Throws Left and Bats Right?

Looking through my Carp Guide from 2003, quite a few staff throwing right and batting left - most notably Nomura, Maeda, and Higashide (plus Kanemoto) - but none throwing left and batting right.

Further research (2000 guide) suggests that Carp had two American pitchers (Cumberland and Urso) in that year who both threw left and batted (how well is debatable!) right.

Jeff Williams. Left handed pitcher, but bats right if he actually does hit in a game.

I noticed a number of them while entering data into my Player Meikan. The 17 that I have right now are:

Pitchers
Cumberland Christopher
Dennis Shane
Hartgraves Dean
Higasa Masahito
Higuchi Tatsumi
Kubenka Jeffrey
Mullen Scott
Ono Hitoshi
Satoh Kazuhiro
Serafini Dan
Tsutsui Kazuya
Urso Salvatore
Watson Mark
Williams Jeffrey

Infielders
Nakamura Ryouji

Outfielders
Carreon Mark
Takehara Naotaka

One thing that always struck me was the number of pitchers who threw left and batted right. At first I thought it was Pacific League pitchers playing a joke because they don't usually bat (I noticed this before inter-league play), but there are a good number of Central League pitchers as well.

A Recreation Director for one of the U.S. bases here in Japan once told me that choosing a batting side was a matter of the eyes. Several years ago there was a lot of research going into sports vision, with an emphisis in baseball being on details like counting seams or reading letters as a speeding fastball comes by. Anyway, the popular theory of that time was that the stronger eye should be in either the front or the back, but I don't remember which or why. (I know that my right eye is stronger, and it's in back as I bat right handed. I wonder, ....)

Wow. I feel bad for not knowing Takehara from my own Chiba Lotte Marines throws left and bats right. I guess not all of us freaks are bad batters, because he did get the most home runs in ni-gun last year with 23 and had a .313 batting average.

Thanks to everyone for their knowledge. I love this community. Hehe.

Let's not forget Luis "Funky Cold" Medina, who played 1B for the Carp in the early '90s for a couple of seasons.

Rickey Henderson is my all-time favorite bats-right, throws-left player.

Some more players:

Doug Ault, OF (1981 Tigers)
Rick Austin, P (1974 Braves)
Hal Breeden, IF (1976-1978 Tigers)
Pete Burnside, P (1964-1965 Tigers)
Rufus Gaines, IF (1953-1954 Braves)
Brian Givens, P (1997 Lions)
Bill Griffin, P (1963 Buffaloes)
Toshitada Hara, P (1955-1957 Fighters)
Shogo Hashimoto, P (1937-1943 Tigers, Braves)
Tokuyuki Hidaka, OF (1936-1940 Braves)
Toshiharu Kadono, P (1967-1969 Pearls)
Mike Kekich, P (1974 Fighters)
Kei Kitahara, P (1955-1957 Lions)
Shinichi Kobukata, P (1955-1956 Hawks)
Rich Kreuger, P (1979 Giants)
Fumio Kubo, P (1981-1987 BayStars)
Kinya Maeoka, P->OF (1956-1964 Tigers, Dragons)
Akio Masuda, P (1962-1970 Giants, Lions)
Yukimasa Matsuo, P (1976-1983 Pearls)
Luis Medina, OF (1993-1995 Carp)
Yoshinori Murakami, P (1971-1977 Dragons)
Nobuo Nakatani, P (1947-1956 Hawks)
Kyoji Nishihara, P (1956-1961 Lions, Carp)
Marion O'Neil, P (1951-1953 Lions)
Hiroyuki Osada, P (1958-1969 Pearls, Braves)
Dennis Powell, P (1995 Pearls)
Chris Roberts, P (2000 Giants)
Masao Sato, P (1970-1987 Giants,Marines,Dragons,BayStars)
Kozo Shibahara, P (1955-1957 Unions)
Goro Tomishima, P (1956-1964 Hawks)
Yoshiharu Uranishi, P (1959-1962 Dragons, Pearls)
Clyde Wright, P (1976-1978 Giants)
Hiroshi Yabusaki, P (1955-1957 Marines,Stars,Unions)
Den Yamada, OF (1937-1948 Braves)
Hisakazu Yoshikawa, P (1957-1961 Braves)
Kinya Yoshitomi, P (1940-1941 Hawks)
Susumi Yuki, P (1948-1956 Hawks)

Hope this helps.
Michael Eng