Me And My Bobblehead

JASON KENDALL
A's Catcher

THE UNIQUENESS of Kendall's likeness had fans lined up outside Oakland's McAfee Coliseum 12 hours before game time last July 31, when 15,000 were given away. Collectors consider the stubble-faced statuette a masterpiece of bobblehead art--it has a removable catcher's mask--but Kendall's son, Kuyper, 2, doesn't exactly treasure his. "My kid's gone through four," says Kendall. "One time I saw my head rolling on the ground. [He] was throwing it, and the head broke off."
KENDALL'S RATING [4]*

STEVE TRACHSEL
Mets Starting Pitcher

AFTER TRACHSEL won 16 games in 2003, then teammate Al Leiter decided he deserved some bobblehead love. The Mets agreed--to a point. Rather than honor him with a bobblehead night the team commissioned limited-edition Trachsel dolls and gave them to a row of fans during each of his home starts in '04. "In the first [version], I think I was holding a bat," groused Trachsel, a career .167 hitter. He's more pleased with the final product, though he notes, "The smile is wrong. I have more of a smirk."
TRACHSEL'S RATING [2 1/2]*

CRAIG WILSON
Pirates Leftfielder

WILSON'S BOBBLEHEAD day last June 4 came at a strange time. He hadn't played in nearly a month because of a hand injury, and he'd just shorn his trademark blond locks. "They made the hair medium length, and it was short [in real life]," Wilson says. "And I was wearing a cast on my wrist, and they didn't have that." Wilson isn't fond of his ceramic doppelg�nger. "I think it's still in the garage. In the box too. I'm an ugly dude, and they didn't do anything to make me look better."
WILSON'S RATING [1]*

*Players rated their bobbleheads on a 1-to-4 scale with 4 being the best