second baseman was Al Reach. The data points surrounded by pentagons represent Billy Barnie’s Orioles teams, which fall equally on either side of .500. Notably absent from the many nineteenth-century teams listed in Table 4 are that era’s most dominant teams. The NA Boston Red Stockings did not use a single LHMI, nor did the Ned Hanlon-led Baltimore Orioles teams that won three NL pennants in the mid-1890s. The American Association St. Louis Browns played only three games with an LHMI, all in 1882, their only sub-.500 season.

 

Table 4. Winning Percentage of Teams with One or More LHMIs Who Appeared in at Least 10 Games

LH DOUBLE PLAY COMBINATIONS, 1871–2024

With so many teams relying on LHMIs in the late-nineteenth century, which (if any) put two on the field at the same time to form a left-handed double play combination? Online sources such as Baseball Reference don’t currently provide such information, so I set about answering that question myself. Starting with Stathead Baseball queries for lefties who played second base or shortstop between 1871 and 2024, I extracted the number of regular season games each played at those positions by season. I then flagged teams that used a LH second baseman and a different LH shortstop at any time during a season. Finally, I combed through contemporary box scores to identify specific games in which a LH DP combination was used.

This analysis identified 63 regular season games in which a LH second baseman played alongside a LH shortstop; 19 NA games 27 AA games, 16 NL games and 1 AL game. None were found in the Union Association, Players’ League or Negro Leagues, with the possible exception of the 1942 Jacksonville Red Caps of the Negro American League. The Red Caps used lefty William Dyke at second base for one game and lefty Jabbo Andrews at short for one game, but the few Red Caps box-scores that I have uncovered do not show them playing together as middle infielders. A total of 12 teams deployed LH DP combinations, none after 1902. No team employed their LHMI pairings for more than 19 games, with most doing so only once or twice.

The two teams that used a LH double play combination for more than a dozen games, the 1874 NL Hartford Dark Blues and the 1889 AA Columbus squad, each lost more than two-thirds of those contests. In aggregate, teams that used LH double play combinations won fewer than a third of the games they played (20 of 63).

The underlying database used to identify LH double play combinations resides at Baseball Reference, which as of March 2026 lacked definition of the throwing arm for many nineteenth-century ballplayers. Just on teams known to have used a LH second baseman or shortstop between 1871 and 1909, over 100 middle infielders have an unknown throwing arm. Assuming that some of those were lefties, the list of teams that used LH DP combos may well be longer than that shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Number of Games Played with Left-Handed Double Play Combination, by Decade and League

Pending future handedness discoveries, let’s take a closer look at the 12 teams we know used a LH double play combination, in particular who were their unorthodox tandems, how those pairings came to be and how they fared in the field. As detailed below, nearly all of these LH double play combinations were stop-gap measures—temporary assignments after the right-handed partner of a LHMI regular proved unable to play or produce.

 

Table 5. List of Teams that Fielded a Left-Handed Double Play Combination

LEFT-HANDED DOUBLE PLAY COMBINATIONS—EXTENDED ENGAGEMENTS

The 1874 Hartford Blue Legs used two double-play combinations: first, Lip Pike at second base and Bob Addy for one game at shortstop and then Addy at short and Pike at short for 18 games. On August 11, Hartford’s regular shortstop, Tom Barlow, fell ill during a home game against the Philadelphia White Stockings. Facing the Whites the next day in Boston, Pike, the team captain, moved regular second baseman Addy to short, and installed himself at second base.20 Barlow returned to the lineup for Hartford’s next NA championship season game, but a few weeks later was hospitalized. Pike put himself at short and left Addy at second, positions they manned for the rest of the season.

In the games that they played together, both Addy and Pike fielded their positions well, registering normalized fielding percentages (ratioed to league average for their positions) of 1.07 and 1.01, respectively. Describing the duo’s defensive work in one contest, the Brooklyn Union wrote “…Addy and Pike played sharply in their positions.”21

Some 120 years later, the cause for Barlow’s lengthy absence at the tail end of the 1874 season was touched on in Ken Burns’ sweeping documentary, Baseball. In the first inning/episode of that eleven-part PBS series, a letter Barlow that sent to the Boston Times was read in which he claimed that a shot of morphine to relieve pain from a catching injury he suffered on August 10, 1874 sent him on a path to addiction.22 Barlow in fact played shortstop that day, and didn’t catch at all for Hartford in 1874, but whatever prompted his illness the next day may have led to the first known use of a LH DP combination in a professional baseball organization.

