MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Twins fans helped send a rare October feeling airborne this week. In a matter of days, red Homer Hankies with the words "We Believe" went from a hopeful slogan to an emphatic statement.
Now, after two historic, emotional wins washed away years of post-season futility, the message has become contagious.
"It's really exciting," said Jenni Smith, who was among many Twins fans who paid a visit to the team shop at Target Field on Thursday. "I wasn't at the games, but I wanted to get here today. I got the new Hanky, the Homer Hanky. I think the last time I got one of these, I feel like was in 1987."
Mary Ann Boes also made a special shopping trip with her one-year-old grandson, Michael, to pick up some Homer Hankies for her family.
"The last one I have is 1987 and that's when his Mom was born," Boes said. "So I needed one for him."
While the Hanky is a beloved playoff tradition, the "We Believe" rallying cry it carries is unique to this year's team.
"What people probably don't remember is the slogan came from the Clubhouse," said Heather Hinkel, vice president of brand marketing for the Twins.
Hinkel said the slogan is a direct quote from outfielder Max Kepler from late July. After a dramatic come-from-behind, 10th-inning win over Seattle, Kepler was asked to sum up how the clubhouse was feeling.
"We believe," Kepler said.
Hinkel said the feeling never left the team, but she knew putting the slogan on the Homer Hanky might raise some eyebrows.
"It's one of those things where you're either going to get the lovers or the haters who are going to say, 'We Believe? What if this is another Minnesota sports team leaving us hanging?'" Hinkel said. "But anything that you can find that resonates with the clubhouse, is something that you really need to stop and listen to. When you're a sports marketer and you come up with a slogan from the front office, or from, marketing, but none of the players believe in it, it's never going to take off."
Though plenty of fans also carried belief into the series, there's no doubt it took flight when rookie Royce Lewis ignited the crowd with a first-inning two-run homer in game one, and it kept soaring from there. By the time the Twins won game two and claimed their first post season series win since 2002, it was hard to tell who was feeding off of who.
"We believed and it came true," Hinkel said. "You can't ask for a better outcome than that and seeing people wave their hankies and hang on every pitch and hang on every run... they believed in the team and that's when we felt like, we truly have something here."
Even Vikings quarterback, Kirk Cousins, who attended Tuesday's game with his family, said he could feel something special in the air.
"Just the energy man," Cousins said when he was asked about the atmosphere at the game. "We got there a little bit late as Royce hit that first home run and the place just erupted and I was like, is this what US Bank is like when we hit a touchdown to Justin? This is great energy. I love this."
That's a feeling that never gets old.
"I mean, if you looked around the last two games, we had a younger demographic that was coming through the gates and that's really cool to see for us with a lot of people thinking that our sport is aging and our fanbase is aging, it's like, no, come and see... there's still a lot of young folks here," Hinkel said. "Especially in moments when the ballpark is full and is electrifying is really when you know you're making lifelong fans."
"It's just exciting to see happiness and joy and Minnesota having a winning team," Boes said. "And just for the future, to give us hope that we could be going to win that World Series. It's been a long time."
Watch more Breaking The News:
Watch all of the latest stories from Breaking The News in our YouTube playlist: