Maybe it's a recent coinage. I've never come across it and prefer 'the short straw' version.
This is supposedly how it originated:
They appear to have slightly different meanings.
get hold of the wrong end of the stick
To misunderstand something.
This expression, which some believe refers to a walking stick held the wrong way, presumably means that one cannot proceed very far, either literally or figuratively, if one does not hold onto the right end. Another theory is that it alludes to a stick kept in an outhouse, and grabbing the wrong end in the dark meant one got feces on one’s hands. Whatever the precise origin, it began life in the fourteenth century as the worse
end of the staff, a wording that survived into the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century the current wording was adopted. Shaw was fond of it, using both
wrong and
right end ofthe stick in a number of plays (
Misalliance, 1910;
Androcles and the Lion, 1912;
Saint Joan,1924).
short end of the stick, to get/have the
To receive a burden or disadvantage as a result of an unequal or unfair outcome or treatment.
You have to stay vigilant during business negotiations or else you may end up getting the short end of the stick.
I think Tom felt like he got the short end of the stick growing up, since his older brother received most of the attention and praise for his athletic skills.
Short end would fit better.
