{"id":2492,"date":"2013-07-12T23:40:19","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T23:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/?p=2492"},"modified":"2013-07-12T23:40:19","modified_gmt":"2013-07-12T23:40:19","slug":"baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/","title":{"rendered":"Baseball team’s special canine bat boy dies of lymphoma"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chase<\/a>Chase the golden retriever entertained fans of the Trenton Thunder, a New York Yankees affiliate in New Jersey, for years before his death from lymphoma on Monday. The team and fans threw Chase a retirement and birthday party last week, and last month he was honored at Yankee Stadium. Chase is succeeded by one of his offspring, Derby, who’ll carry on the family tradition of retrieving bats, carrying water bottles to umpires and catching discs in the outfield. The team posted a tribute to Chase on its website.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) \u2014 He doggedly did his work, this pinstriped pooch who faithfully served minor leaguers of the New York Yankees while providing big league entertainment.<\/p>\n

Chase, the bat-retrieving golden retriever for the Double-A Trenton Thunder who made highlight reels all across baseball for a decade, has died at 13.<\/p>\n

“Chase was there a long time. He put a lot of smiles on people’s faces,” Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain, who played in Trenton, said Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

“You know it’s going to be sad, but his lineage is carried on. You know it’s something that people are going to miss, but it was fun to be around Chase,” he said.<\/p>\n

Chase lived just long enough to be thrown a retirement party by the Thunder last Friday night \u2014 featuring Chase bobbleheads, no less. The team said he died Monday.<\/p>\n

Chase had been diagnosed in February with a form of lymphoma and had arthritis.<\/p>\n

The Thunder’s website Tuesday featured a photo of their late mascot with a bat in his mouth and the caption, “In Loving Memory, Chase That Golden Thunder.”<\/p>\n

His bat-retrieving legacy will live on with his son Derby, who continues to be part of the Thunder’s home game entertainment. Another son, Ollie, performs with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.<\/p>\n

Chase made his debut with the Thunder in 2002. He would trot out in the bottom of the first inning to the batter’s box to pick up bats with his mouth and bring them back to the dugout. He also carried a woven basket with bottles of chilled water to the umpires and entertained fans by running down flying discs in the outfield.<\/p>\n

At Friday’s celebration, which coincided with his birthday party, fans were encouraged to bring their dogs to the game.<\/p>\n

Last month, he was also honored on the field at Yankee Stadium. Chamberlain petted Chase before the game and infielder David Adams came over to greet his old friend.<\/p>\n

Adams recalled Chase retrieving his bat, doing it without leaving teeth marks in the wood.<\/p>\n

“He’s not chomping at the bit,” Adams said then. “Or at the bat, either.”<\/p>\n

Dogs of all shapes and sizes were at Trenton’s game Friday night against Reading, sitting in the stands with their owners. As fans filed in, Chase lounged on the grass outside the Thunder’s dugout on the first-base side.<\/p>\n

