The NL West race has been fascinating all year. Tension is increasing as the playoffs approach, with the Dodgers and Giants practically shadowing each other’s results since the trade deadline.
The Dodgers have been atop the MLB World Series odds all season long. It’s a different tale for the San Francisco Giants, who were widely tabbed as a .500 team at the start of the year. San Francisco has the advantage in mid-August and they keep finding a way to win even when games appear to have escaped them.
Tussling in the standings, the teams also dueled at the trade deadline. Los Angeles was victorious on that occasion, landing Max Scherzer and Trea Turner. San Francisco was not left empty-handed, however, as they added Kris Bryant and Tony Watson to their roster of resurgent veterans and surprise breakouts.
Schedule Challenges
Holding a lead in the division, the Giants have margin for error. They can lose their three remaining games against the Dodgers and still be ahead. The schedule is not kind to Gabe Kapler’s team, though.
The Giants have the fifth-toughest remaining schedule. There are 10 games against the Padres, six with the Braves and four with the Brewers. San Francisco has seen off the best MLB has to offer, beating the Dodgers, Brewers and Astros in recent weeks, but there are plenty of stern tests to come.
Sitting middle-of-the-pack in schedule difficulty, the Dodgers also see a lot of the Padres. Crucially, they have 12 games against the Rockies and Diamondbacks. Dave Roberts’ club are the runaway leaders in run differential, contributing to a 50% chance of winning the division at FiveThirtyEight.
Although doubted for months, there’s no question the Giants are the real deal. Holding off the Dodgers is going to take a special effort, however. They are on course to win over 100 games, which is a pace they need to maintain. The rotation must be strong, and the health of their veterans is crucial.
Going Deep Into September
Even pushing for a wildcard would have been a good season for the Giants. Looking to defend their World Series crown, the prospect of a one-game shootout just to make the Division Series will scare the Dodgers.
The 2021 season has already been a great one for San Francisco. The entirety of the NL West race has been enthralling. It’s not over yet, and there are bound to be more twists and turns before the regular season wraps up on October 3rd.
This division race is going to the final days of the regular season. After months of hype about the Dodgers and Padres’ fledgling rivalry, it is the old foes in The Bay who pose the real threat to the Dodgers’ NL West supremacy. This battle has history, it has massive fan bases, and it has star power.
Projections might still give the Dodgers the upper hand, but it would be brave to bet against the Giants given what they have already achieved in 2021.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics were nothing short of a miracle. Delayed a year by a global pandemic and devoid of fans at the live events, the Olympics gave many hope in a year filled with darkness. The athletes survived the uncertainty and pushed through an extra year of training to pursue Olympic glory.
The United States emerged victorious at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, with 41 gold medals en route to a leading 113 overall medals. With attention in the athletic realm most often going to the ESPN mainstays, Topps has provided a stage in the trading card market for many of the amazing United States athletes with its 2020 Topps Team USA U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Team & Hopefuls trading card set.
Base Set and Checklist
Tokyo gold medalist April Ross headlines the 76-card set, and is backed up by other familiar names including USA softball's Cat Osterman, as well as USWNT members Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle. In a somewhat ironic twist, men's beach volleyball star Taylor Crabb, who had to withdraw from the Olympics due to a positive COVID-19 test gets his rookie card in this set, as well as Tri Bourne, who was selected as his replacement. Collectors will also find cards from debut sports such as 3-on-3 basketball, skateboarding and surfing are also included. Click here for the entire checklist.
Parallels and Inserts
Topps sticks with its Olympic theme by creating parallels in bronze, silver and gold colors, as well as serial numbered cards wrapped in the United States flag. Notable inserts include the For Pride and Country set, which detail the hometowns of the Olympic stars, as well as the New to the Games set, which gives collectors a primer on the new sports in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Cat Osterman 2020 Topps Team USA Flag Parallel
Autographs and Relics
Each box advertises three major hits including at least one autograph. The box provided for this review yielded two relics and an autograph of karateka Sakura Kokumai. The Olympic Champions autograph subset gives collectors a chance to get signatures from heralded Olympians such as Amanda Beard, Kerri Strug and Kurt Angle.
