Yesterday, the Cincinnati Reds posted a picture of this season’s Jonny Gomes bobblehead giveaway on their twitter feed.

See that little spring on his right elbow? His arm bobbles with the head! That should capture his twitchiness at the plate quite nicely.

Gomes’ giveaway night is July 23. The bobblehead will be given to the first 30,000 fans.

Cincinnati Reds outfielder Jonny Gomes started some controversy following news of the elbow injury to St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright yesterday. According to Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News, he heard Gomes happily singing, “Wainwright’s gone! Wainwright’s gone!” Mention of this has since been removed from McCoy’s post.

Cincinnati Enquirer’s Reds beat reporter John Fay had a different take on events.

Gomes walked out of the players dining room singing the Karate Kid song: ”You’re the best around. I’ll never let you down . . .”

He continued and mentioned Adam Wainwright. Gomes said he sang “Is Wainwright gone?

Fay then says he didn’t remember what Gomes sang, but obviously he didn’t find it news- or quote-worthy. In fact, when Fay interviewed Gomes later, he said, “I would never wish injury on anyone. If he’s hurt, I wish him a speedy recovery. I know Wainwright. He’s a good dude. It’s a great organization.”

What’s interesting about this story is the firestorm it created online, especially on Twitter. It seems Cardinals fans don’t like opponents being happy when their best player gets a season-ending boo-boo. Sampling the comments on McCoy’s article gives an overview of the vitriol.

“Garbage. That’s what the whole Reds organization is.”

“The Reds can take pleasure in Wainright’s injury. But that won’t change the fact that they are a band of losers.”

“What a piece of garbage Gomes is for being happy about the injury of another player.”

I don’t get it. This doesn’t sound like the “best fans in baseball” to me. Assuming Gomes did say what McCoy quoted him as saying, isn’t that a sign of respect? It’s acknowledging that Wainwright is a very, very good pitcher. I understand the disappointment of losing one of your favorite team’s best players to injury. I followed the Reds when Ken Griffey Jr was there, after all. But the angry verbal attacks from Cardinals fans against the Reds is worse than what they purport to be offended by.

Overall, I think the Cardinals fans have gotten too used to winning to know how to lose. I think that Brandon Phillips’ comments about the Cardinals from last year ring more and more true. “All they do is bitch and moan about everything, all of them, they’re little bitches, all of ‘em.” It certainly applies to a good portion of Cardinals fans right now.

Jonny Gomes has been quite entertaining in his time with the Cincinnati Reds. One of the things he’s known for is his ticks before each pitch of his at-bat. He steps out of the box and fiddles with his batting gloves and his helmet. Here’s some video of him doing just that, followed by a single.

At long last, I find myself again entangled in that romantic ardor of fandom that I haven’t known lo these five years of blogging. The kind of baseball love affair that makes you want to write sentences like that first one.

In honor of the five Reds in the top spots in All-Star voting, I’m going to share with you my poetic musings on these paladins of the plate in a new Human League segment called “What I Love About.”

What I love about Jonny Gomes is the eagerness he brings to the game and to life. The intensity in his gaze hints at a man uncontent to drift through life like common mortals, intent instead to live every moment to its fullest. It also hints at a man who might be capable of the kind of frenzy displayed by Danny Bateman in The Replacements. “Get me the base, Jonny!” “I GOT THE BASE.”

What I love about Jonny Gomes is his hair. Mr. T meets Kid N Play with just a touch of the true Hoosiers I used to live next door to in rural Indiana. Just a touch, mind you. He could have gone with the rat tail, but he didn’t. He knows when enough is enough.

What I love about Jonny Gomes is his twitchy helmet adjustments as he goes to the plate. One wonders if maybe the haircut has caused the helmet not to fit quite right.

What I love about Jonny Gomes is doing a Google image search on his name. Try it. It’s awesome.

But what I love most of all about Jonny Gomes are his team-leading 49 RBI. That’s about 15% of the team’s total runs for the season so far.

If you find yourself moved, tell the world with your vote.