The Yoshi bobblehead is wildly popular, even Dodgers players seek Yoshinobu Yamamoto's signature.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto is seated in the Dodgers Stadium home team locker room. Several teammates come over carrying pens and the day's promotional item, a Yoshi bobblehead. They wish for Yamamoto to autograph this green dinosaur that bears a link to his name.

Yamamoto gladly agrees, signing his name and jersey number 18 on the round nose of the Yoshi bobblehead.

Baseball players, they're pretty much like us.

That night, Dodgers Stadium seemed to transform into Yoshi Island. The team distributed this special edition bobblehead, a collaboration with Nintendo's Super Mario series, featuring Yoshi wearing Yamamoto's home jersey—a perfect match. This giveaway was launched to coincide with the U.S. release of "Super Mario Galaxy: The Movie" on April 1.

Fans were so enthusiastic that they lined up outside the stadium hours before the game, hoping to secure one of the limited 40,000 Yoshi bobbleheads. Dodgers players didn't need to arrive early to get one, but for some, a bobblehead personally signed by Yamamoto held even greater value.

It's not unusual for players to sign each other's bobbleheads, especially when the figure represents a player like Yamamoto, who had already won three Sawamura Awards and three Pacific League MVP titles in Japanese baseball before signing with the Dodgers ahead of the 2024 season. After moving to Los Angeles, this 27-year-old right-handed pitcher added two World Series championships and the 2025 World Series MVP award.

Yoshi's resume doesn't include such achievements, but it has certainly racked up victories on the Mario Kart tracks. Perhaps after Yamamoto's illustrious baseball career concludes, this could be his next destination?