1874 HARTFORD DARK BLUES

Not for another 15 years did a major league team lean so heavily on a LH double play combination—the 1889 Columbus “Babies,” as some Ohio newspapers called the newest addition to the American Association.23 Throughout that season, lefty Bill Greenwood was Columbus’ regular second baseman, on his way to establishing the major league record for most games played by a LH second baseman (538). When righty shortstop Henry Easterday became unavailable for 17 games while tending to his late father’s affairs, regular third baseman Lefty Marr, a southpaw, manned his position. For three games, on July 6 through 8 against the defending AA champion St. Louis Browns, lefty Spud Johnson backfilled at third base, giving Columbus the only major league lineup known to include a LH second baseman, shortstop and third baseman.24

 

1889 COLUMBUS “BABIES”

In the games where they were paired as middle infielders, both Greenwood and Marr fielded slightly below league average. In their eighth game together, on July 13 in Louisville, Marr committed 5 errors. A merciless game summary in the next day’s Louisville Courier-Journal claimed that “if Mr. Marr could have stopped anything short of a wrecked freight train, the spectators failed to see it,” noted “[Marr] has the bad habit of throwing at the clouds,” and depicted Marr in crude cartoon form as comically bow-legged.25

Figure 5. Lefty Marr depiction in the July 14, 1889 edition of the Louisville Courier-Journal after committing five errors the day before.

LEFT-HANDED DOUBLE PLAY COMBINATIONS—LIMITED ENGAGEMENTS

The 1877 Cincinnati Reds began the year with lefty Jimmy Hallinan as their regular second baseman and righty Jack Manning at shortstop. A month into the NL season, Manning, arguably the worst-fielding shortstop in the league, made two costly errors in a road loss to the St. Louis Brown Stockings. For the Reds next game, back home in Cincinnati on June 5 against the Chicago White Stockings, manager-captain-center fielder Lip Pike installed himself at shortstop. Pike played the position “splendidly” that day according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, but in the Reds’ next game, made four errors in an 11–6 loss.26 Two days later, Pike resigned as captain of the 3–10 Reds and moved back into the outfield.27

1877 CINCINNATI REDS

Through the first nine weeks of the 1879 season, LH rookie Jimmy Macullar spent most days manning shortstop for the Syracuse Stars alongside slick-fielding rookie second baseman Jack Farrell. When Farrell turned up sick for a July 8 battle with the Cincinnati Reds, lefty Hick Carpenter was installed at second base.28 Carpenter, also in his first year as a major leaguer, did well that day but made four errors in his next game as a second baseman; he was “utterly at sea whenever a ball was batted in his direction” according to the Chicago Tribune.29 Farrell replaced Carpenter in the Stars’ next game and Carpenter never again played second base in the major leagues. He did go on to play more games at third base than any other lefty, 1059, most while a member of the Reds. Macullar was also destined to set a positional record, his 325 games at shortstop the most for any portsider.

The inaugural edition of the NL Philadelphia Phillies featured lefty Bill McClellan as its regular shortstop with LH utilityman Bill Harbridge as his backup. When manager-captain-second baseman Bob “Death to Flying Things” Ferguson came up with a finger injury before a game on May 12 with the Chicago White Stockings, he moved Harbridge in from left field for a few games.30 A few weeks later, when Ferguson was away recruiting, Harbridge again replaced him for handful of games.31 In the last of eight games that Harbridge and McClellan were paired as a double-play combination, the Philadelphia Times identified Harbridge as one of several Phillies who made great running catches, and claimed McClellan “outdid himself at short-stop.”32

The first regular season major league game played by the franchise that would become the Dodgers featured captain Bill Greenwood at second base and lefty John Cassidy, a last-minute replacement, at shortstop. The day before, the club had released its sore-armed and/or sore-handed shortstop, Denny Mack.33 An outfielder by trade, Cassidy made two errors in the first inning of the May 1 opener, paving the way for the Washington Nationals to score six runs. Catcher Jack Corcoran was shifted to shortstop for Brooklyn’s next game, followed by Billy Geer, a refugee from the Philadelphia Keystones of the Union Association. Soon to become a prolific and oft-incarcerated check forger, Geer was Brooklyn’s everyday shortstop for the rest of the season.34

