Top Celebrities and Sports Talent

Anne’s first major role was in the TV series "Get Real". Her widespread recognition came with her role in the film "The Princess Diaries" as well as its 2004 sequel.

After the films, Hathaway took supporting roles in the R-rated films "Havoc and "Brokeback Mountain". In 2004, Hathaway took a part in a starring role in "Ella Enchanted". Her voice may be heard in "The Cat Returns" as a young Japanese woman by the name of Hari.

She is starring in "The Devil Wears Prada", currently in theaters.

On November 2, 1995, Joe Torre was named Manager of the New York Yankees. In becoming the 31st manager in team history, he joined Casey Stengel, Yogi Berra and Dallas Green as the fourth skipper to wear both Yankee and New York Met uniforms.
Torre guided the 2001 Yankees to their fifth World Series appearance in his seven year tenure, culminating with a dramatic seven game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks. In 2000, he led the team to their fourth World Series title in five years. In defeating the New York Mets, the Yankees had won 16 out of their last 17 World Series games.

The title is the 26th overall for the Yankees, the most of any team in professional sports. They are just the third team to win four titles in five years, the other two also being Yankees’ teams. The Bronx Bombers captured four straight titles beginning in 1936 and later won five consecutive championships from 1949-53. The Yankees also became the first team since the Oakland Athletics from 1972-74 to win three straight world titles.

Torre led the 1996 Yankees to their first World Series title since 1978. He was named Sportsman of the Year by The Sporting News and Co-American League Manager of the Year by the Baseball Writers Association of America. After a return to post-season competition in 1997, Torre led the Yankees to 114 wins during the 1998 regular season, an American League record, and a four-game sweep of the San Diego Padres in the 1998 World Series. Once again, Torre was named American League Manager of the Year, and the season earned him his second AP Manager of the Year Award. In the 1999 series, the Yankees swept the Atlanta Braves, winning 12 straight World Series games.

During his seventeen-year playing career, Torre compiled a .297 batting average, 2,342 hits, 252 home runs and 1,185 RBI’s while playing for Milwaukee, Atlanta, St. Louis and the Mets. He hit over .300 five times in his career and was a nine-time All-Star.

In 1971, Torre was the National League MVP as a member of the Cardinals. By leading the league with a .363 batting average, 230 hits, 137 RBI’s and 352 total bases, Torre became the first player to lead the NL in four offensive categories since Stan Musial captured eight in 1948.

Torre was named catcher on The Sporting News All-Star Team from 1964-1966. He received the NL Gold Glove Award in 1965. Torre hit the first regular season home run in Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium, and holds the record for most home runs (36) in a single season (1966) by a Braves catcher.

He made his managerial debut on May 31, 1977, when he bacame the first player-manager in the majors since 1959. He became the Mets full-time skipper eighteen days later. In 1982, Torre was named AP Manager of the Year for leading the Atlanta Braves to a division title.

Before returning to manage the St. Louis Cardinals from 1990-1995, Torre spent nearly six seasons as a television broadcaster for the California Angels.

He is the co-author of two books: Chasing the Dream: My Lifelong Journey to the World Series, a memoir; and the inspirational management guide, Joe Torre’s Ground Rules for Winners: 12 Keys to Managing Team Players, Tough Bosses, Setbacks and Success.

Torre is involved with several charities including the Starlight Children’s Foundation, the American Heart Association and the CaP Cure, an organization that raises money for prostate cancer research.

At the podium, Torre offers an inspiring story of personal and professional triumph. Drawing on championship memories and his own inspiring story of cancer recovery, he energizes people to compete and to find within themselves the will to succeed. He also demonstrates the need for selfless teamwork as a key component to reaching a common goal.

She sat out most of 2004 with a torn ACL, but came back to win at the X Games, the Gravity Games and the U.S. Open. Her X Games win in front of the hometown crowd at Aspen gave her victories in each of the two times she’s competed there (she won in 2003, but then missed the competition in 2004 because of injury). Bleiler also made an impact on the international scene in the 2004-05 season, earning a gold and silver at a World Cup event in Bardonecchia, Italy, on the 2006 Olympic pipe.
The 2003 season wasn’t bad for Bleiler either. During one stretch, she won eight consecutive events, including the X Games in Aspen. The steak gave her the overall Grand Prix title, but on Dec. 13, Bleiler tore her right ACL, effectively eliminating her 2004 season.

An innovator in the sport, Bleiler is pushing snowboarding’s limits this season by attempting a move she says no other woman has landed: the Michalchuk. She explains it as an off-axis spinning back flip off the backside wall. "I got it this fall so it’s pretty exciting to be the only girl ever doing the trick," she says. Bleiler’s already one of a select few women able to do a 900 (two and a half spins), and her signature move — the crippler 540 (an inverted 540-degree spin) — is consistently one of the top-scored tricks. Her goal for Torino is to land a back-to-back inverted combo.

