What Could Make This Cooler?

Bobbleheads were all the rage as stadium giveaways in the early 2000's. I remember people lining up at PNC Park hours before first pitch in order to secure one.  Then it just kind of stopped.  I'm not sure if this was just a Pirates thing, but people seemed to be suffering from bobblehead fatigue. I think a combination of the Pirates not having star personnel and the fact that they were doing close to double digit giveaways just wore everyone out.  Most people don't want their third Zach Duke bobblehead. 

Things started to pickup steam again once Andrew McCutchen became a bona fide superstar, but overall I thought a lot of the releases were either boring or just looked like shit. 

The last couple of seasons things have started to turn for the better.  The designs have become more intricate and they are using themes outside the baseball norm.  Last season the Pirates made their most unique giveaway that I could remember.  Yes that is Francisco Cervelli in a smoking jacket surrounded by roses. During the games the Pirates would play a segment where Cervelli would give dating advice. It was very cheesy, but everyone got a good laugh.  It was fashioned after that segment.

Now obviously the look of this bobblehead alone makes it a unique piece but this one goes the extra mile.  In the back their is a button if pressed starts playing Dean Martin's That's Amore! Pretty cool, right?  I rarely utilize eBay to buy these type of things, but I had to have one.

Thanks, for reading!

El Coffee

I lied about getting back to cards today.  What I do have is a new bobblehead! The extra bonus of the bachelor party weekend was that the game we attended was Gregory "El Coffee" Polanco bobblehead night.

This year the Pirates started limiting many of the giveaways to 20,000 so I was pretty adamant about getting to the stadium early.  A couple months back my buddy and I went to Jordy Mercer bobblehead night and missed out.  We stayed a tad too long at the bar.  Man, that still pisses me off.

The funny thing is the nickname has really nothing to do with coffee.  His coach when he was 15 years old said he looked and acted like another player that had the same nickname. It just stuck after that.  A+ marketing game by Dunkin Donuts to get on the sponsorship.

While it is not as cool as my tipping chair Bob Walk bobble, the coffee aspect makes it quirky and fun. Now I just need to find one of those singing Cervelli bobbles!

Thanks for reading.

Bobblechair Greatness

On Twitter today I posted this picture.

This was a giveaway several weeks back on a weekend where I couldn't make it up to Pittsburgh.  I was super bummed.  Well, eBay to the rescue!

In case you don't remember here is the moment the bobblechair captures.

Let's take a close look at the greatest stadium giveaway in the history of mankind.

 I applaud the marketing folks for the Pirates with the taking a unique/funny moment and running with it.  My only complaint is that this doesn't look much like Walk, but beggars can't be choosers.

Thanks for reading.

National Bobblehad Day

Did you know that yesterday was National Bobblehead Day? I sure didn't.  Thanks to my good pal Micah for the heads up.

I have a pretty sizable bobblehead collection, but most are packed away in storage. I love the things, but they take up a decent amount of space. Most of the ones I have collected over the years have been stadium giveaways. Back in the early/mid 2000's the Pirates like most teams went bobblehead crazy. You would have 7 to 10 a year released. Lately the Pirates have slowed down to the point where they are only issuing a couple a year. This has proved to be a better practice as you can make sure a quality name is attached to the figure. The mid 2000's Pirates were made up of a lot of poor players. So the likes of Ryan Doumit, Kip Wells and Chris Duffy got bobbleheads......yikes!

The two bobbleheads that I have displayed at home are an old school Pirates issue from the early 60's and a WVU bobblehead that is most likely dated back to the 60's as well.  While the Pirate issue has more value, the WVU bobble holds more sentimental value.  It belonged to my Grandfather and it was given to me after he passed.  

Happy belated National Bobblehead Day!