A tribute to Chase’s career was shown on the video board. Chase was in position near the bench when Eduardo Nunez \u2014 who has since rejoined the Yankees \u2014 led off for Trenton in the bottom of the first inning. After the at-bat, Chase trotted out, picked up Nunez’s bat and returned to the dugout to a big cheer from the crowd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chase the golden retriever entertained fans of the Trenton Thunder, a New York Yankees affiliate in New Jersey, for years before his death from lymphoma on Monday. The team and fans threw Chase a retirement and birthday party last week, and last month he was honored at Yankee Stadium. Chase is succeeded by one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,24,12,33,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals-with-jobs","category-behavior-and-training","category-dogs","category-human-animal-bond","category-pet-loss-and-bereavement"],"yoast_head":"\nBaseball team's special canine bat boy dies of lymphoma | The Animal Health Foundation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Baseball team's special canine bat boy dies of lymphoma | The Animal Health Foundation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chase the golden retriever entertained fans of the Trenton Thunder, a New York Yankees affiliate in New Jersey, for years before his death from lymphoma on Monday. The team and fans threw Chase a retirement and birthday party last week, and last month he was honored at Yankee Stadium. Chase is succeeded by one of […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Animal Health Foundation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/animalhealthfoundation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-12T23:40:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Chase-the-Bat-Dog-300x168.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Animal Health Foundation\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Animal Health Foundation\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"The Animal Health Foundation\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f475447cd5f132c17522d9188f6fcb9b\"},\"headline\":\"Baseball team’s special canine bat boy dies of lymphoma\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-12T23:40:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/\"},\"wordCount\":557,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Chase-the-Bat-Dog-300x168.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Animals with Jobs\",\"Behavior and Training\",\"Dogs\",\"Human-Animal Bond\",\"Pet Loss and Bereavement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/\",\"name\":\"Baseball team's special canine bat boy dies of lymphoma | The Animal Health Foundation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Chase-the-Bat-Dog-300x168.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-12T23:40:19+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Chase-the-Bat-Dog-300x168.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Chase-the-Bat-Dog-300x168.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Baseball team’s special canine bat boy dies of lymphoma\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Animal Health Foundation\",\"description\":\"Our Blog\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Animal Health Foundation of California\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\",\"caption\":\"Animal Health Foundation of California\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/animalhealthfoundation\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f475447cd5f132c17522d9188f6fcb9b\",\"name\":\"The Animal Health Foundation\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/35d2d92234619be7650525ff812317b3c1c8e3d00c51a1bc0e49e7f5ac684f2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/35d2d92234619be7650525ff812317b3c1c8e3d00c51a1bc0e49e7f5ac684f2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/35d2d92234619be7650525ff812317b3c1c8e3d00c51a1bc0e49e7f5ac684f2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"The Animal Health Foundation\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/author\/ahfadmin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Baseball team's special canine bat boy dies of lymphoma | The Animal Health Foundation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Baseball team's special canine bat boy dies of lymphoma | The Animal Health Foundation","og_description":"Chase the golden retriever entertained fans of the Trenton Thunder, a New York Yankees affiliate in New Jersey, for years before his death from lymphoma on Monday. The team and fans threw Chase a retirement and birthday party last week, and last month he was honored at Yankee Stadium. Chase is succeeded by one of […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/","og_site_name":"The Animal Health Foundation","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/animalhealthfoundation\/","article_published_time":"2013-07-12T23:40:19+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Chase-the-Bat-Dog-300x168.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"The Animal Health Foundation","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"The Animal Health Foundation","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/"},"author":{"name":"The Animal Health Foundation","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f475447cd5f132c17522d9188f6fcb9b"},"headline":"Baseball team’s special canine bat boy dies of lymphoma","datePublished":"2013-07-12T23:40:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/"},"wordCount":557,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Chase-the-Bat-Dog-300x168.jpg","articleSection":["Animals with Jobs","Behavior and Training","Dogs","Human-Animal Bond","Pet Loss and Bereavement"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/","url":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/","name":"Baseball team's special canine bat boy dies of lymphoma | The Animal Health Foundation","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Chase-the-Bat-Dog-300x168.jpg","datePublished":"2013-07-12T23:40:19+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Chase-the-Bat-Dog-300x168.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Chase-the-Bat-Dog-300x168.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/baseball-teams-special-canine-bat-boy-dies-of-lymphoma\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Baseball team’s special canine bat boy dies of lymphoma"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/","name":"The Animal Health Foundation","description":"Our Blog","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"Animal Health Foundation of California","url":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"Animal Health Foundation of California"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/animalhealthfoundation\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f475447cd5f132c17522d9188f6fcb9b","name":"The Animal Health Foundation","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/35d2d92234619be7650525ff812317b3c1c8e3d00c51a1bc0e49e7f5ac684f2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/35d2d92234619be7650525ff812317b3c1c8e3d00c51a1bc0e49e7f5ac684f2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/35d2d92234619be7650525ff812317b3c1c8e3d00c51a1bc0e49e7f5ac684f2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"The Animal Health Foundation"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org"],"url":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/author\/ahfadmin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2492"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2496,"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492\/revisions\/2496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}