On April 15th, The Arizona State Sun Devils honored one of their best college baseball players in Dustin Pedroia with a bobblehead of his own. Nicknamed Pedey or Laser Show, this Hall of Fame Sun Devil never hit below .347 and had a career average of .384, starting all 185 games. To show his dedication to the ASU baseball program and in order to help ASU recruit better pitchers, Pedroia relinquished the last two years of his athletic scholarship. Given his stellar career at ASU, many scouts took notice of the 5’9 infielder and ultimately was drafted by the Boston Red Sox as the 65th pick in the second round of the 2004 draft.
After spending 3 years in the Red Sox Minor League system, he was called up as an every day infielder. Pedey’s Red Sox career was absolutely dynamite but lingering injuries halted his progression and was forced to retire. Many Red Sox fans (including myself) were heart broken as there’s no other Red Sox player to ever play with the grit Pedey did.
The first 1,000 fans in attendance received their Pedroia Sun Devil bobblehead last Friday to highlight his fantastic college baseball career. From what I was told, these were not easy to snipe as an abundance of fans wanted to keep their memory of Dustin with them. Pedey was actually in attendance and often mingled with fans throughout the game.
The bobble itself stands 8 inches tall and is VERY well manufactured. The crinkles within his jersey and baseball pants make the collectible much more authentic. Pedey is in a fielding action pose ready to pounce on a ground ball. All of the lettering from his nameplate to his jersey number are all raised. It definitely looks like a much “younger” Pedroia as he’s got a full set of hair. The sponsor emblem reads “Gila River Resorts & Casinos” which I would think that this particular casino had no problem ponying up for this promotion.
The collectible comes in a plain white box with a clear window opening on the front. I was disappointed that there wasn’t a colored box displaying Pedey photos or his stats at ASU but one can’t argue with a free bobblehead giveaway. This bobblehead was manufactured by bobble factory and I would give this a strong 8.3 rating. The resin material is very heavy and the lettering like mentioned before, is very clean. If the box was more eye appealing, we’re looking at a 9.0+ rating. I’m super happy that the Sun Devils gave this promotional bobblehead out to fans as Pedey had such a great career at ASU and going forward with the Boston Red Sox.
Sniper
A huge thank you to Bobbles-One with the assist on these bobbles.