Stephen Drew grew up a righty

Good piece yesterday from Steve Gilbert on dbacks.com on how Stephen Drew started out as a right-handed hitter growing up.

He started switch-hitting since his older brother J.D. was left-handed, so he figured he'd give it a try. He would throw the ball off of the garage roof, let it bounce, then hack away.

Jeff Cirillo even thought Drew was a switch-hitter after watching him hit from the right-side in the batting cage last year.

Drew gave it up in the tenth grade due to the dearth of left-handed pitching.

"It was kind of tough, because there were not a lot of left-handed pitchers that we faced," Drew said. "And my dad was right-handed, so I didn't really have any lefties to practice against, either. So I decided halfway through 10th grade to just go left and see how it went against lefties. It became just as easy, so I stuck with it."

So far this year Drew is hitting .294. The D-backs will take that if he can sustain it over the rest of the year.

Would love to see him get up there right-handed in a blowout game....c'mon Stephen...you know you want to...

NOTE: A reminder that the 12-game Eric Byrnes porn 'stache streak is still on and going for 13 tonight