As noted earlier, Billy Barnie’s 1884 Orioles had LH Jimmy Macullar as their everyday shortstop. With his 22–13 squad fighting for the AA lead, Barnie put LH catcher Sam Trott at second base in place of light-hitting (.205/.275/.293) Tim Manning for a June 26 game in Indianapolis. Solid infield play by the Trott-Macullar duo “provoked much applause” from Hoosier fans, according to the Baltimore Sun.35 Barnie paired Trott with Macullar five more times that summer. In a July 15 game in Cincinnati, Trott and Macullar teamed up on a 4–3–6 twin-killing that the Sun called “a lightning double play.”36

By 1886, LH Bill McClellan had replaced Greenwood as Brooklyn’s second baseman. On Sunday, May 16, the Brooklyns were hosting the Athletics of Philadelphia for a game at Ridgewood Park in Queens County, a location that allowed the club to skirt state and local blue laws. Unable to handle the swift offerings of pitcher Henry Porter in early going, LH substitute catcher Dave Oldfield was moved to shortstop in the third inning. This proved to be the only middle infield appearance in Oldfield’s brief (48 game) major league career.

 

1886 BROOKLYN

On September 25, 1892, shortstop Bill Dahlen of the Chicago Colts found himself in a Milwaukee courtroom. He was defending himself from a lawsuit filed by the Brewers of the recently-defunct Western League for accepting $500 advance money before jumping to the Colts. In Dahlen’s absence, Chicago captain Cap Anson moved LH Jimmy Ryan from left field to shortstop for that afternoon’s series finale in Pittsburgh. With Dahlen still unavailable the next day for a game in Louisville, Anson kept Ryan at short and moved rookie right fielder George Decker, another portsider, to second base in place of weak-hitting Jim Connor.38 The Colts were “Chicagoed” (shutout) by the Colonels, 11–0, but the Chicago Inter Ocean reported that Decker “played a fine game.”39 Anson kept Decker at second base for the last seven games of the season, paired with Dahlen at shortstop for five and Ryan once again for the final two.

The Colts opened the 1893 season with Decker as their second baseman. Two weeks into the season, Dahlen stopped a “hot grounder” with his left eye during pre-game warmups in St. Louis, and so Anson put Ryan in at shortstop, as he’d done the year before.40 Ryan handled five chances flawlessly but Decker was one of several Colts accused of “particularly rank…work” by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in a loss to the Browns.41

 

1892 CHICAGO COLTS

 

1893 CHICAGO COLTS

The most recent major league team to use a LH double play combination was the 1902 St. Louis Browns of the American League. Heading into the final day of the season, the Browns had clinched second place behind the Philadelphia Athletics. After winning the opening game of their September 28 home doubleheader with the Chicago White Sox, Browns manager Jimmy McAleer decided to mix things up. He shuffled his regular lineup, moving many of his players out of their regular positions. LH right-fielder Charlie Hemphill started the game at second base, with LH left-fielder (and future Hall of Famer) Jesse Burkett at shortstop. Chicago manager Clark Griffith also got in on the fun, sending catcher Sam Mertes (normally a left fielder) out to pitch, with pitcher Frank Isbell (usually the first baseman) as his backstop. He then had the duo switch positions every inning.

A few frames into the “diamond burlesque,” Burkett went in to pitch, but before he did, he turned a 6–6–3 double play from his position at short.42 Hemphill, the only Brownie to spend the entire game at one position, was lauded for his play in the field by the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. “Hemphill did some really first-class work at second, and he would make a high-class infielder with practice.”43 Over the remaining eight years of his major league career, Hemphill played in the infield just once more—at second base for four innings in 1904.

 

1902 ST. LOUIS BROWNS

DEFENSIVE METRICS

Twin Killings

Across the dozen LH double play combinations identified above, six double plays were turned in which both middle infielders were credited with an assist or putout. The earliest was the 4–3–6 twin killing turned by Trott and Macullar of the 1884 Orioles. The other five were turned by the 1889 Columbus tandem of Greenwood and Marr: a 4–6–3 twin killing on July 6, 1889 and four 6–4–3 double plays pulled off across three games later that same month.44 Six more double plays were converted in which only one of the two LH middle infielders was credited with an assist or putout.

