Searching Out the Switch Hitters

In the last decade or so there has been an increased emphasis on switch hitting.  Mickey Mantle, the first great power hitter who swung from either side, probably had something to do with this.  But there have been many other good switch hitters in recent years, such as Pete Rose, Maury Wills, Wes Parker, Don Kessinger, Don Buford, Reggie Smith, and Roy White.

About eight years ago, I decided to undertake some research in this area of baseball and began to compile some home run data on major league switch hitters.  It looked like an easy job.  The first step was to make a list of all switch hitters.  Several baseball encyclopedias listed the BATS for all players.  In addition, the official NL and AL batting averages have included BATS since 1917 and 1919 respectively.  Several Sporting News publications, Who’s Who in Baseball, the National League Green Book, and the American League Red Book also list BATS.

I compiled my initial list of switch hitters from a baseball encyclopedia.  Then, as I began obtaining data from the official batting averages, discrepancies began to appear between the BATS in the encyclopedia and those in the averages.  In checking out these discrepancies, additional problems began to appear.  I decided to postpone my original project and concentrate on compiling a reliable list of switch hitters.

One of the big problems was caused by the fact that many players switch hit during only a part of their major league career.  The encyclopedias usually listed these players as switch hitters. There are several players who switch hit for only one season and are listed as switch hitters in the encyclopedias.

I decided that my list would have to include notations on the years played in the majors that the player did not switch hit.  The best source of information for this was the yearly official batting averages.  However, this source was not entirely reliable.  In some cases, the official averages would carry a player as a switch hitter for several seasons after he had given up switching.  Also, there were many typographical errors on BATS in the official average.

It seemed that each day my records were becoming more confused.  In order to dig out of this confusion, I made switch hitter data forms.  A form was filled out for every player who was mentioned as a switch hitter by any source.  These forms listed, year-by-year, the player’s BATS from every possible baseball publication.  Each form was then studied and approximately 100 of them contained questionable data.  These forms were set aside for further investigation.  Many of the players involved were still living.  I have been fortunate in being able to contact most of these players.  I have also contacted close relatives of a few deceased players.  In other cases, information was obtained by searching through old newspapers.

Several examples of players with questionable records include the following:

Wally Schang is listed as a switch hitter by all sources with the exception of the 1927 and 1929 official averages.  These averages list him as a right handed batter.  Why would an established major league player give up switch hitting for two seasons in the latter part of his career?  Research through old St. Louis newspapers revealed that Schang really was a switch hitter in 1927 and 1928.

Augie Galan is listed in the official averages as a switch hitter from the beginning of his major league career in 1934 through 1940, as a right handed batter in 1941, as a switch hitter from 1942 through 1944, and as a left handed batter from 1945 through the end of his career in 1949.  Galan wrote that he was a switch hitter until 1943 when he began batting exclusively left handed.

Pete Reiser is listed in the official averages as a switch hitter from 1948 through 1951.  He is listed as a left handed batter for the balance of his major league career.  Several encyclopedias list him as a switch hitter.  Reiser wrote to me stating that he batted right handed about five times during his entire career.

During my investigation, I ran into a number of special cases.  As a result, I established a set of ground rules to define a switch hitter as follows:

If a player experimented with switch hitting for a short period during a season, he is not considered as a switch hitter.   For example, Chris Speier switch hit for the first four games of the 1972 season with 14 at bats.

He is not considered as a switch hitter.

If a player switch hit for an extended period of time during a season, he is considered as a switch hitter for that season. For example, Jerry Kindall switch hit for the last month of the 1960 season.  He is considered a switch hitter for that season.

If a player switch hit part of the time during an entire season, he is considered as a switch hitter for that season.  For example, for several years Grant Jackson was normally a switch hitter.  However, he batted left handed against certain left handed pitchers because he felt that there was a high risk of getting hit on his pitching arm (left arm) by these pitchers.   He is still considered as a switch hitter for those seasons.

