Sneak Peek of the August 8 Michael Brantley Bobblehead Giveaway!

the Indians released their 2015 promotional schedule on January 24, and that is when we learned there was a Michael Brantley bobblehead on it. also at that time, i promised a follow up blog once i found out what that bobble looked like. today, the Indians decided to post a picture of it on their snapchat account. the first 15,000 fans who attend the August 8 game vs. the Minnesota Twins at 7:10 pm will receive this bobblehead courtesy of Progressive:

photo courtesy of Indians snapchat, via @lucy_hensley07 on twitter

i don't have snapchat and have no desire to create one, but luckily someone posted the pic of the bobble on twitter. so thank you very much @lucy_hensley07. now i can write a first-thoughts critique about it.

the overall look of the bobblehead is nice. i like that it's of Michael at the plate. he had such a tremendous season offensively last year, i think it was only right for the Indians to create some kind of offensive bobble. so that gets a big thumbs up from me.

as for the jersey choice, the away gray makes sense because his other 2 bobbles had him in the home white and home cream jerseys. so this bobble was either going to be gray or blue, and i definitely like the gray better.

now let's move on to Michael's face. he's looking very focused here as he's getting ready to put the bat on his shoulder and get in his batting stance. unfortunately, i don't know that i can make a fully accurate assessment of Michael's face right now because of the angle of this shot. i'd like to be able to say one way or the other that his nose, lips, and jawline are dead-on or dead-wrong, but i can't. after looking at the picture repeatedly, sometimes i think it's a good replica, and other times i think something is off. that's not necessarily a bad thing though; i'd rather be confused about it as opposed to definitively knowing that it's bad, like last year...

i was not shy about my dislike of the first Michael Brantley bobblehead that was given away on September 1, 2014. that "catch" bobble was quite disappointing. i wrote a review on it here if you'd like to re-visit my thoughts about that and refresh your memory on what it looked like. but based on this snapchat sneak peek, i can already say with confidence that this 2015 bobble is a much better one. (just the more authentic skin tone was a big improvement lol) although, for the record, i still believe that the Silver Slugger bobble that was given away on March 7 during spring training this season was the best likeness of Michael so far. (sadly, i still have not found one to add to my collection, and i'm still bitter about that.)

you all know me by now: any time the Indians are giving something away that's Michael Brantley related, i am going to go to Cleveland to get it. once i have this bobblehead in my possession, i can do a more thorough review of it. stay tuned.

and congrats to Michael on now having had 4 things on the Indians promotional schedule! this marks his 3rd bobblehead giveaway, 2nd given away at Progressive Field, in 2 years. the Tribe also gave out a Michael Brantley replica jersey on July 27, 2013. i absolutely love that my boy continues to be recognized by the team in these special ways, and i hope there are many more "treats" featuring Michael at future games!