No pitch


A no pitch is an umpire's ruling in baseball or softball in which a pitch thrown by a pitcher is neither a ball nor a strike. This is typically the umpire's call whenever the pitcher released the ball after the umpire called timeout. However, there are other instances in which this can be called.

Major League Baseball rules

The call is not directly defined in the MLB rulebook. However, it is still mentioned in a comment under Rule 6.02:

Occurrence

There are various reasons an umpire would rule a no pitch:
One of the most famous no pitch calls occurred when Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Randy Johnson hit a bird with a pitch. The ball was near home plate when it hit a flying bird. After the pitch hit the bird, the ball was ruled dead. The bird was also ruled dead. This no pitch call is so well known that there are more Google search results for "Randy Johnson bird" than there are for "Randy Johnson baseball."