Guardians outfielder issues apology after line drive kills wounded bird

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Guardians rookie Will Brennan is nicknamed “Chill Will” in the clubhouse. But on Monday it was a ball hit by Brennan in the second inning that put an innocent bird on ice and carried on Major League Baseball’s uncanny history of on-field ornithological butchery.

Brennan tweeted an apology and tagged People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) after Cleveland shut out the White Sox, 3-0, to snap a three-game losing streak. But the bird, which appeared to have been wounded and unable to fly away from behind the pitcher’s mound in the early part of Monday’s game, paid the ultimate price so that the Guardians could win.

“I truly am sorry @peta and bird enthusiasts. An unfortunate sacrifice,” Brennan shared on his Twitter account.

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With Gabriel Arias on base following a walk by Chicago’s Jesse Scholtens, Brennan singled on a line drive to left field. The bird, which had been hopping around the infield prior to Brennan’s at-bat, was instantly flattened by the baseball, which had an exit velocity of 100.1 mph, according to StatCast.

The incident carried on a strange history of on-field bird assassinations by players either throwing or hitting baseballs at insane velocities. Randy Johnson, Dave Winfield and more recently Arizona’s Zac Gallen have all walloped a winged warbler either with pitches, thrown or batted balls. Even Cleveland has an entry in the bird murder ledger as Shin-Soo Choo once ended a game with a walk-off hit that struck a seagull mid-flight against Kansas City.

On June 11, 2009, Choo delivered a line-drive to center field against the Royals in the 10th inning that skipped past KC’s Coco Crisp and allowed Mark DeRosa to score the winning run from second base. Replay showed the ball struck a seagull among a flock that had congregated just behind the infield. Though the bird was not a confirmed kill, it certainly could not have felt all that good after getting clipped by Choo’s single.

On Aug. 4, 1983, Yankees outfielder Dave Winfield was warming up between innings and made an errant throw that struck and killed a seagull at Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium. Ontario officials actually charged Winfield with animal cruelty, but the charge was later dropped.

Zac Gallen killed a bird with a warmup pitch May 17 prior to a game in Oakland. The incident was captured on video from an outfield camera.

But by far the most infamous avian execution on a major league field belongs to Hall of Famer Randy Johnson, who delivered a pitch toward home plate during an exhibition game in 2001 that absolutely obliterated a bird into a passing plume of feathers.

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