Fans at Dodger Stadium watched a goose fly onto the field and slide stomach-first Wednesday, a moment that joined a long history of animals interrupting sporting events, according to the report.
Earlier this year in Chicago, a goose patrolled the field in the bottom of the third inning during an April game between the Cubs and Phillies. Play continued and Cubs first baseman Michael Busch recorded a hit; the baseball flew over the bird and the goose then flew away, the account said.
At the 2026 Winter Olympics in Tesero, Italy, a local Czechoslovakian wolfdog named Nazgul slipped away from its owner and dashed onto the homestretch of the cross-country ski course during a preliminary qualifying round. There was no serious disruption beyond a few seconds of confusion among racers, and Nazgul was quickly corralled and returned home. “I was like, ‘Am I hallucinating?'” said 21-year-old Croatian skier Tena Hadzic, who raced on the homestretch when the dog trotted by, according to the report.
Squirrels have caused multiple stoppages. In 2025 a rodent emerged in the fourth inning of a Yankees-Red Sox game, appearing behind home plate near Jhostynxon Garcia’s left foot before running to the third-base foul line, attempting to dig in front of the mound and then scampering down the right-field line. Also in 2025, a squirrel ran around the outfield and onto the warning track before climbing into the Tigers’ bullpen in the first inning of a San Francisco Giants-Detroit Tigers game.
The report cataloged other incidents: a snake slithered across the course during the second round of the 2025 PGA Championship in Charlotte, seemingly passing by a ball; a bunny disrupted a 2025 college baseball game at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman, Oklahoma, running behind home plate and toward the bullpen; a squirrel ran to the end zone and into the tunnel during an Ole Miss-Oklahoma meeting in Oxford in 2024; an insect interrupted a 2024 US Open quarterfinal between Frances Tiafoe and Grigor Dimitrov, with ball boys spending about 30 seconds trying to contain the black bug; and a raccoon strolled onto the field during a 2024 match between the Philadelphia Union and New York City FC at Subaru Park. The account also referenced a sportswriter’s dog interrupting a Georgia football game and noted recurring bat encounters in San Antonio.
