When Reggie Jefferson, then a slugger for the Seattle Mariners, gave up switch-hitting in 1994 and began batting exclusively from the left side, his old teammates in Cleveland asked a switch-hitting authority to convince him to start again: Hall of Famer and Orioles legend Eddie Murray.
“I appreciated it because I respect Eddie Murray so much, but in my mind, I just knew that for me, I had to go left-only because I needed to establish myself,” Jefferson said. “But that’s the way baseball people thought during that time. If you’re able to switch-hit, why in the world wouldn’t you do it?