Pinch-Hit Idea Is Winner Last summer, Dave Vener supplied 130,000 trifold schedules to a professional, AAA-league baseball team. The 4-color schedules, which folded to a 2 1/4-inch square, included a list of the team's home and away games, information about its stadium, photos of key players and more. Retailers, convenience stores and gas stations placed the schedules on their counters for customers to pick up. The schedules looked great, but there was a problem. "Stores were just placing them on the counter, sometimes in rubber bands," says Vener, owner of Impress Printing & Graphics, a distributorship in Albany, N.Y. "It didn't look professional, and people weren't taking them." Vener suggested a solution--a mini-box to hold the schedules. The graphic artist at Impress Printing & Graphics designed a 2 3/4-inch square box on 120# C2S stock. The 4-color boxes were imprinted with the baseball team's name and logo, and photos of players and the mascot. Stores placed the schedules inside the boxes, and set the boxes on their counters. The boxes were open at the top and die cut in an arrow shape part way down the front, making it easy for people to take a schedule. They also featured 1 1/2-inch flaps sticking up from the top back that read, "Free: Take One." The boxes were a hit last summer--for the baseball team and Impress Printing & Graphics. The distributorship included "Printed by Impress Printing & Graphics" and its web site address and phone number on the bottom of the boxes. "We've had other teams pick them up and call us," Vener says. The distributorship since has provided schedules and mini-boxes for three other baseball teams and a hockey team.