Player Collection Bobble Heads

     I was excited when some of the players I collect started having bobble heads issued, and couldn't wait to add them to my collection.  I try to stay under $25 if at all possible, and have been fairly successful with that approach, but at least one will likely remain out of reach.  Dave Henderson was issued a bobble head by the Yakima Bears in 2009.  No clue why they did it, as Hendu never played for Yakima, and they were not an Oakland or Seattle affiliate, but when they surface, they usually sell for over $250.  It is, however, one of the better likenesses I've seen on a bobble head.

     Prior to becoming a coach for the Giants, Roberto Kelly managed their Single-A affiliate in the South Atlantic League from 2005-2007.  He led the Greenjackets to 1st place finishes in 2006 and 2007, and won SAL Manager of the Year honors in 2006.  Kelly's very first bobble head was given away by the Augusta Greenjackets on July 30, 2016.

     Dave Winfield is now represented in bobble head form by 4 of the 6 teams for which he played over his 20+ years in the Majors.  The Padres have now issued three bobble heads for Big Dave.  The one shown here was given away at Petco Park on June 15th, 2003.  There is also a more rare version featuring Dave in a brown jersey.  It tends to be much pricier than the more common white jersey version.  Winfield got one more bobble head from the Padres, a mini, that was limited to 2000 and given away at the 2016 All-Star Fan Fest.  It looks to be 4-5" tall.  I'll probably pick one up after the prices settle down a bit.

      The Yankees bobble head was not a stadium give away (the Yankees still don't seem to care much for Winfield, even all these years later), but rather is an exclusive from Man of Action Figures, a Miami, Florida based action figure store.  They have a large presence online and on eBay.  I am grateful for them as they produced Winfield's only Yankees figure of the man since his retirement.  According to the eBay listing, it is limited to 288 pieces, but can be had for a very reasonable $14.99 + $13.99 shipping (which might seem steep, but it arrived quickly and fully intact).  The Yankees bobble actually reminds me more of Walt "No Neck" Williams than Dave Winfield.

     Toronto honored Winfield with a Blue Jay bobble head on April 7th, 2002.

     Two bobble heads have been issued by the Minnesota Twins for the home town favorite.  The one with the green base was issued on July 22, 2001, in honor of Winfield's Hall of Fame induction.  Given the serial numbers on the laminated card that came with the statue, I suspect upwards of 10,000 of these were given out at the stadium.  The second, with the red base, was given out to Twins season ticket holders for the 2002 season, and is supposedly limited to about 2500 pieces.  As he played for the Angels for a season and a half, I'm hoping to one day see an Angels bobble head issued for Winfield, but I'm not holding my breath for anything from Cleveland.

     Tuffy Rhodes received three bobble heads, all in fairly quick succession, during his time playing with the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes.  I previously posted about the double bobble with Nakamura.  Each of the individual bobble heads was supposed to come with a Buffaloes lanyard (typically for carrying your game tickets), but all I received was the figures.  I haven't been able to track the exact release information, but I suspect these were released (from left to right) in 2001, 2002 and 2003.  I have seen a small figure of Tuffy in his Orix uniform, but I think it is just a statue and not a bobble head.

     I have yet to post anything about my collections of players who share my last name (or derivations thereof), but thus far it seems only one of them has a bobble head to his name.  That would be Josh Pressley.  He was a decent hitting first baseman who bounced around a lot from 1998-2006 before finally hitting the independent circuit where he would spend the rest of his career.  His one statue comes from the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League, where he played for 5 seasons.

Hensley Meulens International League Hall of Fame Induction

     Hensley Meulens spent parts of six seasons in the International League as a player, most notably 1988-1993 with the Columbus Clippers, and 1997 with the Ottawa Lynx.  Once his playing days were over, he returned as a hitting coach for the Indianapolis Indians from 2005-2008.   I don't take much time off work, but this week I made an exception and drove up to Columbus, Ohio, to witness the induction of Sir Hensley "Bam Bam" Meulens into the International League Hall of Fame.  Below is my shaky cell phone video of the ceremony.

     It was a beautiful evening for baseball at Huntington Park, with a season-high crowd of 11,373 turning out for the event.  I guess some of them also showed up to see the Clippers face the Indians (not a good night for Ross Detwiler and the Clippers) or maybe for Sugardale Dime-A-Dog night (10 cent hot dogs!).  In any event, in honor of Sir Bam Bam, the team was giving away these canvas printed plaques covering his career with the Clippers:

     I had really hoped to get a chance to finally meet the man himself, but it just never happened, mostly because I got wrapped up in the game and didn't think to go hang out by the Hall of Fame plaque after the ceremony.  However, he did notice me!  I was sitting in the front row behind the plate, right by the Clippers dugout, wearing my Hensley Meulens San Francisco Giants 2010 World Series away jersey, and he saw me from the second level box where he was sitting with his family and sent this down to me:

     He did smile and wave to me when he came through the dugout onto the field.

