"Rally Cat" captured the attention of baseball fans everywhere when it appeared during the Miami Marlins game on Thursday night. Fortunately, the cat has found a new home.
Rally animals in baseball pop up from time to time, but moreso recently it seems. The Miami Marlins had a homeless cat hijack their outfield and mechanized home run statue on Thursday night in their game with the Atlanta Braves.
It didn't take long for the cat to be deemed a "rally cat," as the Miami Marlins took home the win that night over the Atlanta Braves.
The Marlins Twitter account immediately got into the mix with asking fans via a poll on what the cat should be named. Now "Don Cattingly," fittingly named after the Marlins' skipper Don Mattingly, has found a home.
And your winner is: Don Cattingly! ???? #RallyCat https://t.co/S6IMTCJMCV
— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) April 13, 2017
As no owner came forward and the cat seemed quite skittish and thin, it was determined that the cat was likely a stray. An employee of the Marlins stepped forward and graciously adopted the poor scared little kitty.
More from Call to the Pen
So no worries, Don Cattingly is safe and sound with a new family!
As to how he found his way into the Marlin's Park, well, that is still a mystery. However, it wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened.
In recent years there have been more and more sightings of "rally animals" on the baseball field. Maybe there were not necessarily a higher number of appearances but simply more publicized ones. This makes sense because of the way we consume media today differently than we have in the past.
In the 2011 National League Championship series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies, a squirrel made himself famous. He first appeared in Game 3 of the series, interrupting play as he scurried about the outfield.
In Game 5 of the series the squirrel had two run ins with Phillies pitcher Roy Oswalt and was later credited as good luck when he Cardinals went on to win the 2011 World Series Title.
In June 2015, the infamous squirrel, or some squirrel at least, returned as the Phillies were playing the Cardinals, this time having a run in with then-Phillies' second baseman Chase Utley. The Cardinals won the game by the score of 12-4.
That same season, a possum made him or herself known at an Oakland Athletics game in August. They walked off against the Tampa Bay Rays that night. The possum also took on a life of his own with the A's allowing him to stay.
"We're undefeated since he showed up, and have no intention of getting rid of him." an A's representative told TMZ Sports. The rep says they won't call Animal Control on RP … unless it starts procreating like crazy.
The possum like the squirrel also took on a social media life of his own from fans posting funny photos (one that even included the possum overcoming the Los Angeles Angels' "rally monkey"), carrying stuffed possums to the games and eventually getting his/her own Twitter account.
So sightings of animals on the field are not new to the game and have probably been happening since the game's inception long before there were multi-million dollar stadiums with all kinds of security measures and ground keepers to watch out for strays stuck in the ballpark.
To this day, however, there is one cat that appeared at the Oakland Coliseum who actually inspired change in California. Her name was Evie.
The cat ran across the playing field at the Coliseum on May 7, 1990. The only person able to corral it into the A's dugout was manager then-A's manager Tony La Russa.
La Russa's first thought was to take the cat to a shelter where it would be safe, away from the screaming crowds at the Coliseum. However, he could not find a single no-kill shelter in Northern California.
La Russa kept the cat, naming her Evie, for the rest of her life.
Evie inspired La Russa to open Tony La Russa's Animal Rescue Foundation aka ARF. It is located in Walnut Creek and is the Bay Area's only no-kill shelter. It has expanded greatly over the past almost 30 years and continues to find homes for abandoned animals in Northern California.
There have likely been many "rally animals" at baseball games but recently they have created such a stir due to the advent of social media.
It is wonderful that Don Cattingly has already found a home and that there was another person like La Russa who cared enough to save the the life of one of these poor scared animals.
Don Cattingly is the latest and more than likely not the last of "rally animals" we will see in baseball. Thanks to the original rally cat Evie, they and many more animals have gotten to live safe and happy lives. Perhaps Don Cattingly can inspire others to adopt a homeless feline of their own.
