ST. LOUIS – If you think getting Cardinals playoff tickets will be tough, try getting the complete Albert Pujols, Adam Wainwright, and Yadier Molina bobblehead set. The bobbleheads are being given away as promotional items at the team’s home games.

Before Cardinals legends are memorialized as statues outside Busch Stadium, they are memorialized as bobbleheads, which are given away inside the ballpark. At least two (Pujols and Molina) and maybe three (Waino) legends are about to retire in the next month and a half or so. We may be in the middle of the biggest bobblehead craze in Cardinals’ history.

Last Sunday was part one of the crazed, the fan frenzy for the Pujols bobblehead. It is the centerpiece of a three-bobblehead set, with Molina and Waino’s still to come. The bases of each individual bobblehead slide together like a jigsaw puzzle.

“When we signed Albert Pujols (in March), we decided if we’re saluting Wainwright and Molina, we needed to add Albert for a three-way legend salute,” said Martin Coco, director of marketing for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Molina and Waino bobbleheads were part of the promotional schedule in November 2021. Pujols’s return to the team changed those plans, and a once-in-a-lifetime collector’s item was born.

“The Pujols, Molina, Wainwright, bobbleheads – hot!” said James Miller, owner of the Collector’s Corner memorabilia shop in Belleville, Illinois. “That’s a call we get every day. Are you going to have sets?”

The Cardinals will give away Waino bobbleheads to the first 25,000 fans at the game on Friday, September 30 and 25,000 Molina bobbleheads the next day.

The tickets remain the same for both games, with $50 for “standing room only” being the cheapest.

“If you have a ticket for those last games, and you’re interested in getting a bobblehead, make sure you come early,” Coco said. “The gates open two hours prior to game time.”

“Keep the box,” Miller said. “So many people toss the box. That’s why my window is full (of unboxed Cardinals bobbleheads on display).”

Miller said bobbleheads on display lose value. The dust, even cigarette smoke, makes them very hard to clean.

He expects the complete Molina, Pujols, and Waino set (in the box) could cost around $500 to $700.