Sakura Kokumai Autograph
Box Break And Final Thoughts
After watching the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, collectors now have another reason to familiarize themselves with the many athletes who worked to propel the United States to Olympic victory. While the set lacks the household names from Team USA Basketball (most likely due to Panini's NBA contract), it allows kids who compete in the lesser televised sports across the country to dream of having their own Topps card in the future.
The NFTs debuted during the first week of Athletes Unlimited's lacrosse season, with a different one being released during the subsequent weeks of the season.
The set will expand during softball season which begins August 28th, 2021 in Chicago.
Multiple 2020 Tokyo Olympians will be playing in Athletes Unlimited's softball league, including Team USA silver medalists Cat Osterman, Amanda Chidister, Kelsey Stewart and Janie Reed, as well as Team Canada bronze medalists Victoria Hayward and Sara Groenwegen.
Betting can get you an impressive return on investment - though there’s one caveat. Sure, you can bet on any sport at random and have a chance of winning some sweet cash, but you’re more likely to get a profit if you know the odds for that particular game.
Today, we’re doing a deep dive into baseball odds. What do you need to know, and how can you use betting odds to help you to make the best possible betting decisions? That’s what we’re here to explain today. Keep on reading for more information.
Why Is It Important to Understand the Odds of a Baseball Game?
It’s pretty simple. When you know how something works, you are more likely to be successful with it. The same goes for betting. It’s entirely possible to make a bet on a random baseball game, and have a slim chance of winning. When your hard earned cash is on the line though, do you really want to take a chance on just guessing? No! That’s where betting odds come in.
Betting odds are determined based on a few different variables, and they essentially give you some indiciation about how risky your bet is. It helps you to make a decision that will give you the best return on investment. It helps you to figure out whether you want to take a gamble or play it safe. Ultimately though, until we learn how to see into the future with accuracy, there’s no concrete way of determining whether a team can definitely win. We can just make some sort of prediction based on the information at hand.
Betting Odds Explained
So, how do baseball betting odds work? It’s a little complicated, but let’s break it down.
Moneyline
The most common way that betting is done for the MLB is with money line odds. In other parts of the world, these are known as American odds.
Theoretically, it’s sort of similar to percentages. Let’s say that someone tells you that there’s a 75% chance that it may rain tomorrow. That could also be written as -300 that it may rain. It’s the same thing with baseball, to some degree.
We have a baseball game coming up. The New York Yankees - 160 vs the Houston Astros +140.
Wait, what do those numbers mean?
Well, as you can see, the Astros are +140. That little plus symbol essentially tells you that they aren’t favored to win. They’re basically the underdogs. The Yankees, on the other hand, are favored to win.
If you bet on Houston, then you’re going to get $140 in profit for each $100 that you bet. Pretty neat, huh? Of course, you don’t have to bet 100 - this is just a little easier to understand since the $100 is used as an easy reference point.
If you bet on the Yankees, on the other hand, then you have to bet $160 for each $100 that you are looking to win. So if you want to make a slightly smaller bet, then you’d need to bet $16 for every $10 profit that you want to make. Because they are more likely to win, you’re not going to get as much money. Boo!
Other Kinds of Bets
You can vote on which team you want to win, but you can also bet on other parts of the game. They will usually all be expressed in moneyline odds.
For instance, you can bet on totals. These are the run amounts that are expected for the game.
You can also bet on run lines. For instance, with this kind of bet an underdog team may have +1.5 odds, meaning that if they lose the game by just one run you could still potentially have a winning bet. If the odds for a team are -1.5 then the team in question would need to win by two runs if you wanted to have a successful bet.
