Trading Spot Bobbleheads

Yesterday's post featured a hint of what the big box from Florida and Johnny's Trading Spot had in store.  In case you missed it, here's the box that arrived:

You might be able to see in that box a bunch of similar looking boxes. Here's a better look at those boxes:

In total, there were thirteen bobbleheads that were given out at games in 2007 to celebrate the silver anniversary of the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers trip to the World Series. I was a little disappointed that the team did not add at least one giveaway of a Milwaukee Braves bobblehead of some sort that year -- at least as far as I know, at least -- because, after all, 2007 was also the 50th anniversary of the Milwaukee Braves only World Series title (and the city of Milwaukee's only World Series title as well).

In the photo above, you can see that John somehow came up with ten of the thirteen bobbleheads. The Charlie Moore bobble was the first one given out, and I can tell that because that bobblehead has the list of the twelve remaining statues:

From that list, I was able to determine that I need to track down Jim Gantner, Paul Molitor, and Robin Yount.  Considering that, before this shipment, I think I knew that these existed and that was about it, I consider myself very lucky indeed!

And yet, these 10 were not the only bobbleheads in the box.

This statue was a stadium giveaway in 2005 to commemorate Ben Sheets's setting a team record for pitcher's strikeouts in a season with 264. I think that was about 5 more than Jose Hernandez had at the plate a few years earlier.

Stashed amongst my beer glass collection are the final two bobbleheads that John sent my way.  The first was from 2006 and was another stadium giveaway bobblehead of Cecil Cooper. You can see that this bobblehead is a pretty big one considering that Coop is standing next to a normal sized pint glass (either the Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale or the Breckenridge glass).

Then, there's the little guy.  Here's a better look at him:

As you can see, this gold-uniformed dude appears to be from the infamous Milwaukee All-Star Game, which ended in a tie and led to the absurdity that is the current set up of determining home field advantage for the World Series based on an exhibition game.  I think the extender on the back of the cap was meant for a key ring, but that's just a guess.

Believe it or not, these weren't the coolest memorabilia in the box. John also included two magazines.

The top one is a Sports Illustrated (obviously) from spring training in 1958. It's too bad that Mr. Siegel's mailing label can't come off without tearing the cover, but the main story -- despite the fact that the Yankees are the main team featured -- is whether those 1957 Braves were "here to stay." Well, they made it back to the World Series the next fall and lost, so I'm not sure whether you'd answer that question with "yes" or "no."

Inside the magazine, I found some fantastic photos that have to be shared.

The caption for this photo claims that Stan Musial is grinning "boyishly at camera." Looks to me like he's telling the photographer to take a hike.

Here's Henry Aaron taking a pitch low and away at Al Lang Field. The only time I ever went to Spring Training (in 1994), the Cardinals were still training at Al Lang Field in St. Petersburg.

I'm not sure why SI thought the Reds look "chagrined" here. The interesting story might be more about Plant Field. It was built as a horse track in the late 1890s.  Tampa gave travel incentives to lure major league baseball teams to come to train there -- see, corporate handouts are not just a modern invention -- so the Chicago Cubs came to train there from 1913 to 1916.

Even more interesting is that, according to Wikipedia, the Reds stopped using Plant Field as their training facility around 1954, splitting the field with the Chicago White Sox, which were the last spring training tenant at Plant Field and left in 1954.

So what gives? I know -- Wikipedia and historical markers are not always right, but can anyone shine light on this?

Horses and Birds.  Orioles training camp in Scottsdale, Arizona.  Cowboy hats required.

Probably my favorite photo. Three fully uniformed players take a cab from their training camp to the game to play -- spikes, gloves, hats, the whole nine yards. Are their bats in the trunk?  Why wouldn't the team have a bus? Or did they miss it?

I love old magazines.

The other magazine was actually a Program from a Milwaukee Brewers game that occurred early in the season.  The stats on the paper pages in the middle -- where you were supposed to keep score -- stated that they were complete as of April 10, 1977 (after three games had been played).  

Well, here, see for yourself:

What a roster that was.  Look at all the infielders and outfielders, too.  6 outfielders? 8 infielders? 9 pitchers, all of whom were no older than 26 on Opening Day. No wonder that team struggled. As you can also see, Robin Yount was 21 years old on Opening Day 1977. He was in his fourth big league season.

Along side this roster was an interesting little feature about new Brewer Cecil Cooper:

The next page had the same photo of Cooper with a facsimile autograph:

Most of the program is something that only a Brewers fan could love. Well, except for this advertisement:

Yes, there was a smokeless tobacco called "Happy Days."  My grandfather used to chew Copenhagen -- did for most of his life that I knew him -- and boy was that some nasty crap.  

Just as I love old photos from magazines, I love old advertising too. If I had unlimited funds, I'd spend a bunch more money chasing after baseball-related advertising.  It's just cool.

Now, that's a lot of cool stuff that came my way from Ocala. But, believe it or not, there were also a BUNCH of cards in that box too.  

That's what will be featured tomorrow.