In Major League Baseball, spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives existing team players practice time prior to competitive play. Spring training has always attracted fan attention, drawing crowds who travel to the warmer climates to enjoy the weather and watch their favorite teams play, and spring training usually coincides with spring break for many college students.

Spring training typically lasts about six weeks, starting in mid February and running until just before the season opening day (and often right at the end of spring training, some teams will play spring training games on the same day other teams have opening day of the season), traditionally the first week of April. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training first because pitchers benefit from a longer training period. A week or two later, the position players arrive and team practice begins. Team members normally wear their batting practice uniforms for the duration of spring training and only wear their normal jerseys beginning on Opening Day.

Nicholas Thompson "Nick" Swisher (born November 25, 1980) is an outfielder and first baseman for the New York Yankees. Swisher is a switch hitter who throws left-handed. He has played for the Oakland Athletics (2004–2007), Chicago White Sox (2008), and New York Yankees (2009–present). With the Yankees, he won the 2009 World Series and was an All-Star in 2010.

Swisher is the son of former MLB catcher Steve Swisher, who played for various National League baseball clubs in the 1970s and 1980s. Swisher was born in Columbus, Ohio, but grew up in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Prior to his professional career, Swisher played college baseball for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Nick Swisher is the son of Steve Swisher, a former major leaguer of German descent, and an Italian mother Rebecca. Swisher's parents divorced when he was 11 years old. He then went to live with his grandparents, who cared for him throughout his teenage years. He has said many times that his grandmother was the closest person to him and because of her, he has a great life and career in baseball. Swisher honors his grandparents, who have passed away, by looking up at the sky before every single pitch.

Michael G Polk Jr (born August 29, 1977) is an American comedian, actor, voice-over artist, and entertainer, known for his sketch comedy.

Polk was born in Warren, Ohio. He attended Kent State University as an undergraduate and earned a degree in communications and psychology in 2001.

Polk created HBO's Runaway Box / Man in the Box. His work has also appeared on Cinemax and broadcasts of the basketball show "Inside the NBA" on the TNT (TV channel).

He sang his YouTube song "One Semester of Spanish - Love Song". for Kim Kardashian on Spanish television channel Telemundo. That video has received over 5.8 million views on YouTube. He thanked his viewers as "Spanish Mike" when the video hit 2 Million views.

Some of his other work includes "Ooh Girl!" - An Honest R&B Song"., "The Great Office War" and two different versions of a "Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video" all of which have about 20 million views combined on YouTube. The tourism spoof video actually prompted Cleveland's convention and tourism bureau to solicit other videos in a 'counterattack' to Polk's not so flattering work. Segments of the Cleveland tourism videos were also featured in the Michael Moore documentary film Capitalism: A Love Story.

Joe Budden (born August 31, 1980) is an American rapper from Jersey City, New Jersey.

In the year 2003, Budden released his debut solo studio album, Joe Budden. It included Budden's 2003 Grammy-nominated summer hit "Pump It Up", and was also featured in the soundtrack for the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious and the video games Def Jam Vendetta, Def Jam Fight for NY, and Madden NFL 2004. The song "Focus" was also featured in the game and Joe Budden was also a character. Its second single was "Fire" featuring Busta Rhymes, which was in the movie Mean Girls. The song "Drop Drop" was featured on the soundtrack for the movie Cradle 2 the Grave. Joe has hinted in many songs that he was a recovering drug addict and has reaffirmed his position several times through multiple outlets.

After his debut album, Budden's sophomore release titled ‘The Growth’ was hampered due to the label's problems with Joe and his Def Jam seniors not happy with the direction of his music. The production of the album appeared to end up in a development hell and was ultimately not released. Continued disagreements between Budden and Def Jam forced the two sides to part ways. However, Budden managed to release the first and second installments of his Mood Muzik mixtape series while on Def Jam, and the series has been met with critical acclaim.