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Henry’s Random Thoughts
2017 Cincinnati Reds SGA Bobbleheads
Seven Bobbleheads Given Away in 2017
The Reds gave away seven bobbleheads in 2017, one of which was a triple bobblehead featuring two all-time greats. This does not
include the theme night bobbleheads, which require
you to pay a surcharge to get one. To be honest, seven items that at least
partially feature the current team is a lot, considering that the team had
finished last the previous two seasons, and would do so again in 2017. But
these games do boost attendance, so here we are with the seven. Part of the
all-time great trio was Joey Votto, who had another
killer season and could probably be honored with one again next year. Raisel Iglesias was also a good choice, as the
up-and-coming closer performed well, even if a losing team has limited
opportunities for a closer to show his stuff. Tucker Barnhardt
is a fan favorite, and his was well-received. Adam Duvall earned his the prior
year with a breakout season. But another Billy Hamilton after two prior ones in
his short career was probably too soon. Homer Bailey got one in spite of
falling out of favor with fans. And Anthony DeSclafani
got one after one decent year in 2016, in a 2017 season where he didn’t pitch
an inning for the Reds. What will stick with me when I look at this season’s
selection is that they honored three current pitchers in a year when their
pitching staff was bad, as in historically bad. Sure, the bobble
“Powers That Be” don’t have a crystal ball, but even casual fans saw the
bad pitching year coming.
The Reds also gave away a
Pete Rose statue replica in conjunction with the full-size statue unveiled in
front of the stadium. That item was a smash hit, as Pete items usually are, but
even it was probably missed being an embarrassment to the team by month.
So it was a tough year
all-around, but the Reds will survive, because the people keep supporting the
team, even if attendance does drop a little with each bad season. You can’t
lose forever, but the Cleveland Browns continue to draw some sort of crowd to
their games, so maybe you can.
For each bobblehead
giveaway, there was a published figure of 20,000 to be passed out.
Adam Duvall Bobblehead 5/20/17
About 25,000 fans showed up
to watch the Reds beat the Rockies on a Saturday afternoon in late May, and to
collect the first Bobblehead of 2017. This one was a
fairly easy choice, as Duvall was the breakout star of 2016, getting off to a
fast start after being acquired for almost nothing, making the All-Star team
and getting a slot in the Home Run Derby, where he did pretty well. The only
criticism you could have had about this one was that maybe they could have done
it at the end of 2016.
This was a late start to the
bobblehead giveaway season,
they’ve usually given away a couple of them before May 20.
Anthony DeSclafani Bobblehead
6/3/17
This one was, honestly, an
odd choice. While DeSclafani was another breakout
success story of 2016, he was injured going into 2017, and he stayed injured
all year. While the people choosing who gets honored had know
way of knowing how badly he was hurt, they knew he was hurt, so the only logic
I can think of behind the decision was that they wanted to do a lot of bobble
giveaways, and there weren’t too many alternatives.
The Reds lost to the Braves in
12 innings in this extra-inning game, in front of a slightly larger crowd than
for the Duvall giveaway. There wasn’t much demand for the bobble on Ebay, probably due to the aforementioned injury.
Pete Rose Bronze Statue Replica 6/17/17
A sellout crowd watched the
Reds get whooped by the Dodgers in this afternoon game, but the game was beside
the point this time. The fans were out to watch the unveiling of the Pete Rose
statue in front of the stadium and if they got through the gates early enough,
get a replica of it. I’ve been going to these giveaways for over a decade now,
and I can honestly say I’ve never seen one like this in terms of how big the
early turnout was. We got there 2 hours early and there were an easy 20,000
fans outside the stadium at that point. I loved seeing the support for Pete,
but it did make my job in getting the giveaways harder. For the first time I
can remember, the Reds ran out of giveaways before my friends and I could use
all our tickets. We unloaded our unused tickets to a street scalper outside the
stadium for a few bucks each. And that’s in spite of the fact that they gave
away 30,000 of these as opposed to 20,000 bobbles. As one might expect, this
item was a strong Ebay seller, and remains so almost
a year later. There are a couple of side notes on this that are worth
mentioning.
First of all, the artist who
made the statue, Tom Tsuchiya, autographed 300 of them, which were given away
at random and packed with a certificate. We were lucky enough to get one of
these in our haul, and I kept that one.
