Pirates to Give Away Bobblehead of Late Pittsburgh Rap Icon Mac Miller

Beloved in Western Pennsylvania and elsewhere, he died in 2018 at the age of 26.
Mac Miller performs at Coachella in 2017.
Mac Miller performs at Coachella in 2017. / Jay Calderon-Imagn Images

The Pittsburgh Pirates have announced that their next bobblehead giveaway will pay tribute to a civic icon.

On July 19 against the Chicago White Sox, the Pirates will give out a bobblehead depicting late rapper Mac Miller. Pittsburgh unveiled the bobblehead—which depicts Miller in a "412" jersey, saluting the city's area code—Thursday morning.

Miller died in 2018 at the age of 26 of an accidental drug overdose, which cut short the career of one of Pittsburgh's greatest musical talents.

A native of the city's Point Breeze neighborhood, Miller churned out a series of early rap hits that established him as a favorite of college-age millennials in the early 2010s. He went on to gradually broaden his sound, and the last album he released in his lifetime—Swimming—was nominated for the Best Rap Album Grammy.

Miller has been back in the news this year due to the Jan. 17 release of Balloonerism, his second posthumous album. The record received warm reviews and peaked at No. 3 in the United States.

The rapper was a fan of the Pirates, and the team held a moment of silence in his honor when he died.


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Patrick Andres
PATRICK ANDRES

Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history .