MLB GM Doug Melvin Hospitalized By Scorpion Sting

Milwaukee Brewers general manager Doug Melvin got quite the scare at spring training in Arizona this week when a scorpion stung him inside his condominium.

According to Yahoo! Sports, the MLB GM was eating dinner with his wife Ellen Wednesday when he bent down to pick up what he thought was a “harmless” bug crawling on the condo floor. Refusing to go down without a fight, the insect delivered a painful sting to Dough’s left middle finger.

The bug turned out to be an Arizona bark scorpion, one of the most venomous insects in North America.

Following the sting, Melvin said he spent three hours in the ER but felt well enough to be at work Thursday.

“My arm is still totally numb,” Melvin told the Journal Sentinel on Thursday morning at the Brewers’ spring training complex.

“It stung me right through the Kleenex. My arm started swelling, and then the numbness started going up my arm, like when you hit your funny bone. I was wondering if it might go all the way up my arm and go to my heart. I got nervous when it got up to my shoulder, so I went to the emergency room.”

Melvin told ESPN he was treated with pain meds at the hospital and monitored for a few hours before being released. Though initially concerned, Doug ultimately said the incident wasn’t a big deal in hindsight.

“They said your vision can go blurry from that. It was more an education on it, but my arm is still numb. First off, they tell you it’s not fatal. But you can have an allergic reaction to it and need an anti-venom injection.”

When asked how he would deal with the next scorpion encounter, Melvin quipped:

“I’m going to have (Ellen) kill it with her shoe.”