The Mariners Have Their Own Bee Story
That time the Mariners got buzzed in Anaheim. Plus, remembering some 2013 guys, a bee story rabbit hole, and the greatest athletic performance I've ever seen.
I will be speaking at the PNW SABR meeting at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma on Saturday May 18. If you’re a SABR member, I hope I’ll see you there! I’ll be talking about the 1915 South Tacoma Tigers and their run for the National Amateur Baseball Championship. It’s a delightful story and if you read this newsletter I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
Tuesday night, the Diamondbacks-Dodgers game was delayed because a swarm of bees decided to take up residence on the netting behind home plate (have we considered that bees are dwindling in numbers because they aren’t very smart?). A local beekeeper was called away from his son’s t-ball game to carefully remove the bees and save the day. I’ve been imagining everyone in the Diamondback’s front office Googling and frantically calling every beekeeper in the area, and I desperately hope we someday get an oral history of this.
Of course baseball and bees go hand in hand. Summer, outdoors, all that. Sometimes a player will get stung, sometimes a flock of bees will swarm the field. As long as no one gets hurts, it’s always a little bit of fun. So it was with the “bee delays” the Mariners had in Anaheim during the waning days of a terrible season.
Our tale takes place on Sunday, September 22, 2013. The Mariners were trying to avoid a sweep in Anaheim against the Los Angeles Angels of that city. They went into the game with a record of 67-88, 25 games out of first place and better in the American League West than only the Astros, who were living up to their “Lastros” nickname and had already lost 104 games (ah, the good old days). The Angels sat in third place with a record of 76-78.
It started like any other baseball game. After working 1-2-3 first innings, both starters allowed runs to score in the second. For the Mariners, Mike Zunino drove in Kendrys Morales on a double. The Angels’ Efrén Navarro drove in Howie Kendrick on a bases-loaded groundout. Félix Hernández had struck out five Angels by the time he escaped the second inning.
In the bottom of the third, Félix was once again in a bit of a pickle. He’d struck out two Angels, but he’d also walked two Angels. Howie Kendrick was at the plate when right fielder Franklin Gutiérrez heard people in the stands yelling that there were bees behind him. At first he didn’t pay attention. Then, “I saw they were coming. That was scary right there.”1
Gutiérrez started in toward the infield and away from the bees. Time was called as Félix looked around apprehensively and walked off the mound.2
“I saw them and just started running to the dugout. I just saw them in right field and I said, 'No, I'm not staying here,’’ Félix said of his hustle off the mound. “I told (the Angels) I was going into their dugout and clubhouse if they kept coming.3
Eric Wedge who was managing Cleveland when the 2007 American League Division Series was delayed became of a swarm of insects said, “I’ve never seen bees like that. I’ve had my share of instances with other bugs, but never bees.” When Gutiérrez and Hernández first started off the field he wasn’t sure why. “I couldn’t see them at first. I didn’t know what the hell was going on. We’re lucky nobody got stung.4
Luckily, the Angels and umpires (new band name alert!) didn’t have to make too many calls because a fan in one of Anaheim’s dugout suites came to the rescue. As C.J. Wilson recounted after the game, “That dude just came out of the stands and said, ‘It’s OK, I’m a beekeeper.’ It was like a ‘Seinfeld’ episode.”5
Now, I’m not a beekeeper, but I have been outside in the summer before and I’m questioning the efficacy and wisdom of shooing the bees away with a broom.
The LA Times recounts that the fan took a stepladder and a box filled with honey to the outfield, luring enough bees for the game to resume. The fan was identified as Johnny Poto, an employee of a Long Beach company that sold honey products. (I guess he just always carries honey around with him? I have questions.) After doing whatever he was doing on the field, Poto spent some time behind the centerfield fence presumably looking for the hive.
The delay lasted 23 minutes, after which Kendrick reached on an error by shortstop Carlos Triunfel. Félix escaped the inning when Kole Calhoun lined out. He would only pitch 4 innings that day, but struck out 10 Angels, becoming the first pitcher in major league history to strike out 10 batters in a start that lasted 4 innings or less.6
A few minutes later, there was another delay in the top of the fourth inning when Calhoun and Trout noticed a swarm of bees on the ground, surrounding some spilled honey. “They were all chomping on it,” Calhoun said.7
The Angels staff had had enough of gentle beekeeping and sent a stadium employee out to blast the bees with a fire extinguisher. Bees on the verge of extinction? I don’t know her.
The Mariners went ahead in the sixth inning on a Justin Smoak right-handed home run that also brought in Kyle Seager. Calhoun hit a solo shot in the eighth inning, but that was all the Angels could muster. Danny Farquhar earned his 15th save for the Mariners and the Mariners escaped Anaheim with one win and no bee stings. All things considered, it could have gone worse.
Let’s Remember Some Guys! 2013 Edition
A really fantastic article was published a few days ago called The Therapeutic Value of Remembering Some Guys. You’ve likely read it; I’ve seen it bouncing around everywhere. If you haven’t, it’s worth the read. This is all to say that the 2013 Seattle Mariners are a baseball team I didn’t particularly want to write about. Time does not heal all wounds, but I have found that this era of Mariners baseball gets a little easier to look back on as time passes. So, let’s remember some guys that weren’t mentioned above.
Bobby LaFramboise only appeared in 10 games, but is memorable because his last name translates to ‘The Raspberry’ from French and I find that delightful.
