Championship Blood has been printed in China

Posted on January 20, 2015

Ivy from Artron holds a proof of the cover of Championship Blood at Artron’s Shenzhen plant in Shenzhen, China on January 14, 2015. (Photo by Iain Morris/Cameron + Company)

 

Last month I wrote about the upcoming book that co-author Brian Murphy and myself have coming out in April about the 2014 World Series Champion San Francisco Giants. We worked like crazy on the project with our awesome publisher Cameron + Company from the final out of the Series in Kansas City up until a few days before Christmas when the digital files were sent of to China for printing. Last week I felt like all of us gave birth, albeit from over 6,900 miles away, as pages from Championship Blood rolled off the presses at Artron in Shenzhen, China.

The big exciting news for our team last week was not just that our book was being printed, it was the fact that our brilliant designer Iain Morris from Cameron + Company was flying to China to oversee the project! I was thrilled when I heard this news. Having Iain there meant that we could all relax knowing that by the time we saw a hand-bound copy of the book in a few weeks it would look fabulous. There are few people in this world I trust as much as Iain when it comes to art and design. Having our tall British friend in China meant we could sleep well at night knowing that the colors in my photographs would turn out great on the printed pages, and we would get daily updates of pictures to see the progress.

I wanted to get some feedback on the entire process from our publisher Chris Gruener. “We are proud to be partnering with Artron on the printing of our beautiful new Giants book, Championship Blood. Artron is the printer of choice for many high end luxury brands throughout the world, and their printing quality and capabilities are state-of-the-art within the industry. Having our creative director, Iain Morris, oversee the printing of this important book at Artron’s Shenzhen plant affords us the confidence to know that the finished product is sure to wow us all,” Gruener said.

Beginning on Monday night, January 12, we started getting emails from Iain with pictures of the first pages being printed. It was already Tuesday, January 13 on the other side of the world and it was very surreal to see what was going on about an hour north of Hong Kong as we were all watching Ohio State beat Oregon on television. We had some funny email exchanges going on back and forth between us, and of course my co-author Murph was leading the way.

“Are they wondering where the photos of Dan Uggla are??”

“Are they watching the College Football Playoff and wondering how Ohio State can turn it over four times and still be winning??” Murphy wrote.

I was driving Iain nuts. I wanted more pictures. More! More! I couldn’t get enough. On Tuesday night it was more of the same, and they even started printing the cover! Oh man was that thrilling!

Murph couldn’t handle the excitement much longer. He fired off a funny email response to Iain after we received an image of the cover.

“Shit, the book’s done!”

“Grab some cheap Nike/Old Navy gear straight from the factory and head on home!!” Murphy wrote.

Even though he had to cram his 6′ 5″ frame into a coach seat for the 15 hour flight to Hong Kong our friend Iain came home last night a conquering hero. He did an amazing job making sure our book stayed on schedule and that our quality goals were met. We should see a hand bound copy very soon and get a few real copies of the book before March 1. The official release date is April 1, and Murph and I are already starting to book many fun book events all over the Bay Area to promote Championship Blood and meet enthusiastic Giants fans.

This book is really going to be special. I promise you. Thanks to Chris and Iain and the adventure to China I am more sure now than ever. Come look for me in Scottsdale at spring training. I might be able to give you a little sneak preview at the Italian Grotto.