Brandt Snedeker
Huston Astros Baseball Team
The Houston Astros are a Major League Baseball team located in Houston, Texas. They are a member of the Central Division of the National League. Since 2000, they have played their home games at Minute Maid Park, formerly known as Enron Field. Their current majority owner is Drayton McLane, Jr. The Houston-based fruit juice manufacturer Minute Maid owned by The Coca-Cola Company, after whom the Astros' stadium is named, holds a minority stake in the team. The Astros were established as the Houston Colt .45s in 1962. They changed to their current name three years later, when they moved into the iconic Astrodome, the world's first domed sports stadium. The name references Houston's role as the center of the U.S. astronaut program. The Astros are the oldest MLB franchise to have never won the World Series while remaining in the same city over their history. After heart-breaking playoff losses in 1980, 1981, and 1986, and more playoff appearances in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Astros finally appeared in their first and (to date) only World Series, in 2005 against the Chicago White Sox. Houston had been making efforts to bring a Major League franchise to the city before the expansion in 1962. There were four men chiefly responsible for bringing Major League Baseball to Houston: George Kirksey and Craig Cullinan, who had led a futile attempt to purchase the St. Louis Cardinals in 1952; R.E. "Bob" Smith, a prominent oilman and real estate magnate in Houston who was brought in for his financial resources; and Judge Roy Hofheinz, a former Mayor of Houston and Harris County Judge who was recruited for his salesmanship and political style. They formed the Houston Sports Association as their vehicle for attaining a big league franchise for the city of Houston.Houston Astros
Junction Jack has been the mascot character for the Houston Astros since March 2000. He is a 7-foot (2.13 meter) tall rabbit dressed in the home pinstripe uniform. Other characters include Junction Julie and Junction Jesse. He walks around Minute Maid Park, greeting visitors, shaking hands, and posing for pictures. Outside of the stadium he will generally attend Astros-related promotional events, as well as charities. Junction Jack replaced Orbit when the team moved from the Astrodome to Minute Maid Park. The new stadium was originally called "The Ballpark at Union Station" because it was built on the site of the historic railway station in downtown Houston. In keeping with this new theme for the Astros, Orbit was replaced by the engineer. The character was designed by Logan Goodson and named by Duone Byars, both former Astros employees. A lime-green outer-space creature wearing an Astros jersey with antennae extending into baseballs. Orbit was the team's official mascot from the 1990 through the 1999 seasons. Orbit paid homage to Houston's association with NASA and nickname Space City.In April 1977 the Houston Astros introduced their very first mascot, Chester Charge. At that time there was only one other mascot in major league baseball, which was the San Diego Chicken. Chester Charge was a 45 pound costume of a cartoon Texas cavalry soldier on a horse. Chester appeared on the field at the beginning of each home game, during the seventh inning stretch and then ran around the bases at the conclusion of each win. At the blast of a bugle, the scoreboard would light up and the audience would yell, “Charge!” The first Chester Charge was played by Steve Ross who was then an 18-year-old Senior High School student. The creation of Chester Charge and the scoreboard graphics were created by Ed Henderson.
Gabriel Batistuta
As a child, Batistuta preferred other sports to football. Because of his height he played basketball, but after Argentina's victory in the 1978 FIFA World Cup, in which he was particularly impressed by the skills of Mario Kempes, he devoted himself to football. After playing with friends on the streets and in the small Grupo Alegria club, he joined the local Platense junior team. While with Platense he was selected for the Reconquista team that won the provincial championship by beating Newell's Old Boys from Rosario. His 2 goals drew the attention of the opposition team, and he signed for them in 1988.Batistuta signed professional forms with Newell's Old Boys, whose coach was Marcelo Bielsa, who would later become Batistuta's coach with the Argentine national team. Things did not come easily for Batistuta during his first year with the club. He was away from home, his family, and his girlfriend Irina, sleeping in a room at the stadium, and had a weight problem that slowed him down. At the end of that year he was loaned to a smaller team, Deportivo Italiano, of Buenos Aires, with whom he participated in the Carnevale Cup in Italy, ending as top scorer with 3 goals.While playing for Argentina in the 1991 Copa América, the vice-president of Fiorentina was impressed by Batistuta's skills and signed him for the Italian club. He had a fine start in Serie A, scoring 13 goals in his debut season. However, the following season (Serie A 1992-93) Fiorentina lost in the relegation battle and were demoted to the Serie B division, despite Batistuta's 16 season goals. The club returned to Serie A after one season in Serie B, with the contribution of 16 goals from Batistuta and the management of Claudio Ranieri. Batistuta stayed at Fiorentina for the 1999-00 season, tempted by the chance of winning both the Scudetto and the Champions League. After a promising start in both competitions, the team only reached seventh in the league and were eliminated in the second round group phase of the European tournament. The following season, he was transferred to Roma in a deal worth 70 billion Italian lire and signed a 3-year contract, which earned 14.8 billion Italian lire per year before tax.Mark Henry
Stephen Ames
Ames was born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago and is of English/Trinidadian Portuguese descent, and much of his family resides in the Caribbean nation. His grandmother was Trinidad and Tobago Champion 20 times. He grew up in Pointe-à-Pierre and learned to play at the Petrotrin Pointe-à-Pierre Golf Club.
