Bobbleheads Remain Kings Of Minor Promos

While major league teams spent March tuning up for the regular season in Arizona and Florida, minor league teams were whetting their fans’ appetites by rolling out their promotional schedules.

- Josh Norrris

Those slates are usually populated by things like dollar dog nights, fireworks shows, appearances from roaming entertainers like the Zooperstars or the Cowboy Monkey Rodeo, as well as all sorts of giveaways. But for the last two decades, one item has always leapt off the page: bobbleheads.

The ceramic figurines came to prominence in the minor leagues just after the turn of the century and have continued to grow and evolve with the sport. Teams have gotten more and more creative, and the results are bobbleheads that quickly go viral on social media and draw hosts of fans to the ballpark.

Alexander Global Promotions, based in Bellevue, Wash., is one of the country’s primary bobblehead makers, and they’ve seen the craze grow firsthand. Since their first piece—a Willie Mays version given out by the Giants in 1996—they’ve created more than 50 million bobbleheads and see no signs of the market slowing down.

“Bobbleheads were the first product that I saw that really made sense to me because I said, ‘Of course, someone’s going to want a small version of their favorite player,’ ” Todd Goldenberg, the national sales director for Alexander Promotions, said. “That makes sense. And they can get it for free for going to a game. I saw the future of how this could work.”

What he might not have seen, however, is the series of zany twists and turns the industry has taken over the years. Minor league promotions are a game of continual one-upmanship, and the fans get the benefits of new, unique collectibles every summer. It’s not enough for a team to have a bobblehead of Madison Bumgarner or Buster Posey; it has to have a bobblehead of the player doing something off the wall.