Ball's there before the runner

Flash back to Detroit a couple of weeks ago, and a drama played out in the public eye in which everyone involved acted with a grace that we could all learn something from.

I’ve aways been a baseball lover,  and baseball lovers know the only thing more unlikely than a perfect game is the unassisted triple play and hitting 4 home runs in 1 game. Well by now I’m sure that you are all familiar with the near perfect “perfect” game pitched by Armando Galarrga of the Detroit Tigers  a couple of weeks ago. Galarrga had laid down 26 straight batters, and on the 27th (the fewest number of batters that can be faced in a 9 inning game) umpire Jim Joyce blew the call. Right on national TV, in front of the whole country he made what was an obvious mistake, the ball got to the first baseman’s glove ahead of the batter . Now lets put this in perceptive, what Galarrga would have accomplished has been done only 20 times since the turn of the last century (thats 1900, not 2000!). It’s an honor bestowed on very few people and would have put him in the record books and possibly a trip to Cooperstown, the Baseball hall of fame. But a simple human error wiped it out, and unfortunately it can’t be turned back.

My first reaction was frustration and anger. I listened to Marty Brenneman (the Reds play by play announcer) describe what a blatantly bad call it was and what it cost this poor kid, and I could not help but to co-miserate with him. It does not help that I’m not a big fan of Jim Joyce either, especially after I watched him call 2 balls that should have been strikes (in my opinion) and cost David Weathers & the Reds a game against the Brewers a few years back. I remember him defiantly looking down at Weathers as if to say “question me and your outa here!”.

Galarraga put's a hand on Joyce's shoulder

So I was shocked when I heard that Joyce was in tears after the game saying “I just cost that kid a perfect game”. Joyce said he realized it after going to the umpires room and watching the replay. “I’m not sure what to say right now other than that probably was the most important call of my career, and I missed it”, going on to say “Nothing like this has ever happened to me, and I don’t know what to say”. Wow, it’s brings a new respect for somebody when they are human enough to fess up and say they made a mistake. Equally as powerful was Galarraga’s graceful reply regarding Joyce, that he’s human and everybody makes mistakes. According to Galarraga, I then gave Joyce a hug and said “I think he feels worse that I do”. The next day, Joyce and Galarraga met at Home plate as Tiger fans cheered. Joyce was visibly moved by the pitchers grace as well as the crowds.

So, what’s so powerful about this whole drama? You have something big, a perfect game could commercially make Galarraga a wealthy man with future contract negotiations, not to say the record books. And it will put Jim Joyce up there with Bill Buckner on the biggest “should have been the last out of the game” list. But it was incredible to see Galarraga shake it off, give Joyce a hug and move on. Could you imagine if our politicians, our leaders, our coworkers (even BP), along with you and I had that type of grace . Just be honest, admit mistakes and move on….There’s not enough of that in the world today.

Fast forward back to reality. We live in a world full of litigation, finger-pointing and and more complex issues than ever imagined back in the “good ole days”, but for just a moment, to watch this drama play out in front of all of us was remarkable thing.

The world of Ad Specialties has grown over the last couple of years, and I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon. Ad Specialties (sometimes called Promotional Products) are a great way to keep your company’s products and services top-of-mind with your customers and prospects. I’m sure you are familiar with Ad Specialties products – things like pens, coffee mugs, shirts and so on – all with your company’s logo on them. They make great giveaways, or you can even make all of your employees into walking billboards. Either way it keeps your message in front of your intended audience for a long time.

So let’s talk about the business of Ad Specialties, and how easy it’s gotten to put your logo on almost anything. Believe it or not, the easy part is putting your logo on something, the tough part is being creative and figuring out what you want. To make your ideas come a little easier, we’ve added a Promotional Items Search Engine to our website called My GiveAways, and it has access to almost any promotional item on the market. You just key in what you are searching for and what price range you want it in and chances are good that you will find something.

If you don’t see what you are looking for, just call us and we can do some brainstorming. Plus, we have more comprehensive search capabilities here at the shop. My GiveAways is part of the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) community, where we have access to thousands of members for a full range of items. This tool also provides satisfaction ratings for all vendors, so we can make sure you’ll be happy with all aspects of your purchase. From there we can produce a mock-up of the item with your logo on it, and request a sample from the manufacturer. Just like printing, it’s important to know what you are going to get before we actually say OK to the order.

One of the great things of dealing with a printing company like us for your Ad Specialties, is that we understand logos and the file formats they come in. And, chances are good if you are a customer that we deal with on a regular basis, we probably have your logo. If not, we can work together to figure out what we need to do to get or create you logo (we are very good at that also).

The time is right to make that move and give your company more visibility (your competition probably is already doing it). Check out My GiveAways or give us a call and let’s talk about how Ad Specialties could supplement your 2010 marketing plan.

What is it that we are the best in the world at? In today’s world of printing, that’s easy to forget. First off, the Printing & Graphics market  has changed and is changing so quickly still that the way we did things 10 years ago has no resemblance to the way our shop runs today. I’ve said before that we are very lucky; we’ve had the opportunity to invest in modern equipment and workflows plus we’ve hired forward thinking people. That changes a lot, because I think we get it.

Second off, the world and market we all live in changed drastically last year. All of a sudden small runs, variable data, full color are the hot items, and the big burdensome print runs are not so hot. Nobody wants to order a large inventory of items and keep them on a shelf just to get the price down. They don’t have to, the digital revolution changed all of that. Order just what you need and make changes to your printed copy when something changes. Design something once and repurpose it to print, the web, all kinds of digital media and any other places you brand your self. I get excited about all the different technology we have at our fingertips now. I just forget that since I work in the middle of this industry, its all around me. We need to help our customers understand what they can do to think differently about printing and save some money.

So my goal this year is to talk and blog more. I have a lot to say (a lot of hot air I’m told) about the way things have been done and better ways of doing them that save money & time. I know some people probably don’t want to hear it, because they make money doing things the way they have always been done. Remember the commercial 1984, lets break down some of these old walls and embrace the change for the better…It’s a new decade!