Saying Goodbye to a Legend: Clearwater Threshers’ Layla Passes Away
13 year old golden retriever is
retiring from her job as a bat
dog.
We are talking about Layla.
She’s been the bat dog for the
Clearwater Threshers baseball
team down in Florida for the
past six years. She rushes out
to home plate after their team’s
hitters pick up the discarded
bats to take back to the dugout.
It’s quite a thing. Here’s ABC’s
Danny new 20 for the final time
this past week, the Clearwater
Threshers nationally beloved bat
dog Layla retrieved the lumber.
And was that emotional?
Uh, yeah, it was emotional. I
think we were more, uh, overcome
with with happiness for the past
six seasons.
Andrew here had been bringing
his now 13 year old best pal to
help out this Philadelphia
Phillies minor league team.
The fans love her. The team
loves her. She’s uh.
She’s as part of our staff as
any anyone else’s.
But this is how the Threshers
first found out about Layla back
in 2018, when she went viral
online for fetching Andrew a
cold one from the fridge. We
could all use a Layla.
She was always bringing me
tools or bringing me different
things.
Over the past six seasons,
Layla has become a celebrity
around Western Florida. Andrew
says he gets frequently stopped
on the beach for pictures, and
one time top Phillies prospect
Justin Crawford actually got
booed by the crowd for
unknowingly picking up his bat.
Sorry, her bat Layla takes it
from him and starts coming back
to the day off, and the crowd
erupts. And even though Layla
may now be done volunteering on
the diamond, the torch slash bat
will actually soon be passed to
her adoptive sister Lucy. Andrew
is currently trading her for
next season.
Layla’s little sister, um,
wants to do everything that
Layla does. Thinks Layla is the
coolest dog in the world, so
we’re happy to continue on to do
it with Lucy.
()
And I want to make sure we
take some time for my favorite
thing about Layla that hopefully
Lucy will do too. Apparently
whenever she would go for the
first bat of the game, Layla
would just, as you can see, roll
around in the grass first.
The bat can come later. She
needs to make her presence known
first. Layla I love you so much
it hurts. You are the best.
Congrats on an amazing career in
New York!
