Ford truck honors Royals’ World Series win

Kansas City Royals fan Marc Lassalle sent an email last year to Ford Motor Co. in Detroit, suggesting a limited-edition vehicle honoring the team’s 2015 World Series championship.

He got a response saying the automaker would think about it. Then another email came. And another.

And then he got an invitation to join Ford executives Tuesday afternoon at the Kansas City Assembly Plant for the introduction of a limited-edition Ford F-150 XLT pickup — offered in Royals’ blue or white to only 300 buyers.

“This is like Christmas Eve,” Lassalle, 46, an Olathe resident and association director for the Mechanical Contractors Association, said Monday. “One little email. See what it can do?”

Some Midwest Ford dealers already are advertising the truck model with sticker prices in the mid $40,000s and up, depending on options.

The vehicle, made at the Claycomo plant, offers special MVP badging, polished stainless rocker panels and a spray-in bedliner accessorized by Ford’s custom outfitters in the Hunt Midwest SubTropolis underground business complex.

Ford officials said 60 percent of the limited-edition trucks are painted in “flame blue” and 40 percent in “Oxford white.” When they’re sold, the run is done.

The 2016 Royals limited-edition truck follows a 1986 Ford Ranger special edition that was built to honor the 1985 team’s world championship. Former Royals pitcher Bret Saberhagen, the 1985 World Series most valuable player, helped Ford roll out the new model on Tuesday.

Salvador Perez, the 2016 World Series MVP, is in spring training in Arizona and was unable to attend the event at the plant.

Saberhagen and Perez have been featured in Ford commercials. Saberhagen’s limited-edition truck got a dose of repeat publicity in October when his amusing “rappin’ and dancin’ ” commercial from the 1980s was aired on Jimmy Fallon’s late night show and Saberhagen returned to do a live spoof.

The Midwest Ford dealers have renewed a sponsorship agreement with the Royals for 2016.

This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 4:00 AM with the headline "Ford truck honors Royals’ World Series win."