Who threw the baseball pitch that killed a dove in 2001?

On March 24, 2001, Randy Johnson (aka The Big Unit), was pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks in a spring training game versus the San Francisco Giants. Johnson was hurling against Calvin Murphy in the seventh inning when he released a fastball just as a dove crossed between the pitcher’s mound and home plate. The resulting “explosion” sent feathers and the bird’s insides on the playing field.

The pitch was deemed a “no pitch” – that is it was not a ball, strike, balk or other designation a pitch might receive.

Johnson was known as one of the best fastball and slider pitchers to ever had played the game. He won the Cy Young award 5 times over his 22-year career. He has 303 victories (5th overall) and 4,875 strikeouts (2nd only to Nolan Ryan). He pitched a perfect game (no one made it to base) on May 18, 2004. He has numerous records, like the most strikeouts by a reliever and highest single season and career strikeout ratio per 9 innings (13.41 and 10.61)

Randy Johnson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2015.