I was watching the news last night on our local FOX affiliate, and during the sports segment they had a clip that was just bizarre. During one of the games yesterday, I didn’t catch which one, a bird interfered with a pitch. If you didn’t see it, picture this: Camera angle is looking at home plate from behind the pitcher, pitcher winds up and releases, ball is headed toward home plate and from the right side of the screen you see a bird also flying toward home, then POOF, an explosion of feathers right in front of the plate as the bird and the ball meet.
(Ok, I’ll admit, my inner sick puppy thought it was funny as hell.)
Now the news didn’t go in to much detail about it, other than to say it was a dove, and they also mentioned the pitcher thought it was sad. (I’m sure, I imagine that story will be shared for years)
What I was wondering was, how would that pitch be scored ?
Would it be a dead pitch (ouch, bad pun), or would it be a live ball until someone retrieved it?
My guess is that the pitch would be a ball as long as the batter does not swing. See the definintion of “ball” from the Official Rules:
As with any other pitched ball, the ball would be live and runners may try to advance at their discretion.
Zev Steinhardt
OK, you can see this one coming all the way up the street, but…
Wouldn’t it be ruled a fowl ball?
Baseballs have hit birds while in play before; just a few years ago, Dion James literally hit a double off a bird that was flying over the outfield. The bird did not survive the experience.
Balls that hit birds are in play. So the pitch should have been called a ball, as per Zev’s reference.
Batted balls that hit birds are in play, but the rules are silent concerning a pitched ball. In this case, the plate ump ruled dead ball/no pitch; which, IMHO as an amateur ump and rules geek, was the right call.
OK, so we’ve covered batted balls and pitched balls. What about fielded balls; i.e., balls fielded and then thrown by a fielder while a play is in progress? What happens when one of them hits a bird in flight?
Is this not what happened with the Dave Winfield/seagull incident many years ago? I don’t recall the details of that one…does anyone else?
Dave Winfield DID kill a seagull with a baseball in Toronto, but not in the course of an official play. Winfield was merely tossing a ball around with the other outfielders, between innings.
Seagulls often congregated on the field in Toronto, just as pigeons do at many other stadiums. Players generally regard them as a nuisance. Winfield saw a flock of seagulls, and tried to scare them away by throwing a ball in their direction. He succeeded in scaring off all but one- the one he hit and killed.
At the time, all the Yankees seemed to be laughing about it. But somebody phoned the Toronto police, and reported Winfield for cruelty to animals. He was actually arrested… though I think he got off with a fine and a stern warning.
If it had been golf, the bird would have been an “outside agency” and there would be relief in some instances. If it had been a putt, you could retake the stroke from where you started.
However, if it was any other type of stroke, it’s usually tough luck unless your shot ended up on top of the bird (or inside it). Then you could move it.
I heard about the incident in question on the radio today & they mentioned that it was available for viewing on the internet. I looked a bit, then realized that this was the place to get it found. So, where is it, dopers?
The ESPN page I linked to above says this:
Wow, thanks. Bye-Bye Birdie.
You can pick it out on this site. Choose the option for it which is further down the screen.
It should have been called a ball, but the umpire ruled no pitch. You can read about it here.
Huh?