One spring training spectator got a less than desirable souvenir on Friday.
Detroit Tigers rookie catcher James McCann knew something was up when there was chatter around the ballpark after a seemingly harmless foul ball. What McCann didn’t know was that his foul ball hit an innocent bird.
McCann fouled off a pitch against the Atlanta Braves, and the ball smoked a bird sitting atop the protective netting behind home plate. According to MLive.com, the bird fell into the lap of a female spectator sitting near home plate.
McCann wasn’t sure what happened until he got to first base after a single later in the at-bat. It was there that first-base umpire Joe West notified McCann his foul ball had become, well, a fowl ball.
“(West) said he didn’t know what was funnier — seeing the bird get hit or the woman’s reaction when it landed in her lap,” McCann said after the game, according to MLive.com.
The good news, according an announcement later in the game, is that the bird survived the incident.
