Finally, A Yankee Bobblehead SGA

When I heard the Yankees were having a bobblehead give away this season, I was beside myself. As The Rock might say, "Finally, Boobleheads Have Come Back To Yankee Stadium!" I  started the bobblehead collecting only a year ago, long after the Yankees stopped giving them out. The Yankee Legends bobbles were given out at Columbus Clipper games while the Yankees just stuck with the current player.

But on Wed, Sept 19th at 7:05pm, against the Blue Jays, The Yankees will be giving away a Snoopy Bobblehead, sponsored by MetLife. The Yankees just released a picture of it this past weekend. The booble looks like the one given away by the San Fransisco Giants, last year I think. The bat is magnetic, so it comes out of Snoopy's paw.

I do like the fact they painted him in the blue Yankee batting practice jersey, with home pinstripe pants and black shoes. He has the Joe Cool look with the sunglasses and Yankee cap. The past few years, The Yankees have been giving out plush Snoopy dolls, so this is a fantastic replacement to that.

I am definately looking forward to the give away and will be buying my ticket in advance and taking the day off work. You can bet there will be a lot of ebay'ers lining up early  as the bobblehead is limited to the first 18,000 fans in attendence. If the Snoopy bobbles given away by the Giants went for a lot on ebay, you can bet that this one might sell for as much, maybe more.

This bobblehead would look great in my collection alongside my custom Woody Yankee bobble and my Mickey Mouse Yankee All Star Statue. I hope the Yankees give away Charlie Brown and Lucy as well in the upcoming seasons to complete the collection.

Recent TTM's

 The past week, about 4 of my TTM requests came back signed. 3 that I'm thrilled to get back and 1 that came back damaged. Let's get right into it.

Barbara Eden signed 2 photos for me in just about a month's time. As a kid, I was a huge fan of I Dream Of Jeannie and watched it whenever it was on. Plus, I had a huge crush on Jeannie and often wished I was Major Tony Nelson. Of course, my young mind didn't get that the show was not first run and had been off the air for about 6 to 7 years at that point, but I didn't care. I needed my Jeannie fix. I later watched Eden in Harper Valley PTA, but to me, she will always be Jeannie.

This just arrived today. Mort Walker signed and sketched Beetle Bailey for me on my sketch card. This took under a week and I'm thrilled to get it back. I grew up, just like most of you reading Beetle Bailey or Hi and Lois in the newspapers. I still read Beetle Bailey to this day. I almost asked for Sarge, but I think Beetle was the wa to go.

I am a huge Kevin Smith fan. Seen just about all his films, save for Zach and Muri and Red State. I've read most of the comics he's written and I listen to his podcasts. I knew at some point I had to find a way to add him to my collection. I was in Nyack, NY at a comic store and found an issue of Evil That Men Do and bought it for a quarter, specifically to send it out. I also had him sign my Clerks dvd insert. At some point, I do want to buy a signed movie poster from Jay and Slent Bob's Secret Stash and start an autograph project. Just trying to figure out which movie.

And here is the disapointing return. I got Yankees pitcher David Phelps to sign 2 photos in under a week, right before they left on their current west coast road trip. I noticed the envelope was real dirty. when I opened it, I saw the pics and was upset. If you look closely, the color seems off on them and in the top one, it seems "streaked". The backs of these pictures were also dirty. I'm wondering if they got trampled on at some point and the fronts got dirty. I'm hoping it's not the paper I used. I usually use Staples photo paper, but Staples had a sale on HP paper, buy one get one free and I stocked up. Lets see if the others in this batch come back the same way. I'll have to get another request out to Phelps sometime soon.

I will be getting another batch of requests out this week. Hope this short week has a lot of great returns stuffing my mailbox.

5/26/2012-Rusty Staub Bobblehead Day

So, yeah. I went to Citi Field again for another Mets bobblehead. I just can't resist a bobblehead, especially if its free. I may not root for the team, but I will display the bobblehead with the other Mets bobbles I already have.

It was a beautiful day for baseball. 80 degrees and sunny. I got to the ballpark to meet my buddy at 10:45 am and got on line. I decided to wear my Jets Neil O'Donnell jersey. I was going to wear my Red Devils Marty Brodeur tshirt to celebrate my Devils making their 5th trip to the Stanley Cup Finals, but I was "advised" not to. When I saw the first 5 Devils tshirts at the game, I kind of regretted the decision. But I had a steady flow of Jets fans complement the jersey. Whenever I go to a Mets game, I always wear a Jets jersey or t shirt because I still remember going to my first Jets game as a kid at Shea and I wear Jets gear to celebrate that.

