Baseball fans want to know: What happened to the goose?
In case you missed it, Game 2 of the NLDS between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres featured a bizarre interruption in the bottom of the eighth when a goose invaded the outfield.
DUCK ON THE FIELD! ⚾️🦆 pic.twitter.com/gffRSD8g5l
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) October 13, 2022
After quite literally a wild goose chase, the Dodger Stadium grounds crew chased the bird down, wrapped it in a towel and tossed it in a trash can, to mock boos from the crowd.
Removal of the goose: pic.twitter.com/r2JwoGIIL6
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) October 13, 2022
So what happened to the goose?
“Can confirm that the goose was safely released,” Nicole Singer, vice president of public relations for the Dodgers, told Jonah Valdez of the Los Angeles Times.
Yet the Times noted that Singer “did not respond to questions about how and where it was set free.”
That sounds rather ominous. Like, did the Dodgers “safely release” it near the kitchen entrance to a trendy Beverly Hills bistro that serves roast goose?
One would hope not. For further information on the issue, the Times turned to Travis Longcore, president of the Los Angeles Audubon Society. He identified the bird as a greater white-fronted goose. (He must have laughed himself silly at all the laymen who initially called it a duck.)
Longcore says the bird was likely migrating from Alaska, possibly en route to Mexico, when the Dodger Stadium lights confused it.
Longcore applauded the groundskeeper for using a towel to capture the bird, preventing damage to its feathers. He hopes the team released it near a body of water.
The Times didn’t stop at Longcore. It tracked down an expert, Kimball Garrett, of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, who estimated the bird’s age at one year old. For those worried that the bird is stranded in LA while the rest of its flock is hanging out in Mexico, Garrett had some reassuring words.
“They’re really good at finding each other,” Garrett said. “And they can survive perfectly fine on their own.”
Finally, for anyone feeling bad they misidentified the goose as a duck, there’s this:
America watched as a greater white-fronted goose took up temporary residency in Dodger Stadium. We caught up with Dr. Jay VonBank, a leading expert on the species, for his opinion on what may have caused this bird to fly “afowl” of normal behaviors. https://t.co/lSaPz2PNq6
— Ducks Unlimited (@DucksUnlimited) October 14, 2022
