01/26: Met Johnny Damon
Posted by: Patrick
I briefly met Johnny Damon at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida last week. He made a scheduled appearance at the Puma booth. He was about 45 minutes late, if I recall, but my brother, Sean, and I were like the 6th and 7th people in line (after a couple of people felt they needed to cut, of course).
The Puma people didn't really think the whole thing through because they had a closed booth. Most of the booths at the PGA Show you can simply walk into easily. But, this one was closed at all sides with a relatively small entrance at the front. You can just walk right in, if you want, but it's not as inviting as most other booths. They do this to limit casual browsers, I'm sure and try to make it so that the people who go in are people who really want to buy Puma products for their golf club/organization.
We got there about 45 minutes early (scheduled for 4:00 PM) and got in line once someone else started one. And the line got longer... and longer... and longer. It was quite long when Johnny arrived. I don't think the Puma people expected this. I think they wanted it to be a sort of VIP event for people who were going to most likely buy Puma products - not the average Joe. They had some sort of deal with Nintendo where they had a Wii set up inside and, hours before it had set up, one of the Puma representatives had said that it would be an informal meet and greet with Johnny playing the Wii, etc.
But, if a VIP only event is what they wanted to do, they didn't do it as they should have because they listed him in the official expo publications (magazines, websites, etc.) as a celebrity appearance. If you do that, it's open to everyone, really. If you want it to be VIP only, you tell your VIPs directly and hand out invite passes during the day to come back later and meet Johnny. You don't advertise it. While they were generally nice and accommodating, I got the feeling that it didn't go exactly as they had dreamed. Still, it went well and it was cool to meet him.
Since it was a closed space, they only let a certain number of people in at a time. Maybe 20 or so. My brother and I went in with the first group. We spotted Johnny talking to some reporter or something and then spotted someone who was in line ahead of us talking to him, giving me an idea of where we needed to go to meet him. So, we waited a second and then walked right up to him. There were a lot of people waiting, so it was a quick thing, maybe a minute tops. We just shook his hand, introduced ourselves and said that we were big Yankees fans and got his autograph (plus one for my little brother who went home early). He was glad to sign the extra one, thanked us for coming out and seemed like a really nice guy. His attention was then called to by someone else. We were going to try to get a picture, but I didn't want to take up any more of his time with a line like that. Though I didn't study him by any means, he did appear to be in good shape which can only mean good things for us this season.
(While walking the floor, I also spotted Scottie Pippen and we met John Barmon, the actor that played Spaulding Smails in the classic movie, Caddyshack. Very nice man, as well).
The Puma people didn't really think the whole thing through because they had a closed booth. Most of the booths at the PGA Show you can simply walk into easily. But, this one was closed at all sides with a relatively small entrance at the front. You can just walk right in, if you want, but it's not as inviting as most other booths. They do this to limit casual browsers, I'm sure and try to make it so that the people who go in are people who really want to buy Puma products for their golf club/organization.
We got there about 45 minutes early (scheduled for 4:00 PM) and got in line once someone else started one. And the line got longer... and longer... and longer. It was quite long when Johnny arrived. I don't think the Puma people expected this. I think they wanted it to be a sort of VIP event for people who were going to most likely buy Puma products - not the average Joe. They had some sort of deal with Nintendo where they had a Wii set up inside and, hours before it had set up, one of the Puma representatives had said that it would be an informal meet and greet with Johnny playing the Wii, etc.
But, if a VIP only event is what they wanted to do, they didn't do it as they should have because they listed him in the official expo publications (magazines, websites, etc.) as a celebrity appearance. If you do that, it's open to everyone, really. If you want it to be VIP only, you tell your VIPs directly and hand out invite passes during the day to come back later and meet Johnny. You don't advertise it. While they were generally nice and accommodating, I got the feeling that it didn't go exactly as they had dreamed. Still, it went well and it was cool to meet him.
Since it was a closed space, they only let a certain number of people in at a time. Maybe 20 or so. My brother and I went in with the first group. We spotted Johnny talking to some reporter or something and then spotted someone who was in line ahead of us talking to him, giving me an idea of where we needed to go to meet him. So, we waited a second and then walked right up to him. There were a lot of people waiting, so it was a quick thing, maybe a minute tops. We just shook his hand, introduced ourselves and said that we were big Yankees fans and got his autograph (plus one for my little brother who went home early). He was glad to sign the extra one, thanked us for coming out and seemed like a really nice guy. His attention was then called to by someone else. We were going to try to get a picture, but I didn't want to take up any more of his time with a line like that. Though I didn't study him by any means, he did appear to be in good shape which can only mean good things for us this season.
(While walking the floor, I also spotted Scottie Pippen and we met John Barmon, the actor that played Spaulding Smails in the classic movie, Caddyshack. Very nice man, as well).
Ran wrote: