Bobblehead

Three words you never imagined together:

Jack. Kerouac. Bobblehead.

In the waning days of May, the city of Lowell (MA), hometown of author Jack Kerouac, witnessed a rebirth of sorts. 

The Futures League, a collegiate baseball program, took Lowell by storm this past summer. It's not the first time the city has experienced such a fever. For years, Lowell hosted a minor-league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox until a restructuring shuttered the organization in 2020. But baseball is back in the "Mill City," with their native son at the center of the celebration. 

Lest you think it a novel idea, this was actually the fourth time a Jack Kerouac bobblehead has been distributed to baseball fans in Lowell. In 2003 the first such statue was dispensed and then later welcomed into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. In 2012, the second version was made available during a game sponsored by the English Department of UMASS Lowell. A year later, the third bobblehead, depicting Kerouac in his Lowell High School baseball uniform, was unveiled. And this latest iteration, in 2026, marked the heralded return of baseball to LeLacheur Park.

The iconic face of the Beat Generation, Kerouac was a troubled and deeply flawed man, known as much for his writing as for his prejudicial views and lifelong alcohol abuse. Yet despite his complicated profile, he remains a figure of note in the community of Lowell.

Bobble or not, Kerouac always had a head for baseball.

"Baseball is the poet's game." - Joe Cardarelli, Faculty Member, Maryland Institute College of Art