Minor-league team to allow very good dogs at every home game
We here at The Stew are pretty biased, but baseball is already close to the perfect sport. What’s better than heading out to the ballpark with your friends, enjoying the sunny weather, having an adult beverage and watching your favorite team crush dingers? Not much, right?
But if we had to nitpick, we could come up with one thing that would greatly improve our baseball experience: The presence of many very good dogs. Thanks to the Lynchburg Hillcats, a Class A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, that’s now a possibility.
This season, the Hillcats will become the first minor-league team ever to allow dogs at every single home game. This isn’t a “Bark in the Park” situation, where the team is allowing dogs on select dates. They are really opening the park to canine companions for every game. Pretty neat.
It’s all part of the team’s new partnership with the Lynchburg Humane Society. As part of that deal, players and employees from the Hillcats will volunteer regularly at the Lynchburg Humane Society. On top of the new dog policy, the Humane Society will also be involved in other promotional days at the park. That will include a new feature called “Meow Mondays,” though the team has not provided any additional details about that promotion. We’re going to guess it involves cats, which could make for an awkward situation if dogs will also be present.
While that may be something the club still has to figure out, we here at The Stew applaud the move. We already have evidence dogs can increase the baseball-viewing experience. Don’t believe us, take a look at this skateboarding dog that showed up at a San Francisco Giants game in June.
And if you still need more proof, dogs actually got people to attend a Chicago White Sox game last year. Only the promise of adorable, good dogs could make the White Sox tolerable in 2016.
(BLS H/N: Hardball Talk)
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
