This Day in Sports History: Randy Johnson and the bird pitch

Once again jumping ahead to the relevant content:

Johnson was right in the middle of all that in 2001, which was a big year for him. He ended the season with league-leading stats, his fourth of five career Cy Youngs, and he’d also get his only World Series ring (and World Series MVP award) while leading the still-newborn Diamondbacks franchise to its first (and still only) championship.

It all started with a bird. A bird that sacrificed its life so that Johnson’s legacy could reach mythic proportions.

The event?
History’s deadliest no-pitch.

The season hadn’t even started yet. The Diamondbacks were playing the San Francisco Giants in a spring training game, just as meaningless as the last one. The sun was bright, the grass was green, and one bird had no idea that it was about to flap its wings for the very last time.

Some day, the birds will get their revenge…..