Water Dogs Retrieve HR Balls

S A N  F R A N C I S C O, July 2 -- — Fans who hope to scoop up splashdown homers in the waters outside Pacific Bell Park have some new competition, and these guys aren’t afraid to jump in with all four paws.

Six Portuguese water dogs — known as the Baseball AquaticRetrieval Korps, or BARK — are on the job. San Francisco’s newest team is poised to snag the floating prizes in the name of charity.

The dogs made their splashy debut this weekend leaping from thedecks of their motorboat, the Good Ship Jollipup, into the bay just20 feet beyond the rightfield wall. They are scheduled to appearagain Tuesday, when the Giants take on the Colorado Rockies.

Program Is Comedian’s Brainchild

BARK is the brainchild of Father Guido Sarducci, the stage nameof comedian Don Novello. The self-proclaimed Vatican gossipcolumnist teamed up with Pets in Need, a Redwood City, Calif.-basedanimal adoption agency, to locate and train the dogs. Pets in Needwill receive a $5,000 donation from the Giants, and can auction anyof the balls the BARKers pick up.

So far, Pac Bell Park has seen five splashdown homers since itopened. But, as Giants executive vice president Larry Baer says,there are 162 games in the season.

“It is the one sport where you have enough games to trysomething new. And what unites families more than animals?” Baersaid.

Novello was on hand Saturday, tossing balls to the rare,poodle-like dogs, to the delight of hundreds of fans. Dressed inblack pastoral robes and zebra-skin shoes, Novello praised thedogs, which have webbed feet and have been bred for centuries tocarry messages between ships and to herd fish into nets.

“This is the first sport to bring another species into thegame,” said Novello, who pitched the swimming-dog idea to Giants’ officials some four years ago, when he heard about plans for thenew park. “These dogs are geniuses.”

No Joke

Baer said everyone thought Novello was kidding initially, butthen, “We passed it around and decided it was very SanFrancisco.”