Mother Nature can certainly cause game delays, but not often in such a buzzy way. Tuesday night's game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers started nearly two hours later than scheduled because a bee colony showed up behind home plate about five minutes before the first pitch was to be thrown. The AP reports that thousands of bees swarmed the protective netting to the rear of home plate, necessitating a call to Blue Sky Pest Control—whose Matt Hilton happened to be across town at his son's T-ball game. A little over an hour later, he had arrived.
The AP reports the crowd cheered as Hilton came on the field and suited up. A scissor lift brought him to the top of the netting where the bees had gathered. He used a "nonpesticidal" spray to stun them, then used a shop vacuum to "humanely" collect them, per the Los Angeles Times. AZ Central reports it was a 10-minute job, and one that got Hilton a shoutout on the Diamondbacks scoreboard: "Thank you bee guy," it read.
The game was held off for another 30 minutes to make sure the bees were gone. Hilton threw the first pitch. Arizona ended the night on top 4-3. ESPN notes bee swarms are regular occurrences in Arizona during the spring and have caused spring training delays in past years. (More bees stories.)
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