major league baseball

SOURCE SPORTS: Chuck D Teams Up With MLB As Music Ambassador And Content Architect For 50th Anniversary Yearlong Celebration Of Hip Hop

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As the milestone anniversary of Hip Hop is celebrated this week, MLB teams with music legend Chuck D for special content and programming to celebrate the connection and impact of music, culture and baseball.

During Friday’s highly anticipated Hip Hop 50 Live at Yankee Stadium concert, the co-founder of pioneering musical group Public Enemy, will serve as MLB’s special correspondent, capturing the electric atmosphere in exclusive content for MLB’s platforms, including @MLB, @MLBLife social handles, MLB.com, MLB.TV and MLB Network.

Additionally, the acclaimed lyricist, producer and author will collaborate with MLB on content, music and stories throughout the 50th anniversary year. Programming includes MLB’s social, MLB Network and in-stadium videos focused on the relationship between baseball and Hip Hop culture, and how its evolved through the years.

“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 to MLB for adding me to the lineup…and the pitch is on the way.”

MLB launches its yearlong partnership with Mass Appeal’s Hip Hop 50 this Friday, August 11 with Hip Hop 50 Live at Yankee Stadium. The star-studded event is the opening activation to commemorate Hip Hop’s 50th birthday where it all began, the Bronx. As part of the continued partnership, MLB and its Clubs will create content, merchandise and giveaways to amplify promotions that connect to Hip Hop under this impactful banner through the 2024 season.

In 2013, Public Enemy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2020, Public Enemy received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the GRAMMYs. In April 2023, Chuck D released his ode to the great American pastime with “We Wreck Stadiums,” a collection of songs that pays homage and salute to some baseball’s greats and the undeniable impact they’ve had on the game and the world. Most recently, he is developer and executive producer of “Fight the Power: How Hip-Hop Changed the World,” Chuck D curated a powerful collection of voices on the evolution of the musical genre and its historical significance. The four-episode series premiered in the US on PBS in 2023.

The post SOURCE SPORTS: Chuck D Teams Up With MLB As Music Ambassador And Content Architect For 50th Anniversary Yearlong Celebration Of Hip Hop first appeared on The Source.

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SOURCE SPORTS: HBO In Production On Barry Bonds Documentary

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HBO and Words + Pictures are currently in production on a documentary chronicling Barry Bonds, one of the greatest talents in the history of baseball, and one of the most compelling and polarizing figures in all of sports. 

Keith McQuirter, (“By Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of Godfather of Harlem”) who spent his childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area, isdirecting the film with Academy Award®-winner Ezra Edelman (“O.J.: Made in America”) serving as an executive producer alongside Connor Schell and Libby Geist, creators of the Emmy® Award-winning series, “30 for 30” and executive producers of “The Last Dance.” The filmmakers will include a diverse cast of influential figures from Barry Bonds’ life and career, and the opportunity for Bonds to actively participate and share his firsthand experiences remains available.

McQuirter says of the forthcoming doc, “Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1990s, Barry Bonds was the ultimate superstar. You couldn’t escape his name or his game, his story, or his personality. Every time he stepped up to the plate, the energy was electric – because he wasn’t just competing with his contemporaries, he was competing with history. Bonds was undoubtedly controversial, but no matter how you felt about him, his pursuit of becoming the greatest player of all time was mesmerizing.  Through a series of interviews, we will illuminate the untold story of Bonds, providing an intimate look behind the scenes. It will all add up to a complex journey that was one of the most enduring and consequential tales in American sports history – a tale I can’t wait to tell.”

The untitled HBO Sports Documentary will tell the story of Barry Bonds, baseball’s single-season and all-time home run king, from his beginnings as the son of All-Star Bobby Bonds, and godson of the iconic Willie Mays, all the way up to his meteoric rise in the 1990s and 2000s. Using archival footage and original interviews, the film will chronicle Bonds’ emergence as one of the game’s most talented all-around players with the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants and then his years as a superstar with the Giants when he rewrote the record book in his late 30s amid controversy. All throughout, Bonds’ path to the doorstep of the Hall of Fame was an epic saga of sports, society, and culture in America.

