Famous Baseball Player Dog Names

Of all the dogs that have existed in pop culture, many have been small to medium-sized and adored for either their cuteness, heroic acts or their comical behavior. On the opposite end of the spectrum, however, is The Beast, the gargantuan and mystical canine villain of 1993’s timeless baseball classic and coming-of-age story, The Sandlot. 

While many of the most imaginative and over-the-top scenes that took place in the movie were largely done with a series of giant puppets designed to look like a monstrous version of an actual canine, there were scenes that called for a real, larger-than-life dog to stand in, take commands, and behave naturally. Two different dogs were used during shooting, both of them mammoth English Mastiffs who played the role of intimidator, misunderstood villain, and gentle giant to perfection.

Although not as common as nicknames like The Babe, The Bambino or the Colossus of Clout, one of the characters in the movie refers to Babe Ruth, known as the greatest ballplayer of all time, as “the Hercules of Baseball,” thus creating a perfect name for the hulking dog that ferociously snatches away every ball that comes anywhere close to his fenced yard. His most memorable scenes are still up for debate, as the mid-air ball-snatching and erector-set-destroying images of the puppet head are easily the hardest to shake for anyone still living in fear, but the face-off and ensuing chase between the real life Hercules and Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez can easily be attributed the greatest moment in baseball/dog history, especially when it culminates with the boys saving the dog from a toppled fence and being rewarded with one of the biggest, sloppiest face licks in film history. 

Hercules may not have been the biggest dog in Hollywood in terms of either size or notoriety (although he was certainly in the running in terms of size), but he did help to cross the line between a love for baseball and a love for dogs. As far as what documentation exists, neither of the two dogs played many, if any, other notable parts in movies or television, let alone anything that reached the cult classic status that The Sandlot did. But while these dogs’ Hollywood careers may have been short-lived, they certainly cemented their place in history in film, sports fandom, and dog lovers alike, all thanks to a terrorizing and eventually lovable character, who in the end (spoiler alert) becomes the Sandlot’s mascot.