left field
See also: leftfield
English
Noun
left field (plural left fields)
- (baseball) The part of a baseball field which is beyond the infield and to the left of a person standing on home plate and facing the pitcher
- (baseball) The defensive position in the outfield to the left.
- (idiomatic) An unexpected, bizarre, or unwatched source (especially in the phrases out of left field and from left field).
- Some of her comments really came from left field. I have no idea what she was thinking.
- (idiomatic) An unusual or unexpected position, or a viewpoint held by very few others in contrast to the majority viewpoint (especially in the phrases out in left field and way out in left field)
- 1960, Journal of business education, volume 35, page 303:
- Tonne is way out in left field if he thinks a voice writing machine will never be built or that there are no existing prototypes or work being done in this ...
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Quotations
baseball
- 2004: The double, by pinch-hitter Ruben Sierra, curved sharply toward foul ground in deep left field but then changed its mind and hit the line instead—a big hit, and a smile at last from the great and enigmatically difficult game. — The New Yorker, 10 May 2004
figurative
- 2004: There is no serendipity without a flash of insight from left field, an oblique eureka effect. — London Review of Books, 23 Sep 2004