At 6-foot-10, Randy Johnson has always been a very imposing figure in Major League Baseball. With a nickname like “The Big Unit” and an intense look on his face as he pitches, you definitely wouldn’t want to get on his bad side.
Even in the 1994 sports movie Little Big League, he came on as a relief pitcher in a crucial game at the end in which the Minnesota Twins lose at the last minute against the Seattle Mariners, which Johnson was a member of at the time.
Johnson threw some fast balls. His fastest recorded pitch was 102 mph and Johnson was 40 at the time on July 9, 2004. But it was a pitch three years earlier on this date, March 24, that would become an fascinating footnote in his career.
During a spring training game against the San Francisco Giants, Johnson was on the mound, this time pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Calvin Murray was at bat when Johnson threw a fastpitch in the seventh inning. And the ball collided with a dove that had the unfortunate timing to fly just in the direction perpendicular to the ball. And that was all she wrote for the dove.
The pitch would become a viral sensation as it was replayed over and over on news broadcasts and TV shows. The pitch was ruled dead much like the poor bird’s life was extinguished in a “sea of feathers” as ABC News said.
Johnson would go on to bring the Diamondbacks to their 2001 World Series title. Three years later, he would pitch a perfect game on May 18, 2004 against the Atlanta Braves. This was only the 17th time in MLB history and Johnson was the oldest pitcher at 40. Oh, that 102 mph pitch, he beat Nolan Ryan who pitched a career fastest at 100 mph. With a 303-166 win-loss record, he has 4,875 strikeouts.
However, Johnson said he’s asked more about this one incident. Sometimes the world is funny that way.
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