The First Sign of Spring
Forget about your groundhogs or robins or daisies. BallWonk thinks waking up to this sight is the most beautiful moment of spring:
Yes, the start of Grapefruit League baseball heralded by the sudden return of "Today's Scorecard" on my Yahoo!.
Though BallWonk and the WonkPuppy will be lending moral support to Ms. BallWonk at Old Town's St. Patrick's Day Parade on Saturday, other fans will no doubt descend on RFK Canyon National Monument for the opening of single-game ticket sales. Last year's ticket opening was a blast, and this year the Nationals even have a promotional schedule:
Saturday, April 22: Schedule Magnet (Southwest Airlines)
Saturday, May 6: Baseball Cap (Bud Light)
Saturday, June 10: The Chief Bobblehead (PNC)
Friday, June 30: Six-Pack Cooler (Miller Lite)
Friday, July 7: Guillen the Barbarian Bobblehead (PNC)
Saturday, July 8: Visor Fans (Geico)
Sunday, August 13: Screech Bobblehead (PNC)
Saturday, September 30: Team Photo/2007 Schedule (Southwest Airlines)
The Chief and Barbarian bobbleheads are for the first 15,000 fans, and the Screech bobble is for kids only. And the beer-sponsored promotions are for adults 21 and over.
Ah, but to heck with ballpark giveaways and lease agreements and narcissistic secondbasemen and Trader Jim and all of that. There's a ballgame today, and it's on the radio, and spring is in the air.
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hopefully Guillen will actually be on the field for his bobblegame.
I personally wish there was an umbrella night. The one I got last year fell apart after using it a dozen times. Whatever happen to quality when getting free crap? At least I still have my six pack cooler and my floppy hat... ;)
Wish I could listen to the spring training games, but I'm giving up radio for Lent. (I'll save my Chicken Little squawks for Monday.)
Just don't put a bobblehead on a sill of an open window at night. Any breeze will make it move, and in the dim light can scare the bejeezus outta someone... :-)
Justice Hoagie,
Perhaps BallWonk readers can set up a bobblehead exchange when the time comes. Does anyone else find the little spring-headed dolls just a little bit creepy in a low-budget horror movie kind of way?
BW
Just wanted to say what teams the promos are against...
Saturday, April 22: Schedule Magnet (Southwest Airlines)-Atlanta Braves
Saturday, May 6: Baseball Cap (Bud Light)-Pittsburgh Pirates
Saturday, June 10: The Chief Bobblehead (PNC)-Philadelphia Phillies
Friday, June 30: Six-Pack Cooler (Miller Lite)-Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Friday, July 7: Guillen the Barbarian Bobblehead (PNC)-San Diego Padres
Saturday, July 8: Visor Fans (Geico)-Padres
Sunday, August 13: Screech Bobblehead (PNC)-New York Mets
Saturday, September 30: Team Photo/2007 Schedule (Southwest Airlines) -Mets
41-game plan holders (like myself) get screwed here. The best promos (aka bobbleheads) should be given to the fans who buy the most tickets. The 20-game holders bought a little less than 50% of the tickets 41-game holders did, so why do they get the immortal jiggling heads?
BIG news from the WPost today! (see picture from "Nationals" section): Has Ryan Zimmerman switched to #11? I'd like a sweet #11 home jersey to compliment my now lonely #7 away jersey....
I'm sure the new owners will get right on that.
True dat.
Whatever happened to weeknight promotions? Surely the Nationals can come close to filling RFK Canyon National Monument on a weekend night without offering free visor fans, whatever a visor fan is.
Hopefully, the Nationals will add some weeknight promotions during summer vacation to get more families to the ballpark. Where is bat night and kids' batting helmet night? We need a pennant night and a foam finger night, too, or maybe some thunderstick Thursdays. And the Jose bobblehead is nice, but '06 should be the Year of the Barbarian, maybe with a Guillen growth-chart poster like BallWonk remembers the Twins doing with Kirby at least once.
Apparently, if you likes the giveaways, you should get 20-game plan A. You lot get four of them; the 41-gamer gets three, and those of us on plan B only get a lousy Screech bobblehead (assuming we have kids). Booooooooooooo!