Finn the Bat Dog becomes staple at Las Vegas’ Cashman Field

Taking a cue from his owner, Finn jumped from his perch atop a model fire hydrant, sprinted toward first base and then ran toward home plate, picking up a bat between his teeth and trotting back with it before jumping back on top of the hydrant and delighting fans in the Cashman Field crowd at a recent 51s game.

In his third year as the team’s bat dog, Finn, a 5-year-old energetic black lab, has expanded his repertoire for the 51s, who open a five-game homestand against the Tacoma Rainiers on Friday. He is showing off more tricks and gaining popularity.

Finn and his owner, Fred Hassen, came to just a handful of games last season, but this year he attends every home game, staying for about three innings.

“Fred had such a great time bringing Finn to several games the last couple years (that) he thought a great idea would be to have Finn at more games, just do less of the game,” 51s director of sponsorships James Jensen said. “So he decided that three, four innings would be great to have fans get a taste of Finn and leave them wanting more so they come back each and every game to see Finn in action.”

That’s allowed Hassen to get a bit more creative with Finn. In addition to the fire hydrant, Finn often brings water to umpires, jumps over things — like fences and chairs — and recently did a trick involving a Frisbee.

During the break in between innings, Hassen, the founder of a dog-training company Sit Means Sit, has a bit more time to let Finn show off his abilities.

“You have a very limited amount of time,” Hassen said. “Some of the stuff that takes a little bit longer, we can do in between innings, but I wanted to bring entertainment into it and I wanted to change it because most of the people that just do the bat dog thing, the dog just goes and gets the bat and picks it up.

“I’d get bored solid doing that, just that. And most of the dogs they don’t do it that fast or anything. I just wanted to do more and more and they give me the freedom to do it. The team loves it.”

Hassen recently created a Twitter account for his pup, often tweeting out videos of Finn in action at @finnthebatdog.

Finn has drawn attention from Sports Illustrated, NBCSports, Minor League Baseball and MLB.com, among other outlets. Reno Aces president Eric Edelstein tried to propose a trade on Twitter for him, and the El Paso Chihuahuas sent him a bandana and his first piece of fan mail.

“I am kind of surprised at how many news outlets have picked up the story,” Jensen said. “New York is talking about it. Fred sent me a story … from metspolice.com or something. They said, ‘Why don’t they bring up Finn to the bigs?’

“He was on local TV stations. We had everybody out here for opening night, and they loved Finn.”

Finn routinely draws big cheers, some of the loudest of the night, from fans in attendance when he first jogs out to pick up a bat in the bottom of the first inning.

“What he does is just really fun to watch and it’s a lot more than what you normally see so … I think it’s going to get bigger and bigger,” Hassen said.

And it could possibly expand, too, as Hassen recently got another puppy, a black lab named Crook who could follow in his brother’s footsteps.

Hassen has a video of Crook picking up a Wiffle ball bat and said the puppy “picks up everything he sees.”

“I would think he would be able to do that,” Hassen said. “He’s four months. At the rate he’s going, he would definitely be able to do that probably by a year old.

”It’s right around the corner. Maybe even sooner.”

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Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.