Around the Card Room, Take 15

Today is National Bobblehead Day, so I thought I would choose one from my shelf for today's post.  

I know some of these items have really good back stories, but this one is simple.  

Here is a Matt Holliday bobblehead that I bought in 2011.  

I decided to add a few different items to my collection after the Cardinals won the 2011 World Series and this bobblehead was one of them. If you don't remember how the Cardinals season ended in 2011, let me refresh your memory.  

It was also the season that Albert Pujols left the Cardinals to sign with the Angels, so Matt Holliday was the big offensive star still left on that team. He would have a few more good seasons in him and I was a pretty big fan.  If you read the early posts of the blog, which started in 2012, there are a lot of Matt Holliday cards.  

Here are the other views of the Matt Holliday bobblehead:

Love that this bobblehead captures Matt Holliday's batting stance and his large front leg kick. He was a really good hitter. Holliday's physique may be a little underrepresented on this bobble.  

Kind of wild to think that a little more than a decade after buying this bobblehead, Matt Holliday's son is now a Triple A baseball player who was largely responsible for eliminating my Durham Bulls from the playoffs last season.  

Around The Card Room, Take 7.

My card room is lined by shelves of bobbleheads. At this point, I add sparingly to the collection. There is not an infinite amount of space around the room and I am picky about which bobbleheads make the cut. It's got to be a great bobblehead of a player that I really like to get a space these days.  

For this week's post, I thought it would be fun to revisit my first bobblehead.  

Here's Jimmy.........

The Cardinals gave away this Jim Edmonds bobblehead at some point in 2001 to celebrate his 2000 Gold Glove Award. As previous discussed in another post, all the early Cardinals bobbleheads were attached to some sort of award. The Cardinals gave away three bobbleheads in 2001. Mike Matheny and Jim Edmonds were two of three, along with Mark McGwire.  

This bobble has started to show its age.

The red piping around the edges of Edmonds sleeves and the middle of the jersey has faded to a pink color. The Cardinals logo is a sticker, which has started to crinkle and is slipping on the right side.  

The back is similar.  

You can see the edges of the sticker, especially on the left side of the bobble.  

The rest of the color on the bobblehead has stayed true. Edmonds shoes, hat, and belt are all still red. The baseball diamond and Coca-Cola logo on the bottom have also maintained their color, as has the gold on his glove.  

The bottom of the bobblehead is labeled for his Gold Glove.  

I think some of the black paint from my shelves has ended up on the base. Might try to clean that up a bit while I have it off the shelf.  

Overall, not the best looking bobblehead, nor my favorite, but certainly a memorable one.  

Around The Card Room, Take 4

Most of the early 2000s Cardinals bobblehead giveaways were connected to players winning various awards. In 2003, the team did an Edgar Renteria bobblehead day against the San Diego Padres for winning the 2002 National League Gold Glove at shortstop. My parents had season tickets, but were often willing to give up their tickets on bobblehead days. The lines to get into the stadium tend to be long and certain fans are rather aggressive.  

I was willing to play along for an Edgar Renteria bobblehead, which doesn't really sound interesting until you hear about what happened during the game. It was a rarity in a Hall of Fame career.  

First, the bobblehead.  

It's a solid bobblehead. I like the Gold Glove and the Cardinals always do a nice job of making good figurines of their players.  The piping around the front of the jersey has faded a little over time, but that's to be expected.  

The back is nice as well. 

Now, about the game. The Cardinals were playing the Padres. The previous night, the Cardinals had won the game on an Albert Pujols home run in extra innings. It was actually his first career walk-off home run. The video is below, notice Albert does not run when he first hits the pitch and Padres catcher Gary Bennett lingers around home plate as the Cardinals come out of the dugout to celebrate.  

In the postgame write up, Pujols said he did not run, which angered Bennett, because he thought he got under the ball, he hit it towards the end of the bat, and left fielder was actually tracking the ball like he was going to catch it.  In summation, it was either a fly out to the left fielder or a home run.  

Fast forward to Edgar Renteria Bobblehead Day. Albert Pujols comes up in the first and Padres pitcher Adam Eaton hits him with the first pitch. Gary Bennett got in his face and Albert pushed him out of the way. No video of the fight, but there is an AP Wire photo.  

Pujols was replaced with reserve outfielder Orlando Palmeiro.  

This was the only time in Pujols career that he was ejected for fighting. I actually had an interaction with Gary Bennett on Twitter a few years back about this fight. Believe it or not, but Gary thinks baseball players should put their heads down, play, and not celebrate.  Hard to believe.  

Gary wants you to know that it was a curveball and the pitch hit Albert on the shoulder.  

Around The Card Room, Take 1

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  My highlights included going to the NC State and Georgia Tech basketball game Saturday afternoon with my son and father and getting to do a little writing for this space.

My Wolfpack ended up winning, but it was closer than it needed to be.  

On to baseball stuff.  

