Several months ago, a stray cat made its way to the Bridgewater area. He was hanging out by the New Jersey Transit railroad tracks one night in 2006 and saw Commerce Bank Ballpark in the distance. The brightness of the ballpark’s lights drew him closer and closer. He walked up near the entrance and from afar heard the roar of the crowd and noticed that the fans were cheering very loudly for a gray dog named Sparkee. The cat thought to himself, “I can do that. It looks like a lot of fun. How hard could it be?”

So after the games and whenever the ballpark was empty, the cat would sneak into the ballpark and practice roaming throughout the stands, playing on the field, and once in a while, sneaking into the concession stands to snack on a couple of hot dogs.

During this past off-season, Sparkee decided to go out on the field and practice his antics for the upcoming 2007 season. To his surprise, there was a cat on the field. At first, Sparkee chased the cat all around the ballpark, as dogs usually do, before cornering him in the outfield. The cat grabbed a baseball that was left on the field and threw it as far as he could. As usual, Sparkee chased the ball like he always did whenever the Patriots players would throw it to him. Sparkee brought the ball back and realized he was having fun playing with this cat.

Over the off-season, the two became very close friends, and Sparkee decided he would help the cat become a mascot.

Sparkee found out that the cat was never named, so he enlisted the help of Somerset Patriots fans to help come up with an appropriate name for the cat. After a fan vote held during fan fest of names submitted by the fans, the people have spoken and named the new Somerset Patriots Cat.

It is now our pleasure to introduce the newest member of our team, the coolest cat in town…..SLIDER!