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

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:44 AM -0500 3/1/01, Frank Abate wrote:
>
>The term "Death Valley" is still used of left center in Yankee Stadium.
>Though the dimensions are shorter now in all fields, that part of the
>outfield is still deeper than right center there.  And dead right field is
>still shorter than straightaway left there.  So the park still favors lefty
>power hitters, esp. line drive hitters.  Fenway Park in Boston also has a
>shorter right field (the "short porch"), friendly to lefties, while in left
>the Green Monster turns a lot of deep line drives into singles.
>
>I'll leave it there before I digress further.
>
>Frank Abate
>(diehard Tiger fan and baseball umpire)

But Fenway has always been considered harder on lefty home run
hitters than righties.  The Green
Mawnstuh taketh away, but it also giveth, as anyone who remembers
Bucky ("Fuckin") Dent's short fly ball homer in the 1978 playoff game
will attest.  Standard wisdom, which I've always subscribed to, is
that just as Joe DiMaggio lost many, many home runs to left and
left-center in Yankee Stadium, Ted Williams lost at least as many to
right in Fenway.

Larry