Chuck D named music ambassador for MLB Hip-Hop 50 celebrations
On Aug. 11, 2023, Major League Baseball launched a business partnership with Mass Appeal’s Hip-Hop 50 Live at Yankee Stadium, home of the 27-time World Series champion, New York Yankees.
The stadium is located in the Bronx, which is well-known as the birthplace of rap music, one of the core elements of hip-hop culture.
With this one-year partnership continuing into the 2024 season, the MLB along with all 30 teams will provide baseball and rap music fans a variety of things such as content creation, merchandise, and other exciting giveaways to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the marriage of the music genre and culture to the city of New York.
The choice to be the music ambassador for this year-long extravaganza turned out to be an easy one if you’re a hip-hop fan.
Chuck D (born Carlton Douglas Ridenhour on Long Island, NY) is the leader of the iconic group Public Enemy.
One of the more recognizable voices of the hip-hop generation, Chuck D has always been an ambassador to this music, so adding the title music ambassador, which will include his overseeing special content and programming, allows Major League Baseball to educate its fanbase to the overall impact of the music and culture while enjoying the historical game of baseball and its impact on African-Americans. It kind of brings Jay Z’s partnership with the NFL to mind.
Chuck D showed his humility as the first rap artist to work exclusively with MLB.
“As a longtime baseball fanatic, I am beyond honored to be the first hip-hop artist to work with Major League Baseball in this exciting new way – connecting sound and culture to the stories of the game,” said Chuck D. “Thank you MLB for adding me to the lineup… and the pitch is on the way.”
Chuck D’s love of baseball is not just for today’s game or just the MLB. He is a student of the game with knowledge dating back to the Negro Leagues. Just last year he took to social media to honor the Philadelphia Stars.
Look for Chuck’s exclusive content on all of MLB’s platforms; MLB.com, MLB.TV and the MLB Network as well as social media handles like @MLB and @MLBLife. The cerebral rapper’s resumé shows that Baseball got the most-qualified man for the job.
Besides producing iconic albums, Chuck D and Public Enemy have been the recipients of numerous honors including the group being 2013 inductees of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys.
Just this year, Chuck D released “We Wreck Stadiums” which is a collection of songs honoring some of baseball’s players from the past and their impact on the game of baseball and society.
He also developed and executive produced “Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World,” a four-episode documentary series covering the evolution of the music genre and its significant impact on society and the World. It premiered on PBS in 2023.
With his love for baseball cards, Chuck has also taken up drawing. One standout piece is his illustration of the old Shea Stadium—formerly home to his beloved Mets. (He hated the Yankees!)
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Rucker Park host HBCU All-Star Dream Classic
Of the 107 historically black colleges and universities in the United States, only nine are considered to be in the Northern region of the country: one in Delaware, four in Maryland, two in Pennsylvania, and two in Washington, D.C. There are none in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut, although the three states have a plethora of natives and transplanted residents who are HBCU alums. Still, the culture of HBCUs is thriving in the Northeast.
Daryl K. Roberts and Rachel E. Naughton, producers of the HBCU All-Star Dream Classic, are committed to moving it forward and exposing numerous youth to the educational and athletic opportunities the college network offers. Roberts is a graduate of Lincoln University and member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. Naughten is a St. Paul’s College (Virginia) alumnus.
The duo staged the Dream Classic on August 5 at Rucker Park through the Harlem-based nonprofit Bridging Structural Holes, founded in 2018 by its CEO, the Harlem-born and -bred Roberts. The event featured 40 men’s and women’s HBCU basketball players, live musical entertainment, step shows by Divine Nine fraternities and sororities, marching bands, and cheerleaders.
The two men’s and two women’s squads were composed solely of ballers who collectively attended 28 HBCUs. New York City basketball point guard royalty Kenny Anderson, the current men’s head coach at Fisk University, served as one of the coaches. The Booker Tees won the men’s game 71-59 over the MLKings, with Yasim Hooker of Miles College earning MVP. SoJo’s Truth edged Althea’s Aces 51-46 in the women’s matchup and Bryanna Brown of Lincoln University was named MVP.