Secondly, a few weeks after
this game, a sex scandal broke from decades ago involving Rose. Basically, Pete
filed a slander suit against John Dowd, and in the Dowd legal team’s discovery
process, they took some statements from women who had relations with Pete back
in the seventies when they were under 18. The lawsuit
was a typical Pete move, as he tends to screw up every decision outside of baseball.
Had he not filed suit, this never would have come out. There’s a chance that
had the allegations come out before June 17, the Reds might have called off
this giveaway. Why do I say this? Because the Phillies planned to honor him
with a bobblehead giveaway later in the year, and
they called the whole thing off. There were even calls to remove the statue,
but almost a year has passed, it’s still there, and there isn’t much talk about
the scandal anymore. However, future events honoring Pete seem to be off the
table. Personally, I don’t think Pete’s personal life is something to emulate,
but we do have to realize that the morals and taboos of the early seventies
were different than today’s. I’m glad the statue stayed. If you want to boycott
it, fine, just don’t listen to classic rock anymore. Those guys didn’t check ID’s
on their groupies, that’s for sure.
Billy Hamilton Bobblehead 7/15/17
This was the first night
game bobble giveaway, and the Reds drew over 36,000 to watch them fall to the
Nationals. That’s a very good crowd for yet another “rebuilding” season.
Saturday night games in midsummer fill the place most of the way, and are probably
good for 10,000 more fans than afternoon ones. They gave away this bobblehead of Billy Hamilton. This is the third Billy
giveaway in a fairly short career, but Hamilton is a fan favorite, and with
Phillips, Frazier and Chapman gone, yes, they are going to dip into this well
another time. He has had one baserunning pose and one
batting pose earlier, so at least they mixed it up
with a fielding pose.
Raisel Iglesias Bobblehead 8/5/17
The Reds drew almost 36,000
for this night game, another good crowd considering the situation. The crowd
saw them lost to the Cardinals, as they weren’t having much luck on bobblehead Saturdays in 2017. They gave away bobbleheads of Raisel Iglesias, a
closer who stepped in when Aroldis Chapman was dealt.
He really took up the role well. He may not generate the excitement that
Chapman did, but he gets the job done. The only problem is that a team that
loses 90+ games a year is pretty short on save
situations. You may not see a save situation in a week with a team like this,
so the manager must put him in for mop-up duty to avoid rust.
Homer Bailey Bobblehead 8/26/17
The Reds got another good
crowd for this one, over 35,000, as the Reds fell to the Pirates. It was
another night game, which explains the attendance. It was a 6:40 start rather
than 7:10, because while Cincinnatians prefer night games on Saturdays, they
most definitely want to get to bed before it gets too late.
The choice of bobblehead was another sore-armed pitcher, although this
one at least get back on the active roster before the
end of the year. Homer Bailey was a peculiar choice, since the fans have turned
on him due to the large contract extension he signed before getting hurt.
Personally, I don’t see the point of this hatred. I would have signed that
extension, as would every critic of Homer. Who would turn down $110 million
that might never come along again? And the better question is: Why doesn’t the
fan base ever get mad at the front office for these lousy signings? It’s not
the players’ jobs to keep payroll down.
It’s a shame Homer wasn’t
popular at the time of this giveaway, as the alternate uniform would have made
it popular otherwise.
Perez/Casey/Votto Triple Bobblehead
September 16 was another
game against the Pirates, except they finally won one on this day. Attendance
was just over 25,000, back down because it was another afternoon game. The
bobble was a hybrid of all-time greats and current players, as they honored
first basemen Tony Perez, Sean Casey and Joey Votto.
This was the most popular bobble they gave out all year if Ebay
prices were any indication, so there’s a good chance a lot of the paid crowd
was primarily interested in the giveaway.
Tucker Barnhardt Bobblehead
9/23/17
September 23 was one of the
last home games of the season. Normally, an afternoon game in late September
wouldn’t draw well at all, but this time, the Red Sox were in town with local
product Andrew Benintendi in tow, and this brought
out over 36,000. The Sox skunked the Reds 5-0. The final honoree was Tucker
Barnhart, the popular catcher who won the fan vote. Bobbleheads
in catching gear are something different, and this one turned out well. But
interest in these things is always a little softer at the end of the season, so
there wasn’t much of a scramble for this one. I was down there,
it was fairly obvious that most of the crowd was down there for Benintendi and the Sox, not for the giveaway.
Until next year………