Oakland Athletic Bobblehead History

Athletics Bobble Talk: Between 2001 and 2025, the Oakland Athletics (currently playing in West Sacramento but will be eventually relocating to Las Vegas) hosted 91 bobblehead giveaway events, featuring a total of 96 unique bobbleheads.  The A’s were the 13th MLB team to incorporate bobbleheads into their promotional schedule. 

• From 2001 to 2025, the A’s posted a cumulative record of 2,015-1,932, reflecting a winning percentage of .511.  On bobblehead giveaway nights the club’s record improves by almost a hundred points to .610 (50-32).
• The average attendance during this timeframe was 19,200 fans per home game. On bobblehead giveaway nights specifically, the Athletics averaged 25,829 fans in attendance. The capacity of the Oakland Coliseum was just shy of 47,000.
• Of the 91 Athletic bobblehead giveaway events, 72 of them were members of the Athletic’s organization.  Of the 72, 49 of them were on the A’s roster at the time, 20 were “legacy” players (with two legacy managers), two were announcers, and one was an active manager.
• Of the 67 athlete bobbleheads, 48 were position players or designated hitters and 22 were pitchers (well, 24 were pitchers if you count each of the “Big 3” individually).
• The other 19 bobbleheads giveaways were “non-players”.  This would include mascots, film or television characters, celebrities, and other characters dressed in A’s attire. Stomper, the A’s elephant mascot, has had nine different bobbleheads.
• Of the 91 bobblehead stadium giveaways, 83 were handed out ahead of games as stadium giveaways, five were part of the A’s Kids Club, two were season ticket holder exclusives, and one was available to “select” ticket purchases.
• You’d better have your weekends open if you want to get a bobblehead at the Coliseum as over 90% have been given out on these three days (12.9% on Fridays, 47.1% on Saturdays, and 30.6% on Sundays).  There has been a splash of Tuesdays in there (5.9%), a dash of Thursdays (2.4%), and a pinch of Wednesdays (1.2%).  But, like the Bangles, the Athletics wish that Mondays were Sundays (because that’s their fun day). 
• As of the end of the 2025 season, the least attended Athletic bobblehead giveaway was the Black Panther Funko Pop! vinyl bobblehead SGA on September 10th, 2022.  The highest attended was the Mark Mulder with his green and white jersey variants on July 12th, 2003.
• Pepsi has sponsored more Athletic bobbleheads than any other organization with nineteen (one a collaboration with Albertson’s and one with Round Table Pizza).