Sunday may have been a long night for Mets fans, but it was even longer for employees of Horizon Screen Printing in Cape Girardeau.

The screen printer produced more than 4,000 black "Thanks, Kansas City" women's shirts overnight for the Royals' parade after winning the World Series.

"Most of us were up for 30-plus hours when it was all said and done," Horizon general manager Dru Reeves said.

Reeves said for the World Series, printers are contracted in both markets -- in this case, Kansas City and New York -- and when there is a winner, the printers in that market go to work, while those in the other market pack up and go home.

"So the old myth that there's little kids running around in third-world countries with New York Mets World Series shirts on is not true," Reeves said. "It never has happened that way."

A Kansas City Royals shirt printed by Horizon Screen Printing in cape Girardeau. (Glenn Landberg)

Reeves said other than ink and labor, everything needed to print the shirts is sent to the screen printers by VF Imagewear, including blank shirts, hologram stickers and boxes to return-ship unused shirts. The company is contracted to print for MLB, the NHL and the NFL.

Reeves said while Horizon was printing the women's parade shirts in Cape Girardeau, other screen printers in Kansas City and St. Louis were printing other designs for the Royals.

The first shirts came off the printer about 11:30 p.m. Sunday and the last about 8:30 a.m. Monday, Reeves said.

A truck came at 4 a.m. and another after printing was complete to transport the shirts to Kansas City.

All told, Horizon printed 4,320 shirts, or a little over 500 per hour.

Reeves said that run far outpaced their regular daily output.

"We print a lot of shirts, but as far as 4,000 shirts, that's probably what we print in a week," he said.

He said six employees were needed for the overnight printing: three to run the press, two to sort and fold the shirts and affix hologram stickers and one floater.

"VF was tickled pink. ... We were about 2 1/2 hours ahead of schedule even with getting a late start because of the extra innings," Reeves said. "It went great."

kwebster@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3646

Pertinent address:

430 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO