TRIPLE PLAY, INC Triple Play, Inc. was established in 1982 by Randy Cleaver, Jim "Bluefish" Johnson, and Willie Lloyd, all ex-major league baseball players who were interested in offering quality baseball mitts at affordable prices. These players felt that, at the time, baseball glove manufacturers did not have a good sense of what the player needed in a baseball glove. They felt that they could gain a large portion of the market share by using their marketable names and having confidence in producing quality products. During their years as professional baseball players, these men established a large network of acquaintances through many avenues. They had good reputations with their coaches and management, minor league farm systems, and also little league baseball players as a result of the various baseball clinics they ran during their careers. Operations commenced in 1982 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania under complete supervision of Johnson, yet all three were close friends and agreed upon becoming business partners directly after retirement. They all had solid business backgrounds and considered success in business more challenging than success in baseball. During the first three years, Cleaver and Lloyd were still playing and agreed in written contract form to be sponsors for the gloves that were manufactured, allowing Johnson to market their names along with his on the palm of each glove. During this time, Johnson was busy solidifying the business and establishing working business relationships within the strong network he established as a player. In 1985. Cleaver retired and joined Johnson in the operations. They continued using Lloyd's name on the gloves until he retired in 1990. Cleaver and Johnson together set up contracts for 1l suppliers and were steadily improving the financial status of the company, increasing revenues from $600,000 on about 12,000 glove sales in 1982 to over $5 million in revenues on around 83,000 glove sales in 1985. Yet they were experiencing problems with their quality that they hadn't expected. Some of the suppliers were simply not producing the top-notch rawhide that they needed to use in their production process. After much discussion, Lloyd remembered something from his schooling at Harvard that gave them the much-needed insight to solve their problems. "Having 11 suppliers doesn't give you the opportunity to establish large contracts with suppliers that are essential to their business," Lloyd said. "Smaller contracts aren't necessary to their survival. Instead, we should be focused on having large contracts with a smaller amount suppliers. We will recognize the importance of every supplier and deal with them better and, in return, they will reward the large contract they have by making sure that uality is their number one priority." Lloyd was right. They reduced their suppliers to oly 5 in 1989 and have kept the same number since then. They currently receive their hide shipments from Joe's Leather, Jim's Leather, and Bob's Leather, all privately rawhide manufacturers in Pennsylvania, as well as from Chang Tao Meng's und (Raw) Hide and Dry, manufacturers of rawhide in China and Canada, ly. The shipments sent by (Raw) Hide and Dry are sent by train, while those Chang Tao Meng's Leather are sent by boat. Although transportation costs are of suppliers. We will re rawhide shipments owned rawhide man Leather and (Raw) H respectively. The ant from Chang Tao M TRIPLE PLAY, INC Triple Play, Inc. was established in 1982 by Randy Cleaver, Jim "Bluefish" Johnson, and Willie Lloyd, all ex-major league baseball players who were interested in offering quality baseball mitts at affordable prices. These players felt that, at the time, baseball glove manufacturers did not have a good sense of what the player needed in a baseball glove. They felt that they could gain a large portion of the market share by using their marketable names and having confidence in producing quality products. During their years as professional baseball players, these men established a large network of acquaintances through many avenues. They had good reputations with their coaches and management, minor league farm systems, and also little league baseball players as a result of the various baseball clinics they ran during their careers. Operations commenced in 1982 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania under complete supervision of Johnson, yet all three were close friends and agreed upon becoming business partners directly after retirement. They all had solid business backgrounds and considered success in business more challenging than success in baseball. During the first three years, Cleaver and Lloyd were still playing and agreed in written contract form to be sponsors for the gloves that were manufactured, allowing Johnson to market their names along with his on the palm of each glove. During this time, Johnson was busy solidifying the business and establishing working business relationships within the strong network he established as a player. In 1985. Cleaver retired and joined Johnson in the operations. They continued using Lloyd's name on the gloves until he retired in 1990. Cleaver and Johnson together set up contracts for 1l suppliers and were steadily improving the financial status of the company, increasing revenues from $600,000 on about 12,000 glove sales in 1982 to over $5 million in revenues on around 83,000 glove sales in 1985. Yet they were experiencing problems with their quality that they hadn't expected. Some of the suppliers were simply not producing the top-notch rawhide that they needed to use in their production process. After much discussion, Lloyd remembered something from his schooling at Harvard that gave them the much-needed insight to solve their problems. "Having 11 suppliers doesn't give you the opportunity to establish large contracts with suppliers that are essential to their business," Lloyd said. "Smaller contracts aren't necessary to their survival. Instead, we should be focused on having large contracts with a smaller amount suppliers. We will recognize the importance of every supplier and deal with them better and, in return, they will reward the large contract they have by making sure that uality is their number one priority." Lloyd was right. They reduced their suppliers to oly 5 in 1989 and have kept the same number since then. They currently receive their hide shipments from Joe's Leather, Jim's Leather, and Bob's Leather, all privately rawhide manufacturers in Pennsylvania, as well as from Chang Tao Meng's und (Raw) Hide and Dry, manufacturers of rawhide in China and Canada, ly. The shipments sent by (Raw) Hide and Dry are sent by train, while those Chang Tao Meng's Leather are sent by boat. Although transportation costs are of suppliers. We will re rawhide shipments owned rawhide man Leather and (Raw) H respectively. The ant from Chang Tao M