A much desired bobblehead and a couple of SLU's

Let me start off by saying that I am not really a fan of bobblehead's. It's not that I dislike them, it's just the fact that the idea of them has never really appealed to me. That was until I found out there was a bobblehead of Satchel Paige in a Portland Beavers uniform. I should probably mention that before this I had all of one bobble in the form of Harley Quinn that I got early last year on clearance. I bought it because it was Harley Quinn, not because of her bobbling head.

Anyway back to Mr. Paige. This figure was a giveaway at a Portland Beavers game in 2002. But I only became aware of it's existence thanks to an unrelated ebay search about two years ago and have looked for it off and on ever since. They don't seem to come up very often and when they do it's usually for around $25-30, which is more than I wanted to pay. So fast forwarding to a couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate to win this one via an auction for around $14 shipping included. It didn't come with the box, which wasn't a big deal. It was nice to see that it looked even better in person as well, since giveaways can sometimes be lacking in quality. It is also much heavier than I would have imagined.

Hopefully the pictures are alright, we have had snow again for the last couple of days which makes for really bad lighting.

I don't know if anyone cares, but here are few more angles:

Portland has never really been a big baseball town, despite having a minor league team (they left in 2011) that has had a plethora of former and future big time names playing for the club over the years. Satchel Paige joined the Beavers in 1961 at the age of 55 for a little less than three weeks. His best days were far behind him, so he was really only brought in to help boost attendance for the team and of course to earn a paycheck for himself. He ended up pitching a total of 25 innings with the team going 1-4 during his outings, he finished with 19 strikeouts and gave up 18 earned runs. But the hopes of boosting attendance worked, both at home and on the road as a lot of people showed up to see him even during the games he didn't play in. And of course he provided the crowds with plenty of entertainment (as he did everywhere he played), including sitting in a rocking chair outside of the dugout to poke fun at his age.

It would have been neat if the Beavers would have done more bobbles for other past players. I personally would have loved to own a Jim Thorpe bobblehead.

I got some Starting Lineup's a few months ago off of Sportlots and figured they would sort of fit in with this post. They all came in very beat up packages, but that just meant that they could be had for a much cheaper price. I can't remember the last time I got any SLU's, if I had to guess though, it would have to be around 15-20 years ago. I bid on a few more from this same seller, but these were the only ones that stayed cheap.

These first two are from the Cooperstown line.

Up first is Tris Speaker:


I really like how they made the figure depicting his later career. I don't know how well you can see it, but he has gray hair and eyebrows.

Up next is Buck Johnson (in a very cool Homestead Grays uniform):

Next we move to basketball with this Larry Legend figure:

This one is from 1988 and therefor looks a little crude as some of the earlier one's did. If this one were in a Mavericks uniform, you would swear it was Brad Davis.

And finally, Wilt and Kareem from one of the Legends lines:

The picture isn't so great, but I think these two look really good. I also like the fact that neither is in a Lakers uniform.

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.