Southpaw, the colloquialism for a left-handed baseball pitcher (the most feared type at the position), plays off the nearly universal association of left-handedness with unpredictable powers. Southpaw holds his trick pitch behind his back. Griffin also had what he called a lucky hand. "Gimme the hand," peers used to ask of him when they needed good luck. "I've got the lucky hand, had it all my life," he related, but he always added that he was ill at ease with the "hand" (also a traditional African American term for charm) and only wanted to use his abilities for positive effect. No doubt most every outsider who passed by Griffin or his house also swung and missed, failing to see the true nature of the baseball player on the front yard or the Southpaw that owned the place.
