20 years ago, the current member of the Hall of Fame, Randy Johnson starred in one of the most peculiar moments in Major League Baseball hitting a pigeon with a pitch.
It was exactly a 24 of March of the year 2001 , when a Spring Training meeting was played. The Arizona Diamondbacks were facing the San Francisco Giants in the final preparation game before the start of the season.
The sun, at its brightest, reflected the entire field of play. Johnson faced Calvin Murray in the seventh inning and when he hit home plate, the pitch was stopped midway by a pigeon passing by.
That’s right, a pigeon hit the ball directly and died in the act. In fact, in the video of the cameras that recorded the encounter, it was observed how a cloud of feathers formed after Johnson executed the launch.
Due to the force of the shot, the bird died immediately, falling a few meters from the pitcher’s mound.
“It exploded, feathers and everything, just ‘poof!’”, He assured Calvin Murray in an interview. “There was nothing but feathers on the plate. I never saw the ball, nothing but feathers. ”
Dead ball
Despite not being a regular season game, nor was it an ongoing play, in the end the pitch was declared a dead ball.