The unusual nature of the 2007 baseball season – the Mets’ historic collapse, the Rockies’ historic run and the bugs that intruded on the Yankees – almost defies explanation.
But not quite. It was the midges, residing on Lake Erie, that took advantage of an unusually warm Oct. 5 evening to reproduce before the cold Cleveland winter. Drawn to the bright lights of Jacobs Field, they gathered on the field in the eighth inning of Game 2, with the Yankees holding a precarious 1-0 lead.
According to Joe Keiper, the chief entomologist at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the midges searched the field for the highest possible meeting point for centralized mating, which happened to be the 6-foot-2 Joba Chamberlain, perched atop the pitcher’s mound. And then, Keiper added, the midges had an “extra burst of adult activity” that distracted the usually unhittable Chamberlain into a procession of walks and wild pitches that allowed the Indians to tie the score, win the game innings later and ultimately advance to the ALCS.
The New York Times
