25 times Mother Nature disrupted sports

Countless baseball games have been postponed due to rain or snow, but an earthquake is an entirely different story. Yet that’s exactly what happened in San Francisco on Oct. 16, 1989, at approximately 5:04 p.m. local time. Game 3 of the crosstown World Series between the Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants was just about to begin when the region was rocked by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake. This caused violent shaking and a loss of power at Candlestick Park, forcing a police officer to drive his car onto the field and use the vehicle’s intercom to inform spectators that the game had been postponed. It was rescheduled 10 days later, an MLB record. Fortunately, less than half of the stadium was filled at the time, and there were no serious injuries reported inside. However, the quake was responsible for the deaths of 63 people in the surrounding area.

It’s not unusual for a golf tournament to be altered or delayed due to rain. Playing conditions need to be optimal, so rounds are often pushed back to later in the same day or rescheduled for the following day, following week or even months later. What is unusual, however, is to have a tournament completely canceled, which is what happened to the 2009 Viking Classic. The Madison, Miss. area received a whopping 20 inches of rain over the span of six weeks, leading to the classic getting postponed, then canceled on the first day; postponed, then canceled the next day; then shortened to 54 holes and moved to the next week; and then scrapped altogether when grounds crews announced that they expected the course to be underwater for weeks to come. Talk about a water hazard.

The Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians were tied 3-3 in the 10th inning of a June 11, 2009, game when the Tribe got some unexpected help. Shin-Soo Choo was at the dish with two on and nobody out when he hit a single to center field and right into a flock of seagulls. Coco Crisp had a chance to throw out the winning run at the plate, but as he attempted to field the ball, it deflected off one of the seagulls and rolled past him, allowing the Indians to walk off in a 4-3 win.

When play began in the first round of the 2011 WGC-Cadillac Championship and the forecast in Florida called for the possibility of rain, some players hoped that a little moisture would soften up the greens. The rain came after just one hole, but nobody thought the wind would be as bad as it was. The Doral Golf Resort & Spa was struck by a series of microbursts that not only caused a substantial delay, but also toppled 17 trees, two TV towers, the ShotLink tower and a giant scoreboard, and also left a TV camera at the bottom of a lake. Shockingly, play actually resumed later that day, although numerous golfers couldn’t finish their rounds before darkness fell.

Rarely in baseball is a pitch not recorded. Even tosses that completely miss the batter’s box, go straight up in the air or are spiked into the ground are still counted as balls. But Mother Nature doesn’t play by the rules. In a 2001 MLB spring training game, Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher and future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson threw a 99-mph fastball to San Francisco Giants batter Calvin Murray, when it suddenly exploded into a cloud of feathers in mid-air. The ball struck a pigeon or dove that happened to fly into its path and was ruled by the home plate umpire as a no-pitch, or a dead ball. No pun intended, and no offense to the poor birdie that lost its life.

The Williams World Challenge has occurred annually since 1999, but it only lasted one year in Arizona. In its inaugural year, a hail storm hit Scottsdale's Grayhawk Golf Club during the final hole of the final round with only Phil Mickelson and partner Mark O’Meara still playing. The match was temporarily halted, but even after the hail stopped falling, the ground was still coated in white. Mickelson and O’Meara shrugged off the weird weather and decided to finish up anyway. After seeing his partner struggle to hit the ball across the green with a putter, Mickelson instead opted for his L-wedge, and, in a very Mickelson moment, he sunk a 25-footer to finish the hole with a birdie.

Seagulls are known to congregate on the interior part of the horse track at Sandown Raceway in Melbourne, Australia, but rarely do they interfere with the horses and jockeys. An exception to this took place in 2005, when hundreds of gulls flew onto the field in the home straight of the March 5 1200-meter Goldenway Handicap. As the horses approached, the birds scattered, causing utter chaos that led to five jockeys to becoming dislodged and falling to the ground. Aside from some bruises and broken bones, everyone escaped serious injury, and now Sandown takes extra steps to scare and keep the gulls away.

Baboons are often seen during the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, but the animals are usually just there to watch the action. However, British golfer Luke Donald received a scare when he was setting up a shot back in 2014 and one of the baboons snuck up behind him and ran across the fairway. The furry spectator only caused a momentary delay, but we’re sure it’s a unique one that Luke Donald will never forget.

