So many pokemon in gens 1-3 have absolutely terrible move lists because whether a move was physical or special was determined by type, rather than what you would expect from the move's description and appearance. All fire type moves are special, so Fire Punch is a special attack. All normal type moves are physical, so Hyper Beam is a physical move.
This made sense in gen 1, with the memory limitations and the actually 0 programmers working on the game (they all quit at some point). Nearly all fire type moves made sense to be special, and nearly all normal type moves made sense to be physical, so it was reasonable.
Except dark type was introduced in gen 2, and all it's moves (such as the (previously normal type) Bite, and Beat Up) were special type. When the physical special split happened in gen 4, all previously introduced dark type moves got changed to physical, and only 1 special dark type move was introduced. The average dark type pokemon has a significantly higher physical attack than special attack.
I'm currently playing Pokemon Colosseum, and I'm looking at the Umbreon and Espeon you start the game with, and I'm looking at Umbreon's slightly higher attack stat that she can't use effectively, and I'm looking at Espeon's move Swift that would be special if this game had come out later. I'm looking at my Mantine, who can't aeffectively use her flying type offensively, because her physical attack is half her special attack (Mantine doesn't get the line's only special flying type move until B2W2, anywahs >.<).
It's just frustrating knowing my pokemon could have moves that fit their stats better, but they don't because gamefreak didn't think of it until the DS came out I guess >:c