Miguel Tejada
HR de Miguel Tejada en la Serie del Caribe Santiago 2008
Liverpool FC
Liverpool Football Club is an English professional football club from Liverpool, England, and plays in the Premier League. Liverpool has played at Anfield since the club's foundation in 1892 and was admitted to the Football League a year later. England's most successful club of the 20th century and one of the most successful clubs in the history of English football, Liverpool has won a joint-record 18 league titles, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups. Liverpool is also the most successful English club in European competition having won five European Cups, the last in 2005, and three UEFA Cups. The club currently rank third in Europe and sixth in the world with the most international titles won. The club's supporters have been involved in two major tragedies. The first was the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985, where charging Liverpool fans caused a wall to collapse, resulting in the death of 39 Juventus supporters. In the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster, 96 Liverpool supporters lost their lives in a crush against perimeter fencing. Liverpool has long-standing rivalries with neighbours Everton and with Manchester United. The team's home colours have been entirely red since 1964 when manager Bill Shankly changed them from a red shirt and white shorts. The club's anthem is "You'll Never Walk Alone". Liverpool F.C. was founded following a dispute between the Everton F.C. Committee and John Houlding, club president and owner of the land at Anfield. After eight years at the stadium, Everton relocated to Goodison Park in 1892 and Houlding founded Liverpool F.C. to play at Anfield. Originally named Everton F.C. and Athletic Grounds Ltd (Everton Athletic for short), the club became Liverpool F.C. in June 1892 after The Football Association refused to recognise the club as Everton. In its debut season, the team won the Lancashire League, before joining the Football League Second Division at the start of the 1893–94 season. After finishing in first place, the club was promoted to First Division, which it won in 1901, and again in 1906. Liverpool won back-to-back league championships in 1922 and 1923, but did not win another trophy until the 1946–47 season when the club won the First Division for a fifth time. After losing 1–0 to Burnley F.C. in the club's first FA Cup final in 1914, Liverpool was defeated in the final for a second time in 1950 by Arsenal. The club was relegated to the Second Division in the 1953–54 season.
The famous liver bird first took its perch on the left-hand side of the chest in the 1950 FA Cup Final defeat to Arsenal and is a symbol that has continued to signify the prestige involved with playing for Liverpool FC. The crest was revived for the 1955-56 season, and was appearing out of a white oval with L.F.C. embroided below the liver bird. This version was used until 1969. In 1968 the decision was taken to introduce a more modern version of the club crest. The liver bird was now embroidered directly onto the team's shirts with the removal of the white oval and shields. For seven years this was used in white but from 1976 the emblem was changed to gold and reverting back to white when the club dropped Umbro as their kit supplier and signed a contract with Adidas in 1985. In 1992 the club adopted a new crest to celebrate their centenary. The familiar liver bird remained as the centrepiece but now appeared against a red and white shield. Above the shield is a representation of the Shankly Gates with the title of club's famous anthem, "You'll Never Walk Alone". The twin flames at either side are symbolic of the Hillsborough memorial outside Anfield, where an eternal flame burns in memory of those who died in the disaster. Since 1992 the crest has only undergone some minor changes until it was updated in 1999. The present crest has been relatively unchanged since then when it first appeared on the shirt in just two colours but after 2002 it appeared in full colour. Liverpool's first competitive game was an 8–0 victory in the Lancashire League against Higher Walton. Ian Callaghan holds Liverpool's overall appearance record—he played 857 matches over the course of 19 seasons from 1958 to 1978- and the record for League appearances with 640. Of the current squad, Jamie Carragher has the most appearances; he played his 600th game for the club early in 2010. Liverpool's all-time leading scorer in all competitions is Ian Rush, who scored 346 goals in two spells at the club from 1980 to 1987 and 1988 to 1996, and also holds the record for the most goals in a season with 47 in 1983–84. However Rush could not surpass Roger Hunt's record number of league goals of 245. In the 1961–62 season, Hunt scored 41 goals, which is the club record for league goals in a single season. Gordon Hodgson, the club's third highest scorer with 240 goals, holds the club record of 17 hat tricks. The most goals scored by a player in a single match is five; John Miller, Andy McGuigan, John Evans, Ian Rush and Robbie Fowler have achieved this feat. Fowler also holds the club and Premier League record for the fastest hat trick: he scored three goals in four minutes, 32 seconds against Arsenal in the 1994–95 season. Steven Gerrard is Liverpool's all-time leading goalscorer in European competition with 34 goals. Liverpool's record home attendance is 61,905, for a FA Cup match against Wolves on 2 February 1952. The record modern (all-seated) attendance is 44,983 for a match against Tottenham Hotspur on 14 January 2006. The club's record lowest attendance is 1,000 for a match against Loughborough during the 1895–96 season. Liverpool's biggest victory is 11–0 against Strømsgodset IF in 1974. Liverpool's 10–1 defeat of Rotherham Town in 1896 was the club's largest league win. This margin of victory was matched when Crystal Palace was defeated 9–0 at Anfield in 1989. Liverpool's heaviest defeat, 1–9, came against Birmingham City in 1954. Liverpool's 8–0 win against Beşiktaş J.K. in the Champions League was the largest victory in the competition's history at the time (November 2007).
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