Touch 'Em All: Layla The Bat Dog Is A Legend, Keith Olbermann Hates St. Louis & 2 Fights To Spice Things Up
We Have To Start Touch 'Em All By Talking About Layla The Bat Dog
If I were to be a guest speaker in the never-ending cats vs. dogs debate, I’d passionately advocate for my canine companions. Ron Swanson’s philosophy on dogs is the best way I can explain my thoughts on this intense argument.
Now, I don’t completely hate cats. Not all of them hiss at you when you come within 10 feet of their personal space, scratch you when you try to pet them, or look at you with an insane level of resting face. But still, I'm "Team Dog" all the way - especially after hearing about Layla’s story.
What stance would you take on this debate? What other crazy baseball news did you see this weekend? Let me know: john.simmons@outkick.com.
Layla is a 13-year-old white labrador retriever living near Clearwater, FL. Most doggos her age are sitting at home, lounging around the nearest patch of sun on the kitchen floor, and hoping their owner scratches their belly once or twice a day. But not Layla.
For the past six years, she’s been the official bat dog of the Clearwater Threshers, the Single-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. Basically, her job is to retrieve bats for Threshers batters and bring them back to the dugout, which is the most adorably genius idea I’ve ever heard.
Dominic Repper, the Promotions and Game and Entertainment Manager at Baycare Ballpark, told me in an interview how Layla got the job in the first place:
"Andrew Davis (Layla's owner) reached out to me in 2018 asking if he could feature Layla at one of our pregame Bark at the Ballpark events. He said he had a dog that had just gone viral online for a video he posted of her getting him a beverage out of his refrigerator. I saw the video and asked if she could also fetch bats. At the time she could not, but within a month he trained her to do it. So I offered him a few innings to be our honorary batdog during our Bark at the Ballpark events. She was an instant hit and became our batdog for the next 6 seasons."
It’s official. I’m in love. Bet you've never seen a cat do that before.
Most of the time, players knew to let Layla do her thing and not bring their bats back to the dugout. But Repper told a hilarious story about when Jusitn Crawford - the Phillies’ No. 3 prospect - almost completely messed up this routine in 2022.
"(In 2022), Crawford hit a fly ball for an out. After the catch he picked up his bat from home plate and started back to the dugout. Layla was supposed to get that bat and went out to get it. As Justin was walking back to the dugout, Layla was walking beside him and our fans started booing him. He was confused but quickly realized why. So he handed layla the bat and the crowd went wild. A lot of laughs and jeers ensued in the dugout over that. A funny story, to be certain."
If Crawford completely ignored Layla for the whole time, I’d say that he should be exiled from baseball for good. Fortunately, he proved he had a soul and let Layla do her job.
And of course, Layla was a massive hit with the fans whenever she would show up (pun intended).
"Our fans LOVE her," Repper said. "She is a part of our team on Beachdogs night. In 2018 we created an "alternate team identity" called the Clearwater Beachdogs. Basically we changed our team name from Threshers to Beachdogs. We now do this on the last Friday of every month. As part of this event we host a local dog rescue organization and donate the proceeds of our dog ticket sales directly to the animal rescues. Layla has served as our batdog for everyone of these events. When she is in the dugout the players all stop to interact with her. They tell Andrew about their own pets and how Layla reminds them of home. Our fans cheer everytime she goes to pick up her bats. Oftentimes it's the loudest they cheer during games."
This story just keeps getting better and better. If I lived in Clearwater, I know how I’d be spending most of my evenings.
But unfortunately, all good things must end, and on Friday night, she brought her last bat to the dugout and was met with loud applause from the fans.
Repper said that Layla had to stop because she was just getting a little too old for the job. But after Layla’s final night, the Clearwater team threw her a party in the stadium suites, giving her a cake and gifts.
Thankfully, Layla’s legacy will live on. Repper said that they are already in talks to have her 9-month-old sister, Lucy, continue the tradition.
"She should be ready to take over next year as our official batdog. We have an event in April (for Layla) to "pass the bat" (so to speak) to her," Repper said.
This just makes me happy. Layla will not only get to spend retirement being surrounded in love by her family, she has started a tradition that could last for many years to come.
This is why dogs are the best. If you’re still on Team Cat after this, then that's a real shame.
Keith Olbermann Decided To Attack The Cardinals For No Good Reason
I’m one of those weird fans who has several different favorite teams in the same sport.
