The Joy Of A Completed Project

Last October I went to a Steve Garvey appearance in Ontario. It was then I decided to start my third Great Infield autograph project by getting each one of them on their own baseball. I  got Garv that day,  Ron Cey on Opening Day, and Davey Lopes before a game earlier this year. Bill Russell, maybe the easiest of the four to get, had been eluding me. I missed him in autograph alley once and again at Dodger FanFest.


I was happy when I found out Russell would be signing again in autograph alley on  Friday, July 13. I couldn't wait to get up to Dodger Stadium to finish the project. When I got up there, there was just a handful of people waiting to get the signature. The one auto I had waited the longest to get, in the end only took a few minutes of my time, but it was worth the wait.

The Great Infield Bobblehead Night

Once again I'm a little late on the bobblehead night recap. I'm not sure why, but I'm getting lazier and lazier every time I go to Dodger Stadium. I bring the camera, but I don't feel like taking pictures.  Maybe it's because I'm tired from work, I dunno. 


Anyway, the Dodgers honored the great infield of Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, Bill Russell and Davey Lopes with a mini quad bobblehead on Tuesday, May 29.  Just like the first two bobbleheads before it, this one looks amazing. I've got to praise the artist on this one because the details are nearly perfect. All four bobbles look like the actual player. 

Before the game started, I was getting autographs along with many other Dodger fans. Steve Garvey and Bill Russell were both signing. There were a lot of people waving the bobblehead at them both, and I saw them signing the bottom of the base. I'm not really sure where people expect the guys to sign this bobblehead because it's so small. And that's probably my only complaint about this bobblehead, the size. I really wish they made it a little bigger.

Get A Free Great Infield Quad Bobblehead

From Dodgers.com

Want to get your hands on a free Garvey/Cey/Lopes/Russell Dodger Stadium SGA Quad bobblehead?  Here's how you can get that free Great Infield bobble. From BobblesGalore.com: 


As a thank you for your business, purchase any 4 bobbleheads on BobblesGalore.com from 5/23/2012 to 6/11/2012 and you will receive a FREE Infield Quad player Los Angeles Dodgers 2012 Stadium Giveaway Bobblehead. Just make your purchase of 4 items or more, then once your purchase is complete send us an email at info@BobblesGalore.com requesting the Dodger Infield bobblehead be added to your order (DO NOT ADD THE ITEM TO YOUR ORDER WHEN MAKING YOUR PURCHASE). No charge on the Dodgers Infield Bobble and no extra charge on shipping. Any questions regarding this promotion can be emailed to info@BobblesGalore.com

Player Appearance: Steve Garvey

Dodger legend Steve Garvey made an appearance today at the Walmart in Porter Ranch from 3:30 to 4:30. This event, which was sponsored by Topps, flew under the radar. I hadn't heard anything about it until late last night when Topps posted it on their Facebook page. 


The Walmart in Porter Ranch is just a few minutes from my office, so Tom and I went down there on our lunch break. When we arrived at 3:00 there were only a few people there. We saw Garvey and some Topps reps talking so we figured the signing would start on time. 


At exactly 3:30 Garv sat down and started signing. There were only about 15 people there at the time, so we chit-chatted with him a little and got multiple autographs. I got four pictures signed, including two different 8x10's that Topps provided. I saw one lady there get at least ten things signed. It was one of the easiest autograph I've ever gotten. 

Thanks to Steve Garvey, Toppps and the Porter Ranch Walmart for hosting such a smooth event. It's nice having a Dodger signing in the San Fernando Valley, sometimes I feel like we're the forgotten fans. Big shoutout to Larry, Big Mike and Derek! Nice seeing you guys today.

Another Look At The Infield Bobblehead

Pic via @Dodgers

Just one day after releasing an official picture of the upcoming Orel Hershiser bobblehead, the Dodgers are showing us a nice hi-res pic of the Infield bobblehead, featuing 1B Steve Garvey, 2B Davey Lopes, SS Bill Russell and 3B Ron Cey. I showed a low-res pic of this bobblehead last week, but now that I have better look, I think they've done an amazing job on this one too!  From Garvey's wristband to Davey Lopes' afro to Bill Russells boyish looks and Ron Cey's mustache, everything looks right. Like I've said before, these bobbleheads are getting better and better every year.


Presented by State Farm, the Dodgers will be giving away the Infield bobblehead to the first 50,000 fans in attendance on Tuesday, May 29 when they play the Brewers.

First Look: The Infield Bobblehead

Via Dodgers April 10-15 Playbill

For those of you who made it out to Dodger Stadium this week, you probably were given the first playbill of the year, which has a beautiful black and white picture of the '62 team holding their hats over their hearts on the cover. 


I rarely read the playbill, in fact, when I get it at the front gate I usually toss it in my back seat and don't think twice about it. I had three hours to kill before the game started on Opening Day, so I actually skimmed through it. What caught my eye was on page 3, a picture of the first three bobbleheads the Dodgers are giving away this year. Of course we've already seen the Drysdale/Wills bobble, but this was the first time the Dodgers showed pics of the Orel Hershiser bobblehead and the infield bobblehead of Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell and Ron Cey.


