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Henry’s Random Thoughts
2009 Cincinnati Reds SGA Bobbleheads
Joey Votto Bobblehead-May
9
May 9 saw the opening of 2009 Reds Bobblehead season, which will proceed with bobbles of Jay Bruce, Edinson Volquez and Brandon Phillips. The four bobbleheads, when placed side-by-side, will share a common background of Great American Ballpark.
This one features popular first baseman and Canada native Joey Votto, who has quickly stepped up to be a big bat in the Griffey-less/Dunn-less lineup of the team. Over 40,000 fans showed up to see the Reds beat the Cardinals on a strong outing by Aaron Harang, making the game a virtual sellout. The team gave out 30,000 of the bobbles, meaning that a substantial minority of fans went home without one. This is the first time in years I have heard of this happening for sure. For some of the more popular ones of recent times, like Griffey and Casey, the team gave out 40,000 each, enough for nearly everyone. A couple of years ago, they dropped the advertised total down to 30,000. This was fine as long as they passed them out on Wednesday night, when they wouldn’t draw much more than that. Once they moved them back to Saturdays, this was inevitable, once there was a big enough draw to fill the stadium. I don’t know whether it was planned to make too few, due to the recession, or if the team really meant for everyone to have one. I guess we will find out depending on whether the team order more than 30,000 for future games.
The team cut Pepsi loose from serving beverages at the stadium, meaning the era of Pepsi-sponsored bobbles is over. The new sponsor, John Morrell, is a local meat company that advertises heavily during Reds broadcasts. The company that makes the bobbles is Spittin’ Image, a company I’ve never heard of. The bobbles seem to be of good quality and the packing of them was better than I’ve ever seen it. The biggest risk might be that it is in the box so tightly, some impatient soul might break a piece out trying to yank it out of the box too quickly. The bat is a separate piece in the package.
I’m beginning to wonder if a Reds bobble appearance comes with some kind of curse. Right before the bobble night, and for the eight games afterwards, Votto has missed some playing time with a strange ailment that doesn’t seem baseball-related. You don’t get the flu for ten straight days, so God knows what it could be. Time will tell, however. The bobble honors have not been kind to some players. Just ask Austin Kearns or Pete Harnisch or Felipe Lopez, three players whose careers went downhill right around when their dolls appeared.
Jay Bruce Bobblehead-July 4
The Fourth of July saw a day
game between the Reds and Cardinals, as the Reds got above the .500 mark by
beating the Cardinals 5-2. The house was almost full, with over 37,000 tickets
sold. Bobblehead #2 of Jay Bruce offered no real surprises, as the matching
background makes it the same size and theme as the earlier Votto. The crowds
early on were a little lighter than they were for the Votto game, but based on
the attendance figures and the published number given out, somebody left
without one. Cardinals games always draw a lot of out-of-town Cards fans, so
hopefully, they were the ones that missed out.
This one was sponsored by the
US Army, the first time something other than a private company has sponsored
one. It is a fitting tribute that the Army would get some recognition on the
Fourth.
Joey Votto is back and
slugging again after suffering from mental issues. Is the theory of the
bobblehead curse dead? Bruce hasn’t really suffered any misfortune yet. He
needed to get his average up and his strikeouts down long before he was
announced as a bobble subject, so that isn’t part of it. The next scheduled
bobble is Edinson Volquez, who is currently on the DL. How quickly he comes
back may determine whether the curse is for real.
Edinson Volquez
Bobblehead-July 18
July 18 was an exceedingly
cool day by July standards, the kind of day that leads to good walk-up crowds,
and this Saturday was no exception. It was essentially a sellout crowd that saw
the Reds get beat by the Brewers 5-1, part of a run of futility that has even
the most optimistic fan questioning whether this year’s team has even the
smallest chance of contending.
This year’s third
installment is young pitcher Edinson Volquez, acquired in the Josh Hamilton
trade and fresh off an All-Star season, but lingering on the DL in 2009. At the
beginning of the year, before the injury bug bit, Volquez won an online fan
pool, beating out the rest of the Reds’ pitching staff for the glory of being
featured on an SGA bobble. The third different sponsor of the year was Kroger,
the supermarket giant headquartered in Cincinnati.
Updating the ongoing theme
of the bobblehead curse, Jay Bruce, honored on July 4, broke his wrist about a
week ago, and will be out several weeks. As ugly as it looked, it did not
require surgery. Perhaps the curse is there, but it isn’t the kind of curse
that ends careers. Joey Votto is back from his issues, and hopefully Volquez
will take the hill again soon. Brandon Phillips, the subject of the final
giveaway this year, has yet to miss significant time in 2009.
Brandon Phillips
Bobblehead-August 15
August 15 saw just over 30,000
die-hard fans show up to see the Reds fall 10-6 to last-place Washington, as
ex-Red Adam Dunn managed to hit a homer. More than likely, most of them showed
up for the giveaway, as the team was in the middle of one of the worst second
halves in recent memory, erasing a respectable start to the year. The final
bobble was Brandon Phillips, honored for the second time in as many years. The
Phillips appearances have both been for specific achievements, with last year’s
honoring his 30-30 year and this year’s honoring his National League Gold Glove
award.
Not wanting to risk being
too subtle, the team actually painted the glove he is wearing gold. No, that
isn’t a melting scoop of ice cream in his right hand, it is a baseball, an
object that, surprisingly, doesn’t make it into too many bobbles. It has made
it into a few, but it is usually resting atop something and is closer to mini
basketball-size. Having it in the player’s grip is probably one of the more
difficult things to render in a piece of mass-market art. Looking at the bobble
itself, it looks a little better in person than in the picture I took. This one
is sponsored by Cincinnati Bell, the fourth different sponsor this year.
Regarding the curse of the
bobble that seems to be going on, Votto has not missed any more time lately,
Bruce remains out as of this writing, and Volquez was forced to have Tommy John
surgery. Phillips took a pitch on the hand the night of this giveaway, but
apparently nothing was broken. On the other hand, Scott Rolen is way too new to
be on a bobble, but he got hit in the head a few days after the Reds traded for
him, and has been out since then. This
team might just be snake-bit in general.
Well, that’s all for this
year. I’ll keep passing the time waiting for a contender by collecting these
things. Wait, there’s one more thing…..how do they look together? I never cared
too much for this gimmick, but I had to push them together to see. The
background didn’t line up as well as I thought it would. The heights of the
background pieces are not exactly even. I guess that’s the level of precision
you get in the field of bobble. These guys aren’t exactly building engines for
Porsches or anything. Phillips almost butts heads with Volquez. I suppose we
should be happy they even fit together.