Excluding the 1874 NA duo of Addy and Pike, as double play totals were frequently left unreported in most contemporary accounts of NA games, LH double play combinations were involved in a double play roughly once in every 40 chances (0.0236 DP/chance). That is significantly less frequent than annual major league averages for all middle infielders between 1876 and 1902, who turned between 0.039 and 0.072 DP/chance (Figure 7). Further analysis would be needed to tease out how much of that difference is due to the left-handedness of the double play combinations versus their lack of familiarity, either to one another or the position they were playing.

Figure 7. Average DP/chance for middle infielders across all major leagues, 1876–1902.

Fielding Percentages

Looking at fielding percentages for regularly-used LHMIs relative to their peers, an interesting trend emerges. During the NA years (1871–75), roughly half of the left-handed middle infielders who appeared in 10 or more games fielded above league-average. That group included second basemen Al Reach, Bob Addy and Lip Pike as well as shortstop Billy Redmond of the short-lived 1875 St. Louis Red Stockings. From 1876 through 1890, LHMIs fielded their positions at a level above league-average in only four of 33 instances where a player appeared in 10 or more games—shortstop Jimmy Macullar of the 1884 Orioles (1.005), second baseman Bill McClellan of the 1885 Brooklyns (1.001), second baseman Bill Greenwood of the 1887 Orioles (1.024), a year in which he led all AA second basemen in fielding percentage, and Elmer Sutcliffe of the 1888 Detroit Wolverines (1.023). Every LHMI used for 10 games or more in a season after 1890, totaling 11 instances across eight players, fielded below league-average.45

The inability of LHMIs to perform defensively at what would now be called replacement level may well have reinforced the perspective that lefties were ill-suited for the middle infield positions and helped contribute to their dying off.

 

Figure 8. Fielding percentages for all LHMIs who appeared in 10 or more games in a season, normalized to league average for their position.

The last data point in Figure 7 corresponds to Willie Keeler, a LH outfielder who played a dozen games at second base for the 1905 New York Highlanders. The future Hall of Famer, who advised batters to “keep your eyes clear and hit ‘em where they ain’t,” was no fan of left-handers as middle infielders.46 A few years before manning the keystone sack for the Highlanders, Keeler was asked if a left-handed second baseman, shortstop or third baseman could succeed in the infield. “No, not in the big league” was his reply, made at a time when the NL was the only major league in operation.47 Keeler’s stance, similar to that of Chadwick before him, still governs the placement of left-handed ballplayers all these years later. 

LARRY DeFILLIPO is a retired aerospace engineer and former Division III college pitcher who lives in Kennewick, Washington, with his wife Kelly. His work has been published in BRJ, The National Pastime and several SABR special publications, most recently a celebration of the 2001 Seattle Mariners titled “Two Outs, So What!” Particularly intrigued by baseball’s formative years, he has twice presented at the Fred Ivor-Campbell Nineteenth Century Baseball Conference. He’s authored dozens of game stories for SABR’s Games Project, many ballplayers and ballpark biographies for SABR’s Biography Project, and serves as a fact-checker for both of those endeavors.

Author’s Note

As an 11-year-old southpaw, I was stationed at second-base, by a Little League coach who was willing to defy convention. Long fascinated with that experience, I had the opportunity to relive it of sorts 40 years later, by briefly playing shortstop on a senior softball team.

Sources

The author relied on Baseball Reference for season-specific player, team and league statistics and on box scores and summaries published in the following newspapers for game-by-game statistics: Baltimore Sun, Boston Evening Transcript, Boston Globe, Brooklyn Eagle, Brooklyn Times, Brooklyn Union, Buffalo Courier-Express, Chicago Inter Ocean, Chicago Tribune, Cincinnati Enquirer, Cleveland Evening Post, Cleveland Leader, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Columbus Dispatch, Detroit Free Press, Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator, Hartford Courant, Indianapolis Journal, Kansas City Journal, Kansas City Times, Louisville Courier-Journal, New York Clipper, New York Sun, The New York Times, New York Tribune, New York World, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Sunday Dispatch, Philadelphia Times, Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, Pittsburgh Post, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, St. Louis Republic, St. Paul Globe, The Sporting Life, Troy Daily Times, Washington National Republican, Washington Post, Washington Chronicle, Worcester (Massachusetts) Evening Gazette.

