Birds have often been involved in baseball, from the San Francisco Giants’ famed Oracle Park seagulls to the less fortunate but even more famous mourning dove killed by a Randy Johnson pitch. And on Wednesday, some geese got involved in baseball in a very Canadian way.
The latest bird disruption came at the independent Winnipeg Goldeyes’ American Association home game against the Sioux Falls Canaries. That game got interrupted by an invasion of Canada geese. (Perhaps they were looking for fish, tricked by the Goldeyes’ name?)
At any rate, Goldeyes’ play-by-play announcer Trevor Curl delivered an uproarious call of the various attempts (a literal wild goose chase) to convince the geese to leave. And he showed great persistence, even while the geese were interfering with the trivia question he was trying to get out:
A goose delay?? 🤣
Elite work from @trevorcurl9 on the mic here navigating a goose delay during tonight’s @Wpg_Goldeyes game at Blue Cross Park. pic.twitter.com/cIPpdOEwKx
— Connor Hrabchak (@ConnorHrabchak1) August 15, 2024
“Oh, we’re going to wait for the birds, eh? Well, I guess we’re going to wait for them, huh? We’re going to wait for the birds, really? Well, I guess we’re going to wait for the birds to get off of the playing surface, huh? All right.
“Anyways, back to the trivia question that we were going to try and get said. But Max Murphy and Nick Anderson are now ushering the geese out of the ballpark. Anyways. There have been three pitchers in baseball history to throw an immaculate inning on three separate occasions…[laughs]…they’re still there! They’re finally getting them out!
“Oh, they’re not even leaving the ballpark! They’re flying in! They’re flying towards the infield now. So Nick Anderson, Max Murphy, and now here comes Miles Simington to corral the geese. Here comes Edwin Arroyo to join in. And now Miles is going to try and chase them off.
“Here they come towards the infield! Edwin escorts them towards the left-field side. And now they’re just going to park themselves in shallow left field. So now the entire rest of the infield for the Goldeyes are going to go after them and try and chase them.
“Edwin’s going to try and fly them out over the left-field fence, Miles Simington joining in. Now, the rest of the bullpen is going to join in!
“And nope, nope, they’re going to turn right back towards the infield. Here they come to the infield. Dayson Croes is about to throw his glove at them. Now they’re going to start taking flight! Nick Anderson about to join in on throwing a glove, and now the geese are finally flying out of the ballpark. Here comes Fergie on the tractor to try and get them out.
“One goose is just hanging on the warning track down the left-field line. Danny Perron, the bullpen catcher, is going to go out and try and chase one. Well, Nick Anderson again is going to try and chase one out. So there’s three out of the four who have left the ballpark.
“Now there’s just one stubborn one who’s just sitting on the warning track in left field. Fergie’s chasing after him with the tractor [laughs]! And now it takes flight! Now it finally is getting on out of here. It’s flying towards the right-field corner; this goose is flying, flying, flying, and this goose is gone!”
That’s a pretty funny situation to watch play out in the first place, adding to the array of animals on the field over the years. But Curl’s play-by-play of it made it even better. As did his response to this clip on Twitter/X later:
I was just trying to get a trivia question out https://t.co/xntyR9XGtQ
— Trevor Curl ⭐️⭐️ (@trevorcurl9) August 15, 2024
For all those who were interested in the answer to the interrupted trivia question, the three MLB pitchers to have recorded an immaculate inning three times are Sandy Koufax, Chris Sale, and Max Scherzer. Fortunately, looking things up on the internet is less vulnerable to geese disruption than a baseball game is. But the Goldeyes did win this one 7-0 in the end despite the pause to chase the birds out.
[Connor Hrabchuk on X/Twitter]