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During the Cleveland Cavaliers’ last playoff series with the Washington Bullets (I refuse to be politically correct and call them the Wizards), a Washington-area Papa John’s distributor handed out T-shirts that said “Crybaby 23″ in response to LeBron James’ comments about the hard fouls he had taken during that series (the shirts had Papa John’s on it as well). Since that (”Crybaby 23″) was not the official stance of the company, the distributor was dealt with. And the company’s stores in northern Ohio offered a special apology to its customers and residents…

One large, one-topping pizza for $0.23 (limit one per household) yesterday only.

People responded…in droves.

The average wait to order a pizza, by mid-afternoon, was 2 hours, and the wait in line to pick it up was in the 2-3 hour ballpark. The offer was limited to supplies on-hand, and locations began to close for the day when they ran out. At some locations, police had to step-in to maintain order, but no serious incidents were reported at any of the participating locations in Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Youngstown, Toledo, Columbus, Mansfield, and surrounding areas.

We considered it as a dinner option, but had no idea the line for these pizzas would be blocks long. Put all of that together, plus the fact that I got out of work about 8:30 last night and had to get up early this morning, and we decided to pass. Even if, I think we still would have passed. Papa John’s isn’t the worst pizza out there, but you can do better.

One thing I do disagree with, however, is the fact that, in some areas, police had to be called in to maintain order. I thought the police were to protect and serve, not to waste time at “Pizzapaloo.” I’m not criticizing the police…I’m criticizing the marketing of Papa John’s. All this could have easily been avoided.

It’s simple…put a coupon for a free (or $0.23) cheese pizza in the Sunday papers in the communities that have participating pizza shops (of course, any toppings available at menu price). Make the coupon good for the month. There…you have made your apology, allowed the police to do their jobs (protecting and serving the community), and allowed people to get their pizza in relatively short order, and in an orderly fashion. But then again, I guess that would be too costly and too much work…

But so was yesterday’s debacle…