It's a low-res picture, but from what I can tell they did a pretty good job on all of them. Check out Davey Lopes' little afro!  I know the Orel Hershiser is a full-size bobblehead, but I'm not sure about the infield. Either way, I'm very excited about all ten bobbleheads the Dodgers are giving away this season. Don't forget, that first giveaway is in two weeks!

The Joy Of Completing A Project

Back in May, former Dodger Shortstop Bill Russell made an appearance at the local Sports Authority.  It was at that appearance that I decided I was going to work on getting autographs of all four members of the great Dodger infield, First Baseman Steve Garvey, Second Baseman Davey Lopes,  Third Baseman Ron Cey and of course, Russell. I picked up a picture of the foursome, and got Bill Russell to sign.

Two weeks later, I got Steve Garvey's signature. Then in June, I got Ron Cey. The only one eluding me was Davey Lopes. After finding out he would be doing Dodger Day at the LA County Fair on September 15, I realized it falls on a Thursday, the only day of the week I have to be in the office. If I wanted to complete this project soon, I would have to go to Dodger Stadium or take my picture to Frank & Sons.

I decided to take a shot at Dodger Stadium first. Tuesday night Mrs. Dodgerbobble and I met Alejandro at the Ravine, and we headed straight for the Field level. I wasn't down there for more than two minutes, when Davey Lopes walked past me. I had no time to react, I pulled out the picture, handed it to him, and noticed I didn't have my black Sharpie. The other three signatures were in black. Lopes was signing someone else's picture in blue Shaprpie when he grabbed my pic. He signed mine in blue too.  I was a little disappointed that his auto was a different color from the other three, but I was still happy to complete the picture.

While we were at Dodger Stadium, I got a few more autographs:

Maury Wills signing my hat

Maury Wills

Aaron Miles

Aaron Miles on the hat

Clayton Kershaw signed a couple cards for me

There was some innocent flirting going on between Javy and Mrs. Dodgerbobble. Cool! 

He signed the hat.

Kenley Jansen

Mike MacDougal

Scott Elbert

Matt Guerrier on the hat

Guerrier on card

Bullpen coach Ken Howell

I had a great time that night. I completed my infield project. I got a few autographs. I heard some great Beatles tunes. Andre Ethier hit a Grand Slam, and the Dodgers won!

Player Appearance: Steve Garvey

A couple of weeks ago I was driving down Ventura Blvd. in Woodland Hills when I noticed a banner above Porky’s Baseball Cards & Stuff  that read "Steve Garvey Here". I had to find out what was going on. It turned out Porky's was hosting a Steve Garvey autograph session on Saturday, May 21. So I paid for my presale ticket that day which guaranteed me an autograph.

Garvey was scheduled to appear from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm. Porky's is only about 2 miles from my home, so I didn't have travel very far. I arrived at 11:45 and was one of the first people there. Garvey arrived at 12:30 and did a private session in the shop. They finally let people in at 1:10.

It was a great appearance. The line moved smoothly. Mr. Garvey was very friendly. He posed for pictures and chit-chatted with everyone. I decided last week I was going to get a picture of Garvey, Bill Russell, Davey Lopes, and Ron Cey signed by all four of the infielders. I got Russell last week and Garvey today, so I only need Cey and Lopes now.

I had a great time at Porky's today. It was one of the best player appearances I've ever been to. Thanks to TJ and Porky’s Baseball Cards & Stuff for hosting the event. And thanks to Mr. Steve Garvey. I also wanna give a shout out to Alejandro and Andy.

Dodger News And Notes: MLB Takeover

Some Friday night links:

Steve Garvey, Ron Burkle: Dodgers owner? The former Dodger great says he has an investment group put together that would like to buy the team. That group now includes Ron Burkle. So, who is Ron Burkle? Well, he's rich. Forbes estimates his net worth at $3.2 billion. He's also familiar with purchasing a sports franchise. He teamed up with hockey legend Mario Lemieux in buying the Pittsburgh Penguins back in 1999. Garvey says he has six to eight other investors in his group.

Colletti and McCourt haven't talked takeover. Ned Colletti said Friday that he's been in communication with team owner Frank McCourt, but only through texts. They've only discussed roster moves, injuries and on-field issues. They haven't met in person since MLB took over the team, and they haven't discussed the takeover. Ned Colletti says he still considers Frank McCourt his boss.

Selig has support of MLB owners. From Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports:

Selig’s seizure of the team is being guided in part by the concerns and frustrations of many of McCourt’s fellow owners, who fear the devaluation of their own franchises through McCourt’s financial and operational ineptness, sources said Thursday.

Whatever the assurances by McCourt that the Dodgers are not trundling toward ruin, and whatever the assertions by McCourt’s new vice chairman Steve Soboroff that Selig is a misguided, uninformed bully, Selig’s greatest authority lies in the consensus of The Other 29.

Selig spends large portions of his days conferring with owners of the 30 MLB teams, and McCourt’s ownership practices have been picked over by baseball’s executive council, which consists of eight owners, four from each league.

It doesn't seem like the rest of baseball's owners are happy with McCourt's situation. What happens in LA, as well as other major markets, can affect the rest of the league.