I don’t know if you have the same instinct as me, but if someone tells me about a bird in connection with baseball, my first instinct is immediately to think of Randy Johnson. It will be remembered that the great left-handed thrower hit a bird with a throw in a now historic scene.
That said, the birds have been having a hard time in MLB for the past few days, and I’m not talking about the ugly streak the Blue Jays are going through. A few days ago, Zac Gallen hit a bird throwing a bit to warm up before a game.
Again, we agree that it was an accident and that he did not throw in order to to reach the bird. On the other hand, these are things that happen and always surprise.
However, today, the hard week for birds continued for a slightly different reason. In tonight’s game between the Guardians and the White Sox, Will Brennan came to the plate and hit the ball to safety in the bottom of the second inning.
The problem? The batted ball collided with a passing bird in the corner of the shortstop and the animal did not survive.
It’s a bit difficult to see it on the sequence, but the bird fell precisely in the area usually occupied by the shortstop player. The groundskeepers pulled out a good old shovel to remove him from the playing surface and the game resumed afterwards.
You can see it pretty well in this picture:
In short, for the second time in less than a week, a bird was hit by a ball on a baseball diamond (and this, in two different ways). It’s really not their week, let’s say.