When I was in high school, I had an expository speech I did at speech contests about the superiority of left-handers (ahem). It was more than a bit tongue-in-cheek, mind you, but it was fun and went over pretty well.

Amanda forwarded me this NPR article from this morning: In Sports, Southpaws Needn't Feel Left Out : NPR 

You see, while lefties moan that the world at large discriminates against them — even though in modern times we usually find ourselves ruled by them, i.e. southpaw Presidents Truman, Ford, Reagan, Bush the elder and Clinton (and yes, two guys named McCain and Obama) — our sinister brethren have all the advantages in sports whenever they directly face right-handers.

Now an engineering professor named David Peters has come up with some basic statistics, which show what we righties always knew anyway, that baseball in particular is a gauche paradise. And that ain't no left-handed compliment.

In particular, in person-on-person sports, left-handers tend to do statistically better.

Whereas only about 10 percent of the whole human population is lefty, Peters revealed that about 25 percent of major leaguers are the minority-handed sort of people. More significant, in the Hall of Fame, of the 70 pitchers, 15 were southpaw — more than twice the Homo sapiens average. And hitters: of the 138 in Cooperstown, 59 were lefty, and eight more half-lefty switch-hitters. That means that an incredible 46 percent of the best hitters ever swung at those appetizing right-handed slants.

This is not, in fact, a demonstration of left-handed superiority, though it pains me to say so. It's simply a matter of familiarity. If most major league players, for example, do things right-handedly -- which impacts pitching, batting, etc. -- that's how most major league players are going to get used to playing against. The lefties do it a bit different, and therefore are less easy to deal with and so are more successful. Ditto for the examples given in basketball, tennis, boxing, etc.

When you look at golf, it's the reverse.

The best proof that lefties have an advantage in man-to-man competition comes, conversely, from golf, where you're not playing your opponent, only that neutral little ball. In the whole history of the PGA, left-handers have won only 37 tournaments, and Phil Mickelson has personally accounted for more than half of them. Mickelson might have won even more if he didn't make so many ditzy decisions.

That's because (a) as noted, the competition is against the ball, not the player (though if lefties and righties have different hitting characteristics, one might expect a small advantage to lefties in course design). More importantly, (b) golf equipment is almost exclusively right-handed. A left-hander is 99% likely to learn to golf right-handedly, which puts them at something of a disadvantage. (That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.)

Hmmmm ... maybe there's a class action law suit in there somewhere ...

UPDATE: An article from last month on why lefties may be more successful than average at the presidential game.

Filed under :: Health - Science :: Media - Sports :: Politics & Law
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Lots of burbling online over the protest sign -- supposed to have been taken at some anti-China protest related to the Olympic Torch back in April. I've seen a few credit it to San Francisco and a pro-Tibet rally. Les posted about it most recently. And, of course, the obvious retort is, "Um, yes, we did."

Three things:

1. I've not researched it exhaustively, but I can't find an actual solid news source (or any original source) for the picture. There is every possibility, I think that it's Photoshopped, rather than legit.  Note how crisp the letters are vs. the other parts of the image, though that could be a matter of focal depth. Second, how many protest signs would start with the phrase "Would we have ...?" That's a long phrase for signage, which is usually pithy and punchy to the point of incoherence. It just seems ... too obvious a setup. But, I'll confess, I could be wrong.

2. We don't "allow" any given country to host the Olympics. The host is chosen by the IOC, in which "we" (the US) have a voice. Unless the "we" refers to the International Community as a whole.
3. As has been noted elsewhere (see the comments to Les' post), while there were already a lot of troubling signs from Germany in 1936, that country wasn't yet outwardly that much worse than a lot of other nations lurking around at that point -- and certainly the US treatment of Jesse Owens was nothing to brag about. (Plus, the hosting decision was made in 1931, before the Nazi party had come to power.)

As to the merits of China hosting the Olympics, our participation therein, or the whole Olympic Movement itself -- that's another story.

I'm still not convinced it's readl.

Filed under :: Geopolitical Brouhaha :: Media - Sports
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Yeah, sometimes one actually has a bit of hope for the human race.

At the plate, Tucholsky concentrated on ignoring the wise guys. She took strike one. And then the senior did something she had never done before -- even in batting practice. The career .153 hitter smashed the next pitch over the center field fence for an apparent three-run home run.

The exuberant former high school point guard sprinted to first. As she reached the bag, she looked up to watch the ball clear the fence and missed first base. Six feet past the bag, she stopped abruptly to return and touch it. But something gave in her right knee; she collapsed on the base path.

Read the whole thing.

Filed under :: Media - Sports
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It's an announcement right out of left field! Episcopal Church named "official denomination" of Major League Baseball:

As a part of opening week festivities, Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori announced today that the Episcopal Church has been designated the Official Denomination of Major League Baseball. The move was announced today in a teleconference with reporters.

[...] Selig said that Episcopalians bring the right mix of arcane tradition, an appreciation of minutiae and a tolerance for long stretches of relative inaction that make them "a good fit for us."

