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Henry’s Random Thoughts
2016 Cincinnati Reds SGA Bobbleheads
Five Bobbleheads Planned in 2016
The Reds have five bobblehead giveaways planned for 2016. These are the
conventional giveaways, where the first xx,000 fans
get one with a regular ticket. The Reds also have several theme nights, where
you can get some items related to the theme by paying a surcharge over the
ticket cost. At least one of these is a bobblehead.
There are some cool items in these package deals, so buy them if you like them,
but these don’t fit the definition of “giveaway,” so this page will not include
them.
The 2016 Reds are basically
built to lose, and nobody in the organization pitched this team as a contender
in the offseason. As I write this on May 1, there are
also a startling number of what’s left of the players missing time with
injuries. Before the season, they were projected in Vegas to lose 100 games or
more, and I didn’t think it would be that bad. Watching the first month,
though, it looks like Vegas over/unders may again
prove a lot better than a fan’s gut instinct. But let’s face it, we still find
ways to connect with our teams through the bad years. I found fantasy football
to stay engaged with the NFL while the Bengals were a laughingstock for over a
decade. And collecting may get me through something similar with the Reds. The
only real issue is for the Reds to find enough noteworthy players to feature,
guys with some fan interest who are not likely to be traded by the time the
bobbles are made. This year’s crop is kind of weak so far. You have Votto (featured a million times already) and Cozart (one of the guys with injury issues). In addition to
that, there’s a Ken Griffey Jr. one planned, and also a Star Wars-themed Mr.
Red. There’s also an unspecified one in September, but last year, they
substituted a figurine for a promised bobblehead in
September, so don’t be surprised if they do it again.
The popular garden gnome
promotion is being done again this year.
April 23-Joey Votto Superhero Bobblehead
A virtual sellout crowd
witnessed the Reds defeat the Cubs on April 23, but a suspiciously high number
of the fans were wearing blue. The Cubs are everybody’s favorites to win the
division, and anybody who remembers the last time the Cubs were contenders
knows that a good Cubs team draws a lot of fans to opposing stadiums, whether
they come down from Chicago or are local bandwagon fans.
Reds fans and Cubs fans
alike were given the first bobblehead of the year,
assuming their tickets were among the first 25,000 scanned.
Joey Votto
had what was by far the best season of any Red last year. His 7.6 wins above
replacement were far better than any of the next five best players, and four of
that five were traded before the beginning of 2016. So the choice of who would
be on this one was pretty obvious, even if quite a few Votto
bobbles have already been done. This one was done with a superhero theme.
Being that one of Votto’s superpowers is drawing walks (not exactly the most
thrilling power), it takes a real fan to appreciate
him. But his second half last year was downright unbelievable, during a time
when Reds fans didn’t have a whole lot else to enjoy. I don’t think it will be
forgotten soon.
They pulled off the
superhero look pretty well if you ask me. It wasn’t too far out, but it is
different enough to stand out in a crowd of bobbleheads.
May 7-Mr. Redlegs Star Wars Bobblehead
27,600 fans saw the Reds
fall to the Brewers on this Saturday night, and the first 25,000, in other
words almost all of them, were handed a Star Wars-themed Mr. Redlegs bobblehead. Why the
retro-styled Mr. Redlegs was paired with a sci-fi
movie, I don’t know, but Star Wars theme nights and weekends go on all over the
league, helping bolster attendance for losing teams in particular.
The first thing I noticed
about this one is that it is a very heavy, substantial-feeling piece. They
didn’t skimp on whatever they made the spacecraft out of. It certainly wasn’t
hollow. However, the paint job on the front of the thing left something to be
desired. The red and yellow areas on the front are supposed to be rectangles,
but you really just get splotches, particularly on the red ones. I opened a few
of these and they all had that problem. It’s Chinese quality control. There
isn’t much you can do about it, especially when you got one free for walking
through the gate.
This was one of the more
oddly-shaped ones they’ve ever given out, as it came in one solid piece. Mr. Redlegs does not come out. The box it came in was a perfect
cube, rather than being the typical tall, skinny box. It was sponsored by
Dynegy, which had reps handing out advertising at the gates.
As you can see, they didn’t
do quite as badly on the the rear paint job, although
there is some yellow overrun near the tail lights. R2D2 is in the back, painted
a little inconsistently himself.
May 21-Ken Griffey Jr. Dual Bobblehead
Something resembling a
sellout crowd (or as close as you will see this year) came through the gates to
pick this bobble up and watch the Reds fall to the Mariners, in a rare chance
to watch Felix Hernandez pitch in Cincinnati. The featured bobble is an oddity
in that one of the two depictions of Junior is not in a Reds uniform. But let’s
face it, his best years were with the Mariners, even
if many milestone home runs were with the Reds. Junior was a fan favorite in
spite of injury struggles with the Reds, the rare slugger of his time who
didn’t cheat.
