Game Delayed Due to Bees

Earlier this week, a pre-season scrimmage between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox had to be delayed due to bees. Apparently a swarm of bees stormed the field in the bottom of the third inning. To combat them, the grounds crew came out with insecticide and Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira came out of the dugout with two bottles of honey. Why did Mark Teixeira have two bottles of honey on hand? ESPN reports:

"I'm a big peanut butter-and-honey guy," Teixeira told reporters after the game, according to the Sporting News.  "Love it. So I always know where the honey is [in the clubhouse]."

This is not the first time bees have stalled a sporting event. In 2005, the Rockies and Diamondbacks halted their game due to a swarm of bees that held the field for nearly twenty minutes. Rockies manager Clint Hurdle even put on a beekeepers mask to deal with them. In 2009, a swarm of bees caused a 52 minute delay in a San Diego Padres game. Also in 2009, just two minutes into a World Cup qualifying match between El Salvador and Mexico, the Salvadorian goalkeeper was swarmed by bees. After about ten minutes, the bees finally left the field.

In 2012, the exact same matchup between the Rockies and Diamondbacks had a very similar problem: bees took up residency in the Rockies dugout. But since they were just near “the video guys," the two teams kept playing. Last year, an Angels-Orioles game was also delayed by bees who swarmed a (thankfully fully robotic) camera. And just three days ago another spring training game, this time between the Diamondbacks and the Brewers, was delayed in the second inning as a swarm of bees gathering in the  corner of the field 

One can only assume that Oprah has something to do with this. 

Rose Eveleth | | READ MORE

Rose Eveleth was a writer for Smart News and a producer/designer/ science writer/ animator based in Brooklyn. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Scientific American, Story Collider, TED-Ed and OnEarth.