The bobbleheads that created the most buzz at Isotopes Park over the past 20 years
From the first bobblehead given out in their inaugural 2003 season to Saturday's highly-anticipated Lowrider Night bobblehead giveaway that is the sixth in a series of Mariachis de Nuevo Mexico-themed bobblehead giveaways, the Albuquerque Isotopes have leaned heavily through the years on the commemorative souvenirs.
The organization is hardly alone in tapping into the popularity of the bouncy-head keepsakes, but has seemed to consistently hit home runs with the more than three dozen bobblehead designs, and tens of thousands of collectibles, handed out to fans over the past two decades.
While not intended to be a ranking, and with the help of Isotopes General Manager John Traub, here are five of the bobblehead giveaways that generated some of the most buzz among fans, often generating lines outside the stadium as much as 10 hours before game time.
Holly Holm
Five months after her kick to the side of Ronda Rousey's head gave the "Preacher's Daughter" the UFC women's bantamweight championship, the Isotopes honored Albuquerque's own Holly Holm in April 2016 with a bobblehead of her throwing a kick similar to the one she threw in Australia.
Mariachis de Nuevo Mexico series
The wildly popular Mariachis de Nuevo Mexico alter ego of the Isotopes that started as part of a Minor League Baseball initiative asking teams to try to tap into their local Hispanic communities has led to some of the organization's most popular bobblehead giveaways.
What started as a basic bobblehead of the mascot has evolved through the years into a version that played music, a horn-playing sugar skull mariachi with an eye patch dubbed the "Al Hurricane" mariachi and on Saturday, for the second-consecutive year, the team has had local artists design a lowrider bobblehead with the Mariachis theme, tapping into what has become another one of the team's top annual events, Lowrider Night.
Tommy Lasorda/Albuquerque Dukes
Like so many other Los Angeles Dodgers greats, the start of Tommy Lasorda's Hall of Fame career came through Albuquerque as part of the Dukes organization.
In 2010, Lasorda was honored by the Isotopes with a bobblehead in the familiar yellow Dukes uniform of yesteryear.
Chile racers!
While Taco is clearly the fan favorite of the Isotopes' mid-game chile mascot races, his shell sometimes creates an aerodynamic challenge when racing against the likes of Red and Green Chile. Nevertheless, in 2018 this giveaway went fast. The three main characters in the chile race promotion have all had bobblehead giveaways through the years. Sorry, Salsa Jar. You haven't made the cut, yet.
The first
That 2003 inaugural season brought with it the first of the Isotopes bobblehead giveaways: A generic baseball player posing in an Isotopes uniform with a bat in front of him.