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The Strange & Bizarre
|
“Bird
Meets Ball”
|
 |
It's
during the March 24, 2001, spring training game between the Arizona
Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants, and Pitcher Randy Johnson
winds up to throw one of his legendary fastballs—perhaps the fastest
in the game—to batter Calvin Murray.
|
 |
The
pitch is halfway to home plate and you can see a bird (a dove, to be
specific) just to the right of the ball. Our feathered one must have
had his eye on a peanut vender in the stands and is taking a short cut
across the diamond. Little does he know that he has a date with a hard
ball traveling at 97 MPH and is about 4.2 milliseconds
away from instant birdy heaven.
|
 |
Impact.
The dove has exploded in a mass of feathers. The ball can be seen dropping
to the ground just below its victim. Catcher Rod Barajas stares in disbelief.
|
|
|
Here the featherless and very dead bird is about to hit the ground. It can be seen just beyond the pitcher's kneecap. Rumor has it that an Animal Rights group was up-in-arms about the cruel and inhumane death of the dove. If Randy Johnson planned this, he is one very talented and dangerous dude. Evidently the Toronto police thought that of Yankees outfielder Dave Winfield when in 1983 he killed a seagull with a warmup throw. He was arrested for animal cruelty, though the charge was later dropped. Had the cute white dove been a black crow, would there have been an Animal Rights outcry? How about some killer bees? Actually, it has been revealed that the dove was working for the Giants who have caged an entire flock, the sole purpose of which is to block Randy's pitches. Now those are talented birds! |
