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Derek Sanderson Jeter (; born June 26, 1974) is an American professional baseball player. He is a Major League Baseball (MLB) shortstop who has played his entire career for the New York Yankees. He has served as the Yankees' team captain since 2003. Jeter's presence in the Yankees' lineup, highlighted by his hitting prowess, played an instrumental role in the team's late 1990s dynasty.

Jeter debuted in the Major Leagues in 1995, and the following year, he won the Rookie of the Year Award and helped the Yankees win the 1996 World Series. Jeter was also a member of championship-winning teams in 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2009. In 2000, Jeter became the only player to win both the All-Star Game MVP Award and the World Series MVP Award in the same year. He has been selected as an All-Star ten times, and he has won the Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards on four occasions. He is regarded as a consummate professional, by teammates and opponents alike, and has a reputation as a reliable contributor in the postseason.

Jeter is considered to be one of the best players of his generation. He is the all-time hits leader among shortstops and his .317 career batting average through the 2009 season ranks as the fifth-highest among active players. He has been among the American League (AL) leaders in hits and runs scored for the past ten years. He is the all-time Yankees hit leader, passing Hall of Fame member Lou Gehrig in 2009.

Category: File - :2004 WorldSeries Trophy.jpg|thumb|The Commissioner's Trophy from the Boston Red Sox's 2004 World Series win

The World Series has been the annual championship series of the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada since 1903, concluding the postseason of Major League Baseball. Since the Series takes place in October, sportswriters many years ago dubbed the event the Fall Classic; it is also sometimes known as the October Classic or simply The Series. It is played between the League Championship Series winning clubs from MLB's two circuits, the American and National Leagues. The World Series has been played every year since 1903 with the exception of 1904 (boycott) and 1994 (player strike). Though professional baseball has employed various championship formulas since the 1860s, the term "World Series" is usually understood to refer exclusively to the modern World Series.

Although the name "World series" might imply an international competition, no international federation has ever sanctioned the series as a world championship event. Nevertheless, as only a handful of countries have national baseball leagues and, historically, the best baseball players generally play for MLB teams, the winners of the World Series are sometimes informally referred to as "world champions" by fans, players, executives, and the media within the United States and Canada.

The World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff except for 1903, 1919, 1920, and 1921, when the winner was determined through a best-of-nine playoff. The winning team is awarded the Commissioner's Trophy and the team presents its players and executives individual World Series championship rings. The Series-winning club also receives a larger proportion of the gate receipts from the series.

The New York Yankees of the American League have played in 40 of the 105 World Series and have won 27 World Series championships, most of any Major League franchise. From the National League, the Dodgers have participated the most in the Series with 18 appearances (9 each in Brooklyn and Los Angeles), and have won the Series 6 times (once as Brooklyn, five times as Los Angeles). The St. Louis Cardinals have represented the National League 17 times and have won 10 championships, which is the second most of any Major League Team.World Series by franchise Presently, the Chicago Cubs have played the most seasons without winning the World Series, with their last championship coming in 1908.List of World Series at Baseball Reference

Peyton Williams Manning (born March 24, 1976) is an American football quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League. One of only two three-time NFL MVPs, he is widely regarded as the greatest quarterback of all time. He was drafted by the Colts as the first overall pick in 1998 after a standout college football career with the Tennessee Volunteers. He is the son of former NFL quarterback Archie Manning and the older brother of current New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning.

Manning holds NFL records for consecutive seasons with over 4,000 yards passing and the most total seasons with 4,000 or more yards passing in a career. Manning holds the third-highest career passer rating (95.3) among active quarterbacks, and ranks fourth all-time behind only Steve Young (96.8), Phillip Rivers (95.8), and Tony Romo (95.4). He is the all-time Colts franchise leader in career wins, career passing yards, pass attempts, pass completions, and passing touchdowns.

In 2009, he was listed by The Sporting News as the No. 1 player in the NFL today.[http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/article/2009-09-09/sporting-news-nfl-top-100-peyton-manning-no-1-on-our-experts-list "Sporting News' NFL Top 100: Colts QB Peyton Manning voted No. 1 by our panel of experts"], Sporting News Also in 2009, FoxSports named him player of the decade.

Since the Colts drafted Manning in 1998, the team has the highest conversion rate on 3rd down (44.6%) and 4th down (61.1%) plays in the NFL. While leading the Colts to their Super Bowl XLI victory in 2006, Manning helped the team to an NFL record by converting 56.1% of its 3rd downs."Indianapolis Colts Release, Regular Season Game 10", p.7, Colts.com

An extremely marketable player outside of football, Manning has appeared in numerous commercials, was featured on the covers of the NFL Fever games for the Xbox, hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live, and guest-voiced on The Simpsons, along with his brothers, Eli and Cooper.

The Super Bowl is the current day name of the championship game of the National Football League (since 1967), the premier association of professional American football. In most years, the Super Bowl is the most-watched American television broadcast. Many popular singers and musicians have performed during the event's pre-game and halftime ceremonies. The day on which the Super Bowl is played is now considered to be a de facto American national holiday,http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/01/29/super_bowl_underscores_cultural_divide/http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d810f2987&template=without-video-with-comments&confirm=truehttp://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/16865062 called Super Bowl Sunday. Super Bowl Sunday is the second-largest U.S. food consumption day, after Thanksgiving Day.

Exclusive television broadcast rights for the Super Bowl rotate each year among 3 of the 4 major American television networks: CBS, NBC and Fox. Because of its high viewership, commercial airtime for the Super Bowl broadcast is the most expensive of the year. Due to the high cost of investing in advertising on the Super Bowl, companies regularly develop their most expensive (and ostensibly, best) advertisements for this broadcast. As a result, watching and discussing the broadcast's commercials has become a significant aspect of the event as well.

