Let’s win some bobbleheads and tickets to a game!

So, the Nationals are holding a contest.  The winner receives all three bobbleheads for the 2013 season and four lower level tickets to one of the bobblehead games (with four bobbleheads waiting at your seats).  I don’t know about you, but I like contests, bobbleheads, and free tickets.  In fact, I like free anything.  So, let’s try to win some bobbleheads.

Here’s what I gathered from the first blog post written today about the contest:

• You have to guess via Twitter.  Check.
• You have to decipher a 5 digit code, which correspond to three players’ numbers.  That means, one of the players has a one digit number.
• The first question is, “In how many consecutive games did Adam LaRoche homer against the Cubs last September?”  Adam LaRoche hit a home run in every game against the Cubs last year except for Opening Day.  The Cubs played the Nationals four times in September, so the answer is 4.

Now, let’s check the Nationals roster for every player who has a 4 in his jersey number:

• 48 Ross Detwiler
• 47 Gio Gonzalez
• 40 Wilson Ramos
• 34 Bryce Harper

And now, every player who has a single digit jersey number:

• 8 Danny Espinosa
• 1 Steve Lombardozzi
• 2 Denard Span

I am assuming two things:  first, that they won’t use lesser-known players (e.g. Chad Tracy, Tyler Moore, Zach Duke); and second, that they won’t use minor league players (e.g. #6 Anthony Rendon).

I’ll continue to update this as they post more clues.  Let’s win some bobbleheads!

Update 3/20/2013 12:06 PM:  Today’s clue (#2) is:  “On what pitch of the at-bat did Roger Bernadina save the day, flying into the wall at Minute Maid Park to catch Brett Wallace’s deep drive August 7 in Houston?”  Well, I have no idea off the top of my head.  We could simply go to baseball-reference.com and check the count, but what if there were foul balls?  Let’s do this the fun way and watch the highlights of the August 7th game in Houston.

Here’s the link to the game recap via mlb.com:  8/7/12 Nationals vs. Astros.

I’m sure that not everyone has an MLB.tv subscription like me.  If you don’t, you can open up MLB.com’s Gameday for the game and see how many pitches there were.  I want to relive the whole at-bat…

Well, that was fun to watch again.  Wallace fouled off a 1-2 pitch before smoking a flyball to deep left-center field.  So, today’s answer is 5 pitches.

Let’s take a look at all the Nationals who have a 5 in their jersey number:

• 15 Dan Haren
• 25 Adam LaRoche
• 35 Craig Stammen
• 52 Ryan Mattheus
• 56 Christian Garcia

Hmm, well, my theory of Harper-Span-Werth is out the door.  LaRoche seems like an appealing choice, especially after his fantastic 2012 season.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see what the third clue is!

Update 3/21/2013 11:33 AM:  Clue #3 is as follows:  “The number of pitches in Jayson Werth’s game-winning at-bat in Game 4 of the NLDS MINUS the inning in which he hit his home run.”

Well, the home run was in the 9th inning.  I’ll never forget that.  You can read the recap here, which says that Werth’s home run came on the 13th pitch of his at-bat.  I’m going to watch the video to double check.

The video confirms that it was 13th pitch of the at-bat.  13 – 9 = 4.

That’s the second 4 we’ve gotten so far.  There is no number 44 on the team (except Trent Jewet, the third base coach), so that means that the 4s have to be split up.  If that’s the case, since there is no 54 or 45 on the team, that means the 5 has to be the single digit jersey number…

It has come to my attention (h/t Just a Nats Fan at Curly W blog) that skipper Davey Johnson wears #5, and the original rules never mentioned anything conditions about the bobblehead being a player.  If my logic is correct, we have confirmed that Davey Johnson will be a 2013 Nationals bobblehead.

Nationals manager Davey Johnson

One down, two to go.  Tomorrow’s clue will reveal the second bobble.

Updated 3/22/2013 11:00 AM: Today’s clue is a meatball if I’ve ever seen one:  “How many fewer home runs did Gio Gonzalez give up in the 2012 regular season than fellow Cy Young finalist Clayton Kershaw?”  But I guess it’s hard to think of clues to get the exact number they are looking for.

Anyway, we’ll head over to FanGraphs and check Gio Gonzalez’s player page.  Gio gave up 9 home runs in 2012.  Kershaw gave up 16 home runs in 2012.  16 – 9 = 7.

We have our second player!!!  Hint:  he was part of today’s clue.

So far, we have the following numbers:  5, 4, 4, and 7.  We already figured out that Davey Johnson (#5) will have a bobblehead.  That means today’s clue reveals either a #47 or #74.

#47 Gio Gonzalez

So, now we have revealed 2 of the 3 bobbleheads for 2013:  Davey and Gio.  Who could number three be?

The remaining candidates (i.e. players who have a 4 in their jersey number) are:  40 Wilson Ramos, 48 Ross Detwiler, and 34 Bryce Harper.  I have a pretty strong feeling about this one…

See you on Monday!