Conspiracy theory: Did the Brewers replace Hank with a new dog?
The story of Hank the Ballpark Pup is a great one and it goes like this: A stray dog wandered into the Milwaukee Brewers spring training camp is Marysville, Ariz. in 2014. The players immediately loved him. They named him Hank after Hank Aaron and soon enough, adopted him as an unofficial team mascot.
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When spring training ended, Hank got the “Diff’rent Strokes” treatment — he was flown to Milwaukee, adopted by the family of a Brewers exec and named an official mascot for the team. They built him a doghouse, sold plush toys and gave away bobbleheads. He even won Dog of the Year at the World Dog Awards.
It was a story you couldn’t help but love. Except for, what if it wasn’t?
There’s a conspiracy theory that’s gaining popularity on the Internet right now and it’s juicy — we’re talking as good as the second-spitter theory or the time WWF had two Earl Hebners. The theory alleges that there have actually been two Hanks: the original Hank, the gruff stray that wondered in spring training and the new Hank, the polished-up award-winner who became a fan favorite.
Over at Brewers blog Brew Crew Ball, Travis Sarandos unpacks his theory, which includes a number of side-by-side pics of Hank, aiming to prove that the current Hank is an imposter. He writes: “Do not lie to me and try to tell me that the dog on the left and the dog on the right are the same dog. The coloring in the face and the ears is all wrong, the face isn’t shaped the same way, and his ears don’t lay in the same spot. They didn’t just dunk him in a bucket of bleach and poof him up a bit. These are different dogs, folks.”
We reached out to the Brewers about this, curious as to their response. It was something else:
The “real” Hank? What is real and what is an impostor? Is the Tooth Fairy the next target? Santa Claus? The Great Pumpkin?
Wow. That won’t necessarily stop the questions. The Brewers have heard about the theories, mind you, which by now have circulated around the Brewers-friendly circles of the Internet and to the fans on the ground in Milwaukee. The team says it has been flooded by inquiries about Hank. They don’t deny the photos look different, but say they plan to show the world that Hank is indeed Hank.
What exactly does that mean? Totally unsure. But it’s cryptic enough that we’re intrigued.
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It’s hard to say what to believe here, since the Brewers didn’t issue a flat-out denial and people on the Internet believe all kinds of weird stuff (seriously, go look up the Stevie Wonder truthers). The pictures of Hank do look different, but keep in that mind that went from a stray on the street to a pampered celebrity pup. What they eat, where they sleep, how often they’re groomed and played with, these things matter. They can change people, errr, dogs.
But all this has been enough to make some people think the worst — that the original Hank is dead.
We’re not sure what will happen next in the Hank saga. Maybe the Brewers will produce proof that the Hank we know today is the same spring-training stray. Maybe the O.G. Hank will arise on Easter Sunday, right before the start of the 2016 season.
For now, though, we’re just thinking this could turn into a sequel to “Making a Murderer.”
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
