CLEVELAND — The Lake County Captains gained a new roster addition this season, and it’s their bat dog named Mokoro.

What You Need To Know

  • The Lake County Captains gained a new addition this offseason, a four-legged dog named Mokoro

  • Mokoro is the team's new bat dog

  • Her owner, Victoria Brody, trains service dogs for people with invisible disabilities 

The Captains are no stranger to having dogs at their ballpark. They host dog nights every time they play at home on Thursdays. Logon Potosky, with the Captains, said those nights helped inspired them to get Mokoro.

“We’ve seen some other teams across minor league baseball with them, so I think that kind of gave us a thought where we’re like hey this is definitely possible,” he said.

The team connected with Victoria Brody, the owner of Mission Empawthy Dog Training and the owner of Mokoro. Brody explained Mokoro’s training for the new job.

“Teaching her to pick up the bat, hold the bat, hold it in a certain spot so that she wasn’t getting pine tar in her mouth and really practicing with distractions… making sure that she wasn’t chasing baseballs and was actually getting the bats,” she said.

Brody specializes in training psychiatric services dogs for people without visible disabilities. She said she hopes Mokoro can help fans see beyond the baseball diamond.

“It’s just really cool to be able to show people another side of sports and show that you know animals can help people in so many different ways from something as simple as bringing a bat,” she said.

She hopes it brings awareness to invisible disabilities and how animals can help those who have one.

“Our veterans who have PTSD or something like that, you know, that can translate very easily to I need you to go get my medicine in the morning,” she said.

Potosky said that he hopes Mokoro is a spark of joy for fans.

“Anything that we can do to make it that much more of a special day,” he said.