On March 8, 2015, a swarm of bees descended upon the Kansas City Royals' Cactus League game in Tempe. Most of the bees were exterminated, much to the chagrin of Royals manager Ned Yost.
"I've never seen mass bee genocide like that," Yost said after that game. "They're just honeybees, man. There's a decline in honeybees. We need 'em."
Call it nostalgia. Call it payback. (Or, you know, call it a coincidence, which it probably was.) But exactly one year to the day, the bees returned, as a swarm invaded Tuesday's Royals-Rockies game in Surprise.
This time, however, the situation was handled in a way Yost approved of: A retired beekeeper was on hand to help diffuse the situation humanely.
"It doesn't make any sense for me to panic and kill bees when you don't have to, and I was proud of the way we handled it," Yost said after repeating his same warning from last year.
"Not enough bees in the world, boys. We can't be exterminating them."
Yost understands the desire to not be stung by bees -- but he said killing them in mass quantities isn't necessary.
"They're not gonna mess with you. Just don't mess with them," he said.
"Kinda like the Royals: Don't mess with us, we won't mess with you."
