Rappers and Baseball Hats: AL West

Wherein I skip the Rangers and the Angels because there don’t seem to be any rappers willing to wear their chain, not because I don’t like them.  I couldn’t find anything sweet enough from either team to grace the hallowed cyber-pages of NotGraphs, and I’m betting you, dear reader, can’t either.  Prove me wrong, preferably in the form of a cordial comment below. 🙂  

Two things worth talking about when talking about Rap in the AL West.  1, that MC Hammer was a bat boy for the Oakland A’s, and 2, that there’s this rapper from Seattle going by the moniker Macklemore and he’s pretty damn fresh.

The Part About MC Hammer

 

It goes like this – when Stanley Burrell (the kid on the left) was a kid growing up in Oakland he would hang around the A’s parking lot, doing his thing.  He eventually caught the eye of A’s owner Charlie Finley, who made him a batboy.  Reggie Jackson started calling the kid ‘Hammer’, because he looked so much like Hank Aaron, and the rest is rap history.

The Part About Macklemore

Macklemore, a rapper named Ben Haggerty from Seattle, knows what he’s doing.  And the dude loves baseball.  Last year he released a track called “My Oh My” in memory of longtime Mariners radio announcer Dave Niehaus. It may be the best rap song about baseball, and the video honestly brings chills. I just found it today, and I’ve probably watched it at least five times.

Every year XXL magazine compiles a list of rappers to watch called the Freshmen list. This year they’ve released a list of 50 finalists, and have opened it up to the public. Macklemore made the cut. He’s got my vote.