I have it in my mind that a pitcher used to be said to "throw Brooklyn" if he was a left-hander, even if he was on an American League team (which never played in Brooklyn except if they were playing the Trolleydodgers inthe World Series.)Â This would have been used in pre-war sports writing.
However, I can't find it, not in lists of baseball slang, not in real dictionaries, not in amateur dictionaries, not in some fan's page quoting a story by Red Barber. Nothing.
Obviously, my mind has gone around the bend. Can anyone figure out what I might be remembering incorrectly? That is, synonyms for southpaw?
deaconB, maybe you need to change your search terms and not limit yourself to baseball (filtering the many result might be a problem) because I easily found a bowling description of Brooklyn (if you search the page for it).
It may or may not have anything to do with the OP's question, but in bowling the "pocket" to the left of the head pin (for a right-handed bowler) is called "Brooklyn". The normal pocket is on the other side.
deaconB said: Obviously, my mind has gone around the bend. Can anyone figure out what I might be remembering incorrectly? That is, synonyms for southpaw?
We used the term "lefty" (or "leftie") as a synonym, but I can't recall any others. What I'm wondering now is if the phrase "headed south" meaning "taking a turn for the worse" is at all related. And is the equivalent expression used in the southern hemisphere? There were negative associations with being left-handed in earlier times. Wiki says about 10% of people are left-handed, so that's a definite minority.
Brings to mind the old joke: I'd give my left arm to be ambidextrous.
Doug Harper of going south says:
vanish, abscond," 1920s, American English, probably from mid-19c. notion of disappearing south to Mexico or Texas to escape pursuit or responsibility, reinforced by Native American belief (attested in colonial writing mid-18c.) that the soul journeys south after death.
And in the KJV, south is the translation for 3 different words, one of which meant "chamber"; in the RSV, chamber was used for one of those words. Again, I'm not sure there's much improvement.
I don't think there is any connection between being left-handed and headed south, other than the fact that all words are within six degrees of Francis Bacon (who would be six degrees of Kevin Bacon.) One can get soused at a bar, and the bar sinister indicates bastardy, but is illegitimacy really connected to the consumption of ethanol? It might loosen her inhibitions, but for men, excess alcohol causes sexual abilities to go south, in multiple senses.
I thank the bowlers here for their contributions. It seems that I'm not quite as stupid as I feared. Bowlers "throw" the bowling ball, which would be as poor form as someone who "pulls" the trigger on a six-shooter. (Was a "jerk" originally just an nonathletic person?) Experts roll the bowling ball, and squeeze a trigger. I guess that shows that if you can, you do, if you can't, you teach, and if you can't teach, you become a writer. And as a former editor, I should concede that everyone knows that editors destroy fine manuscripts because they can't write and are jealous of those who can.