The Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks were five minutes away from taking the field for their regular season matchup when something unexpected happened.
A swarm of thousands of bees made the top of the netting behind home plate their meeting grounds. This inconvenience caused a delay to the start of the game at Chase Field in Phoenix.
Needing a quick fix to the hazardous situation behind home plate, Diamondbacks VP of Ballpark Operations Mike Rock reached out to Blue Sky Pest Control beekeeper Matt Hilton.
Hilton received a standing ovation from the Diamondbacks’ crowd as a cart brought him onto the field. He swiftly removed the bees and afterward hilariously took off his bee suit hood, inviting more cheers from the 28,667 attendees.
— wow that was crazy (@CowardlyDoggo) May 1, 2024
The man of the hour even threw out the ceremonial first pitch, which is quite the honor in the baseball world. MLB fans loved every bit of Hilton’s heroics and made the moment go viral online.
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After the event unfolded, Hilton was interviewed on the field and reflected on leaving his son’s tee-ball game to answer the call. He said that throwing the first pitch was “pretty awesome” and touched on the response from the fans.
“I thought I was here to just take care of a bee problem,” Hilton said. “People were pretty hyped up. It was pretty cool.”
The Diamondbacks gave their fans more reason to cheer as they went on to defeat the Dodgers 4-3. That victory evened up their three-game regular season series at one win apiece.