MLB's best, weirdest and most unique promotional giveaways in ballparks this year

In Season 3, Episode 2 of the Simpsons (Mr.

Lisa Goes to Washington), theres an interaction between Homer Simpson and a flight attendant.

Attendant: Yes sir, can I get you something? Homer: Playing cards, note pad, aspirin, sewing kit, pilots wing pin, propeller-shaped swizzle stick, sleeping mask, and anything else Ive got coming to me.

Attendant: ...Ill see what I can do.

Advertisement Here is your guide for leaning into your inner Homer as you plan this years outings to your local ballpark.

Were looking for the best giveaways happening at MLB games this year.

First, a caveat: As I went through each teams giveaway page, I found quite a few recurring themes.

Minecraft nights, Hello Kitty nights, Star Wars nights, Harry Potter Nights and Barbie Nights are happening in a plurality of big-league parks.

For some reason, were also still giving away Hawaiian shirts at Jimmy Buffett nights.

Just about every team is doing t-shirts, bobbleheads and magnetic calendars, and there are a surprising number of basketball jerseys, football jerseys, caps of varying quality, Funko Pop! figures, pickleball paddles and t-shirts.

I have not seen a bucket hat in the wild since South by Southwest in 2002, but your team is almost certainly giving them away at some point this year.

But the commonplace and standard are not why were here today.

If youre interested in any of those, just google [team name] giveaways 2025 and you will find what you seek.

No, today, we are on a quest to highlight the best, weirdest and most unique giveaways in baseball this year.

I spent way too many hours poring over each teams promotional schedule for this, and Im still absolutely certain that I dont have a comprehensive list many, many second-half giveaways dont have photos listed on the teams sites yet ( are we still blaming the supply chain? ).

But we have a good head start.

Lets dig in! Most unexpected giveaways: Its not that I was shocked to see two teams giving away cowboy hats.

Its just that I would have expected those two teams to be the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros.

Nope! The two teams offering old west headwear this year are the New York Yankees (July 30) and Baltimore Orioles (Aug.

22).

The Yankees dont have a photo on their website just yet, but its actually not the first time theyve done this.

Heres the Orioles version: Um.

Look, no offense to the fine people in the Orioles promotional department , but I happen to have a little expertise on the matter (my dad was a professional rodeo cowboy) and I can definitively say that this is not so much a cowboy hat as it is ...

a witch hat.

This is a hat for witches (and yes, the Halloween-esque black and orange is informing this decision).

But since witch hat is also an unexpected giveaway, Im leaving it in this section.

Advertisement Another one from Baltimore that straddles the line between unexpected and confusing is the bobblehead of new owner David Rubenstein (April 19).

I can only surmise that this decision was made last year when the excitement was fresh, and not near the end of the offseason when new ownership didnt make much difference in their free agency budget.

One final entry in this section: Im including the Braves Ozzie Albies Go Fish Cards (May 25) for the first 3,000 kids through the gates.

The description doesnt give much further explanation beyond telling us that its a pack of go fish cards featuring Albies favorite fish.

So I dug in a little, and learned that Albies has a 6,000-gallon aquarium in his home.

Now you know! Most tragic/comedic theme Lets say, hypothetically, your job is to come up with giveaways for the 2025 Chicago White Sox.

Do you lean into the general vibe of this era of White Sox baseball? Probably not (though it would be funny if they just handed out little bags of trash one day).

Alternately, you could try to find something that felt like a celebration of the team while avoiding the fact that any good players who happen to remain on your roster will likely be elsewhere by the trade deadline.

The White Sox aimed for the latter.

Its their 125th anniversary, which gave them an obvious angle, and to their credit the giveaways are actually pretty good.

Heres the full list, but highlights include: There are also bobbleheads, t-shirts, caps and the usual fare.

But if you go over the list, youll see: not a single current player is represented.

Best giveaway for dogs Bark at the park is a standard by this point, but the Twins are going above and beyond on May 19 and Sept.

2, giving away a combo water canteen that also has a small dog food holding space at the bottom.

This does, however, push the bounds of giveaway, since you have to buy a promotional ticket to receive one of these.

We tried to avoid including promo ticket items in a giveaway article, but this was pretty cool, so much like allowing dogs into the ballpark on special occasions well allow it.

Once.

Advertisement Most culturally relevant bobblehead Much like the White Sox, the Marlins dont have a ton of star power on their roster right now, and those that qualify might very well be traded soon.

