Hard to find something more fan-friendly in sports than a baseball team who has a dog as their bat boy. That is the case for the Trenton Thunder, Double-A minor league affiliate of the New York Yankees, who have had a generation of golden retrievers play the role of bat boy since 2002.
The newest edition of ‘bat dog’ is Rookie, son of Derby and grandson (is that how that works?) of Chase. Rookie recently earned a one-time promotion to due bat boy duties for the Yankees’ Triple-A club in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
And natural dog instincts took over in his showing. Instead of going to retrieve the bat after an at-bat, Rookie goes and gets not one, but TWO baseballs from the pitcher.
Rookie the Bat Dog doesn't grab the bat, still does something awesome. pic.twitter.com/UIJt236O2C
— Conor Foley (@ConorFoleyYES) July 19, 2017
Good rule of thumb for the umpire: Don’t throw the baseball in the dog’s line of fire. At least the pitcher was kind enough to give him both baseballs.
Early reports are that Rookie was sent back down to Double-A for more grooming and initial feedback since then is that he’s still a good boy.
