Out of Left Field

How many time in normal conversation have your heard the expression out of left field. Many time when talking with people and some one makes a statement non pertinent to the topic you might say where did that come from left field. Many of us use this phrase but no one knows the true origin. I found two equally plausible theories.

The first theory pertains to people wanting to watch Babe Ruth play at Yankee Stadium but not sure which position he played. They would end up buying tickets for the left field bleachers while the Babe was in right field. Fans in right field would yell over to left field fans how they were out of step with baseball.

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Another realistic explanation comes from an extinct baseball park called West Side Grounds that the Chicago Cubs called home from 1893 to 1915. As legend has it, a mental hospital called the Neuropsychiatric Institute was located directly behind the left field wall. The Institute housed mental patients who could be heard making strange and bizarre comments within listening distance of players and fans. Thus, if someone said that you were “way out in left field,” the person was questioning your sanity and comparing you with a mental patient. Other versions of this same theory has the hospital being built over the left field area of West Side Grounds after it was torn down.