Regarding Honey Bees AND Baseball

When I wrote my first post on philcrafthivecraft.com early last spring, I warned that I would digress from beekeeping from time to time and write about other subjects, including baseball. Today you’ll see that honey bees and baseball sometimes converge.

You may have read about a recent (August 7^th) Delta Airline flight, which was delayed in Pittsburg due to a honey bee swarm that landed on the jet’s wing, see article and photo. My wife, Lee, and I, who are both longtime Cincinnati Reds fans, recall a Reds game in the 1970’s that was delayed when a swarm alit on the field of play in Riverfront Stadium. An internet search revealed that the incident took place in an April 17, 1976 contest with the San Francisco Giants. It made national news, as I found articles from more than one newspaper, not including the ones in Cincinnati and San Francisco. I especially liked the headline in the Miami Beach Post-Times which read Reds sting Giants 11-0, though obviously the Honey Bees, not the Reds, did the actual stinging. Lee and I both seem to recall that Reds’ pitcher Don Gullett, who was a Kentucky born farm boy, assisted in the collection of the swarm, but the news accounts of the incident did not mention that fact.  The Anchorage Daily News article actually had a little more detail on the delay and the collection of the swarm.

That was not the only time that honey bees’ natural instincts have interfered with our national past time. I found references to two others, and I suspect that there have been more. (If you know of any please send me an email or comment.) The headline for a July 2, 2009 Associated Press article from Yahoo sports, refering to a Houston Astros – San Diego Padres game read, “Un-bee-lievable: Bee swarm delays Astros’ 7-2 win“.  You’ll see two “bee” related references in the article. It opens with, “It was the kind of late-inning buzz that none of the players had experienced before” and contains a reference to the Astros’ “Killer Bs” (the name bestowed on a trio of great Houston players). The other swarm delay was more recent, and is one which I also recall. (We watch a LOT of baseball in our house.) The Denver Rockies were hosting the Arizonia Diamondbacks last year (May 18, 2012), when the Honey Bee team attempted to join the game. The link from KSL.com includes video coverage. The swarm landed on a post in the camera well, which made television coverage easy, but I suspect made the camera crew nervous. Thank goodness for telephoto lenses or we might not have the highlights. Maybe the Honey Bee team was hoping for a television contract.

I’m on streak here. Did you know that in 1928, future Hall of Fame pitcher Herb Pennock used apitherapy on his sore pitching arm? You can look it up! They only problem was, it didn’t seem to help him. If it had, we might have more swarm delays in baseball, because every club would have a bee yard and an apiarist on staff to provide bees for therapy. Too bad – that’s a job I’d apply for. Maybe they just didn’t position the stings at the right spot on his arm. Does anyone have Dusty Baker’s phone number?