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In 2009, the Nashua Pride franchise was bought by a four-man ownership
group and renamed the American Defenders, a military-themed team,
meshing with the group's college-summer team and two exhibition squads. The
team wore camouflage uniforms and relied on the military theme until the fans
got sick of it, notably, when games started to be halted at nine-eleven in the
evening for a double chorus of God Bless America.
The demise of this franchise, culminating with the move of a home series to Quebec City and the mayor's move of a backhoe to home plate (to preclude the start of the next home series in view of chronic non-payment of rent), is legend. Spike the Dog never entered the ballpark during this regime, where every move was orchestrated to be on-message. The sentries might have had loaded weapons.
That franchise moved out to become the Pittsfield (Mass.) Colonials, a tenant of the City Parks and Recreation Department, which cares less about payment of rent than about having something for the locals to do.
Spike the Dog attended every Manchester Millrats game that was played at
Southern New Hampshire University. In 2009, there were ten regular-season
games, plus a playoff game with the Rochester RazorSharks. An SNHU
intern played Millie the Millrat, and Spike taught him the hospitality basics,
such as each mascot manning a separate fire door so that every fan would get
greeted on his way out.
In 2010, the team cut back funding. (Evidently, they had already decided to move to Saint John, New Brunswick, as they would announce after the season.) There was no Millie the Millrat at all, and no Millrat cheerleaders (a troupe that a fan of an opponent referred to as the "D-Con Dancers"). The responsibility for hospitality fell to Donna, an on-court emcee with cornrow hair and a wireless mike. Spike the Dog worked the 8 regular-season games at SNHU (but not the regular-season game played at University of New Hampshire nor the one at Hesser College).
On Opening Day, 3-Jan-10, Donna called for a round of applause for Spike the Dog--as nearly official as he has ever been. Why a team called the Millrats would have a dog mascot was a recurring question among fans, which always led to pleasant pantomime. Why the said dog worked the games with a wiffle-ball bat was another mystery. (The answer is that it matches the plastic dog collar.) These anomalies might have been an embarrassment to an established team in an established league, but were a delight from further down inside semi-pro sports.
The Millrats rewarded volunteers and active fans with a variety of shirts and jerseys. This loot eventually included the game-worn 00 uniform of Ife Anosike, who left the team for a medical residency in New York City. ANOSIKE was, with little difficulty and glue, changed to read SPIKE, and Spike the Dog wore this jersey for most of the 2010 season, briefly acting agitated when another 00 jersey was worn by a late-season acquisition.
On 28-Jun-10, Spike the Dog sauntered down the asphalt beside left field and
crossed Fraser Field, shaking every available hand. He also visited the press
box, encountering owner Phil Rosenfield for the first time since the latter
had inquired, at the end of the 2009 season, about the absence of the Dog all
that year. The Dog then took his typical pre-game position, at a fire plug in
front of the ballpark on Western Avenue, and waved to cars.
Presently, however, Mr. Rosenfield emerged and, in the politest of terms, explained that the team had its own identity and its own mascot (the Navigators crocodile in the green and yellow of the nearby Sanford Mainers) and that an appearance of Spike the Dog would "confuse our marketing message," or more to the point, might complicate the imminent sale of the ball club to Tim Haley. This became the first time Spike was thrown out of a single ballpark twice, and by different managements, but essentially for the same reason. Were any of the evening's 357 fans disturbed that the team's branding strategy had been momentarily complicated?
