Oakland Ballers Players Reunite Lost Dog with Owner
By Tyler Petersen
A few weeks back in Colorado Springs, the Oakland Ballers had just beat the Rocky Mountain Vibes in an 11-4 contest. They boarded their team bus and drove back to their hotel where they had a surprise visitor waiting for them.
As soon as the bus pulled up and the players began to come off, a black dog was there to greet them. He had no collar and came right up to the group, happy to accept the attention he received from the players and coaches as they entered the lobby.
But two pitchers in particular, reliever Adam Bogosian and starter Gabe Tanner, took a greater interest in the situation.
"We heard from this group of people outside the hotel that the dog had just ran over here," said Bogosian. "He crossed a pretty sizeable street as well and thankfully wasn't hit by any traffic."
Tanner and Bogosian, both self-described "pet lovers", wanted to help.
"Most of the team just headed to their rooms or went about their nights, but we kind of wanted to see what was up with this dog," said Tanner. "He didn't have a collar but it was obvious from the way he was interacting with everyone and just how obedient he was, that this was someone's dog who was lost."
As a temporary team mascot for the night, the players nicknamed him "Scrappy Jr." after the team's main mascot Scrappy the Rally Possum.
Bogosian and Tanner tried calling local hotlines for lost animals and even the police, who were all unable to help at the late hour.
So the only course of action at that point was to take the dog with them. He stayed with Tanner in his room, which was luckily an animal-friendly hotel.
"We shared some beef jerky and other food with him, we weren't sure at this point how long he'd been lost, but he really didn't look like he was malnourished or anything," said Bogosian.
The two started to do late night searches on Colorado Springs Facebook groups and neighborhood posting sites for missing animals.
"I made a post, posted a picture of the dog, and got so many responses," said Tanner. "People were immediately like 'Oh that's Barney', I guess he had a bit of a reputation as a dog that got lost often."
"The owner commented his number and in the morning I was able to connect with him and he drove over and thankfully we were able to get his dog back to him."
Tanner also left one piece of advice.
"I might have told him it might be time to think about a collar for Barney," laughed Tanner.
You never know what you'll get in the middle of a minor league season on the road, but a good deed can go a long way.
And in the middle of a franchise-best winning streak, two Oakland pitchers used their night not to rest or celebrate, but to get another win off the field.
