Randy Johnson trends on Twitter 20 years after pitch killed a bird mid-flight

Arizona video coordinator Jim Currigan said he thought they ‘threw an exploding ball trick’ into spring training game to lighten mood

Former MLB pitcher Randy Johnson trended on Twitter 20 years to the day after one of his pitches hit a bird mid-flight, causing it to go out in a “cloud of feathers”.

The 6'10 "Big Unit" was pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks on 24 March 2001 against the San Francisco Giants during a spring training game in Yuma, Arizona when one of his pitches pulverised a bird in what became one of Mr Johnson's most iconic baseball moments.

His pitching speed has been measured to be able to reach 102 miles an hour, according to Sports Illustrated. The bird died on impact and it was called a "no pitch" which is neither a ball nor a strike.

Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly told Fox Sports: "It literally just turned into a cloud of feathers."

Mr Johnson said that PETA tried to bring legal action against him for the mishap, telling Fox Sports: "I was considered a bird killer, and they were actually considering filing charges on the bird's behalf." In the end, he didn't face any legal action, NowThis reported.

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The Diamondbacks went on to win the world series that same year, and Mr Johnson had one of his best seasons and was later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Despite having such a successful career, Mr Johnson says he gets asked as much about the bird incident as he gets asked about other events in his career, which lasted from 1988 to 2009.

He said: "It was a blur going across home plate. The ball simultaneously hitting that blur, it's just hard to really put that in perspective. It happened so quick."

Spring training games weren't regularly televised back then so the reason the footage of the incident exists at all is that Jim Currigan, Arizona's video coordinator, brought out a camera that day to film the game.

Then-Diamondbacks PR director Mike Swanson told Fox Sports: "As odd as this may sound, there was a life lost in this. And Randy is a conservationist, and Randy said, 'I don't find this very funny.'"

Mr Johnson appeared to pay tribute to the incident by making the logo of his photography company a dead bird.

San Francisco Giants outfielder Calvin Murray told The Athletic for the 20th anniversary: "My initial reaction was the ball had exploded. I thought it was a practical joke or something, that he threw some tricked-up exploding baseball. It just took a minute for it to process."

Mr Currigan said: "That's exactly what I thought. I thought we threw an exploding ball trick into the game to lighten the mood. It sounds so stupid but it is the truth."

Diamondbacks catcher Rod Barajas told the outlet: "I'm doing my normal thing, prepping to catch that ball, and then all of a sudden, the ball disappears. It's gone. I look in front of me and there [are] feathers falling right in front of me. I had no idea what had happened. The runners on base could have run all the way around before I found that baseball."