Bailys Page
Bailey the Ball Dog!
Bailey was the unofficial ball dog of Strawberry Vale Fastball from 1998 until 2010. It is with great sorrow we will miss Bailey who passed away in 2010. What a nose she had for finding those softballs. During her time with at the park she collected an amazing total of 822 balls from the dense bush.
The thick bushes surrounding much of the two diamonds at Rosedale Park have a nasty habit of taking foul balls and hiding them away where no one was able to find them….except Bailey.
Bailey prowled the undergrowth of Rosedale Park in search of softballs…and boy did she find them. We’ve been told the number of balls retrieved vastly increased during the years after her owners (Eileen & Chick) retired. Her best year was 2008 when she brought us back 132 balls and for those of you familiar with the cost of fastballs it was a lifesaver for our equipment budgets! At the current cost of about seven dollars a ball, Bailey has saved Strawberry Vale Fastball thousands of dollars!
Bailey even was able to find a ball that was stuck up in a tree! She picked up the scent she is so good at recognizing and finally after searching around she looked up in the tree, where her owners saw the ball and knocked it down….much to Bailey’s delight. Bailey never once got cut tracking down balls in the blackberry dense bush although she did get stuck once.
Enjoy the pictures of Bailey with her collection of balls and resting after a hard day of hunting. Our thanks go out to Eileen and Chick for introducing such a beautiful animal/family member to the park. She is loved and missed by many.
– SVMFA
