Sid Hartman Bobblehead Day!

The Twins are honoring a sports legend (in his own mind and plenty of others as well) in May.  May 18th is Sid Hartman Day at Target Field.  If you want to learn more about Mr. Hartman, click here.  I learned about this bobblehead a couple of weeks ago, but I was in the middle of the my series on the Twins SGA bobbleheads so I've kept this blog post til now.  The Twins announced the giveaway thru a press release that you can read here.  The Twins have said the giveaway is limited to the first 1000 ticket purchases - which means you have to purchase a special ticket in order to get the bobblehead.  Click on this link to get to the special ticket page.  This will be the 3rd Hartman bobblehead that I know of and should be a pretty popular one among Minnesota sports fans.  I'm excited to add this one to my collection!

Minnesota Twins SGA Bobblehead Set (Part 13 - Year 2013)

Since the Twins skipped 2012, I'm skipping it too and moving right onto 2013 and the 2, err...3 bobbleheads they gaveaway.  The first was of Josh Willingham...and instead of a bat, he's holding a "hammer."  It's one of the more unique bobbleheads the Twins have done or at least not the typical versions they've done in the past.  Then they gave away a double bobblehead of Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau.  Again, a unique bobblehead!  

Minnesota Twins SGA Bobblehead Set (Part 12 - Year 2011)

2011 brought the 20th anniversary of the 1991 World Series the Twins won...and one of the most infamous plays in World Series history is depicted on the 2011 SGA bobblehead.  It shows Kent Hrbek tagging (or perhaps pulling) out Ron Gant of the Atlanta Braves.  This bobblehead hits a couple different markets.  Not only the Minnesota collectors, but the Braves bobblehead collectors as well, and not to mention World Series collectors.  I love it.  

Minnesota Twins SGA Bobblehead Set (Part 11 - Year 2010)

Target Field opened in 2010 which means this is the first SGA bobblehead in Target Field history. The Twins certainly didn't need to do a bobblehead giveaway in 2010, but they produced a keeper.  The bobblehead replicates one of the main features of Target Field - the Minnie and Paul logo.  Fans loved the bobblehead and the prices you see it sell for second that.

Minnesota Twins SGA Bobblehead Set (Part 10 - Year 2009)

The Twins did something a little different for the 10th season of SGA bobbleheads.  2 of the most popular Twins players are depicted on 2 pretty cool bobbleheads.  The set is commonly known as the "Legends of the Dome" set featuring Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek.  I'll be doing a similar blog series on the Twins season ticket holder bobbleheads, so this set will come up again.  Also each is in a familiar pose, Puckett is leaping for a ball while Hrbek is crushing a home run.  Its a nice touch to have each in an action pose versus the standard standing with a ball/bat/glove!

Minnesota Twins SGA Bobblehead Set (Part 9 - Year 2008)

Ahhh...out with a bang?  No, a thump?  No, not that either...maybe just a lowly whimper?  This set leaves a lot to be desired.  This was the final set of 4 the Twins did as SGAs.  None of these are very valuable. The set includes Dan Gladden, Ron Gardenhire, Rick Aguilera and Delmon Young.  Nothing too interesting or intriguing about this set at all.  Perhaps the whimper this set stirred up caused the Twins to rethink this promotion for future years?

Minnesota Twins SGA Bobblehead Set (Part 8 - Year 2007)

2007 brought 4 pretty decent bobbleheads.  Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer and Gary Gaetti.  Of course the Mauer is the most desirable of the bunch.  Nothing really special about any of these 4, but whenever you have a baby jesus bobblehead, it'll be popular!

Minnesota Twins SGA Bobblehead Set (Part 7 - Year 2006)

In 2006 the Twins released 4 bobbleheads.  Torii Hunter, Brad Radke, Billy Martin, and Jack Morris. The interesting thing about this set is Torii is depicted with his Gold Glove award.  The problem with that...apparently when these were shipping, many were damaged in the process.  Because of that, the Twins exchanged damaged Hunters for new ones.  The difference with the new ones, the Gold Glove award is magnetic (along with his hands).  Therefore the award was not attached to the bobblehead during shipping.  The other problem I've seen with this Torii bobblehead...no matter if its the original or the replacement, unfortunately many of the gold glove awards have been lost and/or damaged.

Minnesota Twins SGA Bobblehead Set (Part 6 - Year 2005)

The 2005 SGA set might be the hardest to complete.  There is a simple reason for that, one that I'll blog more about in the future.  But the short answer is...10 different bobbleheads were given out on the same day...and done so randomly.  So even if you had 10 tickets to the game, you probably didn't get all 10 different bobbleheads.  In my picture below, you'll see the other 3 bobbleheads released in 2005, Jacque Jones, Johan Santana, and Joe Nathan.

