Bobblehead giveaway days are always popular at Braves games, but you don’t have to wait for the season to start to get a new Chipper Jones or Freddie Freeman figure.
January 7 is National Bobblehead Day, “a day of celebration for all spring-connected head bobbing figurines,” and the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum has unveiled officially licensed figures of Jones and Freeman.
“The bobbleheads are part of the very popular riding bobblehead series and feature Jones and Freeman sitting on a tomahawk, which has been part of the Braves’ logo since the late 1980s,” museum co-founder and CEO Phil Sklar said in an email.
Each bobblehead, manufactured by FOCO, is individually numbered to only 2,020, Sklar said, and costs $40 plus an $8 flat-rate shipping charge.
Chipper Jones
Jones spent his entire 19-year baseball career with the Braves.
“An eight-time All-Star and 1999 National League MVP, Jones is considered to be one of the three greatest switch-hitters along with Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray. He was a mainstay on the Braves’ powerhouse teams of the mid- to late-1990s,” the AJC wrote in 2018 when Jones was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
Jones retired from the Braves in 2012 but became a rookie again in 2020 when he joined ESPN as a game analyst. You can purchase his bobblehead here.
Freddie Freeman
Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman is not only an All-Star but also 2020′s National League MVP.
“The award appropriately capped off the best season of Freeman’s career,” Braves beat writer Gabriel Burns wrote in November. “He hit .341/.462/.640 with 13 homers, an MLB-leading 23 doubles, 53 RBIs and 51 runs scored while playing in all 60 games. The Braves, with Freeman hitting second or third daily, produced arguably the best offense in franchise history. The 31-year-old also added his usual stellar defense.”
Freeman isn’t just a great ballplayer, though. He also is great at giving hugs, as you can see in this photo gallery. You can purchase the Freeman bobblehead here.
Freeman owes a lot to Jones, and we’re not talking about baseball. When Atlanta was hit with a major ice and snow storm that crippled the city, Freeman got stuck on the roads.
“Freeman tried for nearly 11 hours Tuesday to make his way home from Turner Field after going on a Braves caravan visit to Clarkdale Elementary School in Austell,” Carroll Rogers Walton wrote for the AJC.
He gave up after trying to navigate an icy hill near Mansell Road, about 10 miles from where he lives in Roswell, about a half-mile from Jones.
“(He said) he sat there and watched three people wreck cars trying to get up the hill and spinning back down,” Jones said. “He got out to start walking and almost blew out his knee, slipping on the ice. It was really treacherous. He wasn’t wearing enough clothes. He was wearing an expensive pair of dress shoes. It was a recipe for disaster.”
So Jones put on some extra layers and grabbed some clothes for Freeman, then jumped on the all-terrain vehicle he uses for yardwork and set out to rescue his friend.
“He was laughing his rear end off when I pulled up,” said Jones, who was decked out in camouflage and ski goggles. “I came around the corner, and I was hauling the mail. I locked up the brakes and slid around right in front of his truck, and he lost it — especially the way I was dressed.”
And, yes, there was a bobblehead for that, too.
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