Baseball

Seagull hit by ball, lives to squawk about it

Bird struck during Triple-A game between Buffalo Bisons, Durham Bulls

NBC VIDEO

Seagull hit by pitch
June 6: A seagull was in the wrong place during a AAA minor league game between the Buffalo Bisons and the Durham Bulls. The gull was hit by a pitch. The stunned bird later flew away.

updated 3:45 p.m. ET June 7, 2006

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Seagulls shouldn’t fly between Bisons and Bulls.

One of the birds had the misfortune to learn that during Sunday’s Triple-A game between the Buffalo Bisons and the Durham Bulls. The seagull was struck by a pitch, carried off the field by a player and later flew away.

The Bisons were batting in the bottom of the 11th inning when the seagull flew between the mound and home plate just as Durham reliever Jason Childers released the ball.

The ball knocked the seagull to the ground. Ramon Vazquez swung and missed, with the ball getting away from the catcher. Since it was a third strike, Vazquez ran to first and was thrown out.

Umpires conferred on the bizarre happenings and ruled play should have stopped as soon as the bird was hit. The bird beaning was captured on videotape by the stadium’s camera crew during the Bisons’ 3-2 loss in 16 innings.

During an exhibition game in 2001, Randy Johnson threw a pitch for Arizona that killed a dove as it flew in front of the batter.

In 1983, Dave Winfield, then with the New York Yankees, threw a ball that hit a seagull at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Winfield was charged with cruelty to animals, a charge that was dropped the next day.