Chase Field was buzzing with more than just excited baseball fans.
A large bee colony formed in the protective netting behind home plate, forcing a lengthy delay of nearly two hours to the start of the Diamondbacks’ game against the Dodgers in Arizona.
Just before the first pitch at 8:40 p.m. Eastern time, the Diamondbacks announced the delay.
“Tonight’s game delayed due to bee colony forming,” the scoreboard at Chase Field read while The Beatles’ “Let it Be” played over the public address system. “Thank you for your patience.”
“Obviously we see the bees. How long will it take a beekeeper to come to kind of take care of the situation, or just proceed and then kind of weighing out the potential harm it might cause,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told SportsNet LA while the delay was going on.
“If a foul ball hits the screen, what happens to the bees at that point in time?” he added.
Nearly 40 minutes after the delay, the Diamondbacks announced that the team was awaiting a beekeeper to come and move the bees off the netting and that they “anticipate that the game will resume promptly following the successful removal of the beehive,” The Arizona Republic reported.
Associated Press sports writer John Marshall posted a video just before 8 p.m. MST in Arizona that showed the beekeeper, Matt Hilton, had arrived and was removing the bee colony seemingly bringing the bizarre episode to an end.
Over the PA system, Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out For A Hero” played while the bees were removed.
Hilton was then invited to throw out the game’s first pitch as a thank you from the team before the game started at around 10:35 p.m. Eastern.
The Diamondbacks went on to a 4-3 win over the Dodgers.
Tuesday was far from the first time bees have wreaked havoc on an MLB game.
Just last season, a swarm of bees became an issue near one of the bullpens during the first inning of a game between the Orioles and Rockies in August that caused a brief delay.
