SAN FRANCISCO -- The idea came to Kyle Smeallie when he was attending an early season Giants game at Oracle Park last year. Sitting among a group of self-described “word nerds” and crossword-puzzle enthusiasts, Smeallie and his friends started to throw around baseball-related puns for fun. Most of them were forgettable. But one of them felt like it had potential. “Somebody was like, ‘What about like the soccer thing? Like, hooligans and Jung Hoo Lee,’” Smeallie recalled. “We can do the ‘Hoo Lee Gans.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, that's good. I think that one might have legs.’” Smeallie, 38, decided to run with it, though he never could have predicted just how far the idea would take off. Lee’s season-ending left shoulder injury put initial plans to attend a game on hold last year, but Smeallie decided to revisit the concept when the Giants’ center fielder began breaking out after returning to action in 2025.
An organizer at heart, Smeallie -- who works as the policy director for the San Francisco Community Land Trust, a non-profit organization that aims to create permanent affordable housing for low- to moderate-income city residents -- ordered custom “Hoo Lee Gans” T-shirts and fire wigs and invited 50 other people to join him in Section 325 for the Giants’ home game against the Reds on April 7.
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“I said, ‘Let's make this incredible visual,’” Smeallie said. “This is something that is a lot more common in places like Korea or Japan. Fan groups that have chants and they're all coordinated, and they look amazing. And I was like, ‘Let's do something similar to that.’ It seems like such a fun way to celebrate your team and your favorite player.” The Hoo Lee Gans, of course, ended up making waves, as they were frequently shown on the Oracle Park scoreboard and the television broadcast as they cheered on Lee, who delighted his newest fan club by making a pair of nice sliding catches in center field. “Jung Hoo Lee plays exactly how I want to play,” said Smeallie, an avid baseball fan who plays center field in his adult recreational league in San Francisco. “He plays with speed. He plays with a joy that's palpable. He's a great teammate. He just plays the game right. “I think he also brings just a different style of play that is unique and sort of like KBO-influenced. I think it's just a really cool mix. It seems like the Giants clubhouse right now has the vibes that are reminiscent of the dynasty era, with great characters. … There’s an energy with this team. At least in my mind, Jung Hoo Lee is the glue of that. I think it’s why the Giants are playing so well this year.” Smeallie went into the game thinking the stunt would be a one-off, but he realized he tapped into something when he started fielding interview requests from local, national and even Korean media outlets, which turned the Hoo Lee Gans into something of an international sensation. The outpouring of interest prompted him to create an official website and Instagram page to give other fans a way to connect and help grow the Hoo Lee Gans community. |
“It's such an amazing thing to cultivate,” Smeallie said. “Three weeks ago, this didn't exist. This was like four boxes of wigs and shirts in the back of my apartment, and now it's like a thing that has sparked international joy. That's so cool. It's amazing to be a part of.” While Smeallie kept the charter group of Hoo Lee Gans to 51 as a nod to Lee’s jersey number, that number is likely to swell when the group makes its next appearance at Oracle Park, which also has the Jung Hoo Crew in Section 142. Smeallie is still working on determining the next steps for the group, but he said he’s working with Giants officials to find a way for the two fan sections to co-exist and help keep the love for Lee flowing. “I think we've tapped into something really fun and really organic,” Smeallie said. “The Giants have their Jung Hoo Crew, which is amazing. We love that. We're doing something that's just sort of more from the fans themselves. I think it's something that we would love to grow in partnership with the Giants. “We want to create a community. We want to be just like a group of fans that love the team, that love the player. But on another level, we want to create a space for folks to be happy and joyous in a community together. Because I'm just speaking for myself, these are hard times for a lot of people. I think there's a desire to have a space where we can just be together for nine innings, we can look silly in wigs, and we can just be ourselves. I think that's partly why it's resonated the way it did.” |
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