Earmoths! Matt Holliday leaves game after bug invades ear

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Earmoths! Matt Holliday leaves game after bug invades ear

Of all the various afflictions that have sidelined big league ballplayers this season, there isn't one that will leave you more squeamish than what happened to Matt Holliday on Monday night.

Watch Holliday's exit

The St. Louis Cardinals outfielder was just minding his own business in Busch Stadium's left field when a moth flew into his right ear and refused to come back out. �The inner-ear invasion left Holliday in pain and he immediately left the field under the care of a trainer.

Say, where's Fredbird when you really need him?

From the AP:

Holliday was taken into a dark room and a light was put to his ear, trying to lure the moth out, Cardinals spokesman Brian Bartow said. When that didn't work, an instrument was used to pry the live moth out of Holliday's ear.

Holliday was not available for comment but appeared to be OK, Bartow said.

"He had a moth fly into his ear, deep into his ear. I don't even know what happened to it," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.

So what was more embarrassing for Holliday? That he had to leave the game on account of a moth? Or that the rest of us can make jokes about there being enough room between his ears for that little sucker to make himself at home for a spell?

No matter the answer, the fact that Holliday elected to save the moth for posterity is more than amusing. Anyone know if Cooperstown keeps an entomologist on staff?

UPDATE: We've just obtained a proposal of the Cardinals' plans to prevent anything like this from happening in the future. Not bad, though we wish old Busch Stadium was still around so it could be converted into a giant citronella candle.