AboutTom Schott Expertise I will deal with the major leagues only from 19th century to present. I`m good on baseball history, records, statistics, ballparks. I don't do off-the-field stuff. Please if you already know the answer to the question, please don't ask it. I don't want to play "stump the expert."
Experience I've written on the subject, and I have substantial library of resources.
Organizations SABR
Publications Numerous encyclopedia, newspaper, magazine articles. One book, several book chapters.
Question of the approx. 16,000 total to play major league baseball, how many were full time switch hitters?
Answer Mark,
I cannot answer this question precisely because I have no way of obtaining the information without a laborious player-by-player search. But I can tell you this: the average percentage of switch hitters in the major leagues has unvaryingly been between 12 and 13 percent from the beginning. So let's say 12.5 percent for the sake of argument here. That would give you roughly about 2,000 guys who were switch hitters. That's about as close as we can get without spending days to arrive at basically the same answer. Sorry I cannot be more precise.