You can also bet on alternate run lines which are just a level up from this. Finally you have prop bets, and these are bets that you can make on something specific happening on a game. You may wish to bet on how many strikeouts a certain player may have, for instance. It’s worth looking into all of these bets, but if you’re just getting started it can help to stick to the basic moneyline bets for which team you think will win.
Baseball betting odds are complicated, but they don’t need to be rocket science! Now that you know all about baseball betting odds, you can make an informed decision about where you want your money to go!
Charlie Gorin, former Milwaukee Braves pitcher from 1954-55, died February 21, 2021 at 93.
Coming out of the University of Texas, Charlie Gorin had a winner’s pedigree. Pitching under the legendary Bibb Falk's guiding eye, the left-hander propelled the Longhorns to consecutive College World Series titles in 1949 and 1950. Gorin continued that streak early in his minor league career; however, he could not translate that success to the major league level.
Gorin, who pitched seven games for the Milwaukee Braves from 1954-55, died February 21, 2021. He was 93.
The Waco, Texas, native enlisted in the Navy during World War II out of high school, delaying the start of his baseball career. After his discharge he enrolled at Texas, using the GI Bill at the urging of one of his Naval mates. He made good with Falk at a spring tryout, and a local legend was born.
The Boston Braves took notice of Gorin after his second CWS championship in 1950 and signed him to a minor league contract at Omaha on the spot. After a short stint at Triple-A Milwaukee, Gorin settled in with their Double-A club in Atlanta and led them to the playoffs with a 7-1 record.
Gorin entered the 1951 season with a fresh start at Milwaukee that eventually led to two championships in the span of a year. The 1951 Milwaukee club ran away with the pennant, showing how Major League Baseball organizations could benefit from having an integrated team. Former Negro Leaguers Bus Clarkson and George Crowe led the offensive charge with respective .343 and .339 batting averages, while starters Ernie Johnson, Bert Thiel, Virgil Jester, Murray Wall and Gorin all posted double-digit victory totals. They then toppled the International League’s Montreal Royals to win the 1951 Junior World Series.
Most pitchers would be exhausted after a long playoff season, but the lure of a paid winter to pitch in Puerto Rico was too much for Gorin to pass up. At the recommendation of teammate Luis Olmo, Gorin headed to winter ball.
“That was the only way to make money,” Gorin said during a 2008 phone interview. “There wasn't big money like now. I was married with two kids; that's how I saved money. They paid our way down with the wife and kids, and they paid room and board. Puerto Rico was a good place to play.”
After faltering early with Mayagüez, Gorin latched on with San Juan after the team owner came to the airport to stop him from going back home. He was determined to make Mayagüez realize its mistake.
Gorin reeled off 12 wins, leading San Juan to the league championship. He pitched two complete-game victories in the playoffs, punching their ticket to the 1952 Caribbean Series. Unfortunately, for Gorin, he couldn’t enjoy the fruit of his labors. A full year of pitching finally caught up with him, his body giving out after epic playoff run. Instead of representing Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Series, he was sent home to recover.
“I had a chance to play in the Caribbean Series in 1952, but I had a muscle spasm in my back, and I just couldn't make the pitch,” he said. “They sent me home. I went to the doctor here. I had a chance to rest, and finally I worked out of it.”
Fresh off his incredible 1951 campaign, Gorin looked forward to competing for a spot on the Boston Braves. With the Korean War raging on, Uncle Sam had other plans for him that did not include the major leagues.
“I was called back to active duty in the Navy for Korea,” he said. “I went to Pensacola, because I had a degree in physical education. I was an instructor in the Naval school for gymnastics, physical education, swimming, and water survival. I had to stay two years.”
Gorin, like many of his contemporaries including Willie Mays, Don Newcombe and Ted Williams, lost prime years of his major league career to the Korean War. Unlike the aforementioned trio, Gorin could not regain the momentum he had going into his service upon his return to the pros.
