LODESTAR GAZETTE | LODESTAR PROMPT | FLASH FICTION
He and the Fans Never Stopped Believing in the Team
And they held on to that feeling for years.
This story is in Response to the Lodestar Gazette Image Prompt:
He told everyone he was born and raised in South Detroit. But everyone knows there is no South Detroit. He was just a city boy from nowhere. He jumped on the midnight train that was going somewhere, though.
He was on a journey to San Francisco and the train station was just a few blocks from the ballpark. It was rather early, however, when the train pulled in. The streetlights were still on.
So, he walked up and down the boulevard a few times, checking out the streetlight people, while waiting for the ticket box office to open.
He could hardly wait! His beloved Giants were playing their archrivals the Dodgers today. Both teams were fighting for first place. The winner of the game today might determine the winner of the pennant and possibly a trip to the World Series.
It was the middle of the eighth inning and the Giants were down by a run. A video came up on the jumbo scoreboard and the public address system blared out the old song from way back in 1981. Steve Perry was the lead singer of the band in those days.
Steve grew up in Fresno and was a diehard Giants fan. Sometimes he went to a game and sometimes the cameraman would catch him, and he would be up on that scoreboard, too. Sometimes he looked just like that Steve Perry from 1981.
“Don’t stop believin’,” Steve sang, and forty thousand fans chimed in. Buster hit a two-run double in the bottom of the eighth. Brian retired the side in the ninth. The Giants won the game!
Forty thousand fans departed listening to another icon named Tony croon about the city where he left his heart. Our midnight train hero joined the throng walking down Third Street. A man passed him on the crowded sidewalk, brushing his arm. “Hold onto that feelin’!” said Steve.
But was it really Steve? He was 32 when the song came out in 1981. He was 61 in 2010 and no longer with the band. This was Steve from 1981 who just brushed by. But how can that be?
He didn’t know it then, but it was the first year of magic and the magic would last another four years with the Giants winning three world championships in that five-year stretch. The fans never stopped believing! And neither did that city boy from nowhere.
OK, it was time to meet a small-town girl living in a lonely world. Maybe she hopped on a midnight train, too!
Who has another four minutes to spare? Would you like to listen to the official version of that 1981 song? You can find the YouTube video here. Then why not go back to my story and see how many lines from the song are embedded within the story.
