Why Birds Hate Baseball [Archive]

clayj

Jun 7, 2006, 06:56 PM

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13188250/

Remarkable though it may seem, yet another bird (a seagull this time) flew right into the path of a pitched ball in a baseball game in Buffalo, NY. Amazingly, it survived... unlike the dove that Randy Johnson turned into an explosion of feathers back in 2001 when one of his fastballs had an encounter with a really unlucky bird.

nbs2

Jun 7, 2006, 07:38 PM

Amazingly, it survived... unlike the dove that Randy Johnson turned into an explosion of feathers back in 2001 when one of his fastballs had an encounter with a really unlucky bird.
Hmm....Jason Childers is not on the Bulls Roster as of just now....wonder what happened (he wasn't called up that I can tell).

Anyhow, I imagine that he doesn't have the power of Mr. Unit. But at the risk of being called out by PETA....man that video is fun to watch....;)

Lau

Jun 7, 2006, 08:03 PM

I thought this was going to be about girls not liking sport. :p

devilot

Jun 7, 2006, 08:13 PM

I thought this was going to be about girls not liking sport. :pMe too. :D

Shamus

Jun 8, 2006, 02:12 AM

I think its amazing that any birds get hit at all. The odds of it colliding with a flying ball are pretty slim.

skoker

Jun 8, 2006, 07:25 AM

I was actually at this game (I'm a rather large Bison's fan), you should have seen the look on everybody's faces for like a half hour. When they told us that it flew away, everybody had a good chuckle about it though. The best part was when the ump's couldn't figure out what was going on :p

UKnjb

Jun 8, 2006, 07:28 AM

I thought this was going to be about girls not liking sport. :p

Me too - and also thought it would somehow involve comparing it to cricket in the same post. :confused:

Sharewaredemon

Jun 8, 2006, 07:40 AM

Anyone read the comment about the guy who hit a bird in 83?

In 1983, Dave Winfield, then with the New York Yankees, threw a ball that hit a seagull at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Winfield was charged with cruelty to animals, a charge that was dropped the next day.

WTF?

:confused: :confused:

Jaffa Cake

Jun 8, 2006, 07:56 AM

Anyone read the comment about the guy who hit a bird in 83?Yeah, I thought that seemed a bit odd too. Maybe he actually threw the ball at the bird on purpose, out of frustration or something? Still, the charge was dropped so maybe not... :confused:

clayj

Jun 8, 2006, 08:24 AM

When Randy Johnson exploded the dove back in 2001, even the PETA folks realized there was no point in complaining... there's no way a pitcher could intentionally hit a bird that small and moving that fast with a baseball. (An ostrich or emu, maybe... and only if it was standing still.)

I'm sure a few PETA members groused (pun absolutely intended) about it and thought about demanding that MLB ballparks install all-around-and-all-over netting to prevent birds' flying in and getting hit by 100 MPH baseballs, but they were told "shut up, you idiot" by their fellow PETA members.

BTW, here's the video of the Randy Johnson avian atomization (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIhvqobMOp8&search=randy%20johnson). (WARNING: May be disturbing to bird lovers... but it's mercifully quick.)

Sharewaredemon

Jun 8, 2006, 08:30 AM

aloofman

Jun 8, 2006, 11:57 AM

Yeah, I thought that seemed a bit odd too. Maybe he actually threw the ball at the bird on purpose, out of frustration or something? Still, the charge was dropped so maybe not... :confused:

I believe he was making a long throw from the outfield. Like the others, the bird just happened to get in the way. I think actually charging him was kind of reflexive, and once they realized the circumstances the charges were dropped. Besides, Winfield later led Toronto to the World Series, so I think all has been forgiven by now.

Jaffa Cake

Jun 8, 2006, 12:06 PM

~snip~Ah, I see. Thanks for clearing that up. :)

iTwitch

Jun 8, 2006, 01:05 PM

Animals? I saw a bunny try to cross the track during the Indy 500 several years ago. Needless to say he didn't survive the encounter with Al Unser Sr.'s car.

You'd think they'd stay away from human infested places?

Sharewaredemon

Jun 8, 2006, 02:14 PM

Counterfit

Jun 8, 2006, 08:17 PM

The seagull should have taken first base. :p

Animals? I saw a bunny try to cross the track during the Indy 500 several years ago. Needless to say he didn't survive the encounter with Al Unser Sr.'s car.

You'd think they'd stay away from human infested places?
I saw video of a human crossing the track at the start of a GP in the late 70's (it's the opening scene for a documentary narrated by Stacy Keach. The scene was cut from the U.S. release). They got clipped. I don't think I have to explain how that ended.

Abstract

Jun 8, 2006, 09:56 PM

I think its amazing that any birds get hit at all. The odds of it colliding with a flying ball are pretty slim.

Apparently the sky isn't that big.

Anyone read the comment about the guy who hit a bird in 83?

WTF?

:confused: :confused:

Haha, yeah, I remember that. It's a pretty famous Blue Jays fact in Toronto. Dave was fined $7500 for cruelty to animals. :p

dmw007

Jun 8, 2006, 11:42 PM

2nyRiggz

Jun 9, 2006, 12:41 AM

Unlucky birds if i do say so....cracked in the head with a ball doing 100MPH....damn.