The Braves honored his contract, keeping him on the roster for the 1954 and 1955 seasons. He pitched sparingly over the two years, making seven relief appearances for a 0-1 record with a 3.60 ERA.
Gorin continued to play in the minor leagues through 1962, settling into Austin towards the end of his career so he could make the move into teaching and coaching. Luckily, he found an opportunity with his former high school coach who was flexible enough to let him off to play professional baseball.
“In 1959, I was in Austin, and they wanted to send me to Atlanta,” he said. “I said, ‘Keep me in Austin, that's my hometown, they have a AA team and I could make the transition between baseball and teaching school.’ My high school coach was the athletic director here, so when I got here, he got me on as a coach and teacher. Then he let me off to go play ball. One year I went to Mobile, then back to Austin. I was married with two kids, and I needed the extra money. We made more than teachers, that's for sure.”
He wrapped up his baseball career in 1962 and went full-time into education. He coached football and baseball for over 20 years and became an assistant principal at John Reagan High School in Austin. He retired in 1990 and enjoyed playing golf with his family and friends.
Speaking with Gorin in 2008, he was proud of his baseball career; however, he was quick to note the changes he observed over the 60 years since he started.
“Things have changed,” he said. “The young players don't know how nice they have it. … It's a different game, if the ball hits the ground, it gets put out of the game. You wanted that ball that was hit on the ground, so it was rough, and you could do something with it.”
Jim "Mudcat" Grant was determined to spread the Black Aces legacy for as long as he could, similar to how Buck O'Neil preached the gospel of the Negro Leagues well into his 90s. Walking with the aid of a cane, Grant traveled across the country to baseball events as a septuagenarian to tell the story of baseball's Black 20-game winners. It was a subject where Grant was an expert; he was the first Black pitcher to win 20 games in the American League.
Grant used his platform to share how Black pitchers faced an uphill battle their entire careers, often questioned by an establishment who doubted whether Black pitchers were "equipped" to outsmart big league hitters. His 2005 book, The Black Acesgave this brotherhood of 13 Major League Baseball pitchers (at the time of publishing) the opportunity to put their untold stories on record about how they succeeded against insurmountable odds.
Things aren’t quite back to normal in the MLB just yet, but we are getting closer to some semblance of sports as we knew them before the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the United States. While it may still not be all that of a typical season, all of the main elements still exist, such as the yearly introduction of new stars as they go through their breakout periods.
It’s been quite an exciting season, despite the alarming rate of no-hitters. We have seen a good few players emerge as players who could greatly influence MLB scores with stellar performances on any given night.
We’ll take a look at three of these players in the list below. While there’s still a lot of time in the season as it pertains to things changing, the players noted below certainly have the looks of performers who could keep things going for as long as their teams are involved.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was considered a player to keep an eye on prior to the start of the season. He’s leading the MLB in swing/take runs at 29, and is considered to be the best hitter in the league at the moment. It was thought that he would do much better if he put some height on the ball and it appears he’s been doing just that, registering a lower ground-ball rate, a higher average launch angle, and a higher sweet spot rate.
Guerrero Jr. has nearly doubled his career-best with a 16.1% barrel rate, but his composure at the plate is what’s really brought the best out of him this season. He has been swinging less, but the swings he takes are more valuable. As previously mentioned, he has 29 swing/take runs - the analytic concept places run values to each pitch and can measure a player’s value in various parts of the strike zone.
The 22-year-old is doing less chasing while making the most of the pitches he's seen. His 21 swing/take runs in the middle of the zone are the most in the MLB this season and, should he keep up that sort of discipline, we anticipate a bright future.
Carson Kelly
The Arizona Diamondbacks catcher has only played 28 games this season, having suffered a broken toe, but he ranks in the top 10 in batting average with .381 for players with at least 100 appearances at the plate. He also ranks in the top 10 for slugging percentage with .613, and OPS at 1.103. Kelly leads the league in on-base percentage with .491, besting Mike Trout.
