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Clearwater Threshers 13-year-old bat dog, Layla, retires after retrieving her last bat during the team’s game against Fort Myers on Friday, July 19.
Layla is a white Labrador Retriever and has been retrieving baseball bats for the Clearwater Threshers for six years.
Yup, we’re crying 🥹 Layla’s last bat 🩵| Only in @MiLB pic.twitter.com/d8rqwLagCT
— Clearwater Threshers (@Threshers) July 20, 2024
“She has just kind of been in my right pocket for 13 years,” Layla’s dad, Andrew Davis, tells FOX 13.
Davis adopted Layla 13 years ago. And he never imagined the things her pooch would’ve accomplished in all those years.
Back in 2018, Layla became an internet sensation after a video of her retrieving a can of beer from the refrigerator went viral.
And who would’ve thought that that viral video would actually be Layla’s ticket to becoming a baseball bat dog?
“Once it took off there was no stopping it,” Davis said. “I never would’ve expected to have a famous dog.”
WMNF Radio reveals that after the video went viral, Davis reached out to Dominic Repper, Threshers manager of promotions and game entertainment, and showed him the video.
“When we first contacted the Threshers, Layla didn’t even know what a baseball bat was,” Davis tells WMNF Radio.
So, Davis took Layla to local baseball fields and taught her how to pick up a bat and bring it to the dugout.
Layla, who used to train alongside athletes at Webber International University when Davis was a student at the school, mastered the art of retrieving baseball bats and got signed to the Clearwater Threshers.
However, after being on the job for six years, Davis noticed that Layla was starting to slow down during games.
Davis told FOX 13, “I told them (the Threshers), ‘I don’t know if Layla is going to be up to the challenge next year.'”
Repper and the whole team wanted to send Layla for one final trip to home plate during the Friday game to celebrate her retirement. They even prepared a cake for the bat dog after she retrieved her final bat.
And like the su-PAW-star that Layla is, the video of her retrieving her final bat went viral – a full circle moment for the 13-year-old good girl!
“To look back on it and have that last day, that last bat, that’s what made it special,” Davis said.
Now that Layla gets to enjoy her well-deserved retirement, Davis reveals that he will keep bringing Layla to Threshers games as a fan.
