Happy New Year! As our Alice Goodwin 2010 Calendar
reminds us - 2009 is a thing of the past! However, hopefully you read our December 1st/2009 blog on what we felt were some of the best SGA bobbleheads offered up to fans attending 2009 Minor League games – and you know that we are awarding what we felt were the years BEST BOBBLEHEADS with our very own bobble awards.
If you're not familiar with The Bobblies, here you go!
Now, it’s time to end 2009 with a quick run down of what we liked from the BIG Leagues, as far as bobblehead giveaways go from this past year.
Once again we’ve pumped our list up to the highest level any Spinal Tap Marshall Stack could ever muster. Yes folks, this list - like all others we provide - goes up to eleven!
Clearly - The San Francisco Giants had some of the best MLB bobbles in 2009! It is obviously reflected in our list as SF Giants bobbleheads appear no less then three times! We would have seen them even more had we decided to rank the 1st MLB Tim Lincecum Bobblehead
, or any of the various Lou Seal Bobbleheads
the Giants gave out in 2009.
A few bobblehead downers we saw in 2009 were the Victor Martinez Bobblehead
handed out by the Cleveland Indians. There was nothing physically wrong with the appearance of the 2009 V-mart bobblehead, but the fact that the tribe had just traded Victor to the Red Sox at the trade deadline – made collecting the catchers bobble at the gates of Progressive Field the very next night a bitter pill to swallow.
We were also let down by the “actual size” of the 2009 Tampa Bay Rays Bobbleheads. The marketing folks at Tropicana Field selected some interesting players to immortalize in poly resin – but then made the likes of James Shields
, Scott Kazmir
, Carl Crawford
, and Dioner Navarro
all borderline mini bobbles?! This is just our opinion – but putting it blunt - mini bobbleheads…well…suck! We’d rather have a few less bobbles if it’s a cost thang. But make them at least 6” or taller.
Anyways – enough bobble grumbling! After all we shouldn’t be complaining when some teams like the Colorado Rockies, and the Kansas City Royals to name just a few – didn’t offer up ANY SGA bobbleheads
in 2009.
Here are a few teams that did – and the ones we particularly liked the BEST in 2009:
1) Frankie Rodriguez Bobblehead
- New York Mets 9/6/09
There is always room to debate why something was #1. But get a hold of a 2009 K-rod bobblehead– and you’ll have to agree – he exudes PURE ENERGY! Dropped down to one victorious knee, with his right fist pumped proudly in the air – and his jaw opened wider then a Peter Benchley novel, this bobblehead captured the Mets closer to a tee! In fact - we adored this SGA so much we intend on using the “Citi Kid” for our upcoming 2010 Bobblehead Daze Blog logo!
2) Manny Pacquiao Bobblehead
- San Francisco Giants 4/21/09
Pac man now owns more belts then Ex-Tiger Craig Monroe – and he never stole any of them! (Three years later – and we still find MLB players petty theft – pretty funny.) But now thanks to the San Francisco Giants, the famous Mexican boxer has himself a bobblehead. My wife thinks this one is a little bit on the creepy side – perhaps that’s why I like it so much!
3) Frank Howard Bobblehead - Washington Nationals 8/22/09
Long before there was Frank “Big Hurt” Thomas there was Frank “Hondo” Howard. This adjoining bobble to the current Nationals slugger Adam Dunn was a classy SGA that undoubtedly had Dads and Grand Dads throughout the D.C. area explaining how the 6’8” 275lb former Senators slugger use to punish the ball.
4) Josh Hamilton Bobblehead
- Texas Rangers 5/16/09
Josh Hamilton had a rough 2009 season mired with injuries. Although the tattooed turnaround story was mildly deflated last season – the Texas Rangers produced a sharp looking bobble head dollof the kid some refer to simply as “The Natural.”
5) Brian Wilson Bobblehead
- San Francisco Giants 7/12/09
This one’s for you Mr. Marinbach! As mentioned, the San Francisco Giants franchise put some thought into the designing of this year’s crop of bobblehead offerings. And they did a real nice job on “Lying in bed with Brian Wilson” who was yet another tatted up bobbleheadthat bared a terrific likeness to the player the promo was made after.
6) Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn Bobblehead
- Cleveland Indians 6/15/09
The Indians pay homage to one of baseballs better comedies, and most memorable characters - Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn - played exquisitely by a young Two and a Half Men star - Charlie Sheen.
7) Carlos Santana Bobblehead
- San Francisco Giants 8/25/09
The Giants complete a Bobblies Tri-fecta with this cool limited edition interactive bobblehead of legendary musician Carlos Santana. The musical bobble had select fans dancing to Oye Como all night long on Latino Heritage Night at At&T Park .
8) Ozzie Smith Bobblehead
- St. Louis Cardinals 10/2/09
A bobblehead of the Wizard of Oz posed standing upright would not have done the amazing defensive prowess of the former Cards star justice. Instead the Ozzie Smith bobbleheadcapped off a fantastic bobblehead season on October 2nd with a stretched out diving catch.
9) Paws Bobblehead
- Detroit Tigers 9/13/09 (Mascot)
There were not very many Major League Mascot Bobbleheads this past year – but the Tigers gave the kids something to cheer about with a long overdue bobblehead of Comerica Parks friendly Tiger Mascot – “Paws”.
10) Arnold Palmer Bobblehead
- Pittsburgh Pirates 9/8/09
Buccos fans had little to cheer about once again in 2009, with their 17th consecutive losing season – but a tip of the hat goes to the Pirates folk who did decide to release an attractive bobblehead of legendary professional golfer, & Pennsylvania native - Arnold Palmer that commemorated the 80th birthday of “The King.”
11) Cito Gaston Bobblehead
– Toronto Blue Jays - Flex Pack Ticket Package
An honorable mention goes to the Toronto Blue Jays for their neat “Then and Now” dual bobble of Cito Gaston(BTW…Making dual bobbles slightly smaller is okay – because you’re getting twice the fun!) Unfortunately, we couldn’t list the Cito Gaston bobblehead because it was ONLY given out to fans that purchased a special Flex Pack ticket package. Therefore it was technically not a Stadium Giveaway.
by Adam Forsyth
The other day I was going over the statistics of this season, in attempts to determine what I can do to make a push for the Fantasy League playoffs, when something sort of jumped out at me. With the real season at slowly climbing over the 100 games played mark, I recognized that there are an unusually high number of pitchers over the age of 26 that are experiencing their first taste of success.
This season has been an interesting one with many premiere SP disappointments (ah-hem…Cole Hamels, Francisco Liriano, Rich Harden, Carlos Zambrano, Scott Baker to name a few) and unfortunately for wide-eyed pre-season daydreamers, the list could go on and on. That isn’t even taking into consideration the always annoying injuries that derail any hopes of a successful campaign that tend to affect many managers long term plans. (see Brandon Webb, Jake Peavy, John Lackey, Scott Kazmir, Dice-K for quick reference)
