Minor league baseball is probably America’s greatest invention. From last night’s Fort Wayne TinCaps game, here’s Jake the Diamond Dog, a Golden Retriever whose job it is to carry a basket of bottled water out to the umpires between innings:
Naturally, I’ve spent more time looking up other videos of Jake than I have reading about yesterday’s actual sports. Jake could not possibly be a better dog.
Jake doesn’t belong to any one team; he belongs to the world. He travels the Midwest, hydrating umpires and delighting children and me. (Here’s a 2005 article about Jake which says he was three years old at the time, which means there may have been a few Jakes over the years. Let’s not think about that.)
If you don’t see any more bylines from me today, it’s because I’ve blown off work to go to a game.