Bobblehead gets a Valley tour but is shut out of Jay-Z show

One afternoon last week, I was unexpectedly handed a bobblehead in bubble wrap and instructed to show him around Fresno.

I can't say who I got him from, or where he's going next. Those are the rules.

And, yes, I said him.

The bobblehead has a name: Little Tito. He's got a Twitter account (@littletito) and a blog, too (littletito.tumblr.com).

You see, Little Tito is a traveling bobblehead, and he's made his way around the country -- from the owner's suite at Fenway Park, to eating beignets in New Orleans, to going to the NBA Finals in Los Angeles and touring the Budweiser brewery in St. Louis. But his story starts here in Fresno.

Little Tito is actually a bobblehead of Terry Francona, the manager of the Boston Red Sox. It's a likeness of Francona when he was the manager of the Birmingham Barons AA baseball team.

As the tale goes: The bobblehead's owner -- let's call him Paul -- moved to Fresno and brought it along with him. When he left town for another job, some co-workers borrowed (you could say kidnapped, as well) the bobblehead, renamed him Little Tito and gave him a new life.

As it says on Tito's Twitter bio: "My best friend moved without me. So I've decided to travel around the world."

That's also included going to a charity event with the real Terry Francona, a TV appearance on NESN (the New England Sports Network, which broadcasts Red Sox games) and a few other upcoming national TV appearances that are being kept tight-lipped for the time being.

I ended up with Tito after he sent me a Tweet one day asking for a tour of Fresno. He said he never got out much the first time he was here.

A month later, someone handed me Little Tito. The person who gave me Tito swears he's not behind the bobblehead passing, and I don't know who is. But I gladly gave Tito his tour.

We went to Silver Dollar Hofbrau last Friday to mingle with some of Fresno's best and brightest at Creative Fresno's monthly blender.

We went to Sanger and ate tacos, then went to the Swede Fest at Starline. Tito wanted to go see Jay-Z, but security guards wouldn't let him in. Something about him being a possible weapon. So he sat in the car.

The next night, though, Tito rocked out at Audie's Olympic with rock band Cage the Elephant, and even got a picture with them after the show.

I was hoping Fresno lived up to some of his other great adventures. So before we parted ways, I asked Tito if he enjoyed himself here.

He just kept nodding.