PHOENIX — A swarm of honey bees has made a big splash in the baseball world in the desert, giving Arizona Diamondbacks fans a new hero.
The start of Tuesday night's game between the Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers was delayed by about two hours because a colony of bees swarmed the top of the protective netting behind home plate.
Matt Hilton was the star of the night for getting rid of the bees, achieving brief stardom and even agreeing to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
„Now we're going from the minor leagues to the major leagues,“ said Hilton, manager of Blue Sky Pest Control's Phoenix office. „So cool.“
The buzz started about five minutes before the first pitch.
Mike Locke, the Diamondbacks' vice president of baseball operations, received a call from the senior manager of events who told him that a colony of bees was growing and gathering online.
„She usually doesn't call me at that time. I knew something was wrong,“ Locke said. „She said there were bees sitting on the net right behind home plate. I said, 'How many?' And she said hundreds, no, thousands. And I knew we had a problem. ”
Bee swarms are common in the spring in Arizona and have caused multiple delays to spring training over the years.A swarm of bees too caused a long delay During the match between Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California last month.
Chase Field has a retractable roof, but the roof was open for Tuesday's game, allowing the bees to roam freely.
Diamondbacks manager Tori Lovullo and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts met with the referees shortly after the delay began, and a public address announcer informed the crowd about the delay.
Locke and his team had already begun exterminating the bees.
Hilton was attending his son Levi's final T-ball game of the season when he got the call. He lives in Surprise, about 45 minutes from downtown Phoenix, and immediately grabbed his beekeeping equipment and was on his way.
“Thankfully there was zero traffic,” Hilton said.
At the stadium, fans began to get anxious. — While waiting for the beekeepers to arrive, cheers erupted as grounds staff carried a scissor lift into the field and positioned it directly beneath the bees. The area behind home plate was removed for safety reasons, and Lock consulted with Major League Baseball on whether to wait or postpone the game.
Hilton arrived about 70 minutes after the scheduled first pitch and rode a cart from the right field seats to the cheering crowd that was already cheering.Hilton was right for it rose towards the crowdmore cheers go up.
With another quick wave to get the crowd going, he stuns the bees with a spray gun and begins sucking them out with the store's vacuum cleaner as Bonnie Tyler's „Holding Out for a Hero“ blares from the speakers. Hilton sprayed the last stragglers with more spray, then returned to the field and pumped his fist as the crowd cheered again.
The delay lasted nearly 90 minutes, but was extended for another 30 minutes to ensure all the bees were gone and allow the players to relax.
The Diamondbacks changed their starting pitcher from Jordan Montgomery to Brandon Hughes after the postponement.
While making the stadium call, Hilton received a tap from „Bee Pen“ to throw out the ceremonial first pitch and had to switch gears.
„I was just going to do my thing and set sail, but it was fun to have thousands of people cheering me on,“ he said. „I was a little nervous. I'm not going to lie. There was a lot of pressure going into this match.“
Of course, he wore a beekeeper suit for the toss.
The Diamondbacks won the game 4-3.