Bethesda Big Train celebrates two iconic volunteers during ‘Bobblehead Weekend’

Baseball team to distribute figurines to fans at games on Friday and Sunday

July 2, 2024 2:50 p.m.

The Bethesda Big Train will hold bobblehead giveaways on Friday and Sunday to celebrate two important members of the Big Train community: former youth volunteer-turned-Orioles assistant general manager Eve Rosenbaum and batboy Owen Lieber.

“This year we have two [bobbleheads] and they’re very unusual,” said Bruce Adams, founder and president of the collegiate baseball league team. “I have a zillion bobbleheads in [my] house and very few of them are of women. I think families who want their girls to think that they could grow up and be a really big-time player in professional sports [will] want an Eve Rosenbaum bobblehead.”

On Friday night, the Big Train hosts the DC Grays at Shirley Povich Field at 7 p.m. The first 700 fans will receive a bobblehead of Rosenbaum, who played in the BCC Baseball league in her youth and graduated from Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda. Now she’s helping the first-place Orioles solidify their place as World Series contenders, with the Major League club seeking its first title since 1983.

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“Bethesda is just a great, great, great place to grow up,” Rosenbaum told Bethesda Magazine during an interview that appeared in the May/June issue.

The Big Train will honor a current volunteer on Sunday during Bethesda’s 7 p.m. matchup with the Alexandria Aces. The first 500 attendees will receive a bobblehead of longtime batboy Lieber.

“I searched the web thinking this would be the first batboy bobblehead ever given in the country and I did find one other team did a bobblehead of a batboy,” Adams told MoCo360. “So we’re not the only one, but these are some rare collectibles.”

The Big Train is celebrating its 25th year at Shirley Povich Field this season and the Lieber bobblehead distribution is part of that celebration, according to the ballclub’s 2024 season program.

“It’s our 25th season, so I thought ‘OK, what are we about?” Adams told MoCo360. “We’re about kids–we created this for kids–and we’re about volunteers–we run on volunteers. We have one full-time staff person. So the epitome of both of those is Owen.”

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Lieber, 12, is already in his fifth year as a Big Train batboy, according to the team’s 2024 program.

Lieber and Rosenbaum are not the first to receive the Big Train bobblehead treatment. According to the team, previous figurines include former big leaguers Cal Ripken Sr., Walter “the Big Train” Johnson and Brian Dozier; manager Sal Colangelo; mascots Homer and Bunt; baseball analyst Tim Kurkjian; and Big Train ballpark namesake Shirley Povich.

Shirley Povich Field is located at 10600 Westlake Drive in Rockville. The Big Train, currently 12-12 and second place in the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League’s North Division, play five more regular season home games this year, including the two “Bobblehead Weekend” matchups.

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