Today in 14-year-old Rex stories
[Mark] Langston is a high priest in the Cult of Hud. He recites Hudler stories with affection. “There’s something mythic about Hud,” says Langston, a friend of Hudler’s since their year together on the Montreal Expos in 1989. In ’91, when Hudler was with the St. Louis Cardinals, Langston formed the Hud Fan Club in the Angels clubhouse. “We wore HEADFIRST HUDLER T-shirts and followed his stats,” Langston says. “I’d be lying in my hotel bed and the phone would ring, and it would be one of the guys yelling, ‘Did you see what Hud did on SportsCenter tonight? The guy is unreal.’ ”
No more unreal than the handstand push-ups Hudler does—naked—after big victories. Or the way he used to spit at a drawing of a sneering Pete Rose “out of respect.”
Emphasis added. Righteous.
.:
March 27th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
If I had a blog and posted this, I would have highlighted the spitting upon of Pete Rose.
March 28th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Such is Rex’s power, a short two-sentence paragraph like that is filled to bursting with high-five worthy awesomeness.
What I’d like to get hold of are some of the stories from the guys who found Rex to be too much. Pascual Perez, for instance. I bet Rex got on the last nerve of a lot of guys.
I worked with a guy who had a lot of the same traits as Rex (but dialed back about 1000 notches), and he was 50% awesome and 50% exasperating.