My writing this weekend focused on my card room. I drafted a few posts and am obviously publishing this one. Over the past fifteen years, my wife has tried to keep me focused on just sticking with baseball cards and not saving everything. She has been largely successful, but there are still plenty of non-baseball card items that occupy a place in my baseball card room.  

These items are going to be part of my story.  

Today, I am going to show off one of my favorite Durham Bulls bobbleheads. Half of the baseball card room has shelves around it that hold bobbleheads and figurines that were largely giveaways at baseball games. My item for this week comes from this shelf of Durham Bulls stuff.  

Today's item is a Chris Archer bobblehead that was given away at a Rays game in 2016. I did not attend the game and ended up with this item via eBay. I think I might have paid more in shipping than for the bobble, but Archer is one of my favorite former Durham Bulls players.  

Chris Archer not only played for the Durham Bulls, but also lives locally outside of Raleigh. He had an autograph signing a few years back at the USA Baseball National Team complex. Really nice guy. 

He personalized everything. Loved some of these inscriptions.  

These were the autographs he signed for myself and my son.  

My wife also tagged along to get a baseball signed for her brother who is a big Tigers fan.  

I have been waiting for Chris Archer to end up on the Tigers. 

This experience earned my fandom, which is why the bobblehead of Archer in on my shelf. Here is the front of the bobblehead.  

The bobble includes a K counter, which is a neat feature considering Archer's propensity for missing bats. He's averaging more than a strikeout per inning throughout his career with 1,454 Ks in 1,357 innings. Unfortunately, he has not had the best luck with health during his career, so I have not really updated the K Counter the last few years. In 2016, when this bobble was given away, Chris Archer struck out 252 batters. Last year, he struck out 84. Big drop off.  

Injuries stink and it's honestly amazing that he is still even playing.  

I also love that Archer is shown smiling on the bobble. He is a fun player and a happy person while he is pitching. He's not Bob Gibson, Randy Johnson, or Max Scherzer.  

Let's not forget the time Archer created a fake college degree for the Astros mascot so the Rays players could pelt him with water balloons before a game.  

Back of the bobble.  

Love the back of the bobble with the Rays sock pattern. Archer has worn his socks high throughout his career.  

National Bobblehead Day

Years ago I collected all sorts of different things.  Score cards, ticket stubs, programs, signed photos, autographed baseballs, bobbleheads, and other nicknacks.  That goes along with all of the baseball cards.  My past residences were filled with shelves and tons of red framed pictures that covered the walls. When I first met my wife, she dubbed my place "The Sports Bar".  

Not much of a drinker though. 

I have paired my "other" collections down over the years, but my bobbleheads still remain in force.  I don't want to show exactly how they are displayed, because I want to do a post at some point this year about my baseball card space.  There are a lot of them, but the majority can really be broken down into two categories.  There are Cardinals Bobbleheads and Durham Bulls bobbleheads.  

For National Bobblehead Day, I thought it would be fun to do a quick list of my 5 favorite Durham Bulls and Cardinals bobbleheads.  I never blog about them, but I actually got my start on this blog from talking to a bobblehead blogger.  Their blog is down, otherwise I would link it.  

Bulls first.  I got the majority of these bobbleheads in person at games.  In no particular order.  

2018 Crash Davis & Nuke LaLoosh Bus Bobblehead 

The Bulls usually give out items like this to their season ticket holders, which includes full season and partial season ticket holders.  I have a mini-plan, so I picked this up two years ago.  Definitely one of the more unique bobbleheads in my collection.  Both the bus and the heads bobble.  

If you have not seen Bull Durham, you should this weekend, but in the meantime here is a short clip that takes place on the bus.  There are several throughout the movie.  

I hate people that get the words wrong.  

2002 Durham Bulls 100th Anniversary Joe Morgan 

The Bulls gave out a whole bunch of bobbleheads in 2002 for their 100th Anniversary.  The majority of the players were newer active player such as David Justice, Chipper Jones, and Andruw Jones.  They also included Joe Morgan.  I like reading about the older Bulls players, really like that they included one in this bobblehead set.  The older Bulls bobbles all have this shape.  

 2014 Wil Myers Season Ticket Holder Bobblehead 

This bobblehead has actually been on my blog in a few posts before.  Way back when I got this bobblehead, I actually tried live blogging a night out at a Durham Bulls game.  Something different, and I have never tried it again. 

The biggest obstacle was the fact that the game was 12-1 in the second inning.  It's hard to be enthusiastic about making blog posts when the outcome of the game is over 30 minutes after it starts.

This is the giveaway schedule and ticket from the Bulls.  They have a little tear off tab on the bottom of the ticket for the items.  

 The Championship ring was a pretty sweet giveaway too.  The Bulls have sort of made that an annual giveaway since they are almost always in the playoffs.  Very nice item. 


2014 Chipper Jones Jersey Number Retirement Bobblehead 

The Bulls retired Chipper's number 10 in 2014.  They gave out this sweet looking bobblehead as part of the celebration.   In my opinion, this is the best modern bobblehead.  So many great things about this giveaway.  I especially like the detail on the uniform, which is spot on for the Bulls in the early 1990s.           

