Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

I just heard that there was one left handed (throwing) catcher in major league history.
He's represented in ATG.
Easy to look up, but any guesses?

Good question. Mike Squires, White Sox (2 games), is one, but i think they've been a couple others as well. I could look it up, just off the top of my head.

Also, Benny Distefano who caught 3 games in 1989 for Pittsburgh.

Dale Long for the '58 Cubs caught one inning and two-thirds. OK, perplexed, so I did look that up, and he's in our Strat game, though not for that season, but the next one.

Jack Clement played for the Phillies back in the 1890s and has his 1894 card in ATG9

Yes, Jack Clements was a full time left handed catcher in the 1800's.

What I don't understand is WHY lefty catchers are so rare.

MaxPower wrote:What I don't understand is WHY lefty catchers are so rare.

I believe the main reason is because of having to throw around the majority of right handed batters. The other thing would possibly be that it would be more difficult for a lefty thrower to throw out a base stealer at 3rd base. Maybe someone can add more info.

The scarcity of left handed catcher's mitts is a huge contributing factor at the little league level, so most lefties are automatically excluded from playing catcher unless their parents want to pony up for a catcher's mitt.

Here is a really good article on it that also refutes some of the reasons it isn’t done. https://www.mlb.com/news/why-there-are-no-left-handed-catchers-in-mlb