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Henry’s Random Thoughts
2020 Cincinnati Reds SGA Bobbleheads
Bobbleheads Given Away on “Fan
Appreciation Weekends” Due to Ban on Fans at Games
With a 60 game season and no
fans allowed in attendance in 2020, the Reds offered two “Fan Appreciation
Weekends” where fans could get bobbleheads and other
items for free by lining up in the parking lots of various Kroger stores. The
weekends were the last two in September, and the caravan stopped at four Kroger
stores each weekend. The bobbleheads given out were
Trevor Bauer the first weekend and Sonny Gray the second. Fans were allowed two
of them per trip through the line. The first weekend there were no restrictions
on getting back in line, and I was able to go through four times for a total of
eight bobbles. The second weekend, they said only one trip through the line was
allowed. Could I have perhaps gotten through a second time? Probably, but I
didn’t feel up to trying, so I called it good at one trip. What can I say, my hunger for bobbles may be fading compared to my
younger days, when I would have surely kept going back until they kicked me out.
Anyway, they were also giving out the Marty Brennaman
commemorative microphone, one per trip through the line, in addition to the bobbleheads and some t-shirts.
They also had an event for
people with season packages after the two weekends where ticket holders could
drive up near the stadium and get two of each bobble and another microphone.
The same bobbles were on offer. Someone I knew had such a package and wasn’t
going to take advantage, so I ended up getting a few more that way.
Well, here they are. The
gimmick with the microphone is that when you press a button, a recording plays
with Marty saying “….and this one belongs to the Reds.” Presumably there’s a
battery in there, and the speaking feature will last as long as the battery
holds out. Interestingly, the Reds had quite a few other players to give out in
2020, so I would guess that those are in storage and will be given away next
year, hopefully at games that fans are allowed to attend. Maybe I’m reading
into this too much, but somebody had to make the call as to which ones to give
out this year, and one factor might have been that the two players featured
will not be on the team next year. Time will tell. Bauer had a career year in
the short season, winning the first Cy Young Award in team history. As a free
agent, he will command big money, money the Reds don’t usually spend. Gray is
still under contract next year, and a team trying hard to compete would keep a
guy like that, but there’s a chance the good old “prospects” and “cash
considerations” will prevail yet again and he will be traded.
April 2020-Bobbleheads on Hold Along With 2020 Baseball Season
The plan was to have a full
slate of bobblehead giveaways this year along with
two Funko Pops. I believe it would have added up to
eight or nine giveaways. The first one was to be a triple bobblehead
featuring Joey Votto and two all-time greats, but the
rest of them were going to be current players. After skipping current players
in 2019 and bringing in some fresh faces, there were enough current guys to
feature without the promos getting stale. As of this writing (5/2/20), though,
the COVID-19 outbreak has cancelled all April and May games, and the rest of
the season is uncertain. Current ideas being floated are cancelling the season,
playing a short schedule offsite in warm-weather states, playing a modified
season at home stadiums with no fans in the stands, or putting things off and
hoping conditions improve to have a limited, late season with fans. The one
thing for certain right now is that a 162 game season won’t happen.
Promos and giveaways have to
be made overseas to keep the cost within reason. After all, they are
essentially handed out for nothing for a ticket that at least in theory you
bought to watch a baseball game. This means foreign sourcing and long supply
chains. What that means is that they have to be ordered well in advance with
the goal being to have them shipped in plenty of time. No doubt all of them
were ordered before COVID-19 became a crisis, which was sometime around March
11. I have a feeling that some were delivered by then, although I have no
sources to confirm that. Some were probably being made at the time and some
were probably done and in transit. So the team has all or nearly all of these
perfectly good promos sitting in storage somewhere. So my feeling is that they
will see the light of day. Either the entire run will just be pushed back to
2021, or part of the run will be pushed back to 2021, or they will be
distributed in some alternate fashion. (Maybe the team will sell them for
charity.) The only one that might end up in the Dumpster would be a player who
got dealt and was no longer with the Reds at the time of would-be giveaway.
Even worse would be a player that never played a real game in a Reds uniform at
all. But the frugal Cincinnatians running the Reds might even try to get some
value out of these, so we may yet see them all.