Carsten Charles "CC" Sabathia (born July 21, 1980) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). Upon signing with the Yankees prior to the 2009 season, Sabathia became the highest paid pitcher in MLB history.

Sabathia played the first seven and a half seasons of his career with the Cleveland Indians, where he won the 2007 Cy Young Award. He played the second half of the 2008 MLB season with the Milwaukee Brewers, leading them to the Wild Card, their first playoff appearance in 26 years. Sabathia is regarded as one of the most durable pitchers in MLB, having easily amassed an average of over 200 innings pitched per season during his career.

Sabathia was born in Vallejo, California, and attended Vallejo High School, where he lettered in baseball, basketball, and football. As a teenager, Sabathia played summer baseball in the Major League Baseball youth program Rebuilding Baseball in Inner cities (RBI). In baseball, he compiled a win-loss record of 6–0 with an 0.77 earned run average (ERA) with 14 hits, and 82 strikeouts in 46 ²⁄₃ innings pitched during his senior season. Coming out of the draft he was the top high school prospect in Northern California according to Baseball America.

Stephen A. Smith (born October 14, 1967) is an American sports reporter for ESPN, columnist, radio host, and television personality. He currently hosts The Stephen A. Smith Show on ESPN Radio 710 Los Angeles and ESPN Radio New York 98.7FM and is a featured columnist for both ESPNLA.com and ESPNNY.com. Smith also is a regular on ESPN's First Take along with Skip Bayless.

Smith was raised in the Hollis neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens. He lived with his parents and four older sisters.

He attended Winston-Salem State University, a historically black university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. While in college, he played some basketball under Hall of Fame coach Clarence Gaines. He later wrote an article for the university newspaper suggesting that Gaines retired due to health issues.

In 1993, Smith was a sportswriter for the Daily News in New York City.

Since 1994, Smith has had a position as a writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer. He was initially a general sportswriter for the Inquirer before he gained positions as their reporter for the Philadelphia 76ers as their NBA columnist, and eventually, as a general sports columnist. On August 23, 2007, the Inquirer announced that Smith would no longer be writing columns and would instead be demoted back to the position of general assignment reporter. Prior to his job with the Inquirer, Smith has had positions with the Winston-Salem Journal, the Greensboro News and Record and the New York Daily News. In 2008, the Inquirer ended its relation with Smith, which coincided with Smith starting his own blog. In February 2010, Smith returned to the Philadelphia Inquirer after winning an arbitrator's ruling that he was to be reinstated, but having to agree to remove all of his political views from his website and from cable news shows.

Mark Charles Teixeira ( /teɪˈʃɛrə/ tay-SHERR-ə; born April 11, 1980, in Annapolis, Maryland), nicknamed "Tex" is an American Major League Baseball player for the New York Yankees. Primarily a first baseman, he has also played third base and in the outfield. He played college baseball at Georgia Tech, where in 2001 he won the Dick Howser Trophy as the national collegiate baseball player of the year.

Teixeira was drafted in 2001 by the Texas Rangers, and made his MLB debut for them in 2003. In mid-2007 he was traded to the Atlanta Braves, and traded again in mid-2008 to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. In December 2008, he agreed to a contract with the New York Yankees. Teixeira has won four Gold Glove Awards and three Silver Slugger Awards. Teixeira also holds the all-time major league record for most games with a home run from both sides of the plate, with 13.

Teixeira grew up in Severna Park, Maryland, and attended Mount Saint Joseph High School in Baltimore, Maryland, where he played for the school's varsity baseball team. Teixeira is Portuguese American. He also has roots in the South American country of Guyana, the country from which his grandfather migrated as a young man.

Derek Sanderson Jeter ( /ˈdʒiːtər/; born June 26, 1974) is an American baseball shortstop who has played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees. A five-time World Series champion, Jeter has been a central figure of the Yankees during their success of the 1990s and 2000s due to his clubhouse presence, on-field leadership, hitting ability, and baserunning. He is the Yankees' all-time career leader in hits (3,155), games played (2,472), stolen bases (342), and at bats (10,066). His accolades include twelve All-Star selections, five Gold Glove Awards, four Silver Slugger Awards, two Hank Aaron Awards, and the Roberto Clemente Award. Jeter is the all-time MLB leader in hits by a shortstop, and the 28th player to reach 3,000 hits.

The Yankees drafted Jeter out of high school in 1992, and he debuted in the major leagues in 1995. The following year, he became the Yankees' starting shortstop, won the Rookie of the Year Award, and helped the team win the 1996 World Series. Jeter continued to contribute during the team's championship seasons of 1998–2000; he finished third in voting for the American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award in 1998, recorded multiple career-high numbers in 1999, and won both the All-Star Game MVP and World Series MVP Awards in 2000. He has consistently placed among the AL leaders in hits and runs scored for the past ten years, and since 2003 has served as the Yankees' team captain.

Masahiro Tanaka (田中 将大, Tanaka Masahiro^?, born November 1, 1988 in Itami, Hyōgo, Japan) is a Japanese starting pitcher for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.

Tanaka led his team to a championship in the National High School Baseball tournament as a junior for Komazawa University Tomakomai High School in 2005 and a runner-up berth in the same tournament as a senior in 2006. The Eagles' first-round pick in the 2006 NPB high school draft, he is seen as the expansion team's future staff ace.

Tanaka was born in Itami, a city in Hyōgo, Japan. He began playing baseball in the first grade as a catcher for the Koyanosato Tigers (a Little League team) alongside current Yomiuri Giants shortstop Hayato Sakamoto, who was then ironically the team's ace pitcher and Tanaka's batterymate. Tanaka and Sakamoto hit third and fourth in the lineup, respectively. He went on to play for the Takarazuka Boys while attending Itami Municipal Matsuzaki Junior High School, being used at both pitcher and catcher because of his strong throwing arm. He was chosen to the Junior All-South Kansai team in his third year of junior high (the equivalent of ninth grade in the United States).