Skip to search.

Breaking News Visit Yahoo! News for the latest.

×Close this window

Big League Stew - MLB

Big League Stew

Fri Feb 11 11:03am EST

Video: Horde of bats takes over at Rays' spring training home

By 'Duk

The Tampa Bay Rays spent their offseason saying goodbye to big bats like Carl Crawford(notes) and Carlos Pena and welcoming older ones like Johnny Damon(notes) and Manny Ramirez(notes).

But it turns out they're not done with winter bat work just yet.*

According to Tampa's ABC Action News, a horde of Brazilian Free Tail bats — the flying and scary kind — have taken up residence at the Charlotte County Sports Complex, where the Rays play their spring training games.

The Rays battling unwelcome critters in Port Charlotte is nothing new. Two years ago, our own Dave Brown documented a funny attempt by the stadium's staff to unsuccessfully wrangle a rascally raccoon by using a hitting net and a sunflower seed bucket. This year's pest control seems to be a little more organized as the facility has built a custom tower away from the stadium — about a quarter mile away (which actually doesn't seem far enough, if you think about it)— where the bats can congregate.

Manny might want to keep his dreads on a swivel when he does report, though. Officials say it'll take seven to 14 days to completely evict their creepy squatters.

*Homonyms FTW!

Follow Big League Stew on Facebook and Twitter

digg delicious

Related Articles

Launch Article Browser

Big League Stew

Add to My Yahoo! RSS

Related Photo Gallery

More MLB Photos »

Y! Sports Blog