Ode to a dead bird

And the infamous pitch that stopped a dove in its tracks: A poem

Originally published on The Howling Owl in Medium on Jan. 31, 2024.

Oh sure, you’re snap-happy with your camera man!
You even captured my favourite band,
front and centre, front row on their farewell tour.
You traveled the world, taming wildlife
with your trigger finger on the shutter
and brought depth of field to people and places
out of our reach and focal range.
And all this after a hall of fame career
on the mounds of the major leagues!
But what you could not capture
through your lens in your old job
is the fowl ball that the video cameraman caught,
the one that collided with that low-flying bird
whose feathers exploded in air in mid-flight
after you unleashed your 100+ mph pitch.
So, yeah, maybe you got the last laugh.
You lived on and lived to tell the tale of the dead bird.
You even used it as your logo.
But what that dead bird understands,
and everyone else too except maybe in quantum physics,
is that great as you were with a fastball and speedy shutter
you could not be in two places at once
to snap the shot of the one that got in your way.

They say it was a mourning dove, which makes sense —
at peace and in pieces.

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On March 24, 2001, Major League Baseball pitcher Randy Johnson wound up on the mound and unleashed a fastball during a Spring Training game between his Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants. A dove flew between the mound and the plate at that exact moment and Johnson’s ball hit the bird. In a moment that was captured on video by Diamondbacks video coordinator, Jim Currigan, there was an explosion of feathers and the bird died.
The hall of famer’s baseball career was studded with memorable feats but unfortunately one of the biggest highlights is that pitch and the dead bird. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claimed he had committed an act of animal cruelty — ironic given that Johnson was a conservationist — and considered filing charges.
Johnson retired from baseball in 2010 and pursued his other passion and first love, photography. He has photographed National Football League games and compiled an impressive gallery of wildlife and travel images. He has also photographed concerts and was the official photographer for the band Rush during their R40 tour in 2015.
While he continues to enjoy success in his second career, the bird incident lives on as the stuff of legend. There’s even a YouTube short video about it called Requiem for a Bird that’s narrated by the dove itself. And Johnson himself uses the unusual logo of a dead bird, complete with a few feathers floating up in the air, for his photography business.
All of which just shows that the truth is often stranger than poetry.