Sandy Koufax mini-statue? His bobblehead leads 2012 promos
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Frank McCourt may be on his way out –- he is, isn’t he? –- but his marketing department remains in full swing.
The Dodgers have announced their promotional schedule for 2012, and it’s jammed with enough fleeces, specialty caps and replica jerseys to keep your local 98-cent store rolling all season.
The granddaddy of baseball giveaways, of course, is the bobblehead, which naturally, the Dodgers have noticed. Noticed to the tune of a record 10 bobblehead games this season.
Only this year, as a link to the team’s 50th anniversary season at Dodger Stadium in their 51st year at Dodger Stadium, instead of Don Mattingly and Andre Ethier bobbleheads, they are going with what they’re calling the Dodger Stadium Greats Bobblehead series.
And the only one they’re announcing up front is Sandy Koufax’s.
They’re going to ‘unveil’ the rest leading up to the season opener. And, yes, the 10 bobblehead days will be available with their own ticket mini-plan. How did McCourt drive this team into bankruptcy again?
Cashing in on Koufax is what you might call smart business. This comes on the heels of Koufax winning The Times’ poll as the greatest sports figure in Los Angeles history earlier this month. Couldn’t you just see the light bulbs going off in the Dodgers’ marketing department?
Who the rest will be -– or should be -– makes for some fun speculation. The anonymous Steve Sax of the Sons of Steve Garvey blog is already stumped:
‘So let me count here: Frank McCourt, Jamie McCourt, Drew McCourt, Steven Soboroff, Howard Sunkin, ... hmm, I’ve still got five more ‘greats’ to select.’’
Fireworks Fridays also return (all 13 of them) and a couple of $1 Dodger Dog days, and on it goes. Click here for the full promotional list.
Of course, wrapping it all around Koufax is pretty smart marketing. As The Times’ Bill Shaikin tweeted, and the Register’s Howard Cole and numerous others have championed, what would be really great is a statue of Koufax in front of Dodger Stadium.
For now, you can reserve a Koufax bobblehead. Now available in that 10-game mini-plan.
-- Steve Dilbeck