Bernie Is Not The Only New Addition.

If you ask my opinion on who the best free agent signing Brian Cashman has made in his time as Yankees GM, I would say Mike Mussina. After the 2000 season, the only free agent I wanted was Mussina. The Yankees had a solid rotation of Clemens, Cone, Hernandez, Pettitte and Denny Neagle, but Cone was showing signs of slowing down, going 4-14 that season. In his walk year, you knew the Yankees would let Cone go and I was ecstatic when Moose was tabbed to be Cone's replacement.

That signing was a great one as Mussina went 123-72 in 8 seasons as a Yankee. His winning percentage in that time was .631 and he pitched to an 3.88 ERA. He also won 3 Gold Gloves and pitched in 2 World Series with the Yankees before winning 20 games in his final season in the Bronx before retiring.

As much as I liked Mussina, I never really picked up any Mussina merch. Aside from a McFarlane Sports Pick, a signed baseball and cards, there isn't a lot of Mussina in my Yankees collection. I have wanted a bobblehead of Moose for sometime, but never found one to add to my collection.

Until now...

Arriving at my door the same day Bernie did was this sweet Forever Collectibles Legends Of The Diamond Mike Mussina bobblehead. This is a limited piece # to 5,000 nodders. I got 1350 of 5,000. The reason I got this was it looked a lot like Mussina. That is an area that Forever usually fails on, but here, they got the likness on point.

The back has a quick write up of what the Legends Of The Diamond line is all out as well as one about the company it's self.

Both sides of the package feature the same art and cellophane window offering you more peeks at the bobblehead.

Out of the package this bobblehead looks even better than I thought. Love that it captures Mussina in mid pitching motion. Looks like he's ready to step off the mound and fire a strike to Posada. The bobblehead has some weight to it as well.

Like I mentioned before, I think Forever did a great job capturing Moose's likeness. I would probably say it looks better than most of their other efforts. I have a Forever Whitey Ford and Phil Rizzuto bobbleheads. Neither of them looked even close to the actual players.

Another reason why I'm digging on this booblehead is the base. I love that it's a stadium with a diamond, grass and stands instead of a pitching mound or something. The one thing I will give Forever their due on is the imaginative bases they've used on bobbleheads and this one is no different.

The pinstripes were painted on this bobblehead and Forever did a great job at it. The number in the back as well as the interlocking NY on the cap and front of the jersey are stickers. I really have no problem with that. I have seen the NY look so off on other bobbleheads and I would rather it look as good as possible.

I have to say that I am absolutely thrilled I now have a Mike Mussina bobblehead in my Yankees bobblehead collection. Especially one that looks as good as this one. It makes me less squeemish about adding more Forever bobbleheads into my collection. I do wish the Yankees would give away bobbleheads in this size instead of the mini ones they've been giving out the past few seasons. I almost wish Forever would start producing the give away bobbles, If the batch we get this season look anything like the Teixeira I got last season then maybe I will be wanting Forever to take over.

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends...And eBay.

I have been wanting to start an Islanders collection for a while now. I have a small, but growing collection of cards and autographs, but if you know anything about me, then you know that collecting just cards ain't my bag. I don't know if it's the hoarder in me, but I will also grab anything I can display.

I have been dying to start a bobblehead collection of my favorite hockey team. I had originally wanted to start that with picking up a bobblehead of my all time favorite Islander, Mike Bossy. Unfortunately, that is one expensive bobble. I do intend on picking it up as soon as it's a bit more affordable.

Thankfully my buddy, Kerry, helped out with that. He was a Rick DiPietro collector and was extremely generous to send me some cards for my Islanders PC as well as the DiPietro mini bobblehead that was given away by the Islanders a few years back.

The box it came in is a small box that has a nice sticker picture of Ricky D. I think that this sticker could have made a nice hockey card had the Islanders decided to produce a set of cards to give away that season.

The back of the box offers nothing more than a warning not to ingest any part of the bobblehead. I guess Rick doesn't taste very good.

Out of the box, Ricky is all wrapped up in bubble wrap. That's a good thing. Nobody likes a cracked goalie. No jokes, please.

Here's little Ricky. I'm not a huge fan of mini bobbleheads, but I like this one. It's pretty detailed for a bobblehead of this size. It has Rick sporting a faux hawk as he is dressed in the Islanders jersey from the 2007-2010 seasons as he appears to be making a kick save. There is a Geico plate on the front of the base, so I'm guessing that was the sponsor for this give away.

The back of the bobblehead gives you a better view of the base, which I really like. Too bad the Geico nameplate blocks the view on the front, but I guess you have to have the sponsor's name somewhere. I would have preferred the back though. The jersey nameplate and number looks pretty clean on the back.

Ricky looks rather content to be joining the Sports Room. Thanks so much Kerry for my very first Islanders bobblehead.

