[David Atkatz]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

As a funny, insightful aside that came to mind while enjoying the heck out of this thread…

Q: How can you tell Sandy Koufax is Jewish?

A: Because he's signing autographs with his left hand.

When you look at the tremendous lefties from the old days, like Babe Ruth, Stan Musial, Whitey Ford and others, they were (literally) forced to use their right hands when writing. Catholic schools in the eastern United States were especially notorious for this practice as the left hand was considered sinister (in Latin, 'sinister' is defined as "on the left-hand side"). So when you see photographs of these players giving their autographs to fans, it's amazing seeing them using their right hands. I was especially taken by the photo of Whitey Ford. He, like me, is from Astoria, Queens. My southpaw sister was also forced to use her right hand by the nuns there. Chilling.

I'm sure this fact isn't news to most people around these parts, but it's worth mentioning.

My father, a natural southpaw (and a Jew), was, in the mid nineteen twenties, forced to write with his right hand by the secular school teachers in his Bronx public school.