Playtime With Manny Ramirez

Manny Ramirez Bobblehead Night at Dodger Stadium was sans the star outfielder after he asked Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre to bench him against the Cincinnati Reds due to a sore left hand...

However, I think we all know Manny didn't want to participate tonight because the game would cut into his playtime with the bobblehead version of himself.

Update: With one out and the game tied at two a piece, bags juiced in the bottom of the sixth, Manny comes in to pinch hit for Chad Billingsley. What's that? A double-switch? Touché, Dusty Baker. But Manny answers on the very first pitch from Nick Masset with a grand slam to give LA a 6-2 lead.

From the legendary Vin Scully...

That's even more Hollywood than Hollywood. Yeah, you're right. It's Mannywood.

[LA Times] | [MLB Blog] | [Vin Scully Is My Homeboy]

Dan "Dazzleman" Gladden's Mudflap Immortalized

Have you seen this thing? It's a Dan Gladden bobblehead, complete with sweet mustache and Tom Petty hair.

Dazzle is perhaps best known not for his striking good looks, but for scoring the winning run during Game 7 of the 1991 World Series (my most exciting moment as a Twins fan) after stretching a bloop hit into a double, and later scoring on a Gene Larkin pinch-hit single to win it all.

This bobblehead all yours if you are one of the first 10,000 fans at the Metrodome in Minneapolis on Friday, June 20th to watch the Minnesota Twins play the Arizona Diamondbacks. All yours. For free.

Geriatric Bobblehead Night

After learning that he had made the Texas Rangers' 40-man roster, Sammy Sosa smoked a solo shot that damn near sailed onto the street beyond left field at Tucson Electric Park.

Sosa, who sits at fifth on the career home runs list, is officially a big leaguer again. The move all but assures the right-handed slugger of making the Opening Day 25-man roster, unless he breaks a hip.

Sosa's longball came on a 1-0 pitch from Arizona Diamondbacks righty Edgar Gonzalez - his third in 10 exhibition games. He struck out in his other two at-bats, but is hitting .452 with seven RBIs so far this spring. Sosa, 39, is a career .247 .274 hitter, just 12 swings away from 600 career home runs.

He may have made the team because he's good enough. He may have made it because it will boost ticket sales like you would not believe. After a whole year away from the game, we'll see.

[Reuters]