What does 外野 mean here?

Question

I came across a sentence that I don't quite understand:

それが物言わぬ植物であれば、どれだけ外野が騒然としようがナーバスになりようがないだけペットよりもマシ。

I think I get --please correct me if I'm wrong!-- the overall meaning (somebody compares noisy house pets to silent plants), but the bolded part confuses me.

Dictionaries say the word "外野" means "outfield", the other possible meaning is "outsider". I don't really get how it fits here though.

So I was wondering if anyone can help me shed some light on it?

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UPD to add some context.

The guy (who is not very fond of pets) rambles about how no one is caring for the plants in the garden. And then this passage follows:

しかし。その中のひとつが学術性の極めて高い希種ともなれば、また別次元の話になる。価値観が跳ね上がるからだ。それは植物に限らず、ペットも同様であるが。 今まで誰も見向きもしなかったものに、にわかにスポットライトが当たる。それが物言わぬ植物であれば、どれだけ外野が騒然としようがナーバスになりようがないだけペットよりもマシ。

Answer 1

From this sentence alone, I can say this 外野 means "outsiders" or "people who are not directly involved".

(But I don't understand why someone would make noise or become nervous about just having a pet or a plant. If you're still unsure how it fits the context, please provide us with the context.)

UPDATE: Seeing the context, the guy is thinking that suddenly attracting people's attention (スポットライトが当たる) is undesirable. Animals (pets) can "get nervous" when they suddenly attract unnecessary attention from people (=外野) just because they are rare species. On the other hand, no matter how people pay attention to certain plants, plants cannot "get nervous" like animals. So in this context 外野 refers to capricious human beings in general who make fuss about random species even though they're usually very indifferent "outsiders".