Kelly’s hitting was not very impressive in his first two seasons with the Diamondbacks, but he has made improvements to his game by chasing less balls out of the strike zone. He’s walked in 20.9% of his plate appearances, a huge improvement on the 4.7% from last year. And, while he still doesn’t hit as aggressively, he’s swinging at his pitch more often, which has caused his barrel rate to go up from 4.3% to 13.4%.
His batted-ball data also backs up his numbers, given he’s swinging at pitches he can barrel up while leading MLB with an .458 on-base average.
Freddy Peralta
Freddy Peralta is having a great season as he leads the Milwaukee Brewers in strikeouts this season and has the fewest hits per nine innings at 4.3 among qualified pitchers. The 24-year-old wasn’t guaranteed to be a starter until a few days before the start of the season, but the Brewers can hardly regret the decision given his performances. Peralta is missing a whole lot of bats and attracting low-quality contact in the air. Thirty-nine of the 96 batted balls he’s allowed this season have been weakly-hit fly balls, which is one of the league’s highest rates at 40.6%, with opponents batting just 1-39 on such pitches.
Peralta was inclined to throw a curveball for his breaking pitch in the past and, while it was effective, he’s opted to use a slider more often, throwing those 32.7% of the time. He’s still throwing the four-seamer but the slider has allowed him to use his curve a bit less. The change has resulted in him allowing a .140 average with 72 K’s in 157 at-bats that end on a slider or four-seamer.
As teams adjust to a full-season after a pandemic-shortened 2020, young stars will have a chance to make a few trips around the league, showcasing their talents to a fan base that is hungry to anoint baseball's next superstar.
This MLB season seems to be on course to make light of the record for the most no-hitters in a single campaign, with six thrown so far. It has been a great season for pitchers, who have been salivating at the opportunity to jot their names down in the record books but, on the other end, we also see a few teams that are close to getting their names in the books for shameful reasons.
The Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners, and Texans Rangers have all delivered two no-hit games this term. Given there are still four months to go, it’s very likely that one of them could end the season as the team with the unwanted record of most no-hitters thrown against them.
With a total of six such games have been seen this season, the no-hitter odds offered by some sportsbooks have become very attractive. Considered a bit of a sucker’s bet in the past, the trend has made it so that bettors could strike it big off a game in which zero strikes are hit. Of course, it has also cost them money but there are plenty of ways in which one can recoup lost funds as the season continues, so why not put that moneyline calculator to work?
The MLB’s record for no-hitters in a single season stands at seven, at least since 1900. It first happened in 1990 and was repeated in 1991, 2012, and 2015.
Joe Musgrove of the San Diego Padres threw his team’s first-ever no-hitter against the Rangers on April 9 and just five days later, the Chicago White Sox’s Carlos Rodón left Cleveland nursing their own. Baltimore’s John Means recorded a no-hitter against the Mariners on May 5, Wade Miley registered his against the Indians on May 7, and the Mariners got their second no-hitter courtesy of the Detroit Tigers’ Spencer Turnbull on May 18.
The Rangers suffered another no-hit contest via Corey Kluber of the New York Yankees.
Baseball fans have seen six-no-hitters in the space of just 42 days. Something similar happened way back in 1917 when five were thrown in just 23 days. A sixth no-hitter came around a month later to tie a record set in 1908.
What makes this season’s more impressive is the fact that Musgrove, Rodón and Kluber were one batter away from perfect outings. Musgrove and Rodón hit batters, while Kluber walked one.
As to why this season has thrown up as many no-hitters is left to debate, but it could be because pitchers are simply becoming more dangerous, although all of the no-hitters thrown so far have not come from pitchers considered to be among the league's elite.
There have been changes to the baseball itself. The league has admitted that certain alterations have affected the flight of the ball, which has, in turn, led to fewer home runs. Pitchers also agree.
