What is the origin of bleachers as in baseball?
Bleachers are found in the roofless area outside of left, right, and center fields in most baseball stadiums. They got this name from the fact that because they were exposed to the sun and all forms of weather and they became ‘bleached’. The word bleachers is an Americanism that appeared in 1889 in the Chicago Tribune newspaper. Bleach means ‘to make white’ and is derived from a Germanic word bleichen. The word bleachers has come to mean similar seating in other arenas, such as a gymnasium.
