Left Field
Where the phrase comes from · Card no. 4018
American baseball, early 1900s. A ball hit to left field comes from the part of the park farthest from the play, so an idea out of left field arrives from where nobody was looking. The tidier origin stories are folklore.
No such place exists, which has never stopped anyone from going. Every card here is an original painting of a phrase, free to send by email or by link.