Randy Johnson’s Infamous Bird Pitch Is Getting Honor At The Baseball Hall of Fame

Cooperstown. Hallowed ground for baseball’s immortals. It’s where legends are frozen in time, where stories are etched into plaques, and where Randy Johnson, The Big Unit, looms large. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015, he’s remembered for the heat on his fastball, that towering 6’10” frame, and a career spanning 22 dominant years.

But every ’90s kid and baseball fan knows that moment—the one that still comes up the second you mention his name.

“I call that moment the pitch,” Randy says with a knowing smile.

“Oh, we all know the pitch,” I respond, both of us laughing on a Zoom call this morning.

It was a meme before memes. A viral moment before anyone was calling things viral. Ask anyone on the street, and they might not mention his five Cy Young Awards or the World Series MVP. Nope—they’ll likely bring up that bizarre 2001 moment at an Arizona Diamondbacks spring training game when a fastball collided with a bird in mid-flight. Randy was throwing pure heat—likely 100mph—and feathers exploded everywhere. The immediate looks of shock and confusion from everyone in the video frame are priceless.

In that split nanosecond, it felt like the Matrix was glitching out.

One second, he’s dealing gas, the next, it’s a scene out of Looney Tunes. The game was stopped, the pitch ruled a no-pitch, and sports media would lose its mind. It was played over and over again, immortalized as the moments from a season Johnson and team won the World Series.

“It really hasn’t left me,” Randy tells me.

Birds of a Feather: The Birth of Bird Ballparks

Now, 23 years later, that odd moment has spawned something entirely new—bird ballparks. A collaboration between Johnson and DIRECTV, these miniature stadiums, perched on old satellite dishes, offer whimsical havens for birds that lost their “homes” as DIRECTV transitioned to satellite-free streaming.

LISTEN: A conversation with Randy Johnson via the Mostly Occasionally Show

And in classic baseball lore, Cooperstown has come calling—not for another trophy, but for the birds. The Baseball Hall of Fame is set to feature the Bird Ballparks—a quirky creation from Johnson’s collaboration with DIRECTV—cementing their place alongside the game’s most iconic memorabilia.

“When DIRECTV approached me about a partnership, they wanted to play off the infamous bird incident,” Johnson says with a laugh. “Now that DIRECTV is satellite-free, they thought, ‘Why don’t you make amends with the birds?’ So we created these baseball stadiums using old satellite dishes. It was so successful that the Baseball Hall of Fame came calling, and they wanted to put one on display.” It really shows how big the pitch was in baseball—hitting the bird. They’re even making a space for it in Cooperstown.”

How The Bird Pitch Was Captured

“No, you don’t plan these things. Just like you can’t plan on hitting a bird,” Johnson says, shaking his head. “It’s funny what sticks. That pitch was routine, but now it’s part of my story. Every time people see me, they bring it up—‘Hey, remember the bird?’”

What’s even crazier is how the moment was captured. “The only reason it was even caught on video was because I was with the Diamondbacks at spring training. We had this little camcorder out in center field so pitchers could watch their mechanics. That’s it—just some small camera rolling for practice. And yet, that clip’s probably gotten more hits on YouTube than anything I ever did on national TV.”

For a guy known for intimidation and precision, it’s ironic that such an accidental moment defines him. But ask anyone about The Big Unit, and the bird story always comes up. He’s learned to lean into it.

Redemption, Bird Style

“I’ve had a lot of fun with the campaign,” Johnson admits. “DIRECTV even made a commercial where I try to make amends with the bird, building these ballparks with the satellite dishes. In the end, the bird lands on it, hopping around. If you’re going to bring something up, might as well do it at a big level, right? And now it’s in the Hall of Fame. It’s just cool all around.”

The call from Cooperstown caught Johnson off guard, but it couldn’t feel more right. The Pitch just keeps finding new chapters.

Randy’s Bird Call

I asked Johnson how the batters he’s squared off remember how intimating he was.

“It’s flattering in a way,” he says. “People had a certain perception of me on the mound. Over time, you start to play to that perception. But no one’s scared of the Big Bad Wolf if they hit a home run off him, right? I gave up my share of home runs. You just regroup and get back out there. But the bird thing, that’s stuck with me.”

“A miniature ballpark for birds made from a recycled DIRECTV satellite is definitely a unique item to be added to the Baseball Hall of Fame,” Johnson muses. “But it just goes to show the power of a creative idea.”