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OC Register: A WWII vet helped this woman become an Angels fan, and here’s how she’s honoring him at Sunday’s game


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On Sunday, a mom and her 9-year-old daughter will hold up a sign at the Angels game. That’s no big deal, right? Just another Mother’s Day sign at the ballpark.

On one side, their poster will reveal a message to Shohei Ohtani in Japanese: “I’m Your Biggest Fan.” Jennifer Pimentel and her daughter Aneesa love watching Ohtani play.

The other side of the poster will say, “Hi Hal.”

Sometimes, the important stuff in life is on the other side.

  • Angels fan Hal Cardin, 92, listens as caregiver Jennifer Pimentel reads the sports page to him at his home in Ontario. He is in failing health and has poor eyesight. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, SCNG)

    Angels fan Hal Cardin, 92, listens as caregiver Jennifer Pimentel reads the sports page to him at his home in Ontario. He is in failing health and has poor eyesight. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, SCNG)

  • Angels fan Hal Cardin, 92, listens as caregiver Jennifer Pimentel reads the sports page to him at his home in Ontario. He is in failing health and has poor eyesight. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, SCNG)

    Angels fan Hal Cardin, 92, listens as caregiver Jennifer Pimentel reads the sports page to him at his home in Ontario. He is in failing health and has poor eyesight. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, SCNG)

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  • Angels fan Hal Cardin, 92, who has poor eyesight, keeps up with his favorite team with the help of his caregiver, Jennifer Pimentel, who reads to him the sports pages, at this home.  (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, SCNG)

    Angels fan Hal Cardin, 92, who has poor eyesight, keeps up with his favorite team with the help of his caregiver, Jennifer Pimentel, who reads to him the sports pages, at this home. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, SCNG)

  • Angels fan Hal Cardin, 92, listens as caregiver Jennifer Pimentel reads the sports page to him. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, SCNG)

    Angels fan Hal Cardin, 92, listens as caregiver Jennifer Pimentel reads the sports page to him. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, SCNG)

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Unexpected role

In August of 2016, Jennifer Pimentel, 39, of Ontario, was out of work.

She was a trained chef who spent some time cooking in Marseille, France. Pastries are her specialty. She makes an Irish cheesecake with Guinness in the crust. She makes maple bacon ice cream from scratch.

So she was looking for a cooking job when she heard John Loureiro needed a personal chef.

She went for an interview at his home in Ontario.

“When I went inside, I said hello to the gentleman sitting on the couch,” said Jennifer, whose personality is as bubbly as champagne.

The gentleman on the couch was Hal Cardin. He’s 92, and he’s Loureiro’s father-in-law. The job indeed involved cooking, but mostly it involved caring for Hal.

“It was the right hours and good pay, so I said I’m going to give this a try,” Jennifer said.

Read all about it

When you take care of Hal Cardin, you start with making breakfast, a big breakfast. Jennifer calls it the “breakfast of doom.” Biscuits and gravy. Sausage. Potatoes. Fried eggs. That’s the normal fare. Sometimes, Hal requests salted caramel pecan pancakes.

When breakfast is done, Jennifer grabs the newspaper.

When you take care of Hal Cardin, whose eyes don’t cooperate like they used to, you read to him. The only topic: Angels baseball. Every single day. Every single word. Jennifer reads the game stories, the feature stories, the standings, the transactions and any note about the Angels.

Hal loves Mike Trout, who, he said, “hits the hell out of the ball.”

Here is how Jennifer Pimentel’s attitude about baseball – before she met Hal – could be described in one word: hatred.

“The only thing worse than baseball was golf and curling,” Jennifer said. “It was boring. I didn’t even know what the announcers were saying.”

She grew up in a family of Dodger fans. So when she started reading the newspaper about the Angels every day, she didn’t want to tell them.

Her father, Jack, is a big baseball fan. But he never talked to his daughter about the sport because she didn’t like or understand it. And then, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and it became even more difficult for him to talk.

Lot to learn

Jennifer not only found herself learning about the Angels, but also about Hal.

Hal Cardin was born in Illinois and came to California in 1940. After Pearl Harbor was bombed, Hal joined the Navy.

He self-published a book, “The Road to Deimos and Beyond,” about his experiences aboard the USS Deimos, an ammunition cargo ship.

On June 23, 1943, the Deimos was struck by a Japanese torpedo in the Pacific Ocean. Hal Cardin was lifted off the ground in the blast. He landed on the deck of the ship.

He found his way to a lifeboat, but his commanding officer ordered him to make room for the injured. So he jumped into the oil-slicked water. Hal swam alongside the lifeboat until he found floating debris onto which he could hang.

Hal was saved by a passing destroyer.

Hal had a long career in the accounting departments at McDonnell-Douglas and Kwikset. He has three children, Kelly, Keith and Theresa. His wife, Marylou, died years ago.

Hal lives with his daughter Theresa and her husband John. His days consist of watching Fox News and the Angels.

“I was quite a ballplayer,” he said.

He sits on his couch wrapped in an Angels blanket.

“He asks me to marry him three times a week,” Jennifer said.

Passionate fan

As she got to know Hal and the Angels, Jennifer found herself growing in fondness for both.

“I found myself secretly rooting for the Angels,” Jennifer said, hiding her newfound love from her Dodger-loving family.

She loves Ohtani, Trout and Blake Parker. And she finds herself rooting hard, yelling at the TV, “WHY AREN’T THEY REVIEWING THAT PLAY?”

“Now I kind of annoy people because I’m a walking encyclopedia of ridiculous baseball facts,” she said.

She really knows her baseball. She can discuss wins against replacement and on-base plus slugging.

And she noticed something else.

“I can talk to my dad,” she said. “Baseball is something easy to talk about. We have something to connect on. Baseball has done something good for me and my family.”

Request from the heart

Theresa Loureiro thought it would be a nice gesture to give Jennifer a Mother’s Day gift.

Angels tickets.

“There is not a better place for a mother to be,” Jennifer said.

Sadly, Hal isn’t able to get to the ballpark anymore. But Jennifer wasn’t satisfied with just accepting the gift. She wanted to pay it forward, she said.

She did a Google search, found an email address for Angels announcer Victor Rojas and wrote to him:

“Is there any way possible, that on the Mother’s Day game, that you could give a shout out to Hal? Maybe say ‘perhaps one of the oldest Angels fans, a WWII vet of the Navy, and all around great dude. … thanks for the support Hal Cardin?’  Heck I don’t know. That’s your department.

“But I’ll be at that game. With my daughter. There’s nowhere I think more appropriate for this mother to spend that day than with her best girl, watching the best team, in the best sport … Ya see, Hal is wheelchair bound and at his age, spending the 45 minutes in the car to get there and then 3-4 hours in the wheelchair at the stadium…..not feasible. It would wear him out, he’d be uncomfortable, and I don’t want to do that to him.

“I don’t know if the old guy has too many more ball games left. And I’d like to help create a happy memory for him that getting a shout out on live TV would make, if you’re able to help.”

She ended her email with this line: “P.S. Hal is on hospice care, which is why I feel the urgent need to bring some smiles to this Vet’s face.”

The next day, Victor Rojas replied, “I’d love to help out, especially for an Angels fan.”

Jennifer wrote him back: “OMG OMG OMG Thank you so Much! Thanks a billion.”

“I was shocked,” Jennifer said.

This week, she’s making the sign.

She asked a friend to help her translate “I’m your biggest fan” in Japanese characters. “Google translate doesn’t always work,” she said.

The other side will be the easy part.

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