Baseball team adopts abandoned puppy, names her bat dog

The Savannah Bananas, a collegiate summer team in the Coastal Plain League, don't have a full roster for 2016 just yet. That may change fast once prospective players meet the team's adorable new bat dog.

Daisy, a 7-week-old puppy, was found abandoned at Grayson Stadium with no identifying tags or microchips. After being given a clean bill of health by veterinarians, she was adopted by Bananas president Jared Orton and his wife, Kelsey, and will serve as the official bat dog for the 2016 season.

"It was just meant to be that we'd have a team dog as part of our staff," Orton said in a statement announcing Daisy's appointment.

Daisy's not quite ready to be retrieving balls and bats just yet given her size, so for the moment she's greeting season-ticket holders and visitors to Grayson Stadium. Still, it appears she's becoming a baseball expert very quickly.

"We aren't sure how big she'll get, so it's hard to say if she'll be able to pick up a bat or just coach first base," Orton said, "but as she grows, she'll be a fixture at the ballpark."

Daisy's far from the first bat dog in baseball history. Chase, a golden retriever, was the Double-A Trenton Thunder's resident bat dog for 13 years before his death in 2013.