One of the more amusing stories to emerge in the past 24 hours involves the West Virgina Power and their difficulties in obtaining a shipment of bobbleheads.

The bobblehead in question features President Barack Obama in his high school basketball uniform, and 1000 of these fine collectibles were slated to be distributed prior to Saturday’s game. Yesterday, however, the Power issued a press release that explained that U.S. Customs had detained the bobblehead shipment for an “extended search.”

Just what U.S. Customs was searching for remains unclear. Perhaps they were just puzzled by the incongruity of a West Virginia-based baseball team distributing bobbleheads of the President wearing a Hawaiian basketball uniform. At any rate, the story had “legs”, as evidenced by the fact that it was picked up by the Associated Press.

As an aside, I remain baffled by the Associated Press and other national media outlets. When it comes to which Minor League stories get picked up and which ones don’t, your guess is as good as mine. I think the term “arbitrary crapshoot” (also the name of my high school band) would apply. My suggestion to all members of the national media is to read this blog religiously, because I’ve got all the scoops. Just make sure you link back to my work, because doing so helps to justify and legitimize my fleeting existence on this Earth. 

But back to the saga of the detained bobbleheads…it appears that there is more BREAKING NEWS.

A press release issued just a few hours prior explains that the bobbleheads have finally been sent on their way to West Virginia. They won’t make it in time for the game, however, so fans will instead recieve a “Golden Ticket” that can be exhanged for the bobblehead at a later date.

In the meantime, I hope that the national press continues to monitor this story. Why not send out live news copters to film the journey of the bobbleheads as they make their way to West Virginia? I don’t know about you, but I would watch that all night long.

benjamin.hill@mlb.com