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

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:36 PM -0500 3/27/01, Bob Haas wrote:
>I'd say that it would be fairly easy to get empirical data on this from the
>major league ballparks.  Most hitters hit into left, so it makes sense to
>make it more difficult.  Dead center just doesn't come into play that often.
>
>Yoicks, look what I found on Microsoft Bookshelf:
>
>Team                Stadium (year opened) Surface  LF   Center RF  capacity
>Anaheim Angels     Anaheim Stadium (1966)  Grass   333   404   333   64,593
>Baltimore Orioles  Camden Yards (1992)     Grass   333   400   318   48,188
>Boston Red Sox     Fenway Park (1912)      Grass   315   420   302   33,871
>Chicago White Sox  Comiskey Park (1991)    Grass   347   400   347   44,321
>Cleveland Indians  Jacobs Field (1994)     Grass   325   405   325   42,400
>Detroit Tigers     Tiger Stadium (1912)    Grass   340   440   325   52,416

no longer extant; they play at Comerica Park

>Kansas City Royals Kauffman Stadium (1973) Grass   330   400   330   40,625
>Milwaukee Brewers  County Stadium (1953)   Grass   315   402   315   53,192

New stadium opening for this spring

>Minnesota Twins    Hubert H. Humphrey  Artificial  343   408   327   56,783
>                     Metrodome (1982)
>New York Yankees   Yankee Stadium (1923)   Grass   312   410   310   57,545
>Oakland A's        Oakland-Alameda County  Grass   330   400   330   43,012
>                     Coliseum (1968)
>Seattle Mariners   The Kingdome (1976) Artificial  331   405   312   59,856

not for a year and a half;  Safeco Field, all natural

>Texas Rangers      The Ballpark (1994)     Grass   332   400   325   49,178
>Toronto Blue Jays  SkyDome (1989)      Artificial  328   400   328   50,516
>
>Draw your own conclusions.  I've not the time to transfer the data for the
>National League parks.  They used to be older (I'd guess), but hmm, hard to
>say.  There is a tendency to make left field a touch more difficult, and
>this table says nothing about fence height.  There's no notice in the Fenway
>entry of the Green Monster.
>
Very slight, and I'd wager not statistically significant.   Note that
(pace Ron) the center field distance is in each case significantly
farther from the plate than either left or right, yet we never get
"out in center field".  (The point being that if it were really just
a matter of how far out, and sinistral "weirdness" didn't come into
play, it WOULD be "out in/of center field".)

larry