Posted on 05/02/2024 12:52:24 AM PDT by billorites
The ceremonial first pitch is an honor usually bestowed upon a certain class of celebrity. But when the Arizona Diamondbacks were set to start their game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday, after a lengthy delay, they didn’t trot out a famous musician or a beloved retired player to lob the ball in the direction of home plate.
Instead, the man standing on the mound was dressed in the full ballooning arms and flapping headgear of a beekeeping suit. That’s because Matt Hilton, a Blue Sky Pest Control manager in Phoenix, was the only reason baseball could be played at Chase Field that night at all.
The trouble began shortly before the contest’s scheduled start time of 6:40 p.m., when a swarm of bees buzzed in a mass at the top edge of the protective netting behind home plate. It was an insect infestation straight out of the infamous playoff game in Cleveland in 2007, when a horde of Lake Erie midges attacked New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain.
Only this one had the potential to be much more painful.
About five minutes before the umpires were set to shout, “Play ball!,” Mike Rock, the Diamondbacks’ vice president of ballpark operations, received a phone call from Kat McDonald, the senior manager of event services. She informed him that the stadium had suddenly become an apiary.
When Rock asked how many bees had landed up there, McDonald responded, “Hundreds—no wait, thousands!” That’s when he knew he had a problem on his hands. The Diamondbacks stalled the game, surveyed their options and put in a call to Blue Sky, their corporate partner for pest control.
“I did make a call to a competitor, just to see, ‘Are you close by?’” Rock said.
But it was Hilton—who was watching...
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
SoCal has had Africanized killer bees for about 30 years. It takes close inspection to tell them from ordinary honey bees so anywhere they’re known to inhabit, you have to treat every unidentified swarm as if they were killer bees.
It could have been disastrous if killer bees had swarmed inside a baseball stadium.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.