Just coming back on from watching the Royals game -- we won 4-1, by the way, sweeping the White Sox -- but the story of the game was Paulo Orlando. Only the third player from Brazil to play in the major leagues, he played 1,017 games in the minors. He's 29 years old. Lot of people in KC have wondered why he stuck it out so long. The average minor league career, when the player doesn't make it to a major league roster, is four and a half years.
Today, his first MLB hit was a triple -- going from home to third in 11 seconds! (That's fast, boys and girls.) Scored on Sal Perez's home run. He was an Olympic alternate in the 100 and 200 in 2004 and 2008 for Brazil.
He did the post-game interview. Of course, KC post-game interviewer Joel Goldberg asked him "How did that feel?"
His first words? "I want to thank God for letting me have this experience, keeping me healthy all these years, so I can play before these great fans."
My kind of player.