2 More Treasures From The National

When I arrived home from The National in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, I was faced with the daunting task of organizing and storing all of the cards that I brought back with me. After writing the blog post for a particular group of cards, I put them away in binders and/or boxes.

This routine continued for around a week as I wrote 7 posts recapping my purchases at the show. It took a significant amount of time, but last week, I completed this mini-project and put all the cards from The National where they belong.

This isn't the time to get into the topic of organization, so I'll save that for a potential post later on. Still, with all the cards that I needed to properly store, I completely forgot about 2 treasures that I picked up at the show.

At any given Baseball card show, 99% of what I purchase is cards while the remaining 1% is memorabilia. It's not that I don't like adding unique items to my collection. Rather, I usually choose to focus primarily on cards, and memorabilia is often over-priced anyways.

The 2 bobbleheads at the top of this post, however, were far from over-priced, and they're exactly the type of memorabilia that I'm looking for. Most of the walls in my card room consist of Red Sox and Cubs items, so bobbleheads are my best bet when I'm hunting for pieces of memorabilia.

One of the many vendors that my Dad and I spoke with at the convention was from the Negro Leagues History foundation. He had a ton of unique items, ranging from bobbleheads to a Centennial Team postcard set (which we also purchased).

Many of the products were discounted as a show special, so we bought 2 carefully-chosen bobbleheads (we wanted to be sure that everything would fit in our luggage so we didn't buy anymore).

Our first choice was a little unconventional, but there's a distinct reason behind our decision to purchase a Leon Day bobblehead. I don't believe I've shown this card on the blog before, but I actually pulled an autograph of his from the 1994 Ted Williams Card Company set. 

The box was only $15 and is dated well before the days of certified autos, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to land that card. Now, I have a beautifully-done bobblehead to pair with the on-card auto. 

The vendor had 1 bobblehead of each player outside of the box and on display, so I got to examine the piece of memorabilia before I brought it home. The attention to detail is absolutely superb, more so than any other bobbleheads that I've ever seen before.

I'm not usually this captivated by Baseball cards or memorabilia, but I've never seen anything quite like these bobbleheads before in my life. They're just so unique that I can't help but regret not buying more when I had the chance (the vendor sold out on Saturday, August 5th). 

While we pondered buying the Leon Day bobblehead for a little bit, neither one of us hesitated in buying one of Josh Gibson, one of the most iconic players in the history of the Negro Leagues. 

Like the Leon Day bobblehead, a certain card in my collection inspired my Dad and me to buy one of Josh Gibson as well (we have a Josh Gibson stadium seat relic from Griffith Stadium from the 2005 Bowman Heritage set).

Whoever designed these bobbleheads put a ton of effort into capturing each and every detail. I can't say enough positive things about these beautiful pieces of memorabilia. The design is great, the boxes feature information about the player, and they're perfect and unique additions to my bobblehead collection.

Most importantly, they shed light on an important and oftentimes overlooked part of Baseball history. Guys like Gibson, Day, Satchel Paige, Ray Dandridge, and countless others impacted today's game in many ways, even though most Negro League stars never had the chance to play in the MLB.

The bobbleheads and the dealer from the Negro Leagues History foundation gave me even more insight into the Negro Leagues and its players, and that was possible thanks to The National. 

I just hope they'll be back at the show next year because I'd love to pick up even more collectible items created by this fabulous foundation.

My BoSox Bobbles

Although I'm sadly unable to make the championship parade tomorrow at 11:00, I'm still in a state of shock from the events of 2 days ago. That final strikeout is going to be replaying in my head for years and years to come.

Still, I'm not going to be celebrating Boston's World Series victory on the blog for all that time, so it's time for me to move on, gradually that is. I still have a Red Sox-related post lined up for today, and that's putting all my Red Sox bobbleheads on display.

Personally, bobbleheads are some of the funniest pieces of memorabilia a collector can have. Whether you attend a game with a bobblehead giveaway or you find one at a card show, shop, or yard sale, I don't think there's any piece of memorabilia out there that's more fun to have in your collection than a bobblehead, and if you have a group of them, that part's even better.

