recruiting website.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI brought this thing to life a month ago and it\u2019s taken off,\u201d said Kyle Smeallie, who described himself as the lead organizer. \u201cIt\u2019s been incredible the reception it\u2019s gotten, not just in San Francisco but around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s easy to spot the group at the Giants\u2019 waterfront ballpark. It tries to organize trips to Giants games together, and once inside the ballpark, it routinely breaks out in chants in support of Lee whenever he steps on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know of them,\u201d Lee said through interpreter Joe Han. \u201cI knew that they were going to come to the game (Tuesday). They\u2019re a big motivation for me to play every day and put my best effort out there on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuesday’s game was Korean Night at Oracle, and the Hoo Lee Gans came prepared with a scripted Korean fight song. Lee signed autographs before the game and posed for pictures with fans behind the batting cage, flashing a smile that’s become familiar to Giants fans.<\/p>\n
In the ninth inning, Lee brought the Hoo Lee Gans and rest of the crowd to their feet with a towering two-run home run.<\/p>\n
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The buzz around Lee harkens to a golden era of Giants baseball that included three World Series titles from 2010-14. Panda hats \u2014 an ode to fan favorite Pablo \u201cKung Fu Panda\u201d Sandoval \u2014 were the hot item then, along with jerseys for stars like Tim Lincecum, Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner and others.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Hoo Lee Gans are a group of die-hard Giants fans who love the city, they love the Giants and they love their favorite player, Jung Hoo Lee,\u201d Smeallie said. \u201cIt reminds us of the dynasty era. We had so many characters on (those teams), it was so much fun to watch. They had a great clubhouse spirit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think Jung Hoo Lee is a big part of that this season. It\u2019s why we\u2019ve been playing so well. He really brings people together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Giants play in baseball’s toughest division, led by the reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers, but they’re off to a surprising 25-18 start, just 2 1\/2 games behind first-place LA, in part because of Lee’s emergence.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI saw it some in San Diego with (Korean player) Ha-seong Kim, too, so he\u2019s being embraced the same way,\u201d said Giants manager Bob Melvin, who previously managed the Padres. \u201cOn top of that, he\u2019s a premier player. It\u2019s really cool to see each and every day the support that he gets here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smeallie initially wanted to put the fan club together during the 2024 season, but Lee suffered a season-ending injury early in the year, before the Hoo Lee Gans got off the ground. There is another section in the outfield bleachers reserved for the Giants-sponsored Jung Hoo Crew. Fans can purchase tickets to the section during weekend home games and receive an orange shirt with Lee\u2019s likeness on the front.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe plays with a joy and excitement that I think we all resonate with,\u201d Smeallie said. \u201cHe loves the game, he loves the Giants and so do we.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of Lee’s fans in Korea have reached out to the Hoo Lee Gans to voice their support. The fan group frequently refers to Lee as \u201cGrandson of the Wind,\u201d a nickname that’s carried over from Korea. Lee’s father, Jong Beom Lee, was a speedy star in the Korean Baseball Organization known as \u201cSon of the Wind.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe has a lineage of baseball greatness in Korea,\u201d Smeallie said. \u201cThe way that his father played and the way that he plays, so many people have been fans for many, many years. They\u2019ve reached out to us to say how much it means that we\u2019ve embraced him as one of our own.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/MLB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO (AP) \u2014 Jung Hoo Lee has sparked something special with San Francisco Giants fans \u2014 we’re…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,6595,162,633,10881,10880,375,57,10883,4,43,137,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342,10882],"class_list":{"0":"post-26865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-buster-posey","10":"tag-giants","11":"tag-ha-seong-kim","12":"tag-hoo-lee-gans","13":"tag-jong-beom-lee","14":"tag-jung-hoo-lee","15":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","16":"tag-madison-bumgarner","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-padres","19":"tag-san-diego","20":"tag-san-francisco","21":"tag-san-francisco-giants","22":"tag-sanfrancisco","23":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","24":"tag-sf","25":"tag-sf-giants","26":"tag-sfgiants","27":"tag-tim-lincecum"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114507598118908228","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}