The Search for the Lost Bobble Heads

One of the side effects to attending thirteen years of Arizona Diamondbacks baseball games is that I have accumulated a lot of stuff from game giveaways and countless trips to the Team Shop. There are T-shirts, hats, lunch boxes, schedule magnets, beanie babies, webkinz, pom poms, pins, and rally towels.

While each of these items was great, there is one stadium giveaway that ranks above all others. I’m talking of course about the bobble heads. I don’t know what it is about a resin likeness of a baseball player with his head bobbing up and down that fascinates me but it does.

I am not the only one who feels this way. From the looks of the attendance figures at each giveaway game, there are thousands of others who treasure the bobble heads as much as I do.

I have each one of the dancing headed figurines sitting on the top of my desk. During those long evenings of writing and working on the computer I can look up and be reminded of baseball games past and what I was doing each night at the ballpark.

The bobble head figures have also been featured prominently in my wife’s nativity scene making them multi-seasonal transcending mere baseball memorabilia. I wouldn’t exactly recommend any husband replace the wise men with Diamondbacks bobble heads unless coal is your idea of the perfect Christmas gift.

Overall my wife Trina has accepted, albeit begrudgingly, my bobble head collection as part of her interior décor. They are a conversation piece whenever anyone visits our house. Once they spot the bobble heads lined up the next inevitable comment is, “Wow, I bet you have every bobble head they ever made”.

This comment has become a painful reminder that my collection is not complete. My collection has two prominent holes that I have begun to think may never get fulfilled. I refer to this as the “Bobble Head Dark Ages”.

It was a painful time in history, one that still haunts me to this very day. The year was 2005 and the Arizona Diamondbacks were just a season removed from their worst year in the history of the franchise.

The Diamondbacks promotions schedule was rather barren with nary a bobble head to be seen. I had thought 2004 was bad with just one bobble head of the injured Richie Sexon but in 2005 the bobble head fountain ran dry, at least for adults.

The “at least for adults” was the key phrase. In 2005 the Arizona Diamondbacks had a fan loyalty program for children that rewarded them with points for each game they attended. Two of the prizes available were bobble heads just for the kids.

There was one for right fielder Shawn Green and another for third baseman Troy Glaus. Alas, my kids did not attend enough games to receive the points necessary to earn these rewards. It is a painful reminder of what might have been.

I’ve continually searched for these elusive two bobble heads but so far my quest has gone for naught. I have about come to the conclusion that I would have better luck searching for the Holy Grail than I am for these two bobble heads.

One day my patience and diligence will pay off. On that day when I place these last two bobble heads amongst their peers there will be a great celebration. I’ll put on my Diamondbacks jersey then nudge the desk and begin to do the bobble head shuffle.

The men in the white coats may come and take me away wearing a white and Sedona Red straight jacket but it will be worth it to see all the boys together to remind me of those wonderful days I spend at the ballpark nodding happily with each pitch thrown.

Jeff Summers

Just a digital guy in an analog world pondering the metaphysics of baseball and whether the knuckleball defies Newton's first law of motion.

2 Comments

  1. Max

    i’d heard those “2 lost bobbleheads” glaus / green are minis. i dont know if thats any consolation to us who will never get them. as soon as they opened up the “bobbleworld” i was floored to see there was indeed bobbles that id didnt have given out in 05. and what a bummer as that was the first full year i’d lived in AZ.

    Reply
    • Jeff Summers

      Great, now I’m on a quest to find midget bobble heads. Well at least I now know what I am up against. If I get a lead on any of these I will definitely let you know.

      Reply

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Jeff Summers

Jeff Summers

Baseball Epistemologist

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