Cubs’ Ian Happ answers a young fan’s wish by taking selfie with a cutout in KC
As a baseball-crazed 7-year-old living in Iowa, Luke Fynaardt was delighted to meet Chicago Cubs players a couple of years ago at the team’s annual convention.
Cubs infielder/outfielder Ian Happ quickly became Fynaardt’s favorite player. Fynaardt wrote Happ a letter before last season, and was excited for the chance to see Happ play for the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate in Des Moines.
Happ was signing autographs for the I-Cubs fans, and Fynaardt was in line to snag his hero’s autograph.
When he got to Fynaardt, Happ paused and asked, “Didn’t I meet you at Cubs convention?”
Fynaardt was thrilled to be remembered by a Major League Baseball player and, well, no matter the age, what fan wouldn’t be?
With the COVID-19 pandemic keeping stadiums empty this season, Fynaardt wasn’t going to have an opportunity to see Happ play. But Fynaardt’s parents did the next best thing. They got a photo of Fynaardt in the stands at one of Happ’s games.
While the Cubs didn’t do it at Wrigley Field, the Royals placed plastic cutouts of fans in the stands at Kauffman Stadium.
“We have been to Royals games before and were planning on attending one this year when COVID hit, and the Royals sent out an email allowing fans to buy one (cutout),” Fynaardt’s mom, Erin, wrote in a message to The Star. “Luke’s picture was accepted for one and we got an email a couple of weeks ago on where it was located. We live in Iowa so we have plenty of teams we can cheer for and after the Cubs the Royals are our next favorite team. We also saw it as an opportunity for Luke to get to ‘see’ Ian play in person.”
The cutout of Luke is in section 138, Row D, Seat 9 behind the dugout suites on the first-base line.
With the Cubs playing two games at Kauffman Stadium this week, Erin Fynaardt tweeted a message to Happ about the cutout:
On Thursday afternoon, Happ stepped into the stands at Kauffman Stadium and snapped a photo with Luke:
Social media is often a cesspool of negativity, but in this instance it brought joy to a young baseball fan.
“He was,” Erin Fynaardt wrote, “super excited!”
This story was originally published August 7, 2020 at 9:44 AM.