     The I.L. Hall of Fame now occupies two of these plaques, so next year they will need to start on a third.  Out front of the stadium is a bronze statue of Harold Cooper, the business man who brought baseball back to Columbus after the Cardinals had moved the previous affiliate (the Columbus Red Birds) to Omaha following the 1954 season.  Cooper bought the International League team in Ottawa and relocated them to Columbus, establishing the Columbus Jets.  Fast Forward to 1970, and unable to work out a deal for improvements to their existing stadium the team was again sold and was moved to Charleston, West Virginia, and became the Charleston Charlies.  The Clippers began in Columbus in 1977, in the same stadium, and in 1984 it was officially renamed "Cooper Stadium".  Harold Cooper is in the upper left corner of the plaque below.  Hensley Meulens is in the lower right.
  

 

  Here is a closeup of 2016's inductees:
    

Player Collecting: Team photos, remember those?

     On the rare occasion that a player collector gets to the end of the line when it comes to traditional baseball cards, having picked up a copy of every different card (documented or not) that exists for a particular player, the yearning to pick up something else persists.  In that situation, the mind wanders to other items featuring player photographs, be they magazines, game programs, pocket schedules or what have you.  Quite possibly the oldest, yet frequently neglected item available to the dedicated player collector is the team photo or team picture.

1869 Peck & Snyder Red Stockings

     Some of the earliest documented baseball cards are actually just team photos, usually tied to a sponsor or business of some sort.  While technology has improved in photography and printing, the same arrangement that existed between teams and sponsors in the 1880s is still alive and well today in the form of team pictures as stadium giveaways and newspaper premiums.  In fact, this is usually the only way team pictures are made available in the present.  And don't think it's just a baseball thing, pretty much every pro and college team sport issues team pictures in some format.

     As a collectible, they are often overlooked for reasons of storage.  In most cases over the last 30 years, team pictures are large.  Usually 11" x 14" or bigger.  In some cases, they are more posters than what one might think of a simply a "photo".  My collection of team photos is only about two years old, but quickly grew to include 20 or so items, ranging from large postcards to posters.  Below are what I have and what I'm hunting for each of my player collections.

Dave Winfield

    Naturally, having played the longest, Winfield has the most team pictures available, especially given that the San Diego Padres started issuing team photos, sponsored by the San Diego Union-Evening Tribube, back in their minor league days as far back as 1964, and continuing with various sponsors through 1995.  As a result, Winfield's entire time as a Padre is covered.  These were generally large photos, measuring 14"x11".

1973 San Diego Padres
(this should have the blue banner at the bottom, but it was trimmed off my copy)

1974 San Diego Padres

1975 San Diego Padres

1976 San Diego Padres

1977 San Diego Padres

1978 San Diego Padres
(I have this one, but it is in pieces, so I'm looking for an intact copy)

1979 San Diego Padres

1980 San Diego Padres
(pretty sure this was taken in front of the Hilton out on Harbor Island Dr.)

The only form I can find the 1980's & early 1990's New York Yankees team photos are in the form of these stadium giveaway mugs.  You can see several of them here:

New York Yankees Fan Day mug SGA Collection 1977 - 1995

1990 California Angels

1991 California Angels

1992 Toronto Blue Jays - sponsored by MCI

1992 Toronto Blue Jays - issued by The Postcard Factory

1992-93 Toronto Blue Jays /  Maxwell House 5" x 7"

1992 Norman James 1992 World Champions Toronto Blue Jays Poster

1995 Cleveland Indians Photo File
I don't know whether or not there was any kind of official team picture issued for the '95 Indians, but I did finally land this Photo File collage of the team.  I suppose it will have to do.

Hensley Meulens

    Given the Yankees lack of traditionally issued team pictures, most of what I've found for Bam Bam have been minor league team pictures.  These are typically stadium giveaway items from the first couple of months into a season.

1987 Prince William Yankees

In the case of the 1990 Columbus Clippers, the team photo was combined with one of their yearly baseball card sets.

In 1992, the Columbus Clippers issued several posters featuring the team in the throwback uniforms of previous teams to play in Columbus.  Each poster contained a photo of the 1992 team along with a few historical photos of players from the earlier team.

1992 Columbus Buckeyes poster

1992 Columbus Senators poster

1992 Columbus Red Birds poster

1992 Columbus Jets poster

1992 Columbus Clippers poster



1993 Columbus Clippers - sponsored by Nickles Bakery and Jolly Rancher
  Unfortunately, Hensley Meulens face is semi-obscured by a printing/ink issue.

2005 Indianapolis Indians - Team Picture Night, 29 April 2005

2006 Indianapolis Indians - Team Picture Night, 21 April 2006, sponsored by Pepsi & BAND-AID, first 4,000 fans.

2007 Indianapolis Indians - Team Picture Night, 20 April 2007, first 4,000 fans.

2008 Indianapolis Indians

2012 San Francisco Giants - 18" x 12"

Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes

   Despite playing pretty much the whole season with the Tucson Toros in 1990, Rhodes did not make the team picture that season.

