Why Do We Say “Out of Left Field”?

The phrase “out of left field” is often used to refer to an event which takes people by surprise. But where does it originate from, and how did it come to mean something which is unexpected?

The origins of “left field,” unsurprisingly, lie in the world of baseball. Merriam Webster’s definition of the phrase lists its definition in terms of the sport, as well as the later meaning it acquired as a synonym for something unpredictable.

The concept of something coming “out of left field” is one which is believed to have its roots in the specifics of baseball field arrangements, in reference to the position taken by the left fielder player.

How Baseball Gave Us a Common Expression

According to research by Ken Liss, the head of the Brookline (MA) Historical Society, the first use of the term by the press was in discussions about baseball in 1919, and that it seems to originate from its use at the Spalding Park ballpark in Lowell, Massachusetts, where the left field and right field of the park were built at different lengths due to local restrictions, leading to the left field being much further out. 

In terms of how it relates to the sense of signifying surprise, in a baseball stadium the left fielder stands at a significant distance from the infield, which often makes it difficult for this person to communicate clearly with the rest of the team, and also makes it challenging to be seen easily by players who are stationed near the home plate.

Due to this physical distance, when a ball is hit in the direction of the left field area, this could sometimes catch the infielders by surprise, as it would appear suddenly from a fringe area. As time progressed, this specific baseball situation evolved into a common expression used to describe any idea or event that arrives without warning, or which seems to have no connection to the current situation.

Therefore, when someone claims that a comment has come “out of left field,” what is being suggested is that this is something which is unpredictable or unrelated to the current conversation, in a similar way to a surprise baseball play coming from the overlooked far left corner of a baseball pitch. 

One of the reasons for the expression becoming so widespread is due to the popularity of baseball in the US. As Katherine Martin, the head of US Dictionaries at Oxford University Press, told the WBEZ Chicago radio station in an interview: “Think about baseball--how many games there are...in a baseball season, and all of the baseball announcers over time who are giving the play-by-play, all the sports articles that are written about all of those games in all of those cities across the United States. That’s a lot of words being used…”

It is therefore understandable that the phrase eventually crossed over from sport to becoming an expression used to refer to being taken by surprise in all walks of life. Other sports terms that have evolved into everyday phrases include “big league,” “hands down,” “the ball’s in your court,” and many more.

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