To be clear, the Boston Red Sox are without question my favorite team. But I also like the Tampa Bay Rays, in large part because I got to meet one of their pitchers when I was five (Doug Waechter - he is still the only major league player I’ve ever met). I also thought Carl Crawford was the coolest person ever, largely because he could steal bases like nobody’s business.
My third favorite team is the St. Louis Cardinals, in large part because I was on their 2006 team.
For my town’s coach-pitched youth league, that is.
You see, the league would use MLB team names for our logos, and I was on the Cardinals that year. So as far as North Hampton, N.H., was concerned, I was basically a mini Albert Pujols.
Doesn't that just look like the face of a stone-cold killer (and not just with the ladies)?
So, when the real Cardinals won it all in 2006, I was immediately like, "Alright, you guys are cool. I’m going to adopt you as one of my favorite teams."
That’s why I was furious when avowed OutKick hater Keith Olbermann decided to attack St. Louis for no good reason earlier this week.
In case you don’t know, Olbermann is one of the most insufferable progressives out there (which is saying something, because there’s a lot of them). Earlier this week, he got all bent out of shape because he thought the Cardinals were showing support for Donald Trump after Alec Burleson hit a home run on Sunday.
However, the multiple Cardinals players reported afterward that it was actually an ode to Burleson’s time as a rapper in college.
But by then, Olbermann was already in rare form, and he completely ignored this factoid when he sent out this rant. I can’t show you the original tweet (since he deleted it), but here’s the text of the message - and since we're all adults, I've left in the NSFW language:
"Attn @mlb ban these guys from baseball for life, confiscate the @Cardinals franchise, and implode the stadium. Cardinals = Trump Nazis. Stick to sports. FUCK THE ST. LOUIS CARDINALS. America has had enough of this shit."
Confiscate the franchise? Nazis? Implode the stadium? Seriously Keith? How old are you?
Even if this was a show of support for Trump (which, again, it definitely wasn’t), saying all of those things about a baseball team would be highly uncalled-for. You can dislike someone else’s political opinion, but assaulting their character with such vicious hatred is as irresponsible as it is disgusting.
Don’t you just hate it when progressives attack your third-favorite baseball team?
Fights Always Seem To Bring Some Life To The Baseball Cycle, Don't They?
If I’m going to pay top-dollar to watch a Sunday Night Baseball game, I’m going to be on my best behavior. Sure, I’ll obnoxiously cheer on my team and engage in some trash-talk banter with the opposing team’s fans. But I’m not going to embarrass myself in front of thousands of people.
Well, these fans at Dodgers Stadium (watching the home team play the Boston Red Sox), couldn’t help themselves. After a tense exchange that started with two women arguing, two separate people dumped beer on each other and caused a melee.
Even Dodgers star Teoscar Hernandez wanted to get in the fight; he even mimicked throwing punches in the dugout while he watched everything develop.
I don’t really understand why the fight broke out, but hey, it’s content that’s fun to watch. And the beer shower too? You don’t see that too often. It’s usually just a bunch of angry words shouted at each other, which then leads to fists flying. The beer was a nice touch.
But that wasn’t the only dust up that happened over the past several days (praise be).
The Colorado Rockies were pummeling the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday, and they eventually won 20-7 (a score you usually only see in football). But in the fourth inning, Reese McGuire pooped out to end the inning, and he and Cal Quantrill exchanged some tense words.
Almost immediately, players and coaches from both sides poured out of the dugout and bullpens. No punches were thrown, but the high-flying intensity made up for the lack of any physical contact.
Sometimes, in the dog days of summer, you just need something to spice up the MLB news cycle. What better way to do that than a pair of fights?
Here's A Pair Of Defensive Masterpieces Before You Go
You may have heard that San Diego Padres pitcher Dylan Cease threw a no-hitter on Thursday. But had it not been for this sick play by Jackson Merrill, that might not have been the case.
Bogaerts might want to buy Merrill a few drinks, because if it weren’t for him, Bogaerts would forever be the guy that broke up Cease’s no-hit bid.
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Have you ever had a ball come straight at you as a pitcher? It can be terrifying. Pitchers are often caught in a vulnerable position, and they can do nothing to defend themselves. More than a few have gotten injured on such plays.
But Cincinnati Reds pitcher Hunter Greene seemed as unburdened as Kamala Harris by this ground ball that came back to him. To be fair, it wasn’t coming back at him all that quickly, but how many pitchers do you see that make this casual of a play at a ground ball that’s hit right back at them?
Don’t forget people, pitchers are athletes too!
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That's it for this week! If you have any ideas you want to see me write about, email me at john.simmons@outkick.com. Have a fantastic weekend!