1991 Tucson Toros - Sponsored by Hinckley & Schmitt.

1993 Omaha Royals

Roberto Kelly

1993 Cincinnati Reds - The Reds issued these team photos consistently (and with the same basic design) from at least 1967-1998.  The photos were usually given away with a sponsor's coupon attached.  The design changed in 2000.

1997 Seattle Mariners - Two posters were produced, one measured 11"x14" and  was sponsored by the Seattle Times & J.C. Penney.  The other was 9.5"x14" and was given away at Safeco Caravan stops in the offseason.

1999 Texas Rangers - This poster was sponsored by AT&T.

Dave Henderson

1982 Seattle Mariners - 8" x 10"

1983 Seattle Mariners - sponsored by Showbiz Pizza

1984 Seattle Mariners - 14" x 8.5" poster

1991 Oakland Athletics - poster sponsored by Kodak

2014 Oakland Athletics 1989 World Champions 25th Anniversary

Bernardo Brito

1990 Portland Beavers

1991 Portland Beavers

1992 Portland Beavers?

1993 Portland Beavers (Smoky Bear 50th)

Dann Howitt

1987 Modesto A's - 10.75" x 8.25"

Steve Howard

1985 Modesto A's

1987 Huntsville Stars
       The highlight is that Walt Weiss is making a face at the camera dead center in the second row.

1990 Columbus Clippers Team Issue Perforated Stadium Giveaway

      As a follow up to this post, I was finally able to acquire a copy of the full 1990 Columbus Clippers set that was given away at Cooper Stadium in 1990 as a single perforated sheet.  Sponsored by Kodak and the local Nickles Bakery, the set was topped with a team photo and included 25 cards.  At the bottom of the sheet are two coupons, one for a "free" watch (with 8 proofs of purchase from Kodak film) and one to save $20 on photofinishing with purchase of a 35mm Kodak camera.

     Here is the checklist, organized by uniform number (not necessarily how they are arranged in the uncut set):

NA Team Photo
2 Mark Wasinger
4 Jim Walewander
9 Oscar Azocar
13 Bob Davidson
14 Jim Leyritz
16 Dave Sax
18 Andy Stankiewicz
21 John Fishel
22 Stump Merrill MGR
23 Darrin Chapin
24 John Habyan
25 Dave Eiland
26 Jason Maas
27 Mark Leiter
28 Kevni Mmahat
29 Van Snider
30 Rich Monteleone
31 Hensley Meulens
34 Brian Dorsett
35 Steve Adkins
37 Kevin Maas
38 Rob Sepanek

40 Jimmy Jones
44 Clay Parker
NNO Clete Boyer / Stump Merrill / Ken Rowe / Trey Hillman / Mike Heifferon (Coaching Staff)

     Currently, this set is not cataloged by Beckett (though I did recently send them the set information), but is is cataloged by the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards.  I've also posted the checklist to SportsCardForum.com, Zistle.com and TradingCardDB.com.  The three copies I received from a seller on eBay all had a fairly significant bit of corner damage to the cards on the corners of the set when it was folded.  Most of that looks to be old wear, and not a result of shipping.  I guess people weren't so keen to take care of minor league sets of this nature as they might have been for the similar Lykes-sponsored Atlanta Braves sets that were issued in the 1990s.  As a result, finding copy of the set in mint condition is unlikely.

Team-Issued Stadium Give-Away Sets in Japan (Part II)

** POST IN-PROGRESS **

(expect this to be a very long post)

     To follow on to the previous post on team-issued sets from Japan, I'm going to list all the sets I've dug up so far and ask that if anyone has information on any set not listed here, please drop me a line.  This post will serve as a to-do list for building checklists, a plea for new information and a list of what I've discovered so far.  I'll add thumbnail scans when I find them and a * next to those that have at least partial checklists in the Inventory Manager at SportsCardForum.com.

     Credit for a very large portion of these checklists (and sample scans) goes to the Antique Baseball Shop blog in Japan.  If you are interested at all in Japanese player pins, that blog is a gold mine.  It's also hugely useful for promo cards.  The news pages for the individual teams also yielded a lot of information for cards that were distributed at specific games as promotions.

Team-Issued Stadium Give-Away Sets in Japan

     As I've mentioned frequently here, a major source of frustration for the player collector (and probably for the type-card collector as well) is the lack of documentation for certain areas of the hobby.  An excellent example of this problem are the team-issued cards given away at the ballparks in Japan.  Most teams have been issuing cards, often multiple sets a year, for decades now, but these represented a major gap in contemporary price guides and checklist catalogs.  Gary Engel has included a few in his books, but mainly just Orix BlueWave sets due to the inclusion of Ichiro. When I asked him about it he explained that his interests tended more toward the vintage areas of the Japanese hobby, and that with all the still-undocumented vintage issues he still had to cover, and not having the resources of the likes of Sports Collectors Digest in its prime, he didn't have the time to spare to modern team-issued sets.  Given how much effort it has taken me to simply compile and translate checklists for mainstream sets each year, I understand his point completely.