How long can a bat dog wait out a sausage race?

Like her namesake, Willie Mae Mays can cover a lot of ground.

High-A Greensboro's bat dog is a good girl and generally reliable member of the gameday staff. In the middle of the third inning of Saturday's nightcap against visiting Rome, though, she'd had all she could stand and she couldn't stand no more.

As the Grasshoppers' between-innings sausage race headed into the middle leg, with anthropomorphized versions of the Sage, Hot and Country offerings from the Neese's Country Sausage company rounding the turn at the edge of the outfield grass, the 2-year-old black Labrador dashed onto the field and into the hearts of every fan in the stands.

The Grasshoppers have a longstanding tradition of bat dogs -- and accidental bat dog shenanigans. In 2009, Master Yogi Berra became the first dog ejected from a professional ballgame after he defecated on the outfield in the middle of his between-innings show. Miss Babe Ruth, who worked 649 consecutive games as bat dog, is honored in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which sometimes displays the bucket she used to carry balls to umpires.

Willie Mae Mays is the fifth team dog. Two of them -- Little Jackie Robinson and Berra -- eschewed bat-carrying duties but filled other roles. They have all belonged to team president and GM Donald Moore, who's already impressed with the newest canine employee.

"She made her debut last year," Moore said. "She worked all year, and she runs the bases after the game. She’s a real good one. She’s only 2, but you can see she’s already a good one.”

Moore admits that although Willie Mae has tried and very much enjoyed Neese's Sausages at home, there may have been another factor in her decision to participate in Saturday night's race. She seemed perturbed to see director of stadium operations Davis Tomlinson preparing for the event.

“I take Willie out in the bottom of the second, and for whatever reason she did not like to have Davis in that costume," Moore said. "She was barking like crazy when she saw him, and sure enough, when they took off, she went after him. For whatever reason, she was compelled.

“That’s the first time we ever had a dog decide she was going to jump into the sausage race. I was all for it.”

Strategically taking the inside track and hitting the bases while the sausage contestants ran along the grass, Willie Mae Mays passed all her competition at the bend around second base and was far, far ahead of them as she took the turn at third and trotted over to Moore.

Sage went down in the books as the winner, and (as is custom after the Grasshoppers' sausage race) a lucky fan took home 10 pounds of Neese's product. But it'd be tough to argue that the true victory belonged to anybody but Willie Mae Mays.

"She dusted all of them," Moore said.