left field?right field?

Hi,

Look what's happened during this subprime meltdown. BHP’s made a bid from Rio, Xstrata's bid for Jubilee, Xstrata's bid for Resource Pacific. The takeovers have just come in out of left field, right field, everywhere for Australian resource stocks.

what does"out of left field,right field"mean? It seems to mean that the takeovers have come from all directions, from every possible and unexpected place.

Clive

The usual expression is "out of left field." I don't know much about baseball, but I believe that most of the outfield action takes place in right field., and I always thought that the expression originated from the idea that it would be unusual for a ball to be thrown "out of left field." However, this interesting article (scroll down) claims that after the University of Illinois at Chicago built their neuropsychiatric center over what had formerly been the left field of the Chicago Cub's ballpark, leading to the creation of the expression. Sounds apocryphal to me!  Any Chicagoans care to comment?

Whoops. Thank goodness I admitted I didn't know much about the sport

Well then, perhaps this bizarre U of Illinois story is true? It sounds like one of the kind of stories that's always being debunked in "The Straight Dope" column.