My Nodding Approval for Post Cereal MLB Bobbleheads

If there is anything more euphoric than having Luis Gonzalez nod his head in approval as I eat cereal in the morning, I am unaware of it.

As I tore into the cardboard box, lurching my hand into sweetened and condensed corn and oats, I was intent on securing a breakfast partner.

And since Post Cereal provided that opportunity for myself and others, they deserve laudation . . . wouldn't you agree?

Post packaged 3-inch tall, plastic nodders of Major League Baseball players in cereal boxes in 2002 and 2003, promoting a lust to scour the cereal isle in grocery stores that I had not experienced since collecting Star Wars lightsaber spoons months before.

The initial release of 10 players included Jeff Bagwell (not suitably represented by ZZ Top-style goatee), Jason Giambi (not suitably represented by 50 pounds of steroid-induced growth), Gonzalez, Ichiro, Chipper Jones, Pedro Martinez, Mike Piazza, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa and Bernie Williams.

Post returned the following summer, intent on selling more figures, though exposing their artists' inabilities to paint heads for new players.

Of the 10 players produced in the 2003 set, only Ken Griffey Jr., Troy Glaus, Tori Hunter, Curt Schilling and John Smoltz were new. The other players were all duplicates from 2002, except they were wearing road uniforms (as opposed to the previous year's home whites).

This demonstrated skill of being able to paint both white and gray uniforms did not compensate for the lack of new players.

This is what happens when frugal people are involved in scandals. It's utter frugalous. There had not been this kind of chicanery involved in cereal production since finding random Fruity Pebbles intertwined with Cocoa Pebbles.

After collecting 9 players, I was suddenly tackled to the floor by Rob Dibble with the realization that the nodders were each wearing hats with two bills. There was the normal cap bill, offset by a piece of plastic, hanging off the back of their hat.

Because I have yet to see this type of headgear worn in a Major League game, I came to the conclusion that the pieces of plastic were meant to keep the players' heads from being top heavy and toppling forward.

Of course, this was before my epiphany that began with me wondering what would happen if the backs of the players were painted to look like the fronts. Just like in real life, no one would be able to tell whether Alex Rodriguez was coming or going.

And instead of New York paparazzi shooting pictures for the Post of ARod's serial dating, they would be taking pictures of ARod's cereal dating from Post.