2010 Jeremy Hellickson 2009 Triple National Championship Bobblehead 

This is the hardest bobblehead that I have had to track down.  The summer of 2010 was busy around my house.  My focus was not really on baseball, so I missed nearly half of my Bulls games that summer.  I got the bobblehead at a bargain price, but there was a condition issue.  

This is how the bobblehead looks now.  

This is how the bobble looked when I first picked up a few years ago.  

Took a little bit of work.  

On to the Cardinals bobbleheads.  I only got one of these bobbleheads at a game.  The rest of them all came from other people.  Again, no particular order after the first bobblehead, which is my favorite at the moment.  

2018 Bud Bash Ray Lankford Bobblehead 

The Cardinals have different ways they give out Bobbleheads.  There are general attendance bobbleheads that are giveaways that the Cardinals do every year, but there are also different areas of the stadium that have giveaways too.  The Bud Bash bobbles have featured the 1985 National League Championship team, also players who have made the team Hall of Fame.  

Lankford did not have a Bobble for a long time.  He is a really good player in terms of numbers, and his all-time ranking with against other great Cardinals.  Lankford also played on some terrible teams during the 1990s.  Bobbles are not my main focus, and I will not spend too much on any of these.  I had actually given up on getting one of these, but a parent of a student bought me one last year.  I was shocked.  I am still shocked.  

2011 Cardinals Giveaway Willie McGee 

The Cardinals have done several Willie McGee bobbleheads over the years.  This is the best of them.  Mainly because he is wearing a powder blue 1980s Cardinals uniform.  You can't lose with the powder blues.  

2009 Ozzie Smith Busch Stadium Giveaway 

Pretty easy one to figure out.  Again the powder blue, and the only diving bobble in my collection.  The Dennis Eckersley shadow in the background is unfortunate.  Apologies.  

2001 Busch Stadium Giveaway Jim Edmonds

This was one of the first bobbles the Cardinals ever gave away, and the first in my collection.  I think this was pretty limited in some fashion, like only 10,000 people or something.  That's small for a giveaway at a Major League stadium.  Anyway, I like this for the simple reason that it was the first one on the shelf.  Maybe a bookcase at the time.  

Last one.  

2014 Busch Stadium Giveaway Jose Oquendo Secret Weapon Bobble

This actually got a blog post when I got this one.  Just an incredible bobble.  

Number 998.....Wil Myers Bobblehead

I picked up a new bubblehead for my baseball card room about a week and half ago.  Since the best card shop in the area closed down recently a group of collectors from around the Raleigh-Durham area have banded together in a Facebook group to talk, trade, and sell cards.  It's a good group of people who all used to hang out at Big D's Card Shop.

One of the group members ventured down to Spring Training in Florida to check out several different team camps and also made a stop by Rays Fan Fest.  I had asked him to keep an eye out for a certain lost bobblehead at Rays Fest, but they sold out rather quickly.

The Rays had several other bobble heads that they were selling at their Fan Fest, so I still ended up with a really cool item for my collection.  This is my second Will Myers bobblehead and was a giveaway last April 15th at The Trop.  The bobblehead commemorates Myers winning the American League Rookie of the Year in 2013.  

I like the look of the front of the bobblehead.  It's a really accurate representation of what Myers looks like after he swings and hits the ball.  His front arm might be a little bit low, but overall it's excellent.  The bat is always behind his head with one hand low on the bat.  MLB has posted dozens of Myers Home Runs on YouTube.  They all look like this.......

and the actual video.......

The uniform and details with Myers appearance are pretty well done too.  Here's a quick glance at the side and back views of the Will Myers Bubblehead.......        

Myers is wearing the Sunday blue alternate uniform, the long pants with the shin guard are a staple of Myers gamely appearance.  Overall an excellent addition to the collection.  I am going to have to clear off some space next to my Durham Bulls bobblehead of Myers and get a picture of the two together.  A big thank you to Jon for taking time to pick this up for me on your trip.   

Joe Morgan Bobblehead

I am taking a day off of baseball cards to write about my newest bobble head.  I have about thirty-five bobble heads/statues/figurines in my man cave and try to add one when I see a cool Cardinal or Rays player.  The Cardinals seem to give out two or three every year and the Rays have giving out a few figurines and bobbles over the years.  They are easy to find in shops, Ebay, and from other collectors and I have managed to build a decent collection.   My local baseball teams, the Durham Bulls and the Carolina Mudcats, aren't particularly big on giving out bobbles.  However, there are a few out there.  Recently, I have decided to try and track down the Durham Bulls 100th Anniversary set, which was giving out in 2002, and the triple bobble given out last year of Jeremy Hellickson, Dan Johnson, and Charlie Montoyo. The triple bobble is proving tough, but I just picked up my first 100th anniversary bobble.  This is the Joe Morgan bobble head.  It's a pretty ordinary looking bobble, but still cool to own.