Minnesota Twins Fan Wants One-Of-A-Kind Bobblehead Collection To Honor Her Late Brother

DULUTH, MN — Rosemary Tarnowski says she has spent more than two decades building what may be one of the most complete Minnesota Twins bobblehead collections anywhere.

Now, she hopes it will find a permanent home with the team itself.

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Tarnowski, a longtime Twins fan now living in Duluth, told Patch she has collected the team's bobbleheads since 2000, when she lined up for the Twins' first giveaway figure, a Harmon Killebrew bobblehead.

"I was obsessed by that because I got the first one and I wanted to complete the set," Tarnowski said.

She said the next giveaway was a Kent Hrbek bobblehead and that the earliest figures were especially rare because only 5,000 of each were distributed. Later giveaways, she said, typically grew to 10,000.

Her Twins fandom goes back long before the bobbleheads. Tarnowski said she attended Game 7 of the 1987 World Series after promising her nephew that if the Twins ever made it that far, she would take him.

What began as a fun collectible soon became a tradition, especially with her late brother, Nick, who had Down syndrome and loved the Twins as much as she did. Tarnowski said the two would sometimes get up at 4 a.m., bring folding chairs, and wait in line outside the Metrodome for giveaway games.

"We would bring folding chairs, and we'd carry them over and we'd park and we'd get over there and we'd get in line," she said. "That's how we would get them."

Tarnowski said the collection eventually grew far beyond the standard stadium giveaways. In addition to the regular bobbleheads, she said she collected season-ticket-holder versions, special edition sets, and some autographed figures.

Some of the special sets, she said, were designed to fit together into larger displays or player-themed scenes.

She estimated her collection includes roughly 300 Twins bobbleheads, plus her late brother's set, making the total number of pieces in her possession significantly larger.

Asked whether she has a favorite, Tarnowski noted the Doug Mientkiewicz bobblehead showing the former Twins first baseman blowing a bubble with gum.

"It's so cute," she said.

For years, Tarnowski displayed the bobbleheads in a dedicated guest bedroom at her former home in Eagan, where friends would often be stunned by the sight of them all lined up together.

"People would laugh and say all these things are staring at me," when they woke up, she said.

Now living in Duluth after retiring from a 40-year teaching career at Hastings High School and moving north to help care for her mother and brother, Tarnowski said the collection is packed away in storage.

After suffering a stroke about a year ago, she said she started thinking more seriously about what should happen to it.

"You can't take a wheelbarrow to heaven," she said.

Rather than sell the bobbleheads one by one, Tarnowski said she wants to donate the collection as a complete set, with one condition: if it is publicly displayed, she wants a plaque honoring her brother.

"That would be my only request," Tarnowski said. "I'm not charging anything. I'm just donating it."

She said she first explored donating the collection to a sports-related venue in Duluth, but was told it was simply too large for the space.

That led her to contact Twins curator Clyde Doepner, whom she had met earlier on a stadium tour. Tarnowski said Doepner later called her back and was excited by the possibility of receiving the collection.

"I don't even have this collection," Tarnowski recalled him saying.

Tarnowski said she hopes the collection could eventually be displayed at Target Field, possibly in one of the stadium's club-level or exhibit areas.

For Tarnowski, the collection is about much more than memorabilia. It is tied to years of Twins fandom, long mornings outside the Metrodome and time spent with her late brother.

"I'll honor Nick and I'll be able to go look at them," she said.

Tarnowski said she plans to keep collecting through this season so that, when the donation moves forward, the set remains complete.

Patch left a message for Twins curator Clyde Doepner seeking comment but did not immediately hear back.