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Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” isn’t the only long journey people are talking about, as a squirrel caused chaos at Comerica Park on Monday night.
During the bottom of the sixth inning of the Baltimore Orioles’ 8-5 win over the Detroit Tigers, a black squirrel got loose in the outfield.
The squirrel raced up and down the warning track, and play continued for a full inning while the critter made its way around the ballpark. At one point, the squirrel wasn’t too far away from a dove that was sitting on the warning track, also taking in the game.
While the black squirrel’s journey across the field may not have been as arduous as Odysseus’, it was certainly entertaining.
During the top of the seventh inning, it made its way through the infield, but the game continued. The real fireworks began during the seventh-inning stretch as the grounds crew emerged to remove the squirrel.
The squirrel was making its way toward the right-field corner, and a security guard opened up the outfield gate, but the squirrel did not go through. About 15 members of the Tigers’ grounds crew, along with Orioles outfielder Leody Taveras, then tried to pick the squirrel up, but it proved elusive.
At one point, the squirrel’s shiftiness juked out one of the grounds crew so badly that it brought him to his knees.
The squirrel was chased into Taveras’ glove, but as he tried to snatch up the animal, the squirrel vaulted out of his glove and went flying before regaining his balance and continuing to flummox the grounds crew with its dexterity.
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“I just was trying to stop it. When it got into my glove, I don’t want to squeeze it, so I was just trying to bring it up. I wasn’t trying to do that. But they got it out,” Taveras said, via MLB.com. “I hope it’s good.”
After escaping Taveras’ glove, it seemed as if the squirrel was finally trapped in the right-field corner, but it was able to dodge the towels the grounds crew threw at it and keep moving.
At one point, one member of the grounds crew was able to grab the squirrel for a moment, but it once again broke free. The squirrel dodged two attempts from the grounds crew to smother it with a towel before finally being caught under a third towel.
The grounds crew member then picked up the squirrel, which was under a towel, and was booed off the field by a vociferous Tigers’ crowd.
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Play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti added some thrilling commentary as the scene unfolded.
“The chase for the squirrel is on, and the squirrel is in the corner and the squirrel is still eluding an entire horde of grounds crew members! And the squirrel is free once again, hemmed in? No! I won’t be hemmed in, I have freedom on my mind! Trying to go between the legs and eventually gets away again! And hops through the towel! And hops through another towel! The forcefield is activated, towels can’t stop him, or maybe they can,” Benetti said as the squirrel was finally caught.
After the squirrel was caught, home plate umpire Bill Miller gave a shoutout to the grounds crew for their efforts.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to thank the grounds crew. Let’s give them a round of applause. The Detroit Tigers grounds crew, thank you,” Miller said, via MLB.com.
Orioles manager Craig Albernaz aptly described the whole situation as “nuts.”
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“The whole squirrel thing was nuts,” Albernaz said, via MLB.com. “I mean, at one point, I thought he was going to go into the batter’s box, see what was going on. He had a great view of the game. I think Bill Miller, the home-plate umpire, really stole the show with getting everyone out there, and then I had no idea Leody tried to glove-flip it or catch it in right field. I didn’t see that video until after the game. Nice job, Leody.”
The Orioles (52-55) will hope there aren’t any other squirrels running around Comerica Park when they take on the Tigers (50-57) in the middle game of a three-game series Tuesday at 6:40 p.m. ET.
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