No-hitter free furniture deal making insurance company nervous

You know the pitch from Jordan’s Furniture: If the Red Sox pitch a no-hitter, you get your furniture for free. But this year there are a few factors that may increase your chances, and that is making some people a little nervous. “There is going to be over $100 million on this if it happens, over $100 million is going back to the public,” said Jordan’s CEO Eliot Tatelman. Tatelman, a familiar face in Boston, is a die-hard Red Sox fan who has run promotions with the team for years. This year’s deal is if you buy furniture before next Sunday and a Red Sox pitcher tosses a no-hitter between Aug. 3 and Oct. 3, the furniture comes at no cost for the customer. “We want people to get free furniture. We want this to happen,” Tatelman said. And it very well could happen because this season there has already been four no-hitters in the majors. Batting averages are at an all-time low while strikeouts are at an all-time high. “The people who are nervous are the insurance company that I buy the policy from. They’re calling me saying, ‘Don’t you think we should stop the promotion?’ I go, ‘No, we’re going to keep this going,’” Tatelman said. One curveball people have to be aware of is that doubleheaders have been reduced to only seven innings, and MLB has determined that a no-hitter can’t be official unless it goes the traditional nine innings. “There had to be some form of saying it’s a no-hitter or not and that’s Major League Baseball. So, if Major League Baseball says it’s a no-hitter, your furniture is free,” Tatelman said. In the 14 years that Jordan’s has had similar promotions, it only had to pay out once in 2007 when the Red Sox won the World Series. Customers walked away with about $30 million in free furniture.