Batting averages have been lower this season, making it all the more likely that no-hitters are thrown on a nightly basis.
"It's great for your team when a guy throws a no-no, it's great for that guy, it's a great accomplishment,” Yankees legend and current Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly was quoted as saying recently. "But, when there's so many, so early, strikeouts are at an all-time high, things like that. It tells you that there are some issues in the game that need to be addressed."
No MLB team has ever been no-hit three times in a season, but the Indians, Mariners and Rangers are all one no-hit away from having what would be a pretty poor record. The last two sides to collect double no-hits, the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers, went on to win their divisions in 2015. The Mets also won the National League before bowing out to the Kansas City Royals ahead of the World Series that year.
This sort of puts things in a better light for the aforementioned trio of teams but they certainly do not have the look of contenders where the World Series is concerned.
Out of the seven no-hitters from 2012, three of them were perfect games. Chicago right-hander Philip Humber, San Francisco Giants right-hander Matt Cain and Mariners icon Felix Hernandez all threw perfect games that season. Musgrove, Rodón, and Kluber came very close to the feat, which would have seen to the 24th, 25th, and 26th perfectos in MLB history. The current nine-year wait is the longest since Catfish Hunter’s perfect game in 1968 and the one thrown by Len Barker in 1981.
We’re very likely to see the record surpassed this year and we imagine a good few wagers are already in play in that regard. As to whether a no-hit game should be cause for excitement has been a subject of debate for several years. This season might just be the one to provide the answer. We already know Mattingly is not impressed.
Lombardi was a third round draft pick of the Yankees in 1981. He played mostly as a September call-up during the 1986 and 1987 seasons with the Yankees. They traded him during the 1987 off-season to the New York Mets for shortstop Rafael Santana.
Injuries plagued Lombardi throughout his career. Years of catching took a toll on his knees, with Lombardi enduring two knee surgeries by the time he was traded to the Mets. He had a third surgery in 1988 and recovered enough to play 18 games with the Mets in 1989.
“When I was with the Mets, (catcher) Todd Hundley watched me behind the plate one day,” Lombardi said to the Los Angeles Times in 1992. “He could tell I was hurting and noticed that I had all my weight shifted onto my right leg to alleviate the pain. Then he told me his father (longtime major league catcher Randy Hundley) had the same type injury to his left knee when he had been catcher, and shifted his weight onto his right side too.
“The result was that his father’s hips were thrown out of alignment and at the age of 50 he had to have a hip-replacement operation. Right after he told me that story, my hips started to hurt. I swear.”
The Braves invited Lombardi to spring training in 1990 with the promise of being their third catcher, but the thought of getting behind the plate for another season was too painful to bear. Instead of signing on with Atlanta, Lombardi retired. He was only one of five players to spend their entire MLB careers with the Mets and Yankees.
“I had idols like Johnny Bench and Pete Rose because I thought I could
have a career like they did,” Lombardi said. “Instead, I became a so-so
player, in all honesty. My career was one step forward and one step
backward. A lot of things happened, but in the end, my injuries wiped me
out.”
Lombardi turned to real estate, launching a successful career with Pinnacle Estate Properties in Valencia, California. As a parent of three daughters, he also turned to coaching softball. He lent his MLB expertise to hundreds of girls throughout the years, including his children.
Looking back at his injury shortened baseball career, Lombardi acknowledge the pain of knowing he never reached his full potential.
“All I’ve got left is my baseball card,” he said. “Really, I was just a
common player. My card isn’t worth a nickel. And it hurts, because I
know I could have been so much more.”
By the time Shaquille O'Neal wrapped up his first NBA season in 1993, it was clear O'Neal was a global entity whose marketability extended well beyond the confines of the basketball court. Whether it was his best-selling Shaq Attack sneakers, his domination of the sports card market, or serving as a pitchman for Pepsi products, everything Shaq touched in 1993 turned to gold.