That didnt stop them from including some current players in their giveaways, but the winner is the May 18 giveaway.

The first 8,000 fans will receive a bobblehead of two-time Grammy Award winner, four-time Latin Grammy Award winner (and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner) Cuban singer Celia Cruz, the Queen of Salsa.

Their site doesnt have a photo up of this one yet, but heres a performance from 1970 to get you in the mood.

Honorable mention: The Dodgers are giving away an Ice Cube bobblehead on June 21, while the Yankees are going with Billy Joel on July 11.

Best hat Every team is giving away caps.

Throwback caps, college-themed caps, cultural night caps, good caps, bad caps.

Just so many caps.

After all, the baseball cap is far and away baseballs biggest contribution to mainstream apparel.

But the best hat being given away this year is not technically a baseball cap at all (though it does feature a bill).

Its the Royals trapper cap, which will be given away to the first 6,000 fans (so get there early) on April 22.

Look, we all know that giveaways are generally not made of the most high-quality material.

But either they did a great job of making this look nicer than it is, or theres a reason theyre only giving out 6,000 of them.

Those ear flaps look downright cozy.

And for a team that is finally playing October baseball in the midwest again, this seems like a perfect item to store in the closet until the playoffs get close.

Best jersey There are far too many options here.

Even the teams that put in the bare minimum effort in creativity (looking at you, Rockies) are giving away jerseys of some sort.

Some teams are doing really good ones.

The Cubs, for example, are doing a different jersey for each cultural background heritage night, and theyre all pretty cool.

The Brewers are doing a football jersey (Apr.

29) that I would wear in public to a non-sporting event, and the Mariners are giving away a 2004 Ichiro jersey (Aug.

8) to commemorate the year he broke the single-season hit record (theyre retiring his jersey number that weekend).

But the winner here, based on pure aesthetics alone? Its not even technically a jersey so much as its a sweater There are a surprising number of good hockey sweater giveaways this year around the league.

The Rangers one (Aug.

26) looks sharp, as does the Mets Clay Holmes version (May 9).

The Blue Jays are doing a City Connect Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

hockey sweater (May 30) that you could argue should be the winner here.

Advertisement But Im sorry, look at that Orioles one above.

I can think of at least a half-dozen actual NHL teams who routinely take the ice in something worse.

That bird is absolutely ready to take a five-minute major as soon as the puck drops.

Most expensive(?) giveaway On July 3, the Cubs are celebrating 100 years of Cubs radio broadcasts by giving away a Bluetooth speaker.

I do not have high hopes that this is anywhere near the quality of your average Bose speaker (how do they get so much bass into those tiny speakers?) so take this one with a grain of cynical salt.

Maybe everything you play through this speaker will sound like ...

well, an AM radio.

Which I guess is kind of on theme, isnt it? Most nostalgic albeit from the wrong decade item Im going out on a limb here, because we dont know for sure what these will look like.

The photo on the Royals team site still looks like this: But the description is 90s Retro Viewer, which I am led to believe is a team-branded version of the View Master .

For the record, this is not a 1990s toy.

By the 1990s, we were all into Tamagotchis and Beanie Babies.

I do not care.

I havent seen one of these since I was a child, and mine had three full discs of the best wrestlers WWF could offer.

You ever click a switch and see Junkyard Dog going toe-to-toe with Nature Boy Ric Flair? Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant wailing on each other in Wrestlemania 3? I have gotten very distracted, Im sorry.

But yes: If I lived in Kansas City, I would absolutely go get one of these.

Then I would crack open an ice cold Slice, put on some Def Leppard, and click away.

Coolest giveaway Weve shown you some of the best, and referenced a few of the worst.

But after scrolling through 30 pages of team giveaways, I have decided on the one that I would most like to have in my possession.

For the second year in a row, Braves pitcher Spencer Strider who is well-known for his immaculate taste in music is compiling a playlist to be put on 7 vinyl and given away to the first 15,000 fans through the gate on August 19.

We still dont know who will be on the record, but last years Volume 1 vinyl featured three Atlanta-based acts Trash Panda, Dinner Time and Lunar Vacation all of whom played a postgame concert.

Based on the strength of last years lineup and the reputation of the curator, I have no doubt that Volume 2 will be great.

(Someone in Atlanta hook me up, please).

(Top photo of Giants pitchers Kyle Harrison and Keaton Winn wearing giveaway cowboy hats on Country Music Night at Oracle Park last July: D.

Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports).

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