Major League Baseball Player Adopts Stray Pit Bull

He just planned on fostering her — then he fell in love.

Yu Darvish dog
Karly Edington
Karly Edington

This is a real home run: A formerly stray pit bull was just adopted by a Major League Baseball player.
 


A couple of months ago, a pit bull named Sage was found loose in a Dallas neighborhood. Sage had been found with serious medical problems, and needed immediate surgery — which she got thanks to her rescuer and foster Karly Edington, who marvels that even at her worst, Sage was "wagging her tail throughout."

Edington took Sage home as a foster to her apartment, which she shares with another pit, Rosemary, who'd also been in acute need of medical help when she was rescued.

Edington felt a real kinship to the sweet and loving Sage. Sage and Rosemary instantly became "sisters," Edington tells The Dodo.

pit bulls
Karly Edington

But Sage wasn't a fan of apartment living — or, more to the point, Edington's neighbors weren't a fan of Sage's relentless barking.

So Edington tried and tried to find Sage a great new home, with no luck, and with her neighbors' patience more and more tested.

sage pit bull
Karly Edington

Edington was on the verge of having to make a very hard decision, when she got some help from a friend, radio producer Danny Balis, who put out an urgent tweet:


That call to action got retweeted by sports reporter Emily Jones. [https://twitter.com/emilyjonesmccoy?lang=en]. The exchange was spotted by Dallas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish — a dog lover who already had five pups at home, including another rescue pittie. (Unrelated, but fun: Darvish was once called The Elvis of Japan by the magazine GQ.

He reached out to Edington on Thursday evening last week — and not being a sports fan, she wasn't initially sure who he was; Balis had to set her straight. On Friday morning, Darvish and his wife came to Edington's apartment to meet Sage.

At first they offered to take her home temporarily — with the aim of helping her get adopted by someone else.

“I thought, ‘What would happen to the dog if no one picked her up?'” Darvish, who speaks Japanese, said through an interpreter, according to Fox.

But that intention didn't last long. By the time the couple left with Sage, they were committed to keeping her for good.

"Proof that being a foster pays off. All the hard work, love, and endless amount of emotion I poured into Sage, and here is my thank you," Edington wrote on Instagram. "I am beyond grateful for this man, who simply saw a desperate tweet for help, and within the hour contacted me."


Shannon Glenn, executive director of the nonprofit My Pit Bull Is Family, tells The Dodo she hopes that Sage's high-profile adoption will help other pups find homes of their own.

"When an athlete or someone in the spotlight adopts a pit bull type dog not only does it raise awareness about adoption but it also helps break the stereotypes that many of these dogs face," she said. "I'm excited that Yu fell in love with Sage."


The photos that Darvish and his wife have posted to Twitter since Sage's adoption show a whole family who’s smitten — and that includes Sage's new canine siblings.

Sage, too, seems to like having been called up to the big leagues. As Darvish said to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “She’s doing really good.”