There seems to be a trend towards more experimenting with switch hitting by present day players, particularly pitchers.   In spite of the fact that baseball record keeping in general has been improving, it is difficult to keep up with the switch hitters.   The official averages and the record books continue to contain many errors.  Each year I write to various public relations directors regarding switch hitters on their clubs.  I get only about a 60% response.    I usually get a better response by writing directly to the players.  Quite often, I can get information on active players by watching the newspapers closely.

The best example of obtaining information from current newspaper stories is an article in The Sporting News on Paul Blair.    Blair started the 1971 season as a switch hitter after having been a right handed batter for his entire career previously.    The article stated that Blair started batting right handed against certain right handed pitchers after the first several weeks of the season.   With a little more than a month of the season gone, he gave up batting left handed entirely.   At that point he had 11 hits for 57 at-bats with 3 runs batted in and no home runs while batting left handed.   His overall totals at that point were 23 hits for 92 at-bats with 11 runs batted in and 3 home runs.  With information like this on all switch hitters, there would be no problems.

There are still several “unsolved cases”.  The most interesting one is William “Pinky” Hargrave.   Pinky was the brother of Bubbles Hargrave, the NL batting champ in 1926.  Pinky was a pretty good player himself with a batting average of .278 for ten seasons.  The official averages listed his BATS as follows:  right handed from 1923 through 1926 while playing for Washington and the St. Louis Browns; switch hitter in 1927 in the International League; switch hitter from 1928 through 1932 with Detroit, Washington, and the Boston Braves; and left handed in 1933 with the Braves.   Unfortunately, both Pinky and his brother are deceased.   I haven’t made much progress on this case.

Other players with questionable switch hitting records are:

John Anderson – listed as a switch hitter in the Macmillan Encyclopedia and as a right handed batter in all other encyclopedias. Finished career before BATS were listed in official averages.

Jay Clarke – Listed as a left handed batter in the Macmillan Encyclopedia and as a switch hitter in all     others.  Listed as left handed batter in 1919 official averages.   Balance of career was before BATS were listed in official averages.

Wayland Dean – Listed as switch hitter in 1924 and 1925 official averages and as left handed batter in1926 and 1927 averages.

Frank Gibson – Listed in official averages as left handed batter in 1921 and 1922, switch hitter in 1923, left handed in 1924, and as switch hitter from 1925 through 1927.

William Lamar – Listed in official averages as switch hitter for 1927, his last season in the majors. Listed as a left hander for the balance of his major league career and, also, for 1928 while playing in the International League.

James Levey – Listed in the official averages as a right handed batter for 1930 and 1931, as a left hander for 1932, and as a switch hitter for 1933.

Earl L. Smith – Listed in the official averages as a switch hitter for 1919 and as a left handed batter from 1920 through 1922.   Listed in 1921 and 1922 as a left hander, and in all other encyclopedias as a switch hitter.

Ross Youngs – Played in only seven games in 1917 and not included in official averages.  Listed as switch hitter in averages for 1918 and as a left hander for the balance of his career.   Listed in Macmillan Encyclopedia as a left hander.   Listed in all others and in several Sporting News publications as a switch hitter.  A couple of oldtimers seem to think that Youngs came up to the Giants as a switch hitter and that John McGraw asked him to give it up after a short time with the club.

In spite of a number of these unresolved cases, a considerable amount of information is now available on switch hitters of the past.  Appended to this discourse is a listing of the all-time best season records and then the lifetime totals in various batting categories for the best ambidextrous batters.    (For lifetime totals I consider those who switch hit at least for one-half of their careers).  Stolen bases are not included because switch hitting should have no bearing on steals.   However, it bears mentioning that, for some strange reason, switch swingers seem to excel as base stealers far beyond their limited numbers. Take for example, such aggressive base runners as Max Carey, George Davis, Maury Wills, Frank Frisch, Bob Bescher, Donie Bush., Tommy Tucker, Tom Daly, Walter Wilmot, John Anderson, Miller Ruggins, Augie Galan, Jim Gilliam, Don Buford, and Sandy Alomar.   Maybe it is the switch hitters competitive desire to get on base one way or the other that carries over on the base paths.