“What I am most proud of,” Roberts told the AmNews, “is that all 40 of the players received their college degrees. We want to expand the message that student-athletes can gain a high-quality academic and athletic experience at HBCUs. They don’t have to attend PWIs (predominantly white institutions) to create prosperous career pathways after college.”
HBCUs are in Roberts’s DNA: Two of his grandparents attended HBCUs, as did his mother (Oakwood) and father (Morgan State).
Roberts is also the organizer of the HBCU Harlem Renaissance Classic. The games and activities were held at City College over the Thanksgiving holiday in the past two years but will move to the Gauchos Gym, scheduled for November 25.
Harlem basketball legend and longtime youth advocate Bob McCullough was honored with the inaugural Bob McCullough Community Icon Award. Sponsors for the affair included Northwest Mutual, M&T Bank, Champion, and Wilson. KRSB Radio Philadelphia streamed the event live. HBCU Gameday and For Us By Us Network (FUBU) were also represented as prominent media partners of the Dream Classic.
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Mercenary leader possibly among those killed in plane crash in Russia
It was widely speculated that the days of Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin were numbered after an aborted coup in June. Now there’s speculation that he may be among those killed on a plane that crashed in Kuzhenkino, Russia.
At presstime, the most extensive reportage of the crash comes from Reuters via the BBC, where footage shows the plane, which Prigozhin owns, spiraling from the sky after an apparent explosion. According to early reports, Prigozhin’s name is on the passenger list, although there’s no conclusive evidence that he was actually on the plane.
Thus far, a Russian news agency reports that four bodies have been taken from the fiery crash. According to the passenger list, 10 were aboard the plane, which was en route from Moscow and possibly St. Petersburg, a frequent pattern of flight.
None of the social media accounts believed to be linked to Prigozhin have so far made any claims about whether he is dead or alive. Some are saying that another business jet owned by him was also in the air at the time of the crash, also having departed Moscow.
Several experts on Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, suggested that Prigozhin, 62, who was allied with Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, broke with Putin on a number of former agreements, including pay and military strategy. Many conclude that those issues precipitated the coup attempt that was halted once the forces and its leaders realized they would be slaughtered.
CNN, which showed footage of the plane falling from the sky, said it could confirm the authenticity of the video, but RIA Novosti claimed it was the moment that an Embraer jet fell from the sky in the Tver region of Russia.
President Biden, back in the White House after a visit to Hawaii, has been briefed about the incident but had released no comments at presstime for this issue.
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Marcus Semien on pace to break MLB leadoff hitter RBI record
Over a year ago, Marcus Semien and the Texas Rangers franchise hit a crossroads.
Both the manager and the general manager were fired as the team was on pace to finish with what would end up being its sixth consecutive losing season. Now, thanks to one of the best offenses in baseball, led by Major League Baseball’s most expensive middle infield and some new additions to the pitching staff, they have a shot at the first World Series in team history.
The turnaround from a year ago for the Rangers is the stuff sports movies are made of.
Last Friday, the team matched their 2022 win total of 68. Going into Tuesday night’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Rangers had the second-best record in the American League at 72-53 behind the Baltimore Orioles, which were 77-47.
The Rangers also had the third-best home record in MLB at 42-24 in games played in Arlington. Only the Los Angeles Dodgers (43-21) and Atlanta Braves (42-22) held a better record in their own stadiums.
The Rangers went 12-2 from the August 1st trade deadline through August 15 after acquiring some key pieces, including three-time Cy Young award winner Max Scherzer from the Mets. But they took a step back, losing five straight before facing the Diamondbacks in Arizona on Tuesday. The Rangers are in a tight race with the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners in the AL West.
Players up and down the Rangers’ 26-man roster have stepped up when called on. Yet the team’s success can in large part be attributed to the half-a-billion-dollar middle infield tandem of American League All-Star starters Semien, 32, and 29-year-old Corey Seager.
The pair has earned every penny they signed for in the winter of 2021. Semien inked a seven-year, $175 million contract and Seager a 10-year pact for $325 million.
Playing shortstop, Seager ranks near the top of the Majors in OPS, slugging, batting average and on-base percentage for all hitters. Semien, the Rangers’ second baseman and team captain, bats in front of him in the leadoff spot.
