"out of left field" (Why "left"?)

[Gregory {Greg} Downing]

At 02:54 PM 2/27/2001 -0600, you wrote:
>     In other words, Dickson has nothing conclusive. Would anyone have
>any ideas?
>
>---Gerald Cohen
>


No original research, but here are a few quick contribution from OED2, entry
for "left":

1961 Amer. Speech XXXVI. 147 Out in left field, disoriented, out of contact
with reality.

1970 Time 9 Mar. 19 An increasing number of candidates are emerging from
leftfield to give voters surprising options.

1974 Publishers Weekly 11 Mar. 48/3 Novak's use of religious metaphor may
put him in left field (Reinhold Niebuhr was there before him).


Of course, "out of (or, from) left field" is not necessarily identical with
"(out) in left field," but the semantic or connotative range of "left field"
may be similar in this cluster of locutions. One element seems to be
unluckiness or oddity, traits traditionally associated with leftness or
lefthandedness.


Greg Downing, at greg.downing at nyu.edu or gd2 at nyu.edu