Enrique Hernandez stepped into the batting cage Monday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park wearing a thin white t-shirt spotted in stains that refuse to be washed out. Across the shirt’s chest was a faded portrait of a grinning Chase Utley, the Dodgers teammate Hernandez follows so closely that he refers to him as “Dad.”
Hernandez, better known as Kike, was not just wearing the shirt to mark Utley’s return to Philly. It is what he wears before each game.
“My dad’s shirt brings me good luck,” he said.
Hernandez started watching Utley’s every move last season as the Dodgers made a run to the postseason.