No, no, not the Faith Forum...
Last night Modern Woodman Park in Davenport, IA (home of the Quad Cities River Bandits, a Class A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals) held their first ever Bobblection.
Fans arriving at the 7:00 p.m. game against the Burlington Bees will have a choice upon entering the ballpark. Left or right? Obama or McCain? The River Bandits will be giving away 2,000 bobblehead, 1,000 each in the likeness of the two Presidential candidates. Fans will have the chance to choose which bobblehead they want, thus casting their unofficial vote for the President. The bobblehead that runs out first will serve as the River Bandits fans' endorsement for the Oval Office.
There's no way I was passing this up. After all, it's baseball and politics - my two favorite things. So the Mrs. and I packed up the kids and drove the two hours to the ball park making sure we got their early enough. What we saw was nothing less than amazing.
Follow me over the bump for the details.
Game time was at 6:00 so the gates opened at 4:30. We arrived at about 4:00 and were told that the game was almost sold out. We couldn't even get four seats together unless we wanted the "Gold Circle Seating." I decided what the hell. It's an Obama bobblehead, right? So I sprung for the pricey seats and we got in line. One of the local news stations was there to cover the event and my parents tell me that the Mrs. and I appeared on the 6:00 and 10:00 newscasts including a close up of my Obama shirt.
Depending on which bobblehead you wanted, you either stood in the left line, Obama, or the right line, McCain. I thought it was pretty clever of them to put them left or right based on ideology.
By the time the gates opened, it was clear this was going to be a blowout. The Obama line was already getting long.
In front of us:
Behind us:
(That's my youngest son looking over his glasses. Notice the Obama pin he's wearing. He was insistent upon wearing it.)
The McCain line? Well..... it wasn't quite so long.
I should point out that at least some of the people in the McCain line were there because it was shorter and ended up crossing over and getting an Obama bobblehead when they got inside.
Finally, we got inside and got our bobbleheads.
Others weren't quite so lucky. The people that sat behind us told us that by the time they got there the only choice they had was the McCain bobblehead.
Around the seventh inning, the John McCain bobblehead appeared on the video screen giving his concession speech. Later on we found out that Obama won by almost a 2-1 margin. Turns out it was all over in about 45 minutes.
The result of the "Bobble-Election" was an emphatic show of support for the Democratic Party, as Barack Obama defeated John McCain in a landslide, taking 1,000 votes to McCain's 575.
[...]
When the gates opened at 4:30 p.m., the River Bandits had 1,000 bobblehead dolls in the likeness of each candidate. Fans passing through the turnstiles had a simple choice: enter through the left gate to receive an Obama bobblehead, or the right gate to get a McCain bobblehead. When the 1,000th Obama bobblehead was handed out at approximately 5:15 p.m., the polls closed and Democratic candidate Barack Obama earned the River Bandits official endorsement for the 2008 Presidential Election.
But the best part of the night came as we entered the ballpark. Because of the large number of people entering the gate for Obama, a stadium worker was directing traffic. As we approached the gate he yelled:
Two lines for Obama, people, two lines for Obama. McClain's over there.
McClain... it made my night.