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Faizan
Baseball has been around for more than a century, and it has developed its own language along the way. Some of baseball's colloquial terms are silly -- a batter "wears" a pitch that hits him, and a fielder gets "the yips" when he can't throw a ball straight. And some of it is downright misleading -- the foul pole is in fair territory and a knuckleball is pitched off the fingernails. But the term southpaw literally has a grounded origin story.
The Compass of a Baseball Field
The term southpaw derives from the construction of early baseball grounds. Home plate was set to the west so the afternoon sun stayed out of the hitter's eyes. Orientation to the sun was a safety issue back when hitters didn't wear helmets. The bright light and heat was also kept away from people sitting in the expensive seats behind the backstop. And when a left-handed pitcher toed the rubber out of the windup, his pitching arm faced south.
The term southpaw derives from the construction of early baseball grounds. Home plate was set to the west so the afternoon sun stayed out of the hitter's eyes. Orientation to the sun was a safety issue back when hitters didn't wear helmets. The bright light and heat was also kept away from people sitting in the expensive seats behind the backstop. And when a left-handed pitcher toed the rubber out of the windup, his pitching arm faced south.