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Minor League Baseball Player Anderson Comás Come Out As Gay

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In the last decade, most of the major American men’s professional leagues have seen athletes come out as gay. One of the first incidences of this was Jason Collins. Collins was the first openly gay player in the NBA. He first made this announcement in 2013 when he was a member of the Washington Wizards. A year later, Michael Sam became the first openly gay player drafted to the NFL. Drafted by the St. Louis Rams in 2014, Sam had a short-lived, but inspiring career. Seven years later, Oakland Raider Carl Nassib announced he too was gay. Since Sam never played an official game in the NFL, Nassib became the first openly gay active player.

Next, it was baseball’s turn. In 2015, David Denson became the first player affiliated with an MLB team to come out as openly gay. Denson played within the Milwaukee Brewers system from 2013-2017. However, Denson never played a game in the Major League. He spent his entire four-year career playing in the minor leagues. So, the MLB still has seen an openly gay player play in one of their major league games.

Anderson Comás Speaks

However, it is still great to see any athlete be comfortable in their own skin. That is why Sunday (Feb. 19) was another terrific day for the MLB. Sunday saw minor league pitcher Anderson Comás announce he is openly gay via Instagram. In his post, he asserted that homophobes were not welcome and that he is a lover with a great soul. “This may be my most personal thing I ever share and it’s that I’m proudly and happily part of the LGTBQ+ community,” he wrote. “I’m also a human with a great soul, I’m respectful, I’m a lover, I love my family and friends and that’s what really matters, I enjoy my work a lot, being a professional baseball player is the best thing that happened to me so I just wanna say something to those people that says that gay people can not be someone in this life, well look at me I’m Gay and I’m a professional athlete so that didn’t stopped me to make my dreams come true.”

Comás is currently a member of the Arizona White Sox, a minor-league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. He has not played a game yet in the majors. But, the Dominican Republic native still has a lot of his career ahead of him. The White Sox’s assistant general manager of player development Chris Getz also released a statement celebrating the moment. “Anderson first shared his news with us last year. And I was very pleased that he was comfortable sharing with us in player development,” he said. “I also was happy at the reaction across the organization, which as you would expect was to support, help and congratulate a teammate. With his social media post today, we all are so proud of Anderson and that he is comfortable sharing such an important personal part of his life so openly.”

[Via]

HBO Sports Doc ‘Say Hey, Willie Mays!’ Debuts November 8

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In commemoration of his historic over the shoulder catch over 50 years ago, HBO Sports Documentaries in association with Company Name & UNINTERRUPTED announces Say Hey, Willie Mays!, a film exploring the life and career of Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays, will be debuting November 8 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and available to stream on HBO Max. Directed by Nelson George, the documentary includes exclusive interviews with Mays and his family. The film will have its world premiere at the 2022 UrbanWorld Film Festival on October 27.

Mays is undoubtedly one of the best all-around players in Major League history, displaying the rare combination of speed, power and defense whenever he took the field. He played in a record-tying 24 All-Star Games in his 22 years with the Giants (1951-1972) and the Mets (1972-1973). He signed with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League at 16 and then joined the Giants organization in 1950. After serving in the U.S. Army for most of the 1952 season and all of 1953, “The Say Hey Kid” returned to post an MVP season in 1954, leading the Giants to the World Series Championship. He earned NL MVP honors again in 1965 and won 12 consecutive Gold Gloves from 1957-1968.  Mays finished his career with a .302 batting average, 660 home runs, 338 stolen bases, a .384 on-base percentage and a .557 slugging percentage. The Alabama native was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979 with 94.7% of all votes, the fourth-highest total ever at the time of his election. In 2017, Major League Baseball renamed the World Series Most Valuable Player in honor of Willie Mays.

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