The sports announcer looked into the camera, "Well we know it's just an exhibition game between the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers today as it's still the pre-season but today is a special occasion anyways and it's all because of LA Dodgers #9 Jorge Fernandez the Dodgers' legendary pitcher and legendary hitter..."
His co-host looked into the camera and continued the commentary, "Well we all know Jorge Ferdandez has had an absolutely phenomenal career in his 10 years with the Los Angeles Dodgers holding the record for most home runs in the team's history and the record for most no-hitter wins as a pitching member of that team..."
His announcing partner Jed picked up the commentary, "But Jorge's family life has been tragic not of course due to the intense love in their marriage between Jorge and his wife Juanita but due to the fact that their 8-year-old son Ricardo was born blind with a rare eye disease. But earlier this year, Jorge and Juanita received news that a visiting eye surgeon from China would be lecturing at the Loma Linda Children's Hospital on a new treatment for the eye disease that little Ricardo had."
Announcer Mark continued, "The surgeon Dr. Fong agreed to treat little Ricardo with the revolutionary new procedure and last week after several months of the treatment, Mr. and Mrs. Fernandez announced to the world that their son could now see..."
"So last night at a special dinner for team managers and coaches and players and their wives and members of the press and the general public," Jed went on, "Jorge gave this short speech at the end of which there was not a dry eye in the house..."
The tape runs of Jorge Fernandez's short speech, "Tomorrow some say is just an exhibition game. But tomorrow for me is the game I consider the most important of my career. For tomorrow's game means more to me than winning the National League West pennant. Tomorrow's game means more to me than winning the National League Championship. Tomorrow's game even means more to me than winning a World Series. For tomorrow's game is the first time that my beloved son Ricardo will get to see his daddy playing baseballl. .."
"And what could be a more appropriate moment than to end the tape there," Jed smiled, "for here comes Los Angeles Dodgers #9 Jorge Fernandez on to the field..."
Fans all over the stadium- those wearing regular clothes, those wearing Dodgers shirts and even those wearing Cubs shirts rose to give Fernandez a standing ovation.
On the stadium large screen, the tape played of Jorge Fernandez's closing remarks of his short speech last night, "And I say to you, nothing... absolutely NOTHING is going to stop me from playing in that game for my son tomorrow..."
The crowd cheered as Fernandez threw the first pitch...
"Strike," shouted the umpire.
The second pitch...
"Strike two..."
The third pitch...
"Strike 3," the umpire shouted, "Out."
The same went for the next 2 Cubs players.
Strike...
.... and
... out.
The Dodgers up to bat.
All the bases are loaded.
Jorge Fernandez comes up to bat...
WHACK!...
... a home run.
And so it continued through all 9 innings of the game...
... the Cubs come up to bat...
... the only words the umpire spoke during that entire time were "Strike" and "Out"...
... the Dodgers come up to bat...
... the words the stadium announcer spoke time after time... "The bases are loaded... Jorge Fernandez up to bat... home run..."
Whether it was top of the inning or bottom of the inning, Fernandez always came to center field and took a bow... whispering the words that were projected on to the large screen... I love you my darling Juanita... I love you my dear Ricardo..."
And after taking a bow, he would always run off the field to the locker room and then return to play.
When the game was over...
... the Dodgers had won by an unbelievable score...
Jorge Fernandez had pitched another no-hitter in his career...
... and most phenomenal of all...
... had scored 9 home runs in a single game...
Fernandez ignored being hugged by his fellow players and waved off handshakes or pats on the back...
He ran to center field again... "I love you, Juanita... I love you, Ricardo... I will always be with you... Remember that..."
He then ran off the field...
... he almost seemed to vanish when he ran off...
... and vanish was a good word for it because the press, his fellow players and his coach couldn't seem to find him in the locker room when they rushed in there after the disappearing Fernandez.
Up in his luxury box in the stadium, the General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers decided he'd better head down to the locker room and join in the celebrations with his most amazing player Jorge Fernandez...
The phone in the luxury box rang.
The General Manager picked it up.
It was Jorge Fernandez's agent Paul Lennox.
"Mr. Wilson...." began Paul.
"Paul," laughed Wilson, "are you here to renegotiate Jorge's contract already?".
"Renegotiate?" Paul stammered, "no, it's been total chaos the past couple of hours. I thought you were probably wanting to know the reason Jorge didn't show up to play this afternoon..."
"What do you mean didn't show up to play?" Mr. Wilson laughed, "He totally showed up to play, you joker. Pitching a no-hitter and hitting 9 home runs in a single game."
"But..." Paul's voice sounded very strange, "Mr. Wilson, when Jorge and I left the hotel for the stadium, our car was totally sideswiped by a truck on the passenger side. Jorge was killed instantly..."
After a conversation that then proceeded for several minutes and it dawned on both Mr. Wilson and Mr. Lennox that neither man was joking, Mr. Wilson said,
"Paul, I'm going to use my best connections that I know of. A lid must be put on what could potentially be a controversy... of a supernatural magnitude... I'm going to call in a whole bunch of favours... see if we can change the time of death on the death certificate... the time of the accident on the accident report..."
And on it went.
Mr. Wilson the General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers finally put the phone down.
He sighed.
He wasn't quite sure what had happened here this afternoon.
All he knew was that through some miracle, Jorge Fernandez had returned from the dead so his son could finally see him play baseball.
The head coach of the Los Angeles Dodgers knocked on the luxury box door and then opened it to tell the General Manager of the mysterious disappearance of Jorge Fernandez- baseball's man of the hour.
As he opened the door and noticed the peculiar expression on the General Manager's face, he quipped, "It looks like you've seen a ghost."
The General Manager looked up at the Head Coach and replied,
"We've all seen a ghost."
-A short story written by Christopher Van Helsling
Monday evening, August 29th 2011