Manu Ginobili is known for making some impressive shots, but the most baffling one in his November 2009 game against the Sacramento Kings occurred when he took a shot at a live bat. The bat had somehow infiltrated the AT&T Center and had become a nuisance as it repeatedly flew around the court and distracted players, coaches and fans. Attempts to catch it were unsuccessful (even by a net-toting mascot), until Ginobili decided he had had enough and simply swatted the bat out of the air, picked it up, handed it to an arena employee and continued playing. Manu later apologized for the event and informed fans that he received a rabies vaccine after the game.

A bit of wind can wreak havoc on the football field. A whole lot of wind can literally destroy it. Prior to a December 2008 game against the New England Patriots, the Buffalo Bills had a 50-foot strip of their practice fieldhouse torn off, and both goalposts inside Ralph Wilson Stadium were tilted thanks to 75-mph wind gusts. Ropes and a forklift were used to re-secure and recenter the posts, and the start of the game wasn’t delayed. However, in the second quarter, both goalposts had to once again be readjusted as the Pats lined up to attempt a field goal. An almost complete lack of kicking or passing success led to a low-scoring affair, which New England won 13-0.

Usually when birds appear at sporting events, the only disruption they cause is a momentary delay in play. But when golfer Steve Lowery made it onto the 17th green at the 1998 Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., a seagull not only landed on the course, it picked up Lowery’s ball and attempted to fly away. The gull eventually dropped the ball, but it unfortunately landed right in the middle of a water hazard. In accordance with golf rule 18-1, Lowery took a drop without penalty and played on.

Jose Canseco has been called a lot of things in his life, but “owl-wrangler” has got to be one of the strangest. Yet this is exactly the role that Canseco played in a July 1991 game between his Oakland A’s and the Texas Rangers. Somehow an apparently injured owl ended up in right field late in the game, much to the amusement of everyone present. Since it couldn’t fly, Canseco wiggled his glove to distract the bird while umpire Durwood Merrill scooped it up and gave it to a member of the grounds crew, who eventually got the bird to a veterinarian.

Cats have infiltrated countless MLB, minor league and college games throughout baseball history (heck, the entire New York Mets organization is essentially cursed with them), but the felines usually escape the field or are captured relatively quickly and provide only a momentary delay. That wasn’t the case when a mischievous kitten made it onto the field at Seattle’s Kingdom back in 1984. Although the animal was tiny in size, “ferocious” might be a more appropriate term for its demeanor. The kitty ran about the field for several minutes and survived being grabbed twice, with the second instance becoming a now iconic scene where a poor staffer was clawed and bitten on the finger, forcing him to toss the cat back to the ground before finally catching it for good on the third attempt.

It’s not unusual to see bees at a baseball game. After all, they almost always take place outside. And while swarms have caused delays in the past, it usually only creates a minor disruption for the players, except for the swarm that took over the infield in the ninth inning of a Padres’ game against the Rockies in spring training earlier this year. As the announcers began talking about the bees, the camera cut away momentarily to show the outfield, and when it cut back, the pitcher, catcher, batter, umpire and multiple infielders had all hit the deck to protect themselves from the swarm. Thankfully, the infestation soon subsided, and the game was allowed to continue.

After an uneventful 2007 season opener on the road in Chicago, the Cleveland Indians returned home for a series against the Seattle Mariners. Snow began to fall in the very first game, which was delayed and eventually postponed just one pitch shy of becoming an official contest. In the end, not only did the entire four-game series need to be rescheduled, but the Indians' next series against the visiting L.A. Angels of Anaheim had to be moved to Miller Field in Milwaukee. The Indians wouldn’t play an actual home game at home until April 13!

Hurricane Katrina led to the deaths of at least 1,245 people and was the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, and the state of Louisiana was caught directly in its crosshairs. During the storm, the Louisiana Superdome, home of the New Orleans Saints and Tulane Green Wave, was used to shelter some 9,000 residents and 550 National Guardsmen, and it sustained more than $185 million worth of damage. Subsequently, the stadium was not used during the 2005 NFL or NCAA seasons, which meant the home games of both teams, the Bayou Classic, the New Orleans Bowl and the Sugar Bowl needed to be played elsewhere until the Superdome was reopened in September 2006.

Don’t be fooled by the cute, cuddly appearance of the pine marten — these animals can actually be quite vicious. Just ask Zurich footballer Loris Benito, who had his finger bitten by a marten when he attempted to catch it during a Swiss Super League game in March 2013. The invading animal caused quite a delay before it was eventually caught by Zurich goalkeeper David Da Costa. Because if you need something caught, of course you call in a goalie.

