The Birds and the Bees - let this be a warning to you Dback foes



My last Flog referenced my cousin Hank Greenwald, the long-time color announcer for the San Francisco Giants. Hank's son, Douglas, is broadcasting Triple A ball and heading for the Big Leagues.

Ironically, Sunday night Doug arrived a late for dinner at my house with a lame story about bees interrupting the Diamondbacks/Giants pre-season game in the top of the second. Bees. Really?

"The huge swarm entered Salt River Field over the right center-field wall, flying directly over the infield and settling in the Giants’ dugout," Doug announced. "The Bee Team sent players scurrying from the dugout and fans from their seats and brought the Bee Squad running. It took 41 minutes to kindly and gently clear out the bees (maybe the umpires just asked them nicely) and get on with the ball game. Oh! The Dbacks graciously gave up a few runs - you know, 'cause bees aside, they're nice hosts. Record attendance: 12,675. Number of bees, uncounted.

So now we have the Birds and the Bees.

Back in 2005, Randy Johnson uncorked a fastball that was rudely intercepted by a bird flying into the path of the baseball. The bird exploded over home plate and a new catagory had to be added to RJ's statistics.

On March 25, 2005 after five innings, the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks were forced off the field in Tucson by hundreds of angry bees.

ESPN reported after that game that “Darren Oliver, pitcher for the Rockies, was the first player targeted. The swarm apparently smelled hair gel and decided his head was the perfect place for a giant bee feast/orgy. No mention was made of the brand of hair gel, but I suppose it's probably not the kind of event that will score an endorsement deal.

The Diamondbacks tried to take the field in the sixth, but "by then the bees had spread over the entire field." The shortstop was chased into the far end of center field and, after a brief discussion, the humans elected to flee Tucson Electric Park. NO HITS. NO RUNS. NO ERRORS and incredibly, NO STINGS reported in the crowd of 8,029.

It should be noted that none of the bees, nor Randy's bird, had tickets to the game.

Stay tuned ... the Phoenix Zoo isn't too far away from the ball park ... who knows what will be taking the field next!