With the All-Star break in baseball coming during the week of July 8th it is always interesting to look back at the beginning of the season and review what has happened. Could 2012 be a year for the record books? Only three months into the season and there?ve already been some amazing feats. It even has sports writers pondering whether more history will be made and how soon. So, it was no surprise that June should close out with another statistic making event in Aaron Hill’s 2nd cycle hitting game in the same month.
Think about it. There has been two perfect games, one by the unexpected Phil Humber and the last by Matt Cain. Cain’s pitching dominance was more probable given his previous record, but it was no less impressive because of his record tying strikeout performance (14 in the game, same as Dodger great Sandy Koufax). And, we have had five no-hit games this season including the two perfect games, with the last three coming within a 13-day period.
So, as some sports writers are talking about the increase in pitcher dominance, up comes Mr. Hill of the Arizona Diamondbacks. But the last time anyone ever hit the cycle in the same month was back in 1883. Of course, everyone must remember that all time great John Reilly of the Cincinnati Red Stockings! No, well thanks to the magic of the Internet, we do now. In fact, with the advent of the search tools, we can find all kinds of interesting pieces of information about the game. For instance, Aaron is one of only four people to hit a single, double, triple and home run in the same game twice in a season. And the last guy to do it before him was Babe Herman of the Brooklyn Robins in 1931, and before him was Tip O’Neill of the St. Louis Browns in 1887. If you don’t recognize these teams, we now know them by other names. The Robins are the Dodgers, who only used that name from 1914 to 1931. The Browns are now the Baltimore Orioles and the Red Stockings shortened their name to the Reds. But back to the records, this could be the year that baseball re-ignites statistics back into the minds of the fans.
Uniqueness is the key to records. Not everyone can accomplish doing something that only few people have achieved, as we have seen this year. In fact, even some of the greatest hitters, Barry Bonds, Tony Gwynn, Willie Mays, Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, are among those who never did it even once in their careers. That is a relationship we see to our business. Besides providing product to several of the teams in Major League Baseball, our business is based on the premise of providing the unique items which companies use to promote themselves to their fan” base. Being able to provide a wealth of products customization to make it your own extraordinary service to get it to you on time and doing this at a tremendous price is how we bat our “cycle”.
