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Henry’s Random Thoughts
2011 Cincinnati Reds SGA Bobbleheads
Joey Votto MVP Bobblehead
April 30 saw a sellout crowd
and a dramatic, extra-inning win by the Reds, exactly the thing the fans come down
to see. The first 30,000 of the 42,000 or so fans got the Joey Votto bobble, the first giveaway of 2011. This choice was a
no-brainer, even though fans have been showered with Votto
giveaways for the past few years. You can’t give away enough of a young
superstar.
This one is sponsored by PNC
Bank, which has swallowed up enough local banks over the years to be considered
a local institution, in spite of its Pittsburgh roots. It was made by Impact
Promotions, the same company that provided last year’s bobbles. This is about
as early in the season as they have ever given a bobble away by my
recollection.
It looks like they did a
good job to me. The bat came separately and rests kind of uneasily in Joey’s
hand. If you use the bobble as intended and give it an occasional bop on the
head, you might dislodge the bat. This is much better than the alternative,
though. In the old days, the bat was part of the main sculpture and they were
always breaking in shipment.
Sparky Anderson Bronze Statue
May 14 saw Reds beat the
hated Cardinals as part of a three-game sweep that left them in first place at
the time. It also marked the return of one of the classier concepts in terms of
giveaways, the bronze statue. The first one of these honored
Joe Nuxhall several years back, and this one paid
tribute to Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson, who passed away this past
offseason.
My brother and I were on
vacation for the game day, so we relied on friends to get this one for us.
Fortunately, they came through. It rained that day, which got them a little
damp on the outside of the box, but it probably also cut the lines down a bit.
There doesn’t seem to be quite the frenzy for the figurines and statues before
the game that there are for the bobbles, in spite of the fact that they usually
hand out 10,000 fewer of these. The game was a virtual sellout, but the team
needed right up to game day to sell out, as opposed to the April 30 game, which
sold out much earlier. A lot of people who buy tickets to resell probably got
burned, as StubHub had large quantities of tickets
below face value. Part of the reason might have been that they charged more
from the get-go for seats, and Reds fans are pretty price-sensitive when it
comes to the nosebleed sections.
Another reason interest was
a little lower for this game vs. the bobble game is probably that as much as
Sparky is a near-saint here in Cincinnati, the young kids who like to collect
things really don’t know him as well as a current player, and when it comes to
current players, it’s hard to beat the young reigning MVP in popularity. It
will be interesting to see how the fans respond to the Jonny Gomes bobble if
they trade or cut him before he is honored.
The Anderson bronze is very
well-done, and is around five inches tall.
Dusty Baker Bobblehead
July 2 featured a sellout
crowd, which saw the Reds fall to the Indians in a season where that has been
an all-too-common sight. It was part of a run where the Reds have defined
“average” with an almost freakish exactness, alternating wins and losses and
hovering right around .500. The one positive is that for the time being, such
play did not knock them out of the race in the mediocre NL Central. The team
gets a lot more national attention these days thanks to last year, so the game
was moved to 4:10 to be televised nationally.
The first 30,000 fans
through the gates got the above bobblehead, which
came with more pieces than any prior one that I can remember. Dusty has clung
to the time-honored baseball tradition of the toothpick in the mouth, which
collectors of 70’s baseball cards know was once about as common as big afros
and tacky uniforms. The makers of this bobble inserted one in Dusty’s mouth, which does not appear to be removable, and
just in case that was too subtle for you, included a small toothpick holder and
a packet of toothpicks to get you started.
One very minor flaw is that
with the toothpick bucket in place, Dusty’s knee
bumps into it ever so slightly, so it doesn’t sit perfectly flat. It sits well
enough for display, but if you actually plan on grabbing a toothpick out of
there once in a while, do it gently or be prepared to pick the remaining ones
up. It’s the same thing I said about the set from 2009, which was supposed to
fit together to form a panoramic background: Don’t expect precision engineering
on these.
Dusty has lived quite a
baseball life, playing with the natural Home Run King and managing the
allegedly unnatural one, winning a World Series ring as a player and reaching
the postseason with three different teams. In addition, Cubs fans are annoyed
by the sight of him. That’s always a feather in his cap. You can argue this
decision or that decision, and even debate whether the old-style of managing
epitomized by Dusty is still needed, but it’s hard not to like the guy. It
doesn’t hurt that competitive baseball came back to Cincinnati under his watch.
