Swarming

The pitcher from central casting came into the seventh inning of a must win situation. The large stocky flame thrower from the plains of Nebraska was called on to bail out the heroic veteran starting hurler. With a man in scoring position, rookie phenom Joba Chamberlain, throwing for baseball's most storied franchise, put out the fire and kept the New Yorkers up by one run. The script called for Joba to pitch the ninth and then turn the game over to the ultimate finisher, Mariano Rivera. Oh, if life was just a script, the Yankees would be heading back to their fabled Bronx ballpark with the series tied one to one. Unfortunately, life threw the Bombers a curve ball.

To be more specific, the Yankees did not lose to the Cleveland Indians on Friday night. No, they were done in by a Biblical host of swarming gnats that picked the eighth inning as their chosen moment to emerge from the depths of nearby Lake Erie and descend upon the Yankees. The two all time superstars on the left side of the infield - Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter - were no match for the tiny Mayflies (aka Canadian Soldiers). There they were in front of a huge television audience, using their gloves in a futile effort to get the flies off of them. Luckily, the position players were just innocent bystanders. The same could not be said for the young Mr. Chamberlain. Apparently, the Mayflies are attracted to sweat. The huge pitcher's neck was a repository of perspiration and viewers could see dozens of the little pests hanging on the neck of the Yankee pitcher as he attempted to find the plate sixty feet away. The flies would have their way, as Joba uncorked two wild pitches, hit a batsman, and yield a walk and ultimately a tying run.

Not even the Yankees can fight fate. It was inevitable that once the Mayflies opened the gates, the Indians would find a way to prevail (which they did in inning number eleven). The amazing thing is that the Mayflies live on the bottom of Lake Erie and only come up a few times a year to buzz around for a few hours before returning to their watery home, where the females drop thousands of eggs, and then die. The question all will ask is how did these innocent creatures know to swarm when the Yankees took the field in that fateful eighth inning and zero in on a pitcher who had been overpowering against the entire league for the past two months? An Oriole, a Tiger, and not even an Angel had bettered Joba Chamberlain. Who would have figured there was a team of Flies in the American League?