His Midas touch gilded the hip-hop realm when the nubile O'Neal kicked a verse on the Fu-Schnickens single, What's Up Doc?, helping to propel sales of the song to RIAA Gold certification. O'Neal 's microphone exploits turned many heads in the industry, including that of Def Jef (Jeffrey Fortson), a Grammy nominated MC and producer who released two critically acclaimed albums on the Delicious Vinyl imprint. As Fortson watched O'Neal perform on television one morning, the idea of collaboration was spawned by a phone call from one of his close friends.
“My friend Ron Mack saw Shaq rapping on one of those morning shows on TV at seven in the morning,” Fortson said during a recent telephone interview. “I've never been a huge sports fan, but I just happened to be watching this show at 7:30 in the morning and Shaq is rapping with the Fu-Schnickens. I was like, 'Wow, check out Shaq, he can rap.' My friend Ron calls me and says, 'Hey you should get up some tracks.' I said, 'That's probably not going to happen, he has the opportunity to work with anybody in the industry he wants to.'”
At the time, Fortson had a publishing deal with Chrysalis for his production crew The Arsenal, which was comprised of Fortson and Meech Wells. As fate would have it, one of the executives at Fortson's label had a close connection with O'Neal's agent. It opened the door for the two to forge a relationship.
“The person that signed me was named Tom Sturgess … he was friends with Shaq's agent at the time, Leonard [Armato],” Fortson said. “He called me one day and said, 'Hey would you be interested in working with Shaquille O'Neal, he needs an intro for his album.' Tom knew that I was a DJ as well. The idea was to meet him at the studio and bring a bunch of records where rappers mentioned his name so we can kind of scratch in an intro of all the rappers that said his name.”
While creating the intro for Shaq Diesel, Fortson used the opportunity to showcase his production talents to the reigning NBA Rookie of the Year. By the time Fortson arrived, all of the tracks slated for the album were completed; however, one beat Fortson played for O'Neal was so undeniable that the roster was expanded to fit an additional song. That track, which also featured Fortson rapping, became the lead single, (I Know I Got) Skillz.
“He [O'Neal] actually told me before we started working, 'The album is done, I just need an intro,'” Fortson said. “After we worked on an intro, I played a track for him and said, 'Hey, what do you think of this track?'… He said, 'I like that; I want to work on it.' We kind of worked on that song, 'Skillz,' and that set off us working on the first single from his album. I think because his album was done and that song was a new energy, that's why it became the first single.”
Skillz was a hit, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Top Rap singles chart, and No. 35 on the Billboard Top 100, ascertaining O'Neal another Gold plaque. His immediate success affirmed O'Neal could deliver the goods, quieting those outside of the music community who fancied the NBA player as a novelty act.
Core artists of the era openly welcomed O'Neal on the mic because of his budding skill and genuine appreciation of the culture. He aligned himself with such heavyweights as A Tribe Called Quest, Erick Sermon, and the aforementioned Fu-Schnickens.
“He reached into the music community,” Fortson explained. “It was an opportunity to work with Shaq because I thought he was good. I didn't just jump at the chance because he was Shaq. When I first saw him rapping with the Fu-Schnickens, I was like, 'Shaq can rap,' because it could have gone the other way. At the time I was a producer, and I had success as a producer, so I didn't look at this as an opportunity like Shaq would help me get a plaque. It was more like let's work on this and it's awesome. Plaques and all of that [expletive], that is a by-product of trying to make something good; doing your best to make something great. We all worked on something great and we were rewarded for it.
“Let's take a step back," he said. "A Tribe Called Quest was huge; they weren't some fledgling rap group. They were A Tribe Called Quest, the standard in hip-hop, [at least] one of them. They were a very credible, respected rap group. … Everyone he worked with was successful. Erick Sermon, EPMD, people [that] had status in the music business. … He aligned himself rightfully so and smartly about it with his hip hop heroes.”
