Giants have bobblehead king

Their visiting clubhouse manager has more than 300 of the souvenirs.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Harvey Hodgerney reaches for a bobblehead doll commemorating the day Barry Bonds tied Willie Mays on the career home run list. Hodgerney points to a trio of Milwaukee Brewers, including Hank Aaron, all still together in their box for safekeeping.
Hodgerney, the visiting clubhouse manager for the San Francisco Giants, has one of baseball's best collections of bobblehead dolls -- and he modestly displays more than 300 of them on sagging shelves in his tiny, out-of-the-way office in the ballpark.
"Once, Larry Walker said, 'Harv, do you have mine?' and I said 'No,' " recalled the 61-year-old Hodgerney, in his 26th season with the club. "He said, 'When I get back to Colorado I'll send it to you,' and he sent it to me."
Walker isn't the only one. Hodgerney has plenty of players and colleagues looking out for his prized collection.
Few in his class
Astros equipment manager Dennis Liborio can think of only two clubbies -- as they often refer to themselves -- with bobblehead numbers even close to rivaling Hodgerney's: Houston visiting clubhouse manager Steve Perry and Brewers' visiting clubhouse manager Phil Rozewicz.
Not that they're competing.
"These are worth a lot more because they have the original dust on them," Liborio joked during the Astros' recent trip to San Francisco.
Hodgerney started saving the popular dolls years ago. The Giants made one for Mays when the team still played at Candlestick Park, where Hodgerney worked for 20 years handling NFL equipment duties for the San Francisco 49ers.
In 1999, the Giants handed out 35,000 Mays figurines before a game -- a move that helped revive the craze and encourage other teams to offer similar stadium giveaways.
"Willie Mays is probably the oldest one," Hodgerney said of the Hall of Fame center fielder. "He was the first one made. But I hate to pull favorites."
Reggie
High above his desk sits a mystery Reggie Jackson doll with gold-rimmed glasses and wearing his No. 44 Athletics jersey from his final season in 1987 -- but the A's retired Jackson's No. 9 uniform and gave away a bobblehead with that number, not 44.
"They never made that one. It was a mistake," Hodgerney said.
The stocky Hodgerney, with blond hair and a full beard, fell into baseball pretty much by chance. He was a linebacker and field-goal kicker at his Cleveland-area high school.
He owned an auto body shop in South San Francisco and did some paint work for former Giants Jim Davenport and Mike McCormick. Davenport invited him to spring training in 1979, and Hodgerney came and worked in the clubhouse for a week.
The next year he stayed for two weeks. The rest is history.
"It started there," he said. "I used to sit in the stands with my wife. She's a first-class baseball nut. Now, everybody in the family is baseball fans."
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