There are more birds that have fallen victim to baseball. Is this the first time a bird was killed during a baseball game? His logo? A dead bird with feathers in the air. It seems that Johnson has lightened up about the incident over time.Īfter retiring from baseball following the 2009 season, Johnson began his own photography business. "It’s just hard to really put that into perspective. Johnson wasn't amused with Kent's joke, telling ESPN, "I didn't think it was all that funny." When describing what happened in an interview with Fox Sports Arizona in 2016, Johnson said it was "a blur." He took it back to the dugout, but it is unknown what happened afterward.Ī grounds crew member then picked and cleaned up the feathers that were on the field. What did they do with the bird?Īfter the players realized what had happened, Giants second baseman Jeff Kent went on the field and picked up the bird with his bare hands and pointed it toward Johnson while smiling. You may know his nephew: Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray. Not widely known, but the Giants batter was Calvin Murray. There is no rule that states what happens if an animal happens to get in the way of a pitch, so the umpire crew decided to call it a no-pitch because it didn't reach the plate, essentially meaning the pitch never statistically happened. The pitch was neither a strike nor a ball. However, Cronkite News in Arizona estimated the fastball was around 100 mph. Since the bird was hit before the catcher got the ball, there was never a confirmed speed. In order to determine the speed of a pitch, the ball needs to reach home plate. Video shows feathers falling off the bird, which was likely a mourning dove, as it falls to the ground. Rod Barajas, the catcher at the time, said "all you see is an explosion." How fast was the pitch? Here's what we know about the pitch that didn't count.
Twenty-one years later, the pitch still lives in infamy, but not many know what happened after the incident.
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