(KMOX) - It's not often that a St. Louis-area native appears in the World Series. But last year, there were two of them. Both on the same team.
Josh Fleming, 24, and Pete Fairbanks, 27, who graduated from Columbia High School (Illinois) and Webster Groves High School, respectively, were key pieces of the Tampa Bay Rays pitching staff in its run to the 2020 World Series. They also share the same agent, Aaron Elking, of Republik Sports, who came up with the idea to brand the pair as "#BestBudz" on social media.
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One of the most popular pics shared with "#BestBudz" is them posting for a photo and smoking celebratory cigars after a postseason victory.
They've got their own Instagram account, t-shirts depicting them as Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly in the "Step Brothers" movie poster and they're using it to help the St. Louis community.
Fleming wore one of the shirts before Game 4 of the 2020 World Series:
Proceeds from the shirts, hoodies, pants and stickers at TeeSpring.com are going to the Urban K-Life program in St. Louis, which provides mentoring, faith-based fellowship and group activities for local teens. They tell Tampa Bay Times writer Marc Topkin that Fairbanks wife has a college connection to the community program.
“We both thought that that was a really good program,” Fleming told the Times. “Just being able to donate some money to them, I think that’s what it’s all about for us. We just wanted to help out any way we could.”
The first check is set to go to Urban K-Life this month.
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