When fans were served the poo-poo platter of the mid-2000’s, we wouldn’t have been complaining about .500
baseball.
Aroldis Chapman Action Figure
July 16 featured a
near-sellout crowd which saw the Reds fall 4-1 to the hated Cardinals as part
of a long, slow slide out of the race. At least the fans had a distraction in
the form of a superhero-themed weekend. The high point of the weekend was the
30,000 Aroldis Chapman action figures given out to
fans on that Saturday.
As you can see, the uniform
is not a typical Reds outfit, as opposed to the Votto
action figure they gave out last year. That one seemed to have an identity
crisis, like a figurine trapped in an action figure’s body. It even had a home
plate attached to Joey’s foot, which you’d never see on a real action figure (a
home plate that was annoyingly prone to breaking off). The Chapman item
embraced the whole otherworldly theme that fans of Star Wars and comic books
are used to seeing.
Unlike the Votto, this one really is a kid’s toy, in essence. You can
imagine a kid playing with this thing. Who knows what this holds for its future
value as a collectible? On one hand, Reds fans are straight-laced, Midwestern
folks who want their mini-Reds sporting the proper attire. If you don’t believe
that, look at what a flop leisure suit Dunn was in 2008. But on the other hand,
valuable collectibles get that way because few survive. If these action figures
end up in the hands of kids, who will inevitably destroy them, someday the
world might realize that there aren’t many left. At that point, the few anal-retentive
collectors who stowed these away meticulously in perfect condition might get
rewarded. After all, that’s what happened with baseball cards.
From the back, it looks a
little like a Reds uniform. The figure is oversized compared to most action
figures, about as tall as the bobbleheads.
Jonny Gomes Bobblehead
One week after the action
figure, I was back down at the stadium for the last of 2011’s bobbleheads. Unlike the prior week, this was a full-blown
sellout, and also unlike the prior week, the home crowd went home happy after
an 11-2 thrashing of the Braves, who, as usual, were contending for a playoff
spot. The Reds continued to limp along two games under .500 in spite of the
win.
This will be remembered
forever, at least by me, as the bobblehead night that
was almost really, really awkward. As I’ve said before, some of the seemingly
odd choices for bobbleheads owe themselves to the
long lead times for these things (they are planned the winter before the
season) and the fickle nature of life in professional baseball. Gomes seemed a
good choice for a bobblehead last December, being a
hustler with a lot of quirks who happened to have a breakout year in 2010. But
he struggled all year in 2011, and was, at best, a platoon player by the time this
day arrived.
But it wasn’t his role as
bench jockey that almost ruined the promotion. It was the fact that he was
being thrown around as trade bait. The rumor was that of all teams, he was
going to be dealt to the Braves, the very team that the Reds were playing. So
we had the prospect of the bobblehead honoree being
present at the game in the opponent’s uniform. Man, would that have been
strange.
The bobblehead
itself was pretty innovative. Since Gomes has a habit of fiddling with his
uniform during at-bats, they made it so he was adjusting his helmet on this
one. To allow the head to bob freely, they had to make part of his right arm a
spring. They didn’t exactly try to conceal it, so you end up with something
that resembles the old Inspector Gadget cartoons. They did the best they could
to make this work, so I have to hand that to them. But I do wonder how well
they will hold up. I overheard on the team walkie
talkies before the game that they were getting a lot of reports of broken ones.
I would recommend taking good care of this one and keeping the small kids away
from it. There just seem to be a lot more weak points on this one that might
break. The bat comes as a separate piece.
As you can see from the
back, they added another touch of realism by showing the back of Jonny’s Mowhawk haircut. By the way, the Tuesday after this game,
Gomes was traded to Washington, confirming all the rumors. He had 72 hours or
so to bask in the glory of being a bobblehead enshrinee, then it was off to the cellar-dwelling
Nationals.
Which brings me to my latest
theory: that the Reds don’t have the guts to trade anyone before his bobblehead night. It’s a form of job security. Felipe Lopez hung
around until after his giveaway, after all. Come on, Reds. Prove me wrong. I
double-dog dare you.