SEASON RECORDS FOR SWITCH HITTERS

 

Year	Department	Season Leader and Club	Total
1962	At Rats	Maury Wills, Los Angeles NL	695
1922	Runs	Max Carey, Pittsburgh NL	140
1923	Hits	Frank Frisch, New York NL	223
1970	Doubles	Wes Parker, Los Angeles NL	47
1893	Triples	George Davis, New York NL	27
1961	Home Runs	Mickey Mantle, New York AL	54
1897	Walks	Mickey Mantle, New York NL	146
1897	RBI	George Davis, New York NL	134
1889	Batting	Tommy Tucker, Baltimore AA	0.372
1956	Slugging	Mickey Mantle, New York AL	0.705

 

LIFETIME RECORDS FOR SWITCH HITTERS

 

Runs Batted In			Bases on Balls
Mickey Mantle	1509		Mickey Mantle	1734
George Davis	1426		Donie Bush	1158
Frank Fristh	1244		Lu Blue	1092
John Anderson	976		Max Carey	1040
Charles Farrell	913		Jim Gilliam	1036
Tom Tucker	848		Miller Huggins	1002
Augie Galan	830		Augie Galan	979
Tom Daly	811		George Davis	867
Max Carey	800		Roy Cullenbine	852
Red Schoendienst	773		Wally Schang	849

 

 

Batting Average			Slugging Average
Frank Frisch	0.316		Mickey Mantle	0.557
Pete Rose	0.309		Rip Collins	0.492
Mickey Mantle	0.298		Pete Rose	0.436
Rip Collins	0.296		Roy Cullenbine	0.432
George Davis	0.294		Frank Frisch	0.432
John Anderson	0.290		Augie Galan	0.419
Tom Tucker	0.290		George Davis	0.405
Red Schoendienst	0.289		John Anderson	0.404
Lu Blue	0.287		Lu Blue	0.401
Augie Galan	0.287		Wally Schang	0.401
Walter Holke	0.287

 

 LIFETIME RECORDS FOR SWITCH HITTERS

 

At Bats			Runs
Max Carey	9363		Mickey Mantle	1677
Frank Frisch	9112		Max Carey	1545
George Davis	8983		Frank Frisch	1532
Red Schoendienst	8479		George Davis	1529
Mickey Mantle	8102		Donie Bush	1280
Maury Wills	7588		Red Schoendienst	1223
Donie Bush	7210		Jim Gilliam	1163
Dave Bancroft	7182		Lu Blue	1151
Jim Gilliam	7119		Tom Tucker	1084
Tom Tucker	6479		Maury Wills	1067
Hits			Doubles
Frank Frisch	2880		Frank Frisch	466
Max Carey	2665		George Davis	449
George Davis	2645		Red Schoendienst	427
Red Schoendienst	2449		Max Carey	419
Mickey Mantle	2415		Mickey Mantle	344
Maury Wills	2134		Augie Galan	336
Dave Bancroft	2004		John Anderson	328
Pete Rose	1922		Dave Bancroft	320
Jim Gilliam	1889		Lu Blue	319
Tom Tucker	1882		Pete Rose	313
Triples			Home Runs
George Davis	162		Mickey Mantle	536
Max Carey	159		Tom Tresh	153
Frank Frisch	138		Rip Collins	135
John Anderson	124		Reggie Smith	128
Lu Blue	109		Roy Cullenbine	110
Tom Daly	103		Pete Rose	109
Dan McGann	102		Frank Frisch	105
Walter Wilmot	91		Augie Galan	100
Wally Schang	90		Don Buford	93
George LaChance	86		Dave Philley	84
			Red Schoendienst	84
			Roy White	84

 

August 14, 1929 was Charlie Gehringer Day in Detroit.  The “mechanical man” responded with a homer, three singles, and a steal of home.