I had never been to the Pepsi Porch before, so I went to watch a bit of batting practice up there

No balls were hit up there this time, so after an hour, my friend and I went down to hang out a little. Former Met Art Shamsky was signing in the Verizon Area. I wasn't aware of the signing and left the Mets 50th anniversry 8x10 at home, so I didn't wait on line for the auto.

As for the game, Johan Santana pitched a complete game  4 hit shutout as the Mets beat the Padres 9-0 behind home runs by Scott Hairston, Vinny Rottino and a grand slam from Mike Nickeas. During whch, I ate a Tex Mex Burger, Ice Cream and drank a bud and 2 sodas. Yep, quite the fatty. I will be paying for this on the treadmill this week.

Now on to the bobblehead.

Up first is the box, with 2 vintage shots of Staub on the box.

Now the bobblehead. The paint job isn't the greatest, but it's still a pretty nice bobblehead. I think Rusty is wearing one of the Mets road uni's from the 70's/80's. I want to say late 70's because it would keep with the theme of picking Staub for the Met of the 70's bobblehead.

Again, I think it's a pretty nice bobblehead, sponsored by Geico. I just think there were other Mets they could have given this slot to like Tug McGraw or Jerry Koosman.

The next Mets bobblehead give away is of Keith Hernandez. Not sure I will make that one. But knowing me, I will try to make it, I might try to complete the set just for the heck of it. There is no pic of the bobble up on the Mets website just yet, but I'm sure it will be a nice one. I just hope it has Mex wearing the blue Mets road tops instead of the ugly Mets home unis that had the racing stripes going down the sides.

I do have an extra for trade. I found an extra that was left behind. People were also leaving these on the staircase bannisters, but without the bat, so I let my buddy grab those. If intrested, let me know in the comments section. I'm looking for Yankees, Jets, Devils, Knicks, Mascots and HOF player bobbleheads. Would consider a superhero figurine as well.

5/15/2012-Mets vs Brewers Citi Field

Let me start off this entry by stating that I am in no way a Mets fan. However, I am a fan of baseball and will go see a game just about everywhere I can. My buddy Mark shares season tickets for the Mets and will invite me to a game every so often. Today, I had a purpose though.

I went to Tom Seaver bobblehead day back in April. The game was rained out and the crowd that was waiting to get in kinda got antsy with chants of "Bobblehead, Bobblehead" ringing out. To pacify the unruly mob, vouchers were given out to be cashed anytime at any field level fan assistance booth before June 1st. Of course, I find out a half an hour after we left that they rescheduled the give away for a nother Saturday. Whatever. I had my voucher and was happy.

I get to Citi Field first. The weather wasn't the greatest and I was worried the game would get rained out yet again. This time the weather held up and I was able to go inside.

As soon as we got in, I went straight to the field level fan assistance booth and snagged my bobblehead. Once I retrieved it, we went to grab some grub. Some of the best places to eat at Citi Field are Shake Shack (Line is always way too long) and Mex Grill, which are Keith Hernandez owned burger grills (try the Tex Mex burger. They are awesome!) Thi time, however, the Mex Grills were closed so I opted for a cheeseburger deluxe at the regular vending windows. Afterward, we went up to our seats.

Pretty sweet seats right above home plate. Like at Shea, the upper deck is pushed back and not hanging over like it is at Yankee Stadium, so it looks further than it actually is.

We sat and watched the Brewers pound the crap out of the Mets. When the score was 8-0 late in the game, we made our way to the Mets Hall Of Fame. I took a lot of pics.

Polo Ground seats

Gary Carter's jersey

Shea Stadium seats

Shea Stadium dedication plaque

Original Mr. Met head and uniform

Mets Hall of Fame members

1969 World Series Trophy

1986 World Series Trophy

When I got home, I opened up the bobblehead box to take a closer look at my newest addition

Both the front and back of the box had pictures of Tom Seaver.

The side pannels were both the same. Colored in Mets Blue and Tom Seaver Bobblehead printed in orange lettering

And heeeeeeerrrreee's Tommy

CitiBank sponsored the bobblehead, which shows Seaver in the old school Mets pinstriped uni. The head seems to be leaning front a bit too much. Not sure if it's just mine or were all like that.

Here's what opposing hitters probably looked at...if Tom Seaver was a bobblehead.