My second Islanders bobblehead came way of eBay. I was able to get a a great price on a bobblehead of one of my favorite Islanders, Clark Gillies. Gillies was a no nonsense type of player. The guy could score and had 319 goals and 378 assists in a 14 year career. But he wasn't the type of guy you would want to mess with as he also had 1023 penalty minutes. Was an integral member of the Islanders 4 Stanley Cup championship teams. He is a member of the Hockey Hall Of Fame and had his number 9 retired on December 7th, 1996.

This was another giveaway bobblehead by the Islanders. These are the Alexander Global bobbleheads that I love so much and wish they were given away still at ballparks and arenas. This one looks a lot like Gillies. That alone, I had to have this in my collection. Plus, he's wearing the Islanders jersey I grew up watching the team play in, Back in my day, these were the home jerseys. I wish they still were. No, I'm not turning into the angry old man. OK, maybe,

The sponsor nameplate on this bobblehead is a lot less gouache than the nameplate on the DiPietro bobblehead. Unlike the Ricky D bobblehead, this one sports a plain base and his name on the front. Not sure if you can see it, but there is a tiny crack on the base, which explains why I got this for so cheap. I knew about it and quite frankly, it's not really so bad.

On either side of the bobblehead is the familiar number 9 that Gillies wore during his Hall Of Fame career. One other thing I love about this bobblehead is the colors. The blue and orange just pops off the white jersey.

The back of the bobblehead looks as good as the front. I think I may have used overused the word bobblehead in this blog post.

Stop laughing at me!

Being made fun of by an inanimate object aside, I am very happy I can pick up these bobbleheads up and begin what I hope will be a sweet Islanders collection. I plan to also pick up other goodies like pucks, McFarlanes and other Islanders collectibles. With the season they are having and their move to Brooklyn next season, there is sure to be more Islanders merch for me to grab and add to my growing Islanders PC. Hopefully, I can add a pennant that will read "2014-15 Stanley Cup Champions"

Derek Jeter...The Bobblehead Collection

Yesterday was a pretty emotional day in the sports room as I got to watch Derek Jeter's final game in Yankee Stadium. It was a game that had it's highs and lows and everything in between. At the end of the evening, it was the Captain who took matters into his own hands and drove home the winning run in the bottom of the 9th to win the game for the Yankees. Watching the team mob Jeter after and then watching him embrace members of the Core Four, Tino Martinez, Joe Torre and Gerald Williams then walk to shortstop one last time had this geek pretty choked up.

So today, I wanted to celebrate the career of one the greatest Yankees to ever don the pinstripes by doing something that just screams out Sexy Geek.

I'm going to show off some bobbleheads. And not just any bobbleheads.

I'm going to show off my Derek Jeter bobblehead collection.

Now, I know my collection is not as large as most Derek Jeter fans. I have been concentrating on adding other Yankees to the bobblehead collection. I will say this though, Jeter is the player I have the most bobbles of in my collection. A big fat 3 bobbles.

This was my first Jeter bobble I picked up, which was one one of my very first bobbleheads I bought. This is a Forver bobblehead and in an odd way looks more like Derek than any of the other bobbles I own.

I picked it up at one of the Westchester Sports Card Shows along with Whitey Ford and Phil Rizzuto Forever bobblehead figures, none of which look anything like either one of them. This one is a fairly decent likeness.

The back has Jeter wearing his # 2 in his glorious Yankee pinstriped on a base that has a baseball and what I guess is a ribbon, It's not one of my favorite Jeter bobblehead figures, but I am glad to own it. Being that it is one of my first ones it has special meaning to me.

This one was my first Jeter bobblehead that I bought off eBay. It's a 2001 Staten Island Yankees SGA. As much of a fan of the SI Yankees that I am now, I didn't get to a game until 2007, so I missed out on this giveaway. When I found out that the SI Yankees gave out a Jeter, I had to have one and hunted one down that was in my price range.

I have always preferred Alexander Global bobbleheads to Forever. Not because I think that their better bobbles. I just love the squatty bodies and almost there likeness that these bobbleheads possess. Unfortunately, their latest attempts at realistic bobbleheads are falling short of the mark. If you don't believe me, take a look at my review of the Mark Teixeira Yankees bobblehead giveaway from this season, Yeesh.

Probably my favorite Jeter bobblehead in my collection. This is a Bobble Dobble Jeter, which is also put out by Alexander Global. I really like the action pose that Derek is captured in. Maybe the face doesn't look too much like Jeter, but I don't really don't mind.

The back is one of the more streamlined figures you will find from Alexander Global. I also have a Jason Giambi Bobble Dobble. There are a couple other I want including the Hideki Matsui fielding, Reggie Jackson and Lou Gehrig Bobble Dobbles.

Although my Jeter collection may not be as large as other collections I am proud to own the ones I do have. I do plan to add some more Jeter bobbleheads soon like the Yankees Universe bobble, the Yankees SGA and a couple of the Jeter Last Season bobbles. I just also saw that there was a September Bobblehead Of The Month, which is a Jeter as well. So, I won't be without choices of quite a few different bobbleheads. With this many choices, I know the Jeter part of my bobblehead will grow and grow fast.