Boston Red Sox Bobblehead History

Red Sox Bobble Talk: Between 2002 and 2025, the Boston Red Sox hosted 77 bobblehead giveaway events, featuring a total of 79 unique bobbleheads.  They were the very last team to incorporate bobbleheads into their promotional schedule.

• The Red Sox have had what might be described as a bipolar relationship with bobbleheads.  They were the very last MLB team to jump on the bandwagon.  Around the time other teams were already fully committed to the new promotional item, the Sox stuck their marketing toe in the water and immediately decided it was not for them.  It took them a dozen years to finally come around to the idea, and when they jumped in, they went hard averaging almost eight a year for the next five years.  When the honeymoon eventually ended, they settled in with a truly bizarre lineup that included Monkey D. Luffy, El Alfa, and Wally the Green Monster recreating “Turkey Head” from Friends.  Their promotional schedule has been an emotional rollercoaster over the past two decades and honestly it has been fun to watch.
• Ok… to be fair, from May 15th, 2003 through early April 2013, Boston set a record with the longest sellout streak in American history with 794 consecutive games.  Bobbleheads are meant to put butts in seats, but for ten straight years the Fenway Faithful showed up with the promise of only good baseball.  So it makes sense that major promotions were on the backburner until 2014 when things slowed down a little.  But Wally the Turkey Head will never make any sense.
• The average attendance from 2002 to 2025 was 33,892 fans per home game. On bobblehead giveaway nights specifically, the Red Sox almost perfectly hit the average with 33,772 fans in attendance (please note that these numbers are pretty close to the seating capacity of Fenway, so it can’t get much better).
• From 2002 to 2025, the Sox posted a cumulative record of 2234-1875, reflecting a winning percentage of .544.  On bobblehead giveaway nights the club has record a nearly identical winning percentage of .545 (42-35).
• Of the 79 Red Sox bobbleheads, only 58 of them were athletes or coaches.  Of the 58, 51 of them were on the Sox roster at the time, six were legacy players, and one was a manager.
• Of the 57 athlete bobbleheads, 15 were infielders, 16 were outfielders, five were utility players, 13 were pitchers, seven were designated hitters, and one was a dual with Koji Uehara (pitcher) and David Ross (catcher).  Pretty good mix.
• The other 21 bobbleheads giveaways were “non-players”.  This would include a chaotic roster of mascots, musicians, rabbis, police officers, Snoopy, Hello Kitty, a Bruins player, Superman, and more. Whew…
• While several of the BoSox bobblehead giveaways have been tied to the purchase of a special ticket, there have not been any bobblehead perks for season ticket holders, group ticket purchasers, or special event attendees.  The closest thing they have in this area might be the J.D. Martinez Mandalorian figure that was slated for an April 22nd, 2020 release.  There were obviously no stadium giveaways in 2020, so this one must have leaked out the backdoor.
• As of the end of the 2025 season, the least attended Red Sox bobblehead giveaway was the Andrew Berintendi SGA on July 8th, 2017 (this does not include the June 9th, 2021 SGA David Ortiz when crowds were minimized).  The highest attended was the August 9th, 2016 David Ortiz that honored his speech following the Boston Marathon bombing.
• Coca-Cola and W.B. Mason have both sponsored seven Red Sox bobbleheads, which ties them for the lead.