At the turn of last century, an insane asylum was located just past the left field fence at the Cubs old ballpark; West Side Grounds. The asylum patients would literally scream crazy things out of open windows during the game.

Thanks to that odd auditory ambiance at West Side Grounds, the phrase "that came out of left field" was coined.

True story.

80 years later, unfortunately, the Cubs began to take the phrase literally.

Between Gary Matthews who started in left field for three years in the mid-80s and Henry Rodriguez who started in left a few seasons in a row beginning 1998, the Cubs had more left fielders than anyone in baseball.

During that 13 year stretch, 13 different men manned the position on Opening Day. See how many of these names you remember...

Gary Matthews (86)
Brian Dayett (87)
Rafael Palmeiro (88)
Mitch Webster (89)
Lloyd McClendon (90)
George Bell (91)
Luis Salazar (92)
Candy Maldanado (93)
Derrick May (94)
Scott Bullett (95)
Luis Gonzales (96)
Brant Brown (97)
Henry Rodriguez (98)

You might recognize a few pretty good players on that list, but none of them were playing at Wrigley during their prime. Matthews had a great career, but he was a shell of the player he once was for the Giants and Phillies. Palmeiro was traded before he blossomed into a power hitter. George Bell had one good year and was traded for Sammy Sosa. Candy Maldanado had several good seasons...none of them with the Cubs. And Luis Gonzales had the game winning hit to win the World Series to cap off his MVP season...when he was with the Diamondbacks.

Say what you want about the length and terms of Alfonso Soriano's contract. Can you see why they might have overspent a little bit?