The Big Unit has always generated fear. In an era of tremendous hitters, the sight of Randy Johnson standing on the mound made everyone tremble. But while humans were terrified of him, he left a huge impact on birds as well. While Johnson isn’t short of accolades, ironically, his biggest claim to fame remains the bird he “killed.” 

Before YouTube and social media, it was difficult for people to go viral. It took a lot of effort for it to become a household sensation. However, Johnson was able to do it through a horrendous accident successfully. What happened was that the legendary ace was about to make a routine pitch during spring training. However, right before the ball could reach the batter, a bird flew by and got hit in a crossfire. That sent the entire stadium into a collective gasp, but Johnson seemed unfazed. Interestingly, he still remains the same.

The Big Unit appeared on the Pat McAfee Show. McAfee immediately shifted to Johnson and his rivalry with birds. The former NFL player asked Johnson how he felt when he saw the ball hit the bird. The 5x Cy Young winning Hall of Famer shared that initially, he didn’t know what happened. “It caught everybody off guard…I thought initially that maybe someone had thrown something… Jeff Kent who was on deck picked it up and…if you didn’t realize what happened then, you did when he holding up what was left of the bird,” Johnson said.

Later, Johnson noted that it’s been 23 years but people are still discussing it. The Hall-of-Famer shared that despite all of his achievements, he’s “recognized and remembered for killing a bird.” McAfee and Johnson had a good laugh about the incident. 

The fact that it’s this incident that has become iconic for Johnson is quite hilarious. The legendary ace’s intimidating tactics and ridiculously powerful pitches were what initially made him the Big Unit. McAfee asked him about those tactics and Johnson had an interesting answer about his thought process.

Randy Johnson’s intimidating tactics: intentional or unintentional?

During his heyday, Johnson was known to pitch one or two pitches a little higher or lower than usual. Usually, this led to the hitters reflexively moving away from the ball in fear of it hitting them. To watch a 6’10 man like Johnson throw a 100-mph fastball was a scary sight. The Big Unit noted that initially, none of this was intentional. He had little control and pitches would accidentally go a little higher.

But that set his image, and he became a fearsome pitcher. Then, even after Johnson perfected his craft, he’d still go back to the well sometimes. In his words, it was a message to the batters that he would make their task a “little harder.” Those intimidating tactics worked from 1999 to 2002, and Johnson won consecutive Cy Young awards. 

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However, despite all of this, it’s the bird that has made Johnson a pop culture icon.  He doesn’t mind, if anything, he might be enjoying the attention that this ridiculous incident brings to him.