Hundreds of Dodgers fans line up hours ahead of game time for chance to grab Shohei Ohtani bobble head
Hundreds of Dodgers fans could be seen lining the streets leading to Chavez Ravine on Wednesday hours ahead of game time in hopes of snagging an exclusive Shohei Ohtani bobble head.
It's the third Ohtani-themed giveaway, following the first bobble head and a snapback cap. The figurine features the Dodgers' slugger and his beloved pup Decoy, who fittingly — and adorably — paired up with Ohtani to handle the game's first pitch.
Though their matchup against the Baltimore Orioles didn'tt actually start until 7:10 p.m., dozens of fans could already be seen queuing up outside of Dodger Stadium gates as early as 11 a.m.
Last time the team featured an Ohtani-related giveaway they had more than 53,000 people show up for the game, setting a season-high for the 2024 MLB season and marking the highest amount of fans to attend a Dodgers game since 2019. On that occasion the Dodger Stadium parking lots were chockfull a couple of hours before the game started, creating a traffic snarl in the surrounding area.
Only some of those fans were able to leave with a bobble head however, as the team only gave them away to the first 40,000 people to walk through stadium gates. Most of the collectibles featured Ohtani in their home white jerseys, but 1,700 people received a more exclusive version of him wearing their away gray jerseys.
A look at eBay shows that some of those are still listed for well over $1,000 months later.
This time around they'll similarly be releasing multiple versions of Wednesday night's collectible, with some entirely gold bobble heads expected to be mixed amongst the tens of thousands handed out ahead of first pitch.
So far there is no exact amount of how many gold figurines will be distributed.
Over the last few years the resale market for bobble heads has reached all-time high, with some of the more rare collectibles fetching thousands of dollars. Depending on the amount of gold Ohtanis given away Wednesday, this could be the latest to pull in a hefty sum.
