On This Date in Sports June 2, 1959: Invasion of the Gnats

A Tuesday Night Game at Comiskey Park, between the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles, turns into a 1950s horror film as the field becomes overloaded with gnats. Play becomes impossible as the gnats swarm around the players, especially in the infield. This led Owner Bill Veeck to call for the postgame fireworks to be set off, leading to a 30-minute delay as the Orioles won 3-2.

The 1959 season marked the triumphant return of Bill Veeck, who had previously owned the Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Browns, creating many creative promotions along the way and raising the ire of other owners in baseball. Veeck’s father had once run the rival Chicago Cubs and had been behind the idea of installing the ivy at Wrigley Field.

The White Sox had played well over the first two months under Manager Al Lopez, holding a record of 25-20 entering a June 2nd game against the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles had once been Veeck’s Browns, were also playing well at 25-21 under Paul Richards.

It was a warm and muggy night on the Southside of Chicago as 12,482 fans were on hand. White Sox starter Bob Shaw pitched around trouble without allowing a run in the first. However, Baltimore starter Hoyt Wilhelm who had shutout the New York Yankees in his previous two starts was perturbed by the gnats as the White Sox scratched a run on the board with Nellie Fox scoring on a Larry Doby grounder. This led to a 16-minute bug delay as umpires, grounds crew, and bat boys ran around the field with bug bombs. The White Sox added a second run in the fourth as Bubba Phillips doubled home Billy Goodman after Chico Carrasquel made his second error of the game at shortstop.