Korean Superfan Helps Propel Kansas City Royals to the World Series
Via the Marmot’s Hole comes this interesting story about a Korean superfan who has become the face of the fanbase for the Kansas City Royals baseball team that will take on the San Francisco Giants in the World Series:
The Irish have the Blarney Stone, the Chinese rub Buddha’s belly and the Kansas City Royals have Lee Sung-woo.
They have who, what, huh?
Okay, so the story goes that in the middle of the American major league baseball season the Kansas City Royals were just an average team in a small market with average talent, having yet another ho-hum average season in their bland 45 year history (playoff-less in the last 28 of those 45 years). That was until a foreigner named Sung-woo Lee from far away South Korea came on the scene. Through social media, Sung-woo was a regular fixture on Royals’ fan sites and blogs and exhorted Royals’ fans to persevere, which helped to inject much needed enthusiasm into the traditional fan base. Interestingly enough, Sung-woo’s online participation started as an attempt to learn English by consistently conversing with American baseball fans. [Marmot’s Hole]
You can read more at the Marmot’s Hole link, but if they win the World Series this is a Disney feel good story in the making. In fact a filmmaker is already making a movie about Lee:
That would be OK, but… what if SungWoo could come back for the World Series in Kansas City?
It appears to be happening. Due to a viral effort by bloggers and a filmmaker named Josh Swade – who is in Korea right now — wants to document the story, several people close to the situation are reporting that Lee will be returning for the first Fall Classic in Kansas City since 1985. Andy McCullough in the Kansas City Star reports that Swade is talking with Lee’s employer in South Korea to make it possible for him to get away. Announcements have been made elsewhere. [Yahoo Sports]
Guess who's coming to game 1?! #SungWooSeries @30for30 @Royals @MLB pic.twitter.com/lKiofQKFr7
— Josh Swade (@JoshSwade) October 17, 2014
You can read more at the link, but what an incredible story.
Check him for Ebola and make him pay for it. While you’re at it, check him for AIDS, drugs, and alcoholism.
I’m a big Royals fan(ever since 1976) and when Sungwoo came to KC in August they immediately went on a 10 game winning streak. They definitely gave him the Royal treatment while he was in KC. They took him to a minor league affiliated team in Arkansas, they showed him the Negro League museum, he held up the “W” after one of those ten wins, he was everywhere in KC and he gets a lot of the credit for the Royals making the playoffs and now the World Series!