Notes

1. Lauren Julius Harris, “In Fencing, What Gives Left-Handers the Edge? Views From the Present and the Distant Past,” Laterality, January 2010: 15.

2. Peggy Kane-Hopton, “Recipe for a Setter,” USA Volleyball, https://usavolleyball.org/resource/recipe-for-a-setter/, accessed March 20, 2026.

3. “Luke Appling Stats & Facts,” This Day in Baseball website, https://thisdayinbaseball.com/luke-appling-page/, accessed July 11, 2025.

4. Alex Pavlovic, “Pitching Panda: Pablo Sandoval’s Journey From Wild Little Leaguer to Mowing Down Dodgers,” NBC Bay Area website, April 28, 2018, https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/sports/pitching_panda__pablo_sandoval_s_journey_from_wild_little_leaguer_to_mowing_down_dodgers/61167/.

5. “Left-handers who played 2B, post-1920,” Quirky Research website, https://www.quirkyresearch.com/baseball-lists/left-handers-who-played-2b-post-1920/, accessed July 12, 2025. On May 22, 1954, Nino Escalera of the Cincinnati Reds filled in for regular shortstop Roy McMillan in the bottom of the eighth inning for one batter: Stan Musial. Escalera was stationed not on the infield dirt for Musial’s at-bat, but as fourth outfielder on the right side of the field. Tony S. Oliver, “Nino Escalera,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/nino-escalera/.

6. David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2006), 67.

7. Richard Sandomir, “Founding Rules of ‘Base Ball’ Sell for $3.26 Million in Auction,” New York Times, April 14, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/25/sports/baseball/founding-rules-of-baseball-sell-for-3-million-in-auction.html; “The Laws of Base Ball,” Doc Adams Baseball website, https://docadamsbaseball.org/photo-galleries/laws-base-ball/, accessed July 10, 2025.

8. New York Clipper, August 11, 1866.

9. New York Clipper, January 11, 1873.

10. A play-by-play account published in the Washington Daily National Intelligencer on the following Monday highlighted a “good play” by Addy in the first, a “well done” on a pop fly in the fifth and a ball “put lively to first” in the eighth for an inning-ending double play. An adjacent article described the final testimony in the trial of fugitive John H. Suratt for his role in the plot to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln. That scheme resulted in John Wilkes Booth assassinating Lincoln in April 1865. “Base Ball Affairs,” Washington Daily National Intelligencer, July 29, 1867: 3.

11. “Atlantics vs. Red Stockings,” New York Tribune, June 15, 1870: 5.

12. “Athletic Club of Philadelphia,” New York Clipper, March 12, 1870: 389; See also, for example “A Game of Base Ball,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 19, 1867: 2.

13. Steve Hatcher, “John McMullin,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/john-mcmullin/; Athletic Club of Philadelphia;” “Base Ball,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 19, 1869: 1.

14. “Powhatan vs. Eckford,” Brooklyn Eagle, July 13, 1869: 2.

15. Van Haltren, who had spent most of his career as an outfielder/pitcher, proved to be a poor defensive shortstop. This prompted Barnie to search nationwide for a replacement. He found one in 18-year-old John McGraw, a right-handed shortstop playing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Later moved to third base, McGraw starred under Barnie’s successor, Ned Hanlon, as the Orioles team dominated the NL in the mid-1890s. Larry DeFillipo, “August 26, 1891: John McGraw beats back butterflies to ignite game-winning rally in debut,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/august-26-1891-john-mcgraw-beats-back-butterflies-to-ignite-game-winning-rally-in-debut/.

16. Robert D. Warrington, “Philadelphia in the 1882 League Alliance,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2019, https://sabr.org/journal/article/philadelphia-in-the-1882-league-alliance/.

17. “Left-Handed Ball Players,” Anaconda (Montana) Standard, April 14, 1898: 12.

18. Lefties John Shoup (the first major leaguer born in West Virginia) and Oscar Walker (the first player to hit a home run at the original Polo Grounds) played two games and one game, respectively, at second base for St. Louis in the inaugural season of the American Association.

