When a swarm of honeybees interrupted the Orioles’ game against the Colorado Rockies on Sunday, it wasn’t the first time that insects had stopped play in a major league game. On June 2, 1959, Orioles pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm was chased from the mound by a cloud of gnats that encircled the mound at Chicago’s Comiskey Park.

Wilhelm, a 36-year-old knuckleballer, hadn’t yet thrown a pitch in the first inning when he began pawing at the air and retreating from the mound. The bugs were everywhere around.

“I never seen nothin’ like them. I couldn’t pitch through them,” Wilhelm said of the gnats, which caused a 16-minute delay as groundskeepers used smoke bombs, burning rags and, finally, fireworks to disperse the pesky horde.

“Umpire Hank Soar assumed command of a fumigating campaign, spraying himself, Wilhelm, anyone who would stand still with DDT. The evening air was full of the stuff,” The Sun reported then.

“In last-ditch desperation, [White Sox owner Bill] Veeck — ever the showman — ordered elements of his post-game fireworks brigade into combat from the center field bullpen area.”

Relief was on its way. Workers placed the fireworks on the mound and lit a match.

“The fuse sizzled for an instant,” The Sun reported. “Then, like a miniature atom bomb, an explosion rocked Comiskey Park’s ancient ramparts. A cloud of white smoke enveloped the infield. The bugs, those which survived, retreated before the forces of modern technological warfare.”

Play resumed. The Orioles won, 3-2, as the undefeated Wilhelm won his eighth straight decision for a second-place Baltimore squad that improved to 26-21.

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