WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?
Thunder hold Bat Dog Appreciation for Derby and Rookie
TRENTON » This one was for the dogs.
No, literally, for the dogs.
The Thunder held Bat Dog Appreciation on Monday night and dressed the players in a collector’s edition jersey featuring the club’s world famous bat dog Derby.
ESPN’s E60 program prof iled the Thunder’s family of bat dogs in a 2015 feature story that gained Chase, Derby and Rookie fans from around the country.
Derby and Rookie both train at the highend Green Leaf Pet Resort & Hotel, which has Pennsylvania locations in Levittown, Philadelphia and Conshohocken.
“Rookie’s been a puppy since we’ve had him,” said Nicole Hahn, a K-9 therapeutic masseuse with Green Leaf. “He was a little baby and now he’s all grown up.”
Rookie is part of Green Leaf ’s specialized training program.
“There’s not a lot of bat dog training,” Hahn said, “but obedience training with the basic commands, ‘sit and stay,’ of f-leash training and housebreaking, that kind of stuff. We offer a bunch of different training services.”
Fans were also invited to bring their pooches to the park.
The special jerseys will be worn one more time at ‘Bark at the Park’ later in the summer and then auctioned off.
The roster moves were fast and furious on Monday af ter the Yankees were forced to place Aaron Hicks on the 10day disabled list.
As a result, the Yanks reinstated Jacoby Ellsbury from the seven-day concussion DL rather than have him join the Thunder for a rehab game. Ellsbury worked out with the Thunder prior to their six-day road trip and appeared twice for Scranton this week.
Lef t-handed pitcher Tyler Webb and outfielder Mason Williams were both sent to Scranton and Ronald Herrera and infielder Rob Refsnyder both joined the Yankees in Chicago.
Herrera, a 22-year-old right-hander who went 8-0 with a 1.13 ERA in nine starts with the Thunder, made his big league debut earlier this month out of the bullpen.
For the Thunder, catcher Wilkin Castillo and left-hander Nestor Cortes went up to Scranton, clearing roster spots for pitcher Zack Littell and catcher Sharif Othman. Lit tel l , 21, was acquired from Seattle for James Pazos and made his Double-A debut on June 15 by striking out 10 over seven innings against Hartford.
“He looked very comfor table doing everything,” manager Bobby Mitchell said. “He didn’t look nervous at all. He’s that kind of personality it seems. He’s very confident and he just got out there and threw strikes.”
An 11th-round pick in 2013 by the Mariners, Littell was 9-1 with a 1.77 ERA and 1.12 WHIP at High-A Tampa.
By this time of the season, f luent rosters are commonplace and coaches and players alike know how to deal with it.
“I think you become used to it and you just move on,” Mitchell said. “You just go out there and compete. Everybody believes in their ability, so it’s not like, ‘oh, we lost this guy, we’re in big trouble.’ That’s not the attitude that we take as a team. We know we’ve lost a lot, but we still know we can compete with everybody.”
Slade Heathcott’s path to the big leagues once included a stop in Trenton.
The former Yankee farmhand is now with Richmond after signing with the Giants as a minor league free agent in the offseason.
Heathcot t , the Yankees’ f irst round pick in 2009, is hit ting .275/. 348/.47 1 with 11 homers and 27 RBIs for the Flying Squirrels.
Heathcott played 103 games for the Thunder in 2013, posting a .261 average with eight homers and 49 RBIs. He went on to appear in 17 games for the Yankees in 2015, but was released early last season and signed with the White Sox, finishing the year with their Triple-A club.