The Super Bowl was first played on January 15, 1967, as part of a merger agreement between the NFL and a rival league, the American Football League (AFL). It was agreed that the two leagues' champion teams would play in an AFL?NFL World Championship Game, until the merger was consummated. After the merger of the two leagues in the 1970s, each league became a "conference", and the game was played between conference champions. Lamar Hunt, former owner of the Kansas City Chiefs and founding member of the American Football League, coined the name Super Bowl after watching his children playing with a Super Ball. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather than the year in which it is held. Super Bowl I was played in 1967 to determine the championship of the regular season played in 1966, and Super Bowl XLIV will be played in 2010 to determine the champion of the 2009 regular season.

The Dallas Cowboys have appeared in the greatest number of Super Bowls (8). With six victories, the Pittsburgh Steelers have won more Super Bowls than any other franchise; seventeen of the NFL's 32 teams have won at least one Super Bowl. Only five active NFL franchises have not appeared in the Super Bowl. They are the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, New Orleans Saints, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Houston Texans. The Browns and Lions won NFL championships in the pre-Super Bowl era; the Saints, Jaguars, and Texans have all joined the league after the kickoff of the Super Bowl era.

Eldrick Tont Woods (born December 30, 1975), better known as Tiger Woods, is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Currently the World No. 1, he was the highest-paid professional athlete in 2008, having earned an estimated $110 million from winnings and endorsements.

Woods has won 14 professional major golf championships, the second highest of any male player, and 71 PGA Tour events, third all time. He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer. He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour. Additionally, Woods is the second golfer to have achieved a career grand slam three times along with Jack Nicklaus. Woods has won 16 World Golf Championships and has won at least one event each of the 11 years they have been in existence.

Woods has held the number one position in the world rankings for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record ten times,

the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has the record of leading the money list in nine different seasons. He has been named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year a record-tying four times, and is the only person to be named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year more than once.

Since his record-breaking win at the 1997 Masters Tournament, golf's increased popularity is attributed to Woods' presence. He is credited for dramatically increasing prize money in golf, generating interest in new audiences as the first non-white person to win the Masters, and for drawing the largest TV audiences in golf history. He has been named "Athlete of the Decade" by the Associated Press in December 2009.http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=4747530

On December 11, 2009, Woods announced an indefinite leave from professional golf to focus on his marriage after his past infidelities came to light.Taking Hiatus From Professional Golf - NYTimes.com. Retrieved December 11, 2009.

Sidney Patrick Crosby ONS (born August 7, 1987) is a Canadian professional ice hockey player and captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Crosby was drafted by the Penguins out of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) first overall after earning back-to-back CHL Player of the Year Awards and leading his club to the 2005 Memorial Cup during his two-year major junior career with the Rimouski Océanic. Nicknamed "The Next One", he was one of the most highly regarded draft picks in hockey history, leading many to refer to the 2005 Draft Lottery as the "Sidney Crosby Sweepstakes".

In his first season, he finished sixth in scoring with 102 points (39 goals, 63 assists). By his second season, he led the NHL with 120 points (36 goals, 84 assists) to capture the Art Ross Trophy, becoming the youngest player and the only teenager to win a scoring title in any major North American sports league. That same season, Crosby won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the most valuable player as determined by the Professional Hockey Writers Association, and the Lester B. Pearson Award as the most valuable player as determined by the NHL Players Association. He is the seventh player in NHL history to have earned all three awards. After losing to the Detroit Red Wings in the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals, Crosby won his first Stanley Cup in 2009, becoming the youngest captain in NHL history to win the championship.

Internationally, Crosby has represented Team Canada in two World Junior Championships, winning silver in 2004 and gold in 2005, as well as one World Championship in 2006.

Paul Anthony Pierce (born October 13, 1977 in Oakland, California), nicknamed The Truth,Pierce stars in his moment of Truth - The Boston Globe is an American professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics of the NBA. He earned First Team All-America honors in his junior year at Kansas, and has been a starter every season since being selected by the Celtics with the 10th overall pick in the 1998 NBA Draft. He is an seven-time All-Star, four-time All-NBA team selection and also led Boston to an appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2002 and the 2008 championship. He was named the 2008 NBA Finals MVP in his first trip to the NBA Finals.

The NBA Finals is the championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the conclusion of the sport's postseason each June. The series was named the NBA World Championship Series until 1986.

The series is played between the winners of Eastern Conference Finals and Western Conference Finals. At the conclusion of the championship round, the winner of the NBA Finals is presented the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. (Winners from 1946 to 1977 received the Walter A. Brown Trophy) The NBA Finals has been played at the conclusion of every NBA and BAA season in history, the first being held in 1947.

Since 1985, the winner of the NBA Finals has been determined through a 2?3?2 best-of-seven playoff format. The team with the better regular season record has home court advantage; the first two, and if necessary, the last two games are played at its home court regardless of their respective seeding.

The Stanley Cup, donated by former Governor General of Canada Lord Stanley of Preston in 1892, is the oldest professional sports trophy in North America. Originally inscribed the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, the trophy started out as an award for Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. Today, it is awarded to the top team in the National Hockey League, a professional ice hockey league.

In 1915, the two professional ice hockey organizations, the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), reached a gentlemen's agreement in which their respective champions would face each other for the Stanley Cup. After a series of league mergers and folds, it became the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926. The Cup later became the de jure NHL championship prize in 1947.

Since the 1914-15 season, the trophy has been won a combined 93 times by 17 active NHL teams and five defunct teams. Prior to that, the challenge cup was held by nine different teams. There are two seasons that the Stanley Cup has not been awarded: the 1918-19 season, because of a Spanish flu epidemic, and 2004-05, because of the NHL lockout.