ST. LOUIS • When the Cardinals' trainer used tweezers to fish the moth out from left fielder Matt Holliday's ear late Monday night, the club insisted that the insect emerged from his adventure alive.

Sadly, that is no longer the case.

Holliday left the trainer's room Monday night, and by Tuesday afternoon it was in a plastic bag in his locker back at Busch Stadium. He shared a picture of the moth with me today, and that is the pic that accompanies the blog. As you can see, it was quite an, ahem, earful.

"It died from an overflow of wisdom that he got in my head," Holliday said, adding that he had no role in the delicate insect's death.

"It was in there pretty deep, too, from what they said," manager Tony La Russa said. "They couldn't go in there and flip it out. They tried. It didn't work."

With two outs in the eighth inning Monday, Holliday began trotting in from left field as starter Chris Carpenter prepared to make a pitch. Holliday was grimacing and tugging at his right ear, as if he had just been stung by a hornet. Close. A moth had flown into his ear and become lodged there, fluttering around, buzzing and wiggling in his ear canal. He had tried to remove the moth while Carpenter delivered two pitches.

Holliday likened it to having water stuck in the ear.

Holliday was removed from the game and taken to a dark room, where the Cardinals' trainers hoped they could lure the moth out of the ear with a bright light. When that didn't work, trainer Greg Hauck grabbed some tweezers and prepared for a real-life game of Operation. The moth was not removed on the first attempt. A few wings came out before the whole moth could be wrestled free. According to a club official who spoke with Hauck, the Cardinals head trainer had pulled a moth out of an ear before in his career, back in the minor leagues.

Holliday confirmed Tuesday that he was fine after the incident.

He survived with a story.

The moth wasn't as lucky.

"That was my fear," Holliday said when told about an old TV episode where a moth chews through the person's brain and emerges from the other ear. "Dr. Paletta informed me that was impossible. So I'll feel better about it the next time it happens."

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