O'Neal took the same work ethic he had from the sports world and applied that to his approach in the studio. Fortson said O'Neal showed tremendous respect to a world where he was no longer the main attraction, not only by how he carried himself in the studio, but also his pride for writing his own songs.
“Every line that Shaq said on the several songs we worked on was his lyrics,” Fortson said. “He might have mentioned a lyric to me and said, 'Is this pretty good?' He was 100 percent professional in the studio. He was never late. The guy worked like he respected the craft. At that point, he was probably a millionaire. He was doing really well and brought none of that energy into the studio. He was 100 percent dedicated to making something good. He would spit lyrics for me and say, 'Hey what do you think of this?' He would give me his ideas, but I didn't write one lyric for him. Everything we worked on, he wrote.”
While discussing Fortson's studio experience with O'Neal, the conversation turned to the few live performances they shared together. Immediately, Fortson recalled how a show they did in Minneapolis at Prince's club, First Avenue, later led to an impromptu meeting at Prince's studio with the recently deceased superstar.
“I do remember that date in particular because I got to go to Prince's studio,” Fortson recalled. “I remember going because I remember playing the club and then going to Prince's studio. I met him [Prince] briefly. One of the guys in his band recognized me. He said, 'Hey, you're Def Jef, you're the rapper. You're the real deal.' We exchanged a few niceties and pleasantries. He said, 'Do you want to meet him? I was like, 'Sure.'
“This figure scurried by that I didn't know and he was like, 'That's him right there; he went to the bathroom.' Prince came back out and he was very short. I don't mean that in a mean way. He was surprisingly much shorter than I anticipated. The guy said, 'Hey this is Def Jef, he's a real rapper, he's the real deal. Prince said, 'If he says you're good, I'm sure you're good. Do you want to go up and do something later?” We were in his rehearsal stage. He had a sound stage in his studio. It was the most amazing place ever; it was like a fun house.”
MC Supernatural corroborated Fortson's story. Known for his tremendous freestyle abilities, Supernatural remains one of the most highly regarded MCs in the game. When reached via telephone, just the mention of Shaq's name triggered lucid memories of an unbelievable evening.
“It's definitely a true story,” Supernatural said. “I'll never forget the night; it was amazing. I remember Shaq coming out doing the running man on stage looking like a giant, like he was getting ready to fall off the stage.”
Supernatural observed that O'Neal was well received within the hip hop community for similar reasons that Fortson earlier expressed; he was real.
“We loved it,” he said. “At that time, Shaq was like that dude. He was fresh in the league, blowing up crazy, doing all types of stuff across the board media wise. When he did that record [Shaq Diesel], it was amazing to be there to see it. He was probably one of the first basketball players ever to do a rap record. That was a big deal to MCs, especially to guys like myself. I always thought it was dope that he was so involved with hip hop.”
O'Neal released three more studio albums, but none had the commercial success as his Platinum debut, despite later enlisting the likes of Jay-Z and the late Notorious B.I.G. Artists and producers sought to capitalize off of Shaq's fame and budget by charging exorbitant amounts, when just a few years earlier, they were all posturing for a spot on his album.
“The first time around everyone wanted to record something with me,” O'Neal said in his 2011 autobiography, Shaq Uncut. “Now all of a sudden they're calling up and saying they'll do it, but they want $200,000.”
Fortson remained proud that he was able to work with O'Neal at the nascent stage of his rap career, well before finances complicated the situation. The experience had a purity that couldn't be replicated in future efforts.
“I was glad I was in on the ground floor because it was genuine,” he said. “After a couple of albums, people saw a check.
“I think he did his best to honor whomever he listened to because he took time to write his rhymes. People might say he wasn't saying anything particularly deep, but he was having fun making cool and clever rhymes, and really at the end of the day that's what hip hop is about.”
* - Originally published for The Sports Post on September 9, 2016.
