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Recently Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga pitched a perfect game only to have it taken away by the umpire who made a terrible call at first base. It was a horrible call and one the umpire has apologized for a hundred times. It was a bad mistake, what can you say he knows it and he’s only human. It’s part of the game.

However, even though this had all the makings of a classic YouTube/viral/hey-did-you-see-that moment. Galarraga was unfazed by the bad call and in his honor he was given a brand new 2010 Chevy Corvette for his effort. Later, the offending umpire broke down over his mistake—another video clip played and replayed. You might think the winner here is Galarraga, who’s now the poster boy for sportsmanship. And you’d be right.

But there’s another beneficiary of this wacky MLB situation: General Motors. The marketer racked up $8.9 million worth of exposure from last Thursday’s game through Sunday for that one gifted sports car, courtesy of the hashing and rehashing through media channels, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and every other form of communication far and wide. That’s the estimate from Joyce Julius & Associates, which calculates sponsorship value. GM sat out out last season but returned as a Detroit Tigers sponsor this year. Timing, as they say, is everything.

If all of us at Arrowsmith Shoes, and every other company in the world for that matter, were thinking we would have given Galarraga and the umpire a brand new pair of shoes or boots for the effort. Oh well, we’ll just have to wait for the next amazing moment to give away a free pair of shoes to a really cool guy!

Jim

The post Sorry about that Call. . . . But Here’s a Car! appeared first on Arrowsmith Shoes.