Bless

dmw007

Jun 9, 2006, 08:30 AM

Unlucky birds if i do say so....cracked in the head with a ball doing 100MPH....damn.

Bless

Ya, definitely not the most pleasant thing to have happen to you. :eek:

PlaceofDis

Jun 9, 2006, 08:46 AM

wow, i'm surprised it happens as often as it does, but then again there are a lot of pitches, and a lot of baseball games so its bound to happen sooner or later at some point. :rolleyes:

mpw

Jun 9, 2006, 08:55 AM

I think its amazing that any birds get hit at all. The odds of it colliding with a flying ball are pretty slim.
They do an annual parade here each summer, 2nd Thursday in August and it's never rained in 100+ years regardless of the weather the rest of the week, called the Battle of Flowers with various floral floats and dancers etc.

At the end of the parade a couple of years ago they did a lowlevel flypast with a Dakota I think which dropped petals over the crowd, only some seagulls flew into it's path and the VIP stand had bits of seagull raining down on it too.

I remember seeing it first hand and being amazed how half a seagull spins down to the ground like a sycamore seed.

I may have it on video, I'll check when I'm home.

killuminati

Jun 9, 2006, 10:10 AM

Ew that's sick. It's amazing that it ever happens though, the odds of it happening seem so small.

It reminds me of that Washington Pittsburgh game where a pigeon flew on the ice and was often standing right in front of Kolzig. I was sure that he was gonna get blown apart by a slap shot or at least skated over and cut in half.

jdechko

Jun 9, 2006, 10:17 AM

I'm not big into baseball, but does anyone know what the ruling on that would be?

aloofman

Jun 9, 2006, 10:42 AM

I'm not big into baseball, but does anyone know what the ruling on that would be?

My guess is it would be ruled as some kind of intereference, the ball would be dead and runners can't advance. Probably ruled as no pitch, basically a do-over.

xsedrinam

Jun 9, 2006, 10:43 AM

My guess is it would be ruled as some kind of intereference, the ball would be dead and runners can't advance. Probably ruled as no pitch, basically a do-over.
Either way, it's a fowl. :p

cyberddot

Jun 9, 2006, 10:50 AM

Lets compare the number of accidents that happen each year to humans that result in injury or death, and lets just restrict it to sports. Funny? That humans suffer from many more accidents involving the sports we created, and we're the ones with the large brains.

Birds don't play baseball, and there isn't anything in the evolutionary past to prepare them for flying spheres, or airplanes, or cars moving rapidly along a road (though some get the opportunity to learn that cars can be threatening). But then, I can't fly naked, in a dive at over 200mph without a parachute and expect to survive the landing, while there are birds that can do that without any training at all.

PETA...ugh.

mpw

Jun 9, 2006, 11:09 AM

...Birds don't play baseball, and there isn't anything in the evolutionary past to prepare them for flying spheres...
Hail?

Sharewaredemon

Jun 9, 2006, 11:14 AM

Either way, it's a fowl. :p

wow.

I almost spewed cookies all over the screen....

:D

dmw007

Jun 9, 2006, 12:11 PM

Either way, it's a fowl. :p

LOL :D Good call! :)

jdechko

Jun 9, 2006, 02:40 PM

Either way, it's a fowl. :p

Yeah, that's great.

Counterfit

Jun 9, 2006, 06:15 PM

My guess is it would be ruled as some kind of intereference, the ball would be dead and runners can't advance. Probably ruled as no pitch, basically a do-over.
The article said that the batter swung and missed (duh), but was thrown out at first, since it was the third strike. HOWEVER, Umpires conferred on the bizarre happenings and ruled play should have stopped as soon as the bird was hit

2nyRiggz

Jun 9, 2006, 10:04 PM

Well at least it wasn't a naked fan running across the field and got cracked open.

Birds dont get a break.....taste like chicken doesn't it

Bless

OutThere

Jun 9, 2006, 10:27 PM

Well at least it wasn't a naked fan running across the field and got cracked open.

Birds dont get a break.....taste like chicken doesn't it

Bless

May I ask what that picture you attached is???

floriflee

Jun 9, 2006, 10:38 PM

May I ask what that picture you attached is???

That picture was taken when Fabio was hit by a bird (pigeon, I think) while riding a roller coaster.

Boggle

Jun 9, 2006, 11:03 PM

Anyone read the comment about the guy who hit a bird in 83?

WTF?

:confused: :confused:

I remember that. The commentators talked about that for days, Phil Rizzuto and the other guy. Gosh I was living in Ocean Beach, on Fire Island when that happend...that was a funny week, Baseballwise.

Boggle

Jun 9, 2006, 11:05 PM

Well at least it wasn't a naked fan running across the field and got cracked open.

Birds dont get a break.....taste like chicken doesn't it

Bless

Actually, I believe the NY Post headline was, "I Can't Believe It's Not Pigeon."

xsedrinam

Jun 9, 2006, 11:09 PM

That picture was taken when Fabio was hit by a bird (pigeon, I think) while riding a roller coaster.
One eye witness reported it was a goose.
Many things come to mind like, "I Kissed a Goose".