19. Eleven teams were identified that used different lefties at second base and shortstop during a regular season, but never at the same time: 1871 Troy Haymakers (NA), 1873 Philadelphia White Stockings (NA), 1882, 83, 87, and 88 Baltimore Orioles (AA), 1883 Louisville Eclipse (AA), 1888 Detroit Wolverines (NL), 1889 Chicago White Stockings (NL), 1890 Rochester Hop Bitters/Broncos (AA), and 1899 St. Louis Browns (NL).

20. The Dark Blues were playing in Boston to take advantage of larger gate receipts while the hometown Red Stockings were off touring the British Isles. “Philadelphia vs. Hartford,” New York Clipper, August 22, 1874: 165.

21. “A Close Game with the Mutuals,” Brooklyn Union, October 16, 1874: 3.

22. “Inning 1: I Was a Catcher,” Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns, The Baseball Film Project, Inc., 1994.

23. See, for example “Viau’s Fine Work,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 12, 1889: 2 and “Ball Talk,” Columbus Evening Dispatch, July 20, 1889: 4.

24. Larry DeFillipo, “July 6, 1889: Columbus starts lefties at second base, third base and shortstop in loss to St. Louis,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july-6-1889-columbus-starts-lefties-at-second-base-third-base-and-shortstop-in-loss-to-st-louis/.

25. “A Ten Inning Game,” Louisville Courier-Journal, July 14, 1889: 4.

26. “The Leather-Lammers,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 6, 1877: 2; “Base-Ball,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 8, 1877: 2.

27. “Base-Ball,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 10, 1877: 8.

28. See, for example, glowing praise for Farrell’s gloveless work by Cincinnati sportswriter O.P. Caylor in “Victory,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 5, 1879: 12 and alluded to in “Notes,” Buffalo Commercial, June 10, 1879: 3. Farrell’s absence is mentioned in “Yesterday’s Base Ball Games, and Other Sporting News,” Buffalo Courier Express, July 10, 1879: 4.

29. “Chicago vs. Syracuse,” Chicago Tribune, July 11, 1879: 5.

30. “Chicago 6, Philadelphia 3,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 14, 1883: 2.

31. In the period between his two absences, Ferguson was replaced as captain by Blondie Purcell, making it unclear whose decision it was to again use Harbridge at second base. Brian McKenna, “Bob Ferguson,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/bob-ferguson-2/; “Base Ball Notes,” Philadelphia Times, June 13, 1883: 1.

32. “The Buffaloes ‘Chicagoed’ by the Philadelphias in a Splendid Game,” Philadelphia Times, June 15, 1883: 3.

33. “The National Game,” New York Sun, May 1, 1884: 3; “The Progress of the Base Ball Season,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 4, 1884: 9.

34. Bill Carle, “Billy Geer,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/billy-geer/.

35. “The Baltimore Defeat the Indianapolis Club by a Score of 3 to 1,” Baltimore Sun, June 27, 1884: 4.

36. “The National Game,” Baltimore Sun, July 16, 1884: 4.

37. “Base-Ball,” Baltimore Sun, June 17, 1885: 4.

38. One of four righties Anson used at second base, Connor had managed only two hits in 34 at-bats.

39. “Calcine for Colts,” Chicago Inter Ocean, September 27, 1892: 6.

40. “Batting Clothes On,” Chicago Inter Ocean, May 11, 1893: 4.

41. “Tebeau’s Tigers,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 11, 1893: 6.

42. “Browns and White Sox Close Season in Unique Manner,” St. Louis Republic, September 29, 1902: 4.

43. “Browns Final Game,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 29, 1902: 4.

44. The 6–4–3 double plays were turned on July 9 versus the Cincinnati Reds, July 20 versus the Baltimore Orioles and July 27 when two were converted in a game with the Louisville Colonels.

45. Those players were second basemen George Decker, Jake Boyd, and Willie Keeler and shortstops George Van Haltren, Jimmy Ryan, Billy Hulen, Russ Hall, and Scott Hardesty.

46. “Baseball,” Jersey City (New Jersey) News, February 19, 1902: 3.

47. “A Talk with Billy Keeler,” Brooklyn Eagle, January 9, 1898: 9.