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A while back when Orlando Hudson, was playing second base for the Arizona Diamondbacks, I had to have Jeff work on my car. Rather than get a ride home, I walked down 22nd to the Bread and Butter Café to have some lunch and kill some time before getting my car back. I sat at the counter next to an athletic looking man who people seemed to know and who was asked for an autograph. Intrigued, I asked who he was and he said he was Orlando Hudson and that he was in Tucson for spring training and that he played for the Dbacks. We chatted a bit and he paid his check and left. The servers told me he often came to the Bread and Butter because he liked home cooking like he got back home in Carolina as a kid.
I told my boys that I had lunch with Orlando Hudson and they harassed me about being friends with him and I told them we were such good friends that I called him “Orly”. It has become a standing joke in the Hugen household to refer to Rod and his buddy “Orly”. Particularly if someone is starting to sound pretentious.
Orlando got traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Hugen men decided to make a road trip to California. We had to see a Dodger game because that is what we always did when the boys were young. Last night we went, with my brother and his family, to Dodger stadium and got seats in the third row of the right field pavilion. Justin and Derek were giving me a hard time and told me that my friend “Orly” should hit a home run my way if I really knew him.
In his third at bat he belted a home run to right field. It came right at us. It ended up in the first row and bounced down. We couldn’t believe it. When we got home we watched ESPN. Sure enough we were in plain view as “Orly” belts it out.
There isn’t much better than going to Dodger stadium with your boys, chowing down on Dodger dogs and peanuts, watching the Dodgers beat the Padres, almost catching the home run that Orlando Hudson hit to his Bread and Butter Café friend, and going home to watch yourselves on ESPN. :)
http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=4967047
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