Minnesota Twins SGA Bobblehead Set (Part 5 - Year 2004)

The 2004 SGA set is the fifth part in the series of looking back at Twins bobbleheads.  Originally this set consisted of 4 players...and most collectors assume Walter Johnson was the 5th bobblehead.  However, it was actually Joe Mauer that was added to the set.  Johnson is wearing a Washington Senators jersey.  The set includes, Joe Mauer, Shannon Stewart, Walter Johnson, Al Newman and Paul Molitor.  There is another bobblehead that some collectors (if they even know about it) consider an SGA bobblehead.  Its a different version of the Mauer bobblehead and one that I'll blog about in the future. 

Minnesota Twins SGA Bobblehead Set (Part 4 - Year 2003)

Here's the 4 SGA bobbleheads from 2003.  To be totally honest, this set isn't very memorable.  The one thing a little different is AJ is depicted in a catcher's crouch rather than the standard standing position with a glove or bat.

Minnesota Twins SGA Bobblehead Set (Part 3 - Year 2002)

When this set was released, the Doug Mientkiewicz bobblehead was highly sought after.  I've heard its all because of the bubble he's blowing.  That was an oddity and because it, this bobblehead (at the time) went for over $100 alone.  Cristian Guzman, Tom Kelly and Jim Kaat round out the set.  

Minnesota Twins SGA Bobblehead Set (Part 2 - Year 2001)

The Twins knew that had something great with the 2000 set, so in 2001 they released 4 more bobbleheads.  The first 3 were Bert Blyleven, Rod Carew and Dave Winfield.  The final bobblehead in 2001 was a second release of Kirby Puckett.  And again, the Twins knew Puckett would be a sought after bobblehead so they released 15,000 bobbleheads (compared to 10,000 of the other 3 in 2001). One of my favorite bobbleheads is Rod Carew because of the jersey he's wearing - sharp looking bobblehead!

Minnesota Twins SGA Bobblehead Set (Part 1 - Year 2000)

The set that started the bobblehead craze in Minnesota.  To this day, its still the toughest Twins SGA set to complete.  Harmon Killebrew, Kent Hrbek, Tony Oliva, and Kirby Puckett.  Only 5,000 bobbleheads were made for Killebrew and Hrbek, while they upped that amount to 10,000 for Oliva and Puckett.  Theoretically that means there are only 5000 complete sets out there.  This is always why the Killebrew and Hrbek bobbleheads are more spendy that Oliva or Puckett.

A look at the past

I've been pondering blog ideas for a while.  This one has always been in the back of my head but I couldn't do it until I took some pictures. I think this will round into a 13 part series.  What I plan on doing is listing each bobblehead set the Twins gave away by year, starting with the oldest, which was in the year 2000.  These blog posts will be short and sweet.  I'll run down the bobbleheads and probably give out a little tidbit or something on one or more of them.  Hopefully you, the reader, enjoy this series.  As I mentioned, I needed to take pictures, thats because each one is from my own personal collection.

Big Ten Icons

Early in 2013 I was doing some research on University of Minnesota bobbleheads.  I found some information on a Big Ten Network (BTN) set of Icon bobbleheads.  It appears that BTN promoted these bobbleheads in 2010 in connection with a show called Big Ten Icons.  Sidenote: when BTN first launched, I had Comcast and there wasn't an agreement in place so I wasn't able to watch BTN from its conception, but ever since Comcast had BTN in their lineup, I've been a loyal viewer (of course of Gopher sports and related content!) There were 11 bobbleheads in the set, one from each school in the Big Ten (at the time).  Here's a promotional picture of the bobbleheads.

The Gopher bobblehead was of all-time football great, Bronko Nagurski.  I knew I'd like to add this bobblehead to my collection, but the problem was - how?  I scoured the internet for a few months and never found anything.  Well in late 2013, I got lucky!  I reached out to a contact at BTN.  I heard back right away and we emailed several times over the next few months.  He (and BTN) were incredibly gracious and willing to help!  From the emails, I might even say, he was even a bit excited to add to my collection.

I wasn't sure what to expect.  In all the email conversations we had, it seemed like he would do whatever he could to get me the Minnesota bobblehead.  Well...I came home from work the other day and had a package waiting for me...and it wasn't a small box (which is what I was expecting since these were mini bobbleheads).  When I saw who it was from, I was downright giddy...since I wasn't entirely positive what was in there...I was thrilled when I opened the box and saw quite a few little boxes just waiting to be opened!  This is what I found...

Thank you so much to everyone at BTN who helped with this!!  Not only did I get the Bronko Nagurski bobblehead, but each of the other 10 bobbleheads as well - to form a complete set of Big Ten Icons!

The Menards Guy

In a previous post that you can read here, I mentioned I had 2 of these bobbleheads but believed there were 3 total.  I recently found the 3rd one to add to my collection.  Ray Szmanda, better known to those of us in Minnesota as the "Menards Guy" has 3 bobbleheads in his likeness.  Perhaps he has other ones, but these are the only 3 I've come across.

Mini Midway Stadium

Back in 2007 the St. Paul Saints gave out mini Midway Stadiums and this is one of them.  The Saints marketing team is brilliant about their giveaways, but this is just the normal and classic - replica mini stadium!