in one's wheelhouse

The phrase in one’s wheelhouse caught my attention.  It was used by a toponymist (an expert in placenames) considering the street name Nowhere Else Road. It’s on the Eyre Peninsula. Despite this being in his field of expertise, he remained none the wiser as to the origin of the name.

But I became wiser about the origin of the phrase.  The image that came to my mind was of the ship’s wheel enclosed in a rounded housing where the captain was in complete control.  This is not correct. The phrase comes from baseball where it is the term for the area of the strike zone where a batter hits most comfortably and can be the most effective.  The OED does list in one’s wheelhouse, however, with both the baseball and the figurative meaning, possibly from the notion that the person in the wheelhouse is the one in control.

The baseball use has been extended to cover any area of activity in which a person has expertise, so the toponymist  gets to be in his wheelhouse.