The hip-hop icon got to see Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani do something he has not achieved in a while.
The Los Angeles Dodgers hosted the San Francisco Giants for the second game of their four-game series on Tuesday, and they also hosted hip-hop legend and Los Angeles native Ice Cube.
Ice Cube, born O’Shea Jackson, threw out the first pitch for the Dodgers on Tuesday before joining Orel Hershiser and Joe Davis in the commentary booth to talk about his lifelong fandom of the team.
"I mean, this is one of the craziest things that ever happened to me," Ice Cube told Hershiser and Davis. "You know, I love the Dodgers. I love being a fan, you know, I like to just fan out. I don't bug the skipper or nobody, you know, I just fan out."
For Ice Cube, who was born in Los Angeles on June 15, 1969, his fandom began in the '70s and '80s while watching players such as Hershiser and others.
"It started with the you know with the old-school Dodgers," he said. "[Steve] Garvey, Dusty Baker, Ron Cey. Man, it's been great to just be a fan of the Dodgers. To see them, you know, battling in the '70s against the Yankees and in the '80s."
As Ice Cube was starting to reminisce with Hershiser and Davis about Game 1 of the 1988 World Series between the Dodgers and the Oakland Athletics in the bottom of the third inning, Shohei Ohtani hit a solo home run, his first long ball of the month.
Ohtani’s solo shot caused the conversation to shift as Ice Cube, Hershiser, and Davis excitedly reacted alongside the crowd at Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium.
"There we go!" Ice Cube exclaimed.
"All we had to do was bring Ice Cube into the booth, and Ohtani figured it out," Davis said.
After Ohtani’s home run, Ice Cube continued to tell the story of his Game 1 experience during the 1988 World Series.
"We was broke as a joke watching the game," he said. "Me, Dr. Dre; a couple other people. It's not looking good, and then you have, you know, my guy Kirk Gibson go up to the plate; slap it over the fence.
"We all take off running in the street yelling, ‘They won! They won!’ You know, so it was crazy," he added. "And then to see Freddie Freeman basically do the same thing, you know, for Game 1 of the ‘24 series, I've been on cloud nine ever since."
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