Brandon Bantz became the third Moonlight Graham in Mariners history when he played in his only major league game on June 8, 2013.
Alex Liddi, the first player in MLB history who was born and developed in Italy, was in the final year of his major league career.
Carlos Peguero, one of my absolute favorites of the 2010s, only played in two games that year, but hit the best home run:
Alas, even having two catching Jesúses (Montero and Sucre) couldn’t save the 2013 Mariners from a 91-loss season.
Look for Bees, Find a 19th Century Player with a Story
I did some digging through old newspapers after the bee situation in Arizona, looking for any fun stories. I swear I had randomly come across one years ago, but I couldn’t find it.
I did find a little tidbit in the March 27, 1908 edition of the Seattle Daily Times. In an article about the excuses players came up with for making errors, this following story was shared:
One of the funniest excuses ever offered happened when a long line drive was driven straight at Treadway, who used to play right field for Seattle. It seemed a sure putout and an easy catch, although the ball was hard hit. Treadway had but a few feet to run to place his body squarely in front of the ball. He went jogging over, then suddenly swerved to go two ways at once and finally made a desperate jump at the ball, missed it, and let it roll away for a home run.
Everybody in the press box thought that the sun had blinded Treadway and caused him to misjudge the ball. Afterward he explained it. It appears that just as the ball was hit a bee landed on his leg. The sting of the bee distracted his attention and he forgot the ball until too late.8
I found the incident in a game story from 1903, and sure enough it is attributed to the sun getting in Treadway’s eyes and even asserts that “it was no fault of Treadway that the ball fell safe.”9 I did some more digging on this Treadway guy and discovered that his full name was George Treadway and he played for several minor league teams (Butte, Seattle, Tacoma, Walla Walla, Portland) in the Northwest in the early part of the 20th century. The papers sometimes called him Old Hoss Treadway.
An item from 1902 casually mentioned that he “for years was a star in the National League”.10 Sure enough, he played a little over 3 seasons in the major leagues between 1893 and 1896. His best season was 1894 with the Brooklyn Grooms when he slashed .330/.420/.521, hitting 26 triples and driving in 102 runs.
He began his career with the Baltimore Orioles in 1893. That year a Louisville newspaper published rumors that Treadway was Black and trying to pass as white. He was subjected to racial slurs as a result. It’s possible those rumors were behind his trade to Brooklyn; along with Billy Shindle, he was traded for future Hall of Famers Dan Brouthers and Willie Keeler.
The rumors appeared to be fabricated, but such accusations weren’t uncommon in baseball. A biography about Joe Jackson claimed that they drove Treadway out of baseball; in fact he played for a good decade after. Even though his batting stance is a bit, well, I’m not sure how to describe this:
The Greatest Athletic Performance I’ve Ever Seen
The NCAA gymnastics season ended a couple weeks ago. LSU won their first championship, and Oklahoma didn’t even make the Final Four. In celebration of the end of the season, I will leave you with a clip of one of my favorite collegiate gymnasts of all time doing a routine that is nigh unbelievable.
If you’ve ever watched a gymnastics broadcast, you’ve heard the commentators talk about the treachery of the balance beam. The way they talk it’s like a fate worse than death to have to jump up there. (Like many things about gymnastics broadcasts, I’ve always found this extremely irritating because I LOVED balance beam.) But some of what they say about beam is true; if you doubt yourself you’re going to fall. If you aren’t up there ready to attack it, it’s gonna eat you alive. Remember, it’s less than 4 inches wide and 4 feet off the ground (which is higher than you think it is). If the pressure gets to you, if you worry about messing up, it’s all over.
It’s the 2018 NCAA Gymnastics Championships. Oklahoma is in position to win. UCLA needs a 9.975 to overtake them and grab the championship. Former Canadian elite Peng-Peng Lee is up. It’s the very last routine of the championships and her career. And, well, you gotta watch this:
She was relaxed, she was aggressive, she was as clutch as anyone has ever been in any sport ever. Love the Homma flares. Love the double turn. The whole thing was incredible.
Knolle, Sharon. "Bees In The Outfield: Swarm Shuts Down Anaheim Angels Game Twice." LAist (Los Angeles, CA), September 23, 2013
All screenshots are from a brief video on the incident:
Divish, Ryan. "Bees! Bees! Run for your life, they’re everywhere!." News Tribune, The: Blogs (Tacoma, WA), September 22, 2013.
Divish, Ryan. "Bees! Bees! Run for your life, they’re everywhere!." News Tribune, The: Blogs (Tacoma, WA), September 22, 2013.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/la-xpm-2013-sep-22-la-sp-0923-angels-mariners-20130923-story.html#axzz2fj5XeZV3
https://www.lookoutlanding.com/2013/9/22/4760006/68-88-bees-angels-cant-stop-mariners
https://www.latimes.com/sports/la-xpm-2013-sep-22-la-sp-0923-angels-mariners-20130923-story.html#axzz2fj5XeZV3
“MANY EXCUSES FOR ERRORS.” Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, Washington), March 27, 1908: 12.
“SIX RUNS IN ONE INNING.” Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, Washington), April 25, 1903: 8.
“BASEBALL SMALL TALK”. Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, Washington), July 16, 1902: 5.
Great read! I'm still fairly new to the Mariners fandom and community so it's always fun to read and learn about their history