When a swarm of honeybees interrupted the Orioles’ sport in opposition to the Colorado Rockies on Sunday, it wasn’t the primary time that bugs had stopped play in a serious league sport. On June 2, 1959, Orioles pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm was chased from the mound by a cloud of gnats that encircled the mound at Chicago’s Comiskey Park.
Wilhelm, a 36-year-old knuckleballer, hadn’t but thrown a pitch within the first inning when he started pawing on the air and retreating from the mound. The bugs have been in all places round.
“I never seen nothin’ like them. I couldn’t pitch through them,” Wilhelm mentioned of the gnats, which prompted a 16-minute delay as groundskeepers used smoke bombs, burning rags and, lastly, fireworks to disperse the pesky horde.
“Umpire Hank Soar assumed command of a fumigating campaign, spraying himself, Wilhelm, anyone who would stand still with DDT. The evening air was full of the stuff,” The Sun reported then.
“In last-ditch desperation, [White Sox owner Bill] Veeck — ever the showman — ordered elements of his post-game fireworks brigade into combat from the center field bullpen area.”
Relief was on its means. Workers positioned the fireworks on the mound and lit a match.
“The fuse sizzled for an instant,” The Sun reported. “Then, like a miniature atom bomb, an explosion rocked Comiskey Park’s ancient ramparts. A cloud of white smoke enveloped the infield. The bugs, those which survived, retreated before the forces of modern technological warfare.”
Play resumed. The Orioles gained, 3-2, because the undefeated Wilhelm gained his eighth straight resolution for a second-place Baltimore squad that improved to 26-21.
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com