The bobblehead at the top of this post is of Red Sox legend Manny Ramirez and is from a giveaway at Fenway Park back in June of 2017 when the Twins came to visit. While I have a few more that I'm about to show, Manny's bobblehead is definitely one of my favorites of the group.

Contrary to the Manny Ramirez bobblehead, the one of Pedro Martinez, another legend from the 2004 curse-breaking team, was not a promotion at a Red Sox game but rather a card show pickup. In fact, I picked up the exact same bobblehead of Ken Griffey Jr. a couple years later. I can't say I know what company made these, but I'm a huge fan of the detailed ticket stub design that Martinez is standing on.

A closer look at the ticket shows that it's from a game 5, likely the 5th game of the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees. With the seat information at the top and the details throughout the entire ticket, it truly does resemble an actual ticket from an MLB game pretty well.

While I can't say I'm certain which bobblehead is my favorite, I can confidently declare which one is my least favorite, and that one is of former Red Sox fan-favorite Nomar Garciaparra. Not only was he not very well-liked at the end of his time in Boston, whoever made this bobblehead could very well have been trying to scare people by making his skin appear almost green.

I mean, I get that it's from the early 2000's and all where the technology wasn't as great as it is today, but you'd think that whoever manufactured this bobblehead would try to make it look a bit more like Nomar and a bit less like a Halloween decoration.

I suppose I should save the best for last, but Mookie Betts' bobblehead from a June 2016 giveaway was next in my line of Red Sox bobbleheads to have their pictures taken, so it's next in the order in which I'm posting them. 

Without a doubt, Mookie's bobblehead is the coolest given the fact that instead of your usual standing pose, Betts is shown to be making a diving catch over the rightfield wall, all while wearing the alternate home uniforms.

The actual Mookie Betts figure is also able to separate from the wall, though it cannot stand on its own without leaning against something or resting on the table. Therefore, it's best to keep Mookie connected to the short green wall where he belongs.

Next up, the 2nd Manny Ramirez bobblehead is making its appearance with this one being from an Upper Deck set, though I'm not certain what it's necessarily called. All I know is I also have one of these of Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, and I'm also really pleased to see another example of the representation of the red alternate jerseys which are far more interesting to look at, especially on bobbleheads, rather than standard white home uniforms.

The next bobblehead features another member of Boston's 2018 World Series-winning team, All-Star shortstop Xander Bogaerts whose bobblehead is another promotional item from an August 2016 matchup against the Rays. 

As you can see given 3 of the souveniers thus far, when buying Red Sox tickets, I tend to gravitate towards games with bobblehead giveaways. If I'm going to pay Fenway Park prices, I'm definitely going to look for something in addition to a 9 or more inning game.

Okay, so this is a Paw Sox bobblehead and not a Red Sox one, so I suppose I'm slightly bending the rules. However, this was produced and given out for a Pawtucket Red Sox game many years ago in which Jacoby Ellsbury was on a rehab assignment from his injuries. A player with plenty of MLB experience, including many years with Boston, Ellsbury's Paw Sox bobblehead is definitely the most unique of the group for all the reasons above and more.

Although Ellsbury's bobblehead is incredibly unique, Chris Sale's, from an April 2018 game, is downright special. This "K counter" bobblehead is meant to serve as a tracker for all of Sale's strikeouts from 2018 given how many he had in 2017, his first season in Boston. You simply move the dials up or down to indicate an increase in K's.

Even with his limited innings pitched due to shoulder injuries, Sale still fanned 237 batters in 2018 which is where the dial will rest until I presume, Opening Day 2019 where Chris Sale is all but expected to start. Then, I'll reset the numbers back to all 0's, and we'll watch as another baseball season gets underway.

Until then, I have bobbleheads to keep me company and before I know it, the 2019 season will be starting up.

2 days down, only 149 days left to go.