|
Reader question: Please explain this sentence: “That seemed like a weird question coming straight out of the left field.” My comments: Weird, to be sure. The speaker means to say that the question is an odd one, an unusual question, a question that people don’t normally ask. That’s why the speaker thinks the question has come “straight out of the left field”, i.e. being odd and unexpected. “Out of the left field” as an expression finds its origin in the American game of baseball, left side referring to the left hand side of the baseball field. As most batters are right-handed, they tend mostly to hit the ball into the center or right-hand side of the field, where most drama and action directly ensues. Hence, the left fielder feels like he’s left out there in the far corner of the left field, alone and inactive, left out in the cold, so to speak. He may perhaps even doze off now and then. But anyways, hence and therefore, if you say someone has come out or is from the left field, you mean to say they’re “untypical, unusual, or strange in some way” (CollinsDictionary.com). Likewise, if you say someone’s ideas are left field (as adjective), you mean to say their ideas are unconventional, odd and surprising. Or even crazy, as explained in the first of our media examples below. So now, no further delay, media examples of “left field”: | 