Squirrels are known to invade the occasional ballpark, but the worst effect they usually have on the games is just a momentary pause in play. Except for the 2011 National League Division Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals, that is. The offending squirrel first appeared in the Busch Stadium outfield during Game 3 without incident, but when he popped up again in Game 4, he ran right across home plate during a pitch by Phillies hurler Roy Oswalt. The pitch was called a ball, prompting an argument from Oswalt and Philly manager Charlie Manuel, who unsuccessfully argued it should be called a no-pitch due to the distraction. The Cards eventually won the game and the series, leading to the team adopting the “Rally Squirrel” as its unofficial second mascot.

The Windy City lived up to its name on Nov. 13, 2005, when strong gusts derailed the game between the San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears. The extremely high wind speeds led to numerous missed kicks and other snafus throughout the game, including a botched field goal attempt by the Niners that resulted in a record-breaking 108-yard touchdown return by Bears cornerback Nathan Vasher. Call it home field advantage, because the Bears finished on top by a score of 17-9.

When the Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears met at Chicago’s Soldier Field for a Dec. 31, 1988, playoff game, both teams knew it would be a tough battle. However, nobody expected the difficulty to be due to a lack of visibility. A dense fog rolled onto the field during the second quarter, obscuring anything beyond 15 or 20 yards. While this provided a bit of a challenge to the players on the field, those most affected were the referees, the coaches on the sidelines, the announcers, and the spectators attempting to watch in person and at home. Still, the game continued, and the so-called “Fog Bowl” ended in a 20-12 Bears victory.

The coldest game in NFL history was the NFL Championship Game between the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys that took place on Dec. 31, 1967. Although the 1981 “Freezer Bowl” had a lower wind chill temperature, 1967’s “Ice Bowl” had the lowest recorded actual temp: -15 degrees Fahrenheit. Exactly how cold was it? So cold that the marching band’s woodwind instruments froze, the brass players’ reeds stuck to their mouths and seven band members were sent to the hospital for hypothermia. So cold that the referees’ whistles also froze to their mouths. And as for the players, numerous members of the Packers had cars that wouldn’t start (including Dave Robinson, who had to flag down a random passing motorist for a ride), Green Bay’s offensive line literally couldn’t find its footing and allowed eight sacks of QB Bart Starr, and at least five players caught frostbite. Most tragic of all, an elderly spectator died of hypothermia in the stands. In the end, the Packers won 21-17.

Rain has washed away numerous golf events in the past, but players aren’t used to seeing snow and sleet out on the links, especially in Arizona! That being said, most of the competitors were shocked to wake up to more than an inch of snow before the final round of the 2011 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. Although most of the precipitation melted prior to players taking to the course in the afternoon, it picked up again when the match reached the third green, and play had to be temporarily halted. But this wasn’t the last time snow would fall on the Arizona course in February; a similar weather event also caused a temporary suspension of the Match Play Championship in 2013.

Thunder can be scary during a rainstorm, but it’s especially frightening when it literally comes out of the blue. Just ask the Texas Rangers and Minnesota Twins, who experienced an unexpected thunderclap and lightning flash in the middle of a July 8, 2012, game in Arlington, Texas. As soon as it struck, players on both sides ducked for cover and immediately bolted for the dugout. Unlike most baseball games, no one waited around for the umpires to signal a halt in play, as the officiating crew also immediately ran for cover.

As if golf wasn’t hard enough already, players at the 2005 Buick Invitational in San Diego were greeted with an overwhelmingly thick fog (or, more accurately, a marine layer) that delayed the tournament three times over the course of two days. In the shortened, rescheduled end, Tiger Woods ended up emerging victorious, probably because he was so good back in 2005 that he didn’t need even need to see what he was doing.

Talk about home field advantage. In Game 2 of the 2007 ALDS between the New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians at Jacobs Field, Yanks reliever Joba Chamberlain entered the game with a 1-0 lead. However, an enormous swarm of midges (small, gnat-like insects) also entered at the same time and rattled the young phenom, who only managed to throw 12 of 25 pitches for strikes in the inning. Although the game was stopped numerous times for the application of insect repellent, TV cameras showed Chamberlain was still absolutely covered in bugs, which likely led to him walking Grady Sizemore and eventually allowing the Indians outfielder to tie the game on two uncharacteristic wild pitches. The swarm subsided after the Yankees’ half of the inning, and Cleveland went on to win in extra innings, 2-1.