Out in left field

The phrase “out in left field” means out of contact with reality or confused. The term refers to the left field of baseball, but how did it acquire its current meaning? According to this article, there are a couple of theories. First that in older ball parks, left field was deeper than right field; that the left fielder must play farther back when the batter is right-handed. A second theory comes from Chicago: the Chicago Cubs once played in a park called West Side Park, and just beyond the left-field fence in West Side Park was an insane asylum called the Neuropsychiatric Institute. The implication was that anyone out in left field was crazy. Sounds like an urban legend. Since sometimes the phrase is “way out in left field”, it seems that it’s more likely to be based on the location of the left fielder.