Bobbleheads

I don't know whether it's possible to have such a thing as a legitimately impressive bobblehead collection, but I think ours is hilarious.  Here it is:

1. The Brewers' general manager.  This is exactly like taking your child to Disneyland, and buying her a figurine of Walt Disney instead of Winnie the Pooh or Cinderella or whoever.  It doesn't do any good to tell her that without Walt Disney, there would be no Cinderella.  I know that Doug Melvin is awfully important.  Does that mean I want his mustachioed face nodding at me from the shelf?  Not really!  I want the guys who actually play baseball!  Doug Melvin's bobblehead is even on his cell phone, as if he's too busy deciding who to cut and who to trade for to give me the time of day.

2. Worst idea for a bobblehead ever?  A nice, fat hot dog, flesh-colored, that stands about yea high, and bobs up and down, up and down ... WHAT WERE THEY THINKING??  Okay, to be fair, it makes a little more sense when you realize this guy is one of the famous Miller Park Racing Sausages, whose companions are the Brat, the Polish Sausage, the Italian Sausage, and the Chorizo.  It's an actual character with an actual tradition, not just ... a fat flesh-colored bobbling hot dog.  Still, one wonders if there was a missing step somewhere between the idea of the hot-dog-bobblehead, and actually placing an order to China for fifty thousand of them (to be handed out at Miller Park on free bobblehead day), that would have made someone scream No! This is a bad idea!!

3. Not pictured: Craig Counsell in a Diamondbacks uniform.  I think I may have left this one in Arizona when I moved.  Hopefully it is safe at my parents' house and I can retrieve it. 

4.  Craig Counsell in a Bierbrauer uniform.  That's right: Craig Counsell accounts for half of our bobblehead collection.  What makes this funny is that it's Craig Counsell.  He's days away from turning 41, with a batting average around .151, whose recent 0-for-45 streak at the plate was poetically described in the newspaper as "a gut-wrenching run of futility."  Not exactly the Brewers' star player.  On the other hand, this bobblehead was also the main reason we made the trip to Milwaukee this weekend.  Craig Counsell happens to be my favorite baseball player of all time.  Yes he is.  I loved him when he played on the D-backs World-Series-winning team, so much so that when my then-boyfriend Anders heard he was being traded, he hastened to secure me Bobblehead #3 (see above).  It turned out, of course, that he was traded to Wisconsin.  So, I came here too.

Okay, it wasn't just for Craig that I moved to Wisconsin.  Definitely a bonus though.  So when we heard that Craig Counsell Bobblehead Day landed on our anniversary weekend, and that the forecast showed the most perfect weather conditions ever to grace the planet, we went for it.  Craig Counsell Bobblehead Day also landed on German Heritage day - thus "Bierbrauer" instead of "Brewers" on the jersey.

And my goodness, was it a lovely weekend.  We spent Saturday night with Anders' sister Anika and her husband Jon, in the Chicago suburb where they live.  There was just enough time that night to go out for ice cream and then engage in a hotly-contested game of Settlers that made Anders vow never to play the game again (sober).  Yesterday all four of us went straight to Milwaukee and tailgated.  The temperature at game time was 73.  The sun was continually in and out of great big white clouds, and the breeze was gentle, cool, and nearly continuous.


Plus, the Brewers won.  So our newest bobblehead was well worth the trip.