What we have here is a very
nice piece, with lettering on all sides of the base. My only problem with the
design is that each figure is supposed to be holding a bat, separate pieces
that came in the box. The bats didn’t screw in, so they were meant to be held
in by gravity (or possibly glued in, but they’ve never asked us to glue our
bobbles together before). If a figure has a bat over his shoulder, gravity does
the trick in holding the bat in place. But in this pose, the bats are pointed
down after a swing. You have to put them into the tiny hands and let them
dangle, barely held in place. I think it was possible to get them set without
glue, but the figure is going to drop the bat at the slightest vibration. Don’t
try to bobble these heads. As you can see from the pictures, I left the bats on
the table and gave up. Fortunately, this piece still looks good without the
bats.
They didn’t do crowd control
well at all this game. They forced those who were re-entering to go through a
single exit point. The first game it wasn’t a problem, as all the Cubs fans
were staying for the game. The second game, attendance wasn’t that great, so it
didn’t matter then, either. This game, however, drew 38,200, over 10,000 more
than the Star Wars game. Essentially, 10,000 extra people were added to the
exit line, which was already busy enough before. The result was a line to leave
that went about ¼ of the way around the stadium, possibly more. Although it
moved steadily, this was awful customer service, and it drew a lot of
complaints.
This one was sponsored by
St. Elizabeth Hospital. Reds fans will get the joke in terms of having a
hospital sponsor the Griffey bobble, but Mariners fans might not. This one was
a hit on Ebay, getting over $40 in listings shortly
after the game.
June 11-Reds Garden Gnome
A respectable 32,000 or so
turned out for a Saturday day game to see the Reds beat the A’s 2-1 and snag a
popular promotion that they have not done in five years or so, the garden
gnome.
This gnome was not modeled
on any particular player, but was instead given the “Get your ‘stache on” theme. The item is plastic and the figure itself
is hollow, but it is weighted a little bit towards the bottom, making it
something that could serve its stated purpose of sitting on uneven ground
outdoors and not tipping over.
July 16-Zack Cozart Bobblehead
A crowd of 31,000 turned up
to see the Reds fall hard to the Brewers, 9-1. That’s a pretty lousy crowd for
a Saturday night game, but they were 25 games under .500 at that point, so it
was understandable. They finished 26 games under .500, so they played basically
.500 ball after this date, a vast improvement over
their start. Never mind that the Cubs had run away with the division by
mid-July, I’d rather see average than below average play out there.
The first 25,000, or in
other words, almost everyone, got one of these Zack Cozart
bobbleheads. It was a nice bobblehead
in a fielding pose, showing the skill Cozart is known
for. But after having a weak bat early in his career, he has improved on the
hitting front the last two years. But the situation has been marred by the
bottom-dwelling nature of the team and a few injuries. They have some younger
talent at the shortstop position, so if there’s a win-now team in need of a
shortstop in 2017, look for Cozart
to be shipped off for the last year of his contract. Reds fans may not get to
see a full season of the improved Cozart.
September 3-Eugenio Suarez Bobblehead
Another crowd of 31,000
turned out for this afternoon game, not bad for a last place team in September.
Just remember, the Reds, who have been in the tank for two years, outdrew the
pennant-winning Indians, who were in first place for almost the whole season.
And it wasn’t really close. Unlike last year, when the All-Star Game goosed
season ticket sales, there was nothing artificial about the attendance in 2016.
Every ticket was bought on purpose, and knowledgeable fans knew how the team
would finish. So it can be said that Reds fans support the team pretty well,
even if there were a lot of promotions offering cheap tickets to their email
list. Even if you get in cheap, you’re still going down there.
All of those fans except for
the late arrivals got one of these bobbles, featuring Eugenio Suarez. Suarez
came over from the Tigers a couple of years ago, and took the third base job
when Todd Frazier got shipped off. He played in all but three games in 2016,
showed a little power, and got his average up a bit late in the year, even if
he struck out a lot. Here’s a guy who’s pretty low-risk for the Reds. They can
keep him at third with a low salary as the “rebuilding” progresses, and if they
do get back to winning, they will have had a chance to see if he gets better by
then. He’s under team control for the rest of the decade, so even if he
improves, it’s going to be a while before he gets expensive. So don’t expect
him to go away unless his play gets really bad.
The Reds did beat the
Cardinals that day, by a score of 9-1. So for the true fan, there’s always a
chance to see something good happen, even when your team is out of the running.
The Reds certainly didn’t roll over in the second half, and some wins against
the Cards helped keep the Cards out of the playoffs.
Until next year………