Bees Stop Rockies-Diamondbacks Game

By The Associated Press

Fri Mar 25, 2:06 AM

Arizona Diamondbacks infielders Craig Counsell, foreground, and Sergio Santos ...

That wasn't a well-hit ball buzzing past Darren Oliver's head. It was a swarm of bees.

The pesky insects sent Oliver running from the mound Thursday and cut short the Colorado Rockies' 3-1 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Tucson, Ariz.

"I guess we've got to call that a `Bee' game," Arizona manager Bob Melvin quipped.

The bees literally chased Oliver from the mound. He kept trying to go back, but the bees would go after him again. Finally, after a 20-minute delay, he left for good and let Colorado reliever Allan SimAs a lover of both baseball & bees I found this rather amusing...pson complete the inning.

Oliver said the bees apparently were attracted to the coconut oil in his hair gel.

"I guess I must have smelled good. It was kind of funny at first, but after a while I started getting a little nervous and scared out there," he said.

The Diamondbacks took the field in the sixth, but by then the bees had spread over the entire field. Shortstop Sergio Santos, who had just entered the game, was chased all the way into deep center field.

"There were like little packs moving around," said Arizona's Luis Gonzalez, who hit his first homer of the spring in the first inning and was on third after a triple when play stopped. "They were all over the pitcher, and Santos when he went out. I think it was either their cologne or deodorant or something. They've got to switch it up."

There was a brief bee delay at the same ballpark two years ago.

But Joe Garagiola Sr., attending the game with his son, Diamondbacks general manager Joe Garagiola Jr., said he had never seen anything like Thursday's invasion.

"And I go back to 1942," the elder Garagiola said.