Beekeeper Matt Hilton MLB heroics, gets a trading card deal

After a colony of bees delayed the start to Tuesday night's Arizona Diamondbacks game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, beekeeper Matt Hilton of Blue Sky Pest Control swarmed to the rescue.

Just five minutes before the game was about to start, the swarm took up residency in the netting behind home plate, but Hilton arrived to rescue the day, much to the delight of the fans waiting inside Arizona’s Chase Field.

“It was crazy. I knew it was going to be an interesting experience. I mean, I’m going to Chase Field and the Diamondbacks and Dodgers playing,” “So I knew it was going to be a cool experience, but it wasn’t until I went out on the field in the buggy and the fans were just going crazy that it kind of hit me just how big of a deal this was and it just turned into a really neat experience for me.”

Hilton safety removed the bees to relocate them to a safer destination so the game could get underway, which was a relief to both teams and all the fans at Chase Field. The way Hilton went about removing the bees from the protective netting behind home plate was absolutely fascinating and involved spraying the bees with something before sucking them into a vacuum. video, here.

As a gesture of gratitude, the Diamondbacks asked Hilton throw out the first pitch for the game. Hilton walked onto the field to chants of “MVP” and the tune of Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero” while he got to work, spraying and removing the bees using a vacuum, from which they would later be released.

As with the bee removal, he did not disappoint.

Funny enough, Hilton said he was at his son’s tee ball game when he got the call to action. here

This isn’t the first time a sporting event has been affected due to bees in 2024. This year’s Indian Wells tournament saw a lengthy delay to the quarterfinal between Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev after a swarm of bees descended on the court. Last year, some 20,000 bees took center stage at an Irish cricket match in Cork.

Sumo started Sunday and I haven'y been able to watch it yet, but plan to today. I have watched SUMO here before, so I know it id doable.

Some of the "heavy hitters! ;o)

If you can get NHK the Japanese channel, you can watch each days matches consolidated to 30 minutes, four times a day.When I am at home I often try to watch all four. I always see things I missed.