By Jimmy Carlton Sportswriter Published Mar 04, 2016 at 2:31 PM

A little before noon on Friday at the Wisconsin Humane Society, the Milwaukee Brewers held a press conference to declare that Hank the Ballpark Pup, their unofficial mascot, was alive and well and verifiably not another dog.

The announcement, which was made by chief operating officer Rick Schlesinger at a podium adorned with the team logo, put to rest morbid rumors of Hank’s death and aimed to end various conspiracy theories surrounding the authenticity of the former stray who wandered into the Brewers’ spring training complex in 2014 and, quickly, walked into Milwaukee fans’ hearts.

With the embattled canine – whose clean coat and upbeat tail-wagging belied any beleaguerment – standing nearby alongside his adoptive owners, a resolute Schlesinger said, "Hank the Ballpark Pup is still Hank the Ballpark Pup."

As evidence, he pointed to several substantiation efforts the team had made to confirm Hank’s identity: a veterinary examination was performed, comparing Hank’s current dental records to the originals from 2014, which were a match; the microchip implanted in Hank when he moved from Arizona two years ago was scanned Thursday and the identification number corresponded to his registration in the database; on Friday morning, another veterinarian performed a second scan, reconfirming Hank’s Hankness. A notarized letter affirming the first veterinarian’s examination was provided by the team.

"We couldn’t ignore the dissimilarities," Schlesinger said of online opining that Hank’s appearance had changed significantly, even considering his rags-to-riches story, since 2014. "And while we all had a good laugh at the theory, we wanted to take the steps to reassure everyone through absolute proof that there is no Hank double."

The news conference also featured the Humane Society’s veterinary director and its president, who stressed the importance of animal care, tracking (especially using a microchip) and adoption. Afterward, there was a Q&A session that included Hank’s owners, the family of Brewers vice president and general counsel Marti Wronski, and a photo opportunity with the 2015 World Dog Awards "Dog of the Year."

"Once again, this is the real Hank," Schlesinger said. "There has never been any other."

So that settles it then, right? A dog press conference being held by a major professional sports organization with multiple pieces of medical-science support? 

Well, maybe, but not everyone's convinced. 

This whole thing started online. So we went to social media to see what fans of baseball, dogs and conspiracy theories, replying to a tweeted picture of the notarized veterinarian letter, think of it all:

Jimmy Carlton Sportswriter

Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.

After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.

Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.