And the back with his familiar number 41. Neck is a bit too ET-ish in this shot.

Overall, I really like the bobblehead. The face looks alot like Tom Terrific. The pose they picked is great and the paint job on it is very good as well.

During the season, the Mets will give away 4 more bobbleheads. Rusty Staub is next week (why not a Tug McGraw or Ed Kranepool?) and later Keith Hernandez (usually, I would say good choice, but all things considered, Gary Carter would have been a better choice), Edgar Alphonso (really?) and Mike Piazza. I will probably try to make it out to all of them since I just can't turn down a bobblehead. Hopefully, the rest will look as good as the Seaver did.

Recent TTM Sucesses

During the past weeks, I have been writing a bunch of autograph request letters and sending 4x6 photos with the letters. I haven't writen letters like this in a long, long time. I have to admit, I miss TTM'ing, so I try to get out at least 10 letters a week to various sports stars, actors and wrestlers. The successes are starting to trickle back in, slowly but surely. Here's who I've gotten back so far.

Ed Asner:

I was thrilled to see that Lou Grant signs TTM, but I didn't send out any Lou Grant photos. Here's what I sent out and got back signed.

The Spidey fanatic in me loves this photo. Too bad the it looks like the gold ink was dying on the pen he used.

This one is my favorite of the 3. Loved the movie Up and was thrilled he wrote a line from the movie on the pic. Awesome success!

John Astin:

Always been a fan of John Astin. A friend of mine got his auto and shared the address with me. Within a a week I got these 2 pics returned to me and signed.

Always loved him as Gomez Adams and was so happy to get this picture signed. Wish he used a Sharpie instead of a pen, but no matter. Just real happy to get this back.

As a huge, huge fan of the 1966 Batman series, getting this autograph thrilled me to no end. Another add to Project: Superhero.

Walter Flanagan

I'm a huge fan of Kevin Smith and his View Askew Universe. Walt Flanagan is a huge part of it, having been in most of Smith's movies. As a childhood friend of Smith's, he is the manager of Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash comic store, one of the star's of AMC's Comic Book Men and co-hosts Tell 'Em Steve-Dave podcast with Bryan Johnson.

Signed this shot of him wearing the Mooby's sweatshirt, behind the counter at The Secret Stash.

Signed the Mallrats poster. He played "Fanboy" in it, getting into it with Brodie while on line at the comic store.

This is so cool. For those who don't know, Flanagan is also a comic book artist, having done Batman: Cacophony, which was written by Kevin Smith. I think Smith and Flanagan will be doing another Batman story soon. I sent this artist card with the photos and he did a Batman sketch on it. Very cool piece.

Some very cool returns the past 2 weeks. I have more going out this week and hope to get more in as well. Stay tuned.

League Of Extraordinary Bloggers: The Ultimate Crossover Event

Thanks to the success of The Avengers, this weeks league assignment was a simple one:

What pop culture heroes or stories would make for the ultimate crossover–think along the lines of Han Solo meeting up with Firefly’s Mal on a smuggling run.

It took me a while to think of something. Something along the lines of Spider-Man fighting Doc Ock with Daredevil or Luke Skywalker fighting the Vulcans with Capt. Kirk. I wanted something epic. Something no one had ever, would ever come up with. Something worthy of League status and I think I finally came up with something.

Imagine with me, if you will.

Gotham City. Commissioner Gordon is waiting by the Bat Signal. Batman arrives by Bat -Rope. Gordon explains the Joker's escaped Arkham Asylum and has begun posioning Gotham's fish supply to try to market his own brand of Joker Fish. Gordon wants Batman to put a stop to the Clown Prince Of Crime's latest crime spree. Batman explains he might need some help on this one as he is not an expert on marine life. He would bring Aquman to help. Gordon informs him he came up with someone better. From a distance, a Tarzan like yell is heard through the night. Looking up, Batman and Gordan see a man, bent over, talking out of his butt.

Batman

Meet Ace Ventura, Pet Detective

This has money maker written all over it. Imagine the frustration Ace would cause Batman as he would get in the way of all Batman's interrogations with faces or imitaions of famous celebrities.

If he needs Ace to drive the Batmobile, covered

Or infiltrate the Joker's gang, check

Between Batman and Ace Ventura, The Joker hasn't a chance. Think we have a hit here.

Please check out my fellow League members here:

http://coolandcollected.com/the-league-of-extraordinary-bloggers/league-members/

Happy reading!