Rookie the Golden Retriever, The Trenton Thunder’s third-generation bat dog, has been named the Eastern League winner in the 2014 Mascot Mania competition and is a contender for best rookie mascot of the year and best minor league mascot.

The son of current Thunder bat dog Derby and grandson of original retriever, Chase, Rookie was born in December.

Fans can vote for Rookie by visiting the MiLB.com website. The regional winners of the MiLB.com’s annual fan-voted Mascot Mania competition were announced Monday. Rookie will compete with 13 other league-winning mascots in a showdown this week to determine the overall champion.

Rookie’s competition includes two Mets mascots, including South Atlantic League winner Gnate the Gnat from Savannah, and New York-Penn League winner Sandy the Seagull from the Brooklyn Cyclones. Distant Philly Phanatic cousin Phinley, the Clearwater Threshers’ shark mascot who was last year’s overall runner-up, beat Tampa Yankees favorite Blue this year to win his second straight Florida State League crown.Phinley was the leading vote-getter in the league round, but the 14 finalists will now start fresh in the championship round, which runs from August 4-11 on MILB.com.

The winner will be announced next week. You can vote for Rookie or any of your other favorite mascots in two ways; fans can vote an unlimited amount of times at MiLB.com, and can register votes via Twitter up to 25 times per day by using a mascot’s hashtag. Rookie’s hashtag is #VoteRookieThunder.

Krystal Knapp

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Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.