"We believe that Episcopalians understand the nuances of the game and won't meddle with our traditions too much."

(Emphasis mine)

Plus, we have a fondness for seasonal activities and pretty uniforms!

Filed under :: Jokes :: Media - Sports :: Religion - Episcopal Church
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Randy sent me a note pointing me at SurfTheChannel, which looks like it aggregates online videos (of dubious, ah, copyright clearance) through a single site. I only briefly dipped into it, but it looks like it could be a huuuuuge time sink.

Not all the shows have full sets, but there's still an impressive array of things to watch (though some of the feeder sites are very slooooooow ...).

Filed under :: Hi-Tech :: Media - Cartoons :: Media - Movies :: Media - Sports :: Media - TV
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Great lesson for the kids! 

Kansas activities officials are investigating a religious school's refusal to let a female referee call a boys' high school basketball game.

The Kansas State High School Activities Association said referees reported that Michelle Campbell was preparing to officiate at St. Mary's Academy near Topeka on Feb. 2 when a school official insisted that Campbell could not call the game.

The reason given, according to the referees: Campbell, as a woman, could not be put in a position of authority over boys because of the academy's beliefs.

To their credit, both the scheduled co-official and another called in to ref the game declined to do so.

The Activities Association said it is considering whether to take action against the private religious school. St. Mary's Academy, about 25 miles northwest of Topeka, is owned and operated by the Society of St. Pius X, which follows older Roman Catholic laws. The society's world leader, the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, was excommunicated by Pope John Paul II in the late 1980s.

Gary Musselman, the association's executive director, said the organization will not make a decision until it confirms whether St. Mary's Academy has a policy of not allowing female referees to work boys basketball games.

If that is indeed the school's written policy, Musselman said, the association could decide to remove St. Mary's Academy from the list of approved schools and take away its ability to compete against the association's more than 300 member schools.

St. Mary's Academy officials declined comment when contacted by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

I think it's all a conspiracy by the feminazis ...

Filed under :: Media - Sports :: Religion :: ZT & PC
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... but this great list of Super Bowl logos is just too much fun not to post.

Filed under :: Media - Sports
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Too many tabs, too many things to do:

1. This year's Beloit Mindset list of what the Class of 2011 considers a normal part of their world.
2. Let soldiers blog! Folks don't realize that it's our ability to express ourselves, even critically, that makes this country great (esp. in the eyes of the rest of the world).
3. Another case of DRM screwing consumers. Sony's closing down their "Connect" DRM site, which means that folks who licensed music from them can only listen to it until they upgrade their PCs.
4. Yeah, I'm just waiting for a TSA agent to tell me to dump all the cables out of my brief case. Yeesh.
5. Cool interview with Russel T. Davies (of Doctor Who / Torchwood / etc fame). (via Les)
6. I am not a sporting fan, as anyone will tell you. That said, watching the last quarter or so of the Super Bowl yesterday was a real kick, with a record-breaking number of score lead changes and a couple of last-minute game-winning (or near-game-winning) plays. If they were all like that, I might be tempted to watch more football.

Filed under :: Blogging :: Geopolitical Brouhaha :: Homeland Security :: Media - Sports :: Media - TV - Doctor Who :: Media Moguls :: Potpourri :: School Daze :: Travel
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Unlike all the Cool Kids, I've never gotten down with using Tags for my blog entries.  I don't trust myself enough to tag things consistently, frankly.  So I use categories to group things together for those times I want to review a subject (vs. searching for individual posts).

I've added a bunch of new subcategories today for several categories that had grown unwieldingly large.  In most cases, these were categories I'd been pondering for a while, but which I finally got around to building.  I've done them as subcategories of the parent categories I'm trying to break up.

Now, in theory, I should go back through those parent categories and reassign things appropriately.  Alas, with over 12,000 entries, that's a herculean job that I'm saving for when I have a week with nothing else to do.  Perhaps when retire ...

So for the most part these categories are starting off as stubs that will build from this point, with possible backfilling if I reference back to an earlier post.  Let's see how that works for now; in another 12,000 posts, nobody will remember the difference.

Sub-categories being added:

• Blogging - Technical (to track posts about MT and technical issues with my blog, vs. other general Blogging subjects)
• Family (broken out from Personal)
• Health - Science (to distinguish from "I am down with the grippe" Health posts)
• Media - Art (to make various reference to the Tate Modern, etc.)
• Media - Sports (for the occasional obligatory sports post)
• My Mobile / PDA (for stuff having to do with cell phones and PDAs and combos thereof)
• Religion - Episcopal Church (broken out from the general Religion category)
• Religion - My Parish (my local church activities)
• Religion - Me (my own musings on the subject)

And I'm doing this post as much to note these changes as "starter" posts for those new subcategories than as anything I figure anyone would be interested in actually reading.  We now resume my regular blather, normally scheduled for this time.

Filed under :: Blogging - Technical :: Family :: Health - Science :: Media - Art :: Media - Sports :: My Mobile / PDA :: Religion - Episcopal Church :: Religion - Me :: Religion - My Parish
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