SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Even though they grew up cheering for different baseball teams, lifelong friends Rudy Villegas and Carlos Hernandez shared a love and admiration for Fernando Valenzuela, who died Tuesday at the age of 63 in Los Angeles.

Valenzuela, a legendary pitcher with the Dodgers, captivated the baseball world as a rookie in 1981 and quickly became Villegas and Hernandez’s idol.

“It didn’t matter what team you were rooting for, you were a Fernando fan, even in his death, he unites us, he united this community, which was 95 percent immigrant,” Hernandez said. “I think the people who were more impacted by it, even more than us, were our parents who were immigrants from Mexico who didn’t master the English language, Fernando was one of them.”

Hernandez said he was shocked and saddened by the news of Valenzuela’s death, a sentiment shared by Villegas.

“This guy was somebody I wanted to imitate, someone I wanted to be like,” Villegas said. “I wore his number, I was a left-handed pitcher and he was my inspiration.”

Villegas, who is retired but working as a tour guide at Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres, says his dream of meeting Valenzuela came true about two years ago.

“We walked into the press lounge and the only person sitting there was Fernando Valenzuela. I went up to him and talked to him, saying you were my idol growing up,” Villegas said. “He was impressed, he was very nice and he tells me, ‘I’m glad I was an inspiration in your life,’ and I go no, you don’t know how you changed the community, what you did for all Latinos especially people that love baseball like us.”

Villegas and Hernandez agreed that Valenzuela was a source of pride for millions of Mexicans on both sides of the border.

“Nobody will ever do what he did, we lost a living legend, he was me, he was you, he was our brothers, sisters, cousins, he was us,” said Hernandez. “He represented us, he looked like us, talked like us, acted like us, and this loss is for every single one of us.”