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So, let’s talk about the birds and the bees.
No, not that kind of talk.
There’s plenty of buzz around this young Orioles team — so much so that a swarm of bees descended on Camden Yards in Baltimore and forced the bottom of the first inning of Sunday’s series finale against the Colorado Rockies to grind to a halt. It doesn’t go down as an official delay, but it made for a unique scene at Oriole Park.
Along the left field wall and concentrated on a bullpen camera, the bees congregated and forced a pause in the game. Colorado outfielder Nolan Jones chatted with head groundskeeper Nicole Sherry, flapping his arms to mimic the flight of the pollinators.
There was a short break — “a five-minute bee delay” was announced in the press box — before play resumed.
On Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, Orioles bullpen coach Tim Cossins joined the broadcast to detail the setting. “We have a bee situation out here,” Cossins said from the bullpen, and he noted how the swarm of bees was mounted on the bullpen camera. They came from left field, Cossins said, before settling on the camera well.
At one point, Mr. Splash in the outfield Bird Bath section sprayed water at the bees.
It’s not the first bee-related stoppage for Cossins. When play-by-play announcer Kevin Brown asked whether he’d been involved in a bee delay, Cossins recalled how he and the Rockies bullpen coach, Rick Cornelius, were part of one when they were on the same staff years ago.
“Ironically, he’s up here now,” Cossins said. “We were kind of talking about it.”
Shortly after, an Orioles spokesperson said the bees were identified as honeybees and had calmed down.
But, with all the buzz around baseball for the surging Orioles, perhaps it’s no surprise birds and bees flocked together Sunday at the park.
andy.kostka@thebaltimorebanner.com
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Andy Kostka is an Orioles beat writer for The Baltimore Banner. He previously covered the Orioles for The Baltimore Sun. Kostka graduated from the University of Maryland and grew up in Rockville.
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