Sting Training
(image via: Dave Dorman.Photographer)
If you like baseball like I like Henry Winkler – covered in bees – then get yourself down to Scottsdale Stadium in Salt River Fields, Arizona, when the Diamondbacks play Cactus League games. One early March day in 2012, a game featuring the D-backs and the San Francisco Giants was delayed when a swarm of bees descended on the stadium bee swarm Sunday. The players were understandably concerned. “If I get stung by one, that means I’m going to get stung by a million,” stated Giants outfielder Angel Pagan. “I was right next to the bathroom in case I had to lock myself in.”
(images via: TMCnet and USA Today/Daily Pitch)
In an effort to entertain the sellout crowd during the 41 minute delay (as if observing the havoc caused by a swarm of bees in a sold-out stadium isn’t entertaining enough), the stadium operations crew serenaded one and all with Let It Be by The Beatles. Surprisingly perhaps, no one blamed Yoko.
Dark Knight in San Antonio
(image via: YouTube/UndergroundFame)
Of all the athletic animal invasions one could possibly imagine, one involving a bat might be at the bottom of the list. Then again, if it was going to happen it could, would and should happen on Halloween. Such was the case on October 31st, 2009, when the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs were playing the Sacramento Kings at the AT&T Center. Out of the rafters swooped a small but spirited black bat, but not for long. Spying the winged wandered, Spurs guard Manu Ginóbili swiftly swatted (watch the video here) the bat to the ground, then picked the stunned creature off the court as the crowd roared its approval. Not quite an Ozzy Osbourne-style move but that would be weird… and dangerous. Ginóbili paid for his bravado by enduring a series of rabies shots the next day.

