Adri\u00e1n Morej\u00f3n remembers the sacrifices his parents made to get him baseball equipment as a young boy in Cuba.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hard for me to find a pair of cleats or gloves,\u201d Morej\u00f3n said. \u201cIt was hard, especially for my dad. He was working a lot to find me cleats for (many) years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those humble beginnings were never lost on Morej\u00f3n. So, when the Padres\u2019 star reliever and his wife Melany saw a social media post about a boy whose glove was stolen at Petco Park, he wanted to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the reason I do a lot of things for the kids here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ten-year-old Chase Orellana of Lakeside was playing on the wiffleball field in Gallagher Square before a Padres game in July. He set his glove down for a few minutes near the other kids\u2019 gloves.<\/p>\n
When he came back to retrieve it, it was gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very sad,\u201d Chase said. \u201cI was crying.\u201d<\/p>\n
The glove \u2014 green camouflage with his name stitched on the side \u2014 was a gift from Chase\u2019s dad, who was in the military. He gave it to Chase after he hit his first home run for Lakeside National Little League last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means the world to him,\u201d said Chase\u2019s mom, Nicole. \u201cHe is on the autism spectrum. He\u2019s really attached to camouflage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nicole posted about the missing glove on social media, begging for the glove\u2019s return with no questions asked.<\/p>\n
Nicole didn\u2019t get the glove back, but she did receive a message from Melany Morej\u00f3n, who coordinated a visit to Petco Park.<\/p>\n
The Morej\u00f3ns hosted Chase and Nicole before Saturday night\u2019s win over the Astros. At batting practice, Chase shouted to players as they passed from the clubhouse to the field, many of them stopping to sign his binder of baseball cards.<\/p>\n
After Morej\u00f3n finished his pregame work, he disappeared to his locker for a few moments before coming up the clubhouse steps with a white-and-gray marbled Mizuno glove, marked by Morej\u00f3n\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor you,\u201d Morej\u00f3n said to Chase.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d Chase squealed. \u201cWhoa. That is so cool!\u201d<\/p>\n
He hugged Morej\u00f3n, who asked him if he liked it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d Chase said. \u201cThank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morej\u00f3n wasn\u2019t the only Padres player to reach out to Orellana and his mom. Shortly after the glove disappeared, Samad Taylor met Chase at a local sporting goods store and bought him a replacement glove \u2014 green camouflage. Taylor also paid to have Chase\u2019s name stitched onto the glove.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very happy,\u201d Orellana said as he showed off the glove Morej\u00f3n gifted him. \u201cIt\u2019s very thrilling and exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gesture brings joy to Morej\u00f3n.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now,\u201d he said, \u201cI have the chance to make a lot of kids happy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adri\u00e1n Morej\u00f3n remembers the sacrifices his parents made to get him baseball equipment as a young boy in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[47256,170368,170367,2674,44043,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-427879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-adrian-morejon","tag-chase-orellana","tag-melany-morejon","tag-padres","tag-petco-park","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}