He has played in 253 straight games dating back to May 12th of last year. Over the past three seasons, Semien has missed only one game.
“He has a killer instinct,” Rangers general manager Chris Young told MLBbro.com.
“He is aggressive to kick the game off and puts on a show from the start. With Seager behind him, it makes it that much tougher to pitch to him.”
Case in point: On August 14, in a 12-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels, Semien drove in a season-high five runners, three by way of his 19th homer of the year.
Between May and June of this year, Semien reached base in a career-high 33 consecutive games, grinding out a 25-game hitting streak over the time that ended as the third longest in club history.
“My goal is always the same, swing at strikes and get on base,” Semien told MLBbro.com.
This season for Semien could end up as one of the greatest ever for a second baseman in league history, competing with his own record-breaking 2021 when he hit an MLB-record 45 homers for the Blue Jays and won the 2021 MLBbro Player of the Year award.
He is the front-runner for both the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards and is on pace to finish with 107 RBI. That would be the most in Major League history for a leadoff hitter, passing Charlie Blackmon’s 103 runs driven in 2017.
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Sha’Carri Richardson gains redemption at the World Championships
Sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson has attained redemption.
After a series of high and lows on the track; personal struggles; and reported friction with some of her athletic peers, presumably due to her alleged diva-like behavior, the diminutive Richardson is now a giant of her sport, thanks to a stunning upset in the women’s 100-meter finals at the World Athletics Championships on Monday in Budapest, Hungry.
Her victory was shocking not so much because Richardson lacked the necessities to dethrone the Jamaican sprinters who have dominated the women’s 100 and 200 meters for the better part of the past five years. It was unexpected given her struggles in the semifinals.
Richardson, 23, labored to a clocking of 10.84, finishing third in her heat, and advancing to finals only after nervously waiting for confirmation that she had qualified based on her time being among the fastest of those who did not automatically (the top two in each heat) move on.
In the finals, Richardson was faced with an onerous challenge: facing five-time and defending 100-meter World Championships titleist 36-year-old Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce of Jamaica, widely regarded as the greatest women’s sprinter of all-time, and 29-year-old Shericka Jackson, also from Jamaica, the only athlete to ever win medals at the World Championships in 100, 200, and 400 meters.
Nevertheless, staring down the track from the far outside in lane nine, she summoned the inner strength and resilience to run the swiftest 100-meter time in the history of the event, passing Jackson in the closing 20 meters and recording 10.65 to capture the gold. Jackson took second at
10.72 and Fraser-Pryce the bronze at 10.77.
Afterward, Fraser-Pryce and Richardson displayed mutual respect and camaraderie when the eight-time Olympic medalist jokingly remarked, “You know how long the USA [has] not [won] a gold medal?”
Richardson exuberantly and laughingly replied, “Because of you! Because of you!”
Indeed, it was Tori Bowie, who tragically passed away this past May at the age of 32 due to complications related to childbirth, who last won gold for the USA in the 100 meters at the World Championships in 2017.
On July 7 at the U.S. Track and Field Championships at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field, Richardson pulled off her bright-orange wig, tossing it behind her and onto the track to unveil long cornrows.
It was a symbolic and cathartic moment for the 5-foot, 1-inch Dallas, Texas, native and Louisiana State University product, whose peaks and valleys trended from a blazing 10.75 seconds at 19 years old in the 2019 NCAA Division I Championships, setting a collegiate record in winning the 100-meter title, to being banned from the 2020 Olympics after testing positive for cannabis after her victory at the U.S. Olympic Trials in July of 2021.
(The 2020 Summer Olympics were held in Tokyo in July and August of 2021—originally scheduled to take place in July and August of 2020, but postponed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.)
Richardson’s exclusion was a polarizing issue, with hard-core track and field fans and those who had never heard of her before the issue weighing in on whether she should have been disallowed to compete in the sport’s most significant competition for a substance not considered performance-enhancing.
“I wanted to show you guys that I’m still that girl, but I’m better,” Richardson said to a journalist named Tee on the day she discarded the wig. “I’m still that girl, but I’m stronger. I’m still that girl but I’m wiser. I had to shed the old and present the new.”
It came to fruition on Monday in Hungary, 5,700 miles from Hayward field.
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