Early ball fields were built so that home plate faced to the east. That way, the late afternoon sun wouldn't be in the batter's eyes, a dangerous situation when a baseball is thrown in your direction. The pitcher faced west, and if he was left handed, the ball would be thrown with his south side hand, his "south paw".

A person who is left-handed primarily uses his or her left hand, more so than the right hand; a left-hander will probably use the left hand for tasks such as personal care, cooking, and so on. Writing is not as precise an indicator of handedness as it might seem, because some people who are left-handed write with their right hand and use their left for everything else. A left-handed individual may be known as a southpaw, particularly within sports in the United States. It is widely accepted that the term originates in baseball[13]. Ballparks are often designed so that the batter is facing east, in order that the afternoon or evening sun does not shine in his eyes. This means that left-handed pitchers are throwing from the south side. The first use of the term is credited to Finley Peter Dunne. However, the Oxford English Dictionary lists a non-baseball citation for "south paw", meaning a punch with the left hand, as early as 1848[14], just three years after the first organized baseball game. In boxing (not just in the United States) someone who boxes left-handed is usually referred to as southpaw. They are often considered trickier opponents than the more common right-hander. The term is also used to refer to a stance in which the boxer places his right foot in front of his left. (In the film Rocky, Rocky Balboa says the term came from a boxer named Paul, whose left arm always faced south to New Jersey.) Hope I Helped!

Famous South Paws: Despite the suppression, there have been many famous left-handed people, and the associated right brain hemisphere that is said to be more active in left-handed people has been found in some circumstances to be associated with genius and is correlated with artistic and visual skill. Many members of the British royal family are left-handed. Genetic factors are generally used to explain this. King George VI (who was the younger brother of Edward VIII, and therefore not expected to inherit the throne) was left-handed. During his boyhood and adolescence, his father George V required the prince to wear a long string tied to his left wrist; whenever he used his left hand, his father would tug the string violently, hoping to train him to become right-handed. As a result of this mistreatment, George VI developed a severe stammer. Nelson Rockefeller was also left-handed; his father used this same string technique in an equally unsuccessful attempt to switch him to right-handedness. As visual thinking is much promoted nowadays, left-handers cannot help but begin to gain more and more respect. As well, in certain fields, left-handedness is advantageous; for example, in baseball, where right-handed pitchers greatly outnumber left-handed pitchers, it is commonly known that a left-handed batter is more successful against right-handed pitchers than a right-handed batter. In soccer, left-handed players are often more skilled at playing with the left foot (though being left-handed doesn't necessarily imply being left-footed), which makes them valuable as they can play better on the left side of the field than right-handed players. Interestingly, in the sport of ice hockey, there are many more left-handed shooters, and the majority of goaltenders catch with their left hand (forcing many of them to shoot left-handed, as well). [edit] Left-handedness and Hope I Helped!