Well, that was fast. Last week, just hours after the Chicago Sun-Times published a story on that bootleg racist Fukudome t-shirt for sale near Wrigley Field, Cubs officials put a stop to the production and sale of the shirt: Cubs pull Fukudome shirt after Sun-Times report.
The Cubs front office was apparently flooded with angry emails from fans in response to the story, compelling officials to investigate and track down the vendor selling the shirt. Mark Kolbusz, who runs the souvenir trailer that sold the shirt, said it was his top selling shirt this season, but complied with the team’s demand to pull the shirt and cease production. I wonder how many shirts he actually ended up selling?
I'm sure that was a pretty easy decision for the Cubs—the shirt was an unlicensed product, using a trademarked Cubs logo. It's not like the Cubs were making any money off its sale, and they sure as hell weren't going to let anyone else profit from it, especially if it was going to generate this kind of negative response.
It's good to know that people spoke up about this. Of course, the existing shirts are out there. The damn things have probably become collectors' items or something now. Hopefully somebody can come up with a cooler shirt that actually celebrates Fukudome, rather than mocking him.
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