WATCH: Hundreds of fans lineup outside PNC Park for Paul Skenes' bobblehead night

Modified Apr 20, 2025 01:51 GMT

Washington Nationals v Pittsburgh Pirates - Source: Getty

Paul Skenes enjoyed a fantastic rookie season in 2024, finishing with an 11-3 record, maintaining a superb 1.96 ERA, striking out 170 batters. As a result of his exceptional displays over the course of the year, the Pittsburgh Pirates ace was awarded the NL Rookie of the Year award in November.

With his popularity steadily increasing by the day as he continued to dominate on the mound, it is safe to say Skenes is a fan favorite in Pittsburgh. That popularity was on display on Saturday as the Pirates gave away Paul Skenes bobbleheads to fans preceding their home encounter against the Cleveland Guardians.

With the giveaway originally set to be only for the first 20,000 fans that entered the stadium, huge lines could be spotted outside PNC Park, as hundreds of fans arrived for a chance to secure some memorabilia associated to a player that may turn out to be a future great.

A clip of the fans queuing outside the ballpark was later posted to X (formerly Twitter) by MLB.

"This line in Pittsburgh for Paul Skenes bobblehead day 🤯" the post was captioned

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Such was the overwhelming response from fans, that the Pirates eventually decided to giveaway a bobblehead to every fan that came to the ballpark that day, ensuring that no one missed out memorabilia, per MLB.

Though Skenes did look good on the day, pitching seven innings and giving up only two runs, the Pirates' offense failed to offer their ace any run support. The hosts went on to lose the game 3-0.

Paul Skenes talks about his early future aspirations before baseball picked up

Before becoming one of the most highly-touted pitchers in all of the major leagues, Paul Skenes was a student at the United States Air Force Academy, aspiring to fly planes and serve his country one day.

Speaking to popular men's lifestyle magazine GQ on Wednesday, April 2, Skenes talked about how he always saw himself as a member of the US Military, with baseball being his 'Plan B' at the time.

"I want to go fly planes and kill bad people, and if baseball opens up, then I’ll do that,” Skenes said via GQ."

Pittsburgh Pirates fans, for one, will definitely be thankful that Skenes did end up pursuing baseball in the end.

About the author

Raghav Mehta is a baseball journalist at Sportskeeda awaiting results for a Bachelor's in Journalism from Delhi University. He enjoys highlighting the key battles between players at different stages of the game and analyzing the decisive moments upon which they hinge.

One of Raghav's favorite moments, which underscores this, was the Shohei Ohtani vs. Mike Trout clash in the 2023 WBC, where two of baseball's best players faced off against each other in the 9th inning. With the score 3-2 to Japan, Shohei eventually got the strikeout, which was absolute cinema.

Raghav is a Baltimore Orioles fan and is enjoying watching such an exciting young team compete at the top in a very competitive division.

Raghav has loved watching sports for as long as he can remember and realized he was pretty decent at writing his thoughts down at around the age of 14. Combining the two meant he had something he would enjoy doing every day, and he had identified that well before going to college.

Aside from work, Raghav enjoys playing sports, working out and watching movies.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash