Me and My Bobblehead
C.C.SABATHIA
Indians pitcher
THE ACE, who lovesthat his bobblehead is topped with his signature crooked cap, tries to keep hisdolls from his son, Carsten Charles III, who's two. "[He] breaks them,"Sabathia says. "He plays with them like they're action figures." He'snot alone: Just-traded closer Bob Wickman says his toddler, Ethan, snapped thearm off his mini C.C. too. Sabathia keeps cases of his bobbleheads safely inhis mother's garage. But the doll in his locker? One of ex-teammate CocoCrisp.
SABATHIA'SRATING*
[4 STARS]
PAUL KONERKO
White Sox first baseman
"ON MYbobblehead my waistline is bigger than my shoulders," gripes the three-timeAll-Star. "I hope it's not true, but it might be." Body proportionsaside, the 6'2", 220-pound slugger admires his bobblehead's goatee andfeels bad about the treatment it got from the Indians' mascot, Slider."When we were in Cleveland last year, their mascot used it in a skit on thescoreboard," he says. "It ended with him taking a sledgehammer to mybobblehead."
KONERKO'SRATING
[3 STARS]
PEDROMARTINEZ
Mets pitcher
MARTINEZ DOESN'Town any of his bobbleheads, but his family went crazy for them. "Everybodysaid, 'Can I keep one? Can I keep one?'" he says. "My cousin's kids, mysister. Everyone in the family [has] them." Though he says the doll lookslike him, he believes the skin color is off--"The face was a littlelight"--and wishes the bobblehead reflected his fluid pitching delivery."I would use more of my mechanics," he says. "That would identifyme better."
MARTINEZ'SRATING
[3 STARS]
*Players ratedtheir bobbleheads on a 1-to-4 scale with 4 being the best.
PHOTO
LARRY GOREN/ICON SMI (SABATHIA)
PHOTO
WARREN WIMMER/WIREIMAGE.COM (KONERKO)
PHOTO
DAMIAN STROHMEYER (MARTINEZ)
PHOTO
COURTESY OF CHICAGO WHITE SOX (KONERKO BOBBLEHEAD)
TWO PHOTOS
DIANA ELIAZOV (SABATHIA AND MARTINEZ BOBBLEHEADS)