When the Baltimore Orioles host the Athletics on May 8, all eyes will be on the Tupac Shakur bobblehead being given away to the first 20,000 fans that arrive at Oriole Park that night.

Last month the Orioles announced that the Shakur bobblehead, featuring the late rapper and actor in a black Orioles jersey and matching bandana — holding a baseball bat, would be available early in their 2026 season. Shakur was born in East Harlem, New York, but spent four years of his youth in the mid-’80s living in Baltimore while attending various schools there, including the Baltimore School for the Arts. The Shakur bobblehead is inspired by those years he spent in Charm City as a youth.

Sara Biancosino, the director of promotions and audience development for the Orioles, said the Shakur bobblehead is a collaboration between the team, Shakur’s estate and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation.

“Each year, year over year, we work internally and externally with partners, with our fans, even just staff in general and try to tap into cultural things that are going on (with) pop culture, celebrities or promotional merchandise. So with (Shakur’s) history to the Baltimore School of the Arts and just that rich hip hop culture, we were trying to tap into that audience,” Biancosino said. “And I think through a variety of meetings and conversations over the last few years collectively with some of those vendors, our team internally we were able to come to the idea collectively and really capitalize on a really great moment with the history of the city, as well.”

The Orioles initially announced that 15,000 Shakur bobbleheads would be available for the game against the Athletics. That number then increased to 20,000 when it became obvious to the team that fan demand would be high.

Courtesy of the Baltimore Orioles

Mark Fine, chief marketing officer for the Orioles said that 15,000 is generally the standard number of products the team works with for fan giveaways, but that the overwhelming response from news outlets and social media made the team realize an increase would be necessary.

“As we were getting texts from people all over the place in all different areas of the country and the world saying, ‘I need one of those,’ we made the quick decision to order 5,000 more while we could because they take a while to produce. So it’s unlikely we will be producing any more because we were kind of at our limit in terms of deadlines to be able to produce (Shakur) bobbleheads in a certain amount of time,” Fine said.

Felt said the Orioles expect those 20,000 Shakur bobbleheads to arrive the week of the May matchup with the Athletics (and the team will have them under “lock and key”). He anticipates that there will be long lines outside of Camden Yards before the game begins, similar to other Orioles giveaways that have been popular with fans in Baltimore recently including Hawaiian shirts, hockey jerseys and a Cal Ripken Jr./Iron Man bobblehead that was a collaboration with Marvel. The game has a start time of 7:05 and Felt says the gates will open 90 minutes prior.

“It speaks to the impact that Tupac has had in pop culture and in society just as a world-renowned artist and musician and his connection to Baltimore,” Felt said. “You’ll see that from a marketing standpoint we’re going to really tell that story through our social channels both on MASN and through our social media channels just to connect him to his time here in Baltimore because it’s pretty special that he had spent time here in Baltimore during his formative years right before he became very famous.”

Biancosino said plans are underway for some “really cool” in-game moments during Shakur’s bobblehead night, including music, and an appearance from Shakur’s sister, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, the president of the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, who will throw out the game’s first pitch with members of the foundation present.

“We’ll work really closely with the estate, parts of his family and just overall the different avenues and areas that Tupac touched,” Biancosino said. “Our goal is to be able to tell that story from start to finish because his impact as a visionary and poet and all of the elements that really made him the artist he is today kind of started in Baltimore.”

Even new Orioles manager Craig Albernaz got in on the Tupac/Orioles news, retweeting the Shakur bobblehead announcement the team posted on social media with a quote from Shakur.

“That was completely unprompted by the marketing department,” Felt said. “He got in on it and that was really fun to see from our end. It was cool that Alby quoted him.”

Biancosino thinks when Orioles fans get ahold of the Shakur bobblehead they’ll have one of the more memorable team collectibles in their possession.

“This is something that fans can only get if they come to the park and it’s truly going to probably sit in that collectable category,” Biancosino said.

Felt went a step further.

“I think it’s fair to say that this (Tupac bobblehead), based on the early ticket sales and buzz that we’ve gotten, that this will be the most anticipated giveaway we’ve ever had.”

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