Kansas City Royals superfan SungWoo Lee may be back in South Korea, but his name continues to make a splash in Kansas City.
Before he left, Lee wanted to thank to Kansas City for showing him a good time.
“His first idea was to raise money to re-sign Billy Butler to the Royals,” said Chris Kamler, the man behind the Twitter handle @TheFakeNed. “We kind of talked about that and it might not be a plausible idea.”
Instead, Lee is loaning Kamler his likeness on a t-shirt to raise money for Butler’s Hit-A-Ton Foundation and the Bishop Sullivan Center.
The first batch went to Zarda Bar-B-Q locations around the metro on Aug. 23. They were an instant hit.
“I knew there was a little bit of demand for them, but I didn't think we'd sell 100 of them in a day,” Kamler said.
This week, Freestyle Graphics printed 200 more t-shirts and they are now available at the Zarda restaurants on 7 Highway in Blue Springs and 87th Street in Lenexa.
They are $15 each or $19 for a shirt and a bottle of Butler’s BBQ sauce.
Kamler said Lee’s impact on Kansas City is incredibly positive and that’s why people are still crazy about him.
“It's remembering what it's like to be a true fan and that's what SungWoo is and continues to be,” he said. “This is a baseball town and he's a true baseball guy and I think it took a guy like SungWoo to come into town and remind us of that.”
Kamler said there are plans to make the t-shirts available online, as well.
