The Eagle has landed

The biggest challenge for Seattle left-hander James Paxton at Minnesota's home opener came even before he started pitching on the 38-degree afternoon.

Paxton was standing alone in left field at Target Field, taking a break from his warmup throws for the pregame ceremony Thursday. 

That's when a bald eagle brought in for a flight over the playing field prior to the national anthem apparently became confused.

Rather than soaring to the mound to reach his summoning handlers, the bird's path went toward Paxton, causing him to jerk his body backward to avoid being grazed. Then the eagle, named Challenger, landed in the grass before circling back to find a perch on Paxton's right shoulder . One of the trainers hustled out to lure the bird safely away.

Paxton, coincidentally, is Canadian.

Minnesota fans, meanwhile, might have seen enough of eagles, too. The Vikings lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC title game in January, then had the Eagles win the Super Bowl in Minneapolis in February.

 A very patriotic moment before the Mariners-Twins game was interrupted on Thursday when a bald eagle, which was supposed to be part of the pregame ceremony, took off and landed on Mariners pitcher James Paxton.

 Paxton handled the incident rather well and better than most of us would have. Also as noted by many on social media, Paxton is Canadian - fans even created "The Maple Grove" for him - so everyone made a similar joke about the eagle granting him American citizenship and about Paxton being too polite about the incident.