Rather than competing as a member of the U.S. snowboarding team, Bleiler is part of an athlete-founded group called The Collection, which also includes 2002 Olympic gold medalists Ross Powers and Kelly Clark. The group travels together and has its own representation, and unlike other teams and organizations, the athletes make all the decisions.

When Bleiler was 10, she and her mother moved from Ohio to Aspen, and then to nearby Snowmass Village two years later. At Bleiler’s private school, located three miles from the Aspen Mountain ski area, part of the physical education curriculum allowed students out early on Wednesdays so they could ski at the nearby resorts. After four years of such, Bleiler switched to snowboarding at 14, and soon thereafter learned how to ride in a halfpipe with the Aspen Valley Snowboard Team.

After graduating from Aspen High School in June 1999, Bleiler chose not to go to college so she could travel and train for the 2002 Games. She was named to the U.S. National Team in September 2000. Bleiler would like to attend college when she’s done with snowboarding, but she doesn’t anticipate retiring anytime soon.

Although he didn’t begin swimming competitively until he was thirteen, Naber made good on his prophecy in 1976, winning gold medals in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke events, the 4 by 200-meter freestyle relay, and the 4 by 100-meter medley relay. He also won a silver medal in the 200-meter freestyle.

The 6-foot-6, 195-pound Naber swam world record times in both backstrokes, 55.49 seconds in the 100-meter and 1:59.19 in the 200-meter, making him the first swimmer to break the 2-minute barrier in that event. His world records stood until 1983, an unusually long period in modern swimming.

Swimming for the University of Southern California, Naber won the 500-yard freestyle in 1974 and 1975 and both backstroke events from 1974 through 1977. He also swam on five winning relay teams. His ten individual titles was the NCAA record until 1987, and his total of fifteen championships is still the record.

Naber won a total of eighteen national individual championships and was on seven relay champions. He won three gold medals at the 1975 Pan-American Games. He was named winner of the Sullivan Award as the outstanding amateur athlete of 1977.

Oscar de la Hoya became Ring Magazine’s "fighter of the year" in 1995 and between 1997 and 1999 was described as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world by Ring Magazine and KO Magazine. His fights throughout his entire career have generated a total of almost half a billion dollars in Pay-per-view sales alone[1][2]. He is also the only fighter in the history of boxing to win eleven world titles in a record six weight classes.

During his amateur career, De la Hoya’s record was 223-5 with 163 knockouts. He was the United States’ top Olympic boxing hope when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died at age 35. On her death bed, he promised her that he would win an Olympic gold medal.

De la Hoya was raised as the son of Mexican immigrants in impoverished circumstances in East Los Angeles. He began boxing at the age of eight.

On November 23, 1992, De la Hoya made his pro debut. He went on to win titles in 6 different weight divisions and beat former and current world champions Troy Dorsey (KO 1), Jimmy Bredahl, (KO 10), Jorge Paez, (KO 2), Genaro Hernandez (TKO 6), John John Molina (W 12), Rafael Ruelas (TKO 2), Julio Cesar Chavez (TKO 4, KO , Miguel Angel Gonzalez (W 12), Jesse James Leija (KO 2), Pernell Whitaker (W 12), Hector "Macho" Camacho (W 12), Ike Quartey (W 12), Arturo Gatti (KO 5), Francisco Javier Castillejo (W 12), and Fernando Vargas (KO 11). His losses include a controversial majority-decision loss to Félix Trinidad and two decision losses to Shane Mosley. He has been stopped once in his career by the larger Bernard Hopkins (KO 9).

On September 14, 2002, Oscar fought his nemesis "Ferocious" Fernando Vargas. After fiercely competitive early rounds, Oscar seized control of the latter half of the fight. In round 11, Oscar De la Hoya dropped Fernando Vargas with a left hook. Fernando Vargas got up at the count of nine, but De la Hoya finished him with a barrage of punches forcing the referee to stop the fight at 1:48 of round 11 (TKO 11). It was later revealed that Fernando Vargas had tested positive for steroids in his post-fight drug test.

On May 3, 2003, as part of the Cinco de Mayo festivities, he retained his WBC and WBA world junior middleweight championships when the corner of former world champion Yori Boy Campas threw in the towel, and officially gave De la Hoya a seventh round knockout win. On September 13, he and former rival Mosley met once again, in Las Vegas, and Mosley once again took away De la Hoya’s world title belts with a 12 round unanimous decision over de la Hoya.

De la Hoya next challenged Felix Sturm for the WBO world middleweight title on June 5, 2004. He was awarded a unanimous decision, to become the first boxer in history to win world titles in 6 different weight divisions. After that, he hoped to unify that title with the three other world middleweight championships, held by Bernard Hopkins, on September 18.

He lost to Hopkins by a ninth round knockout. A left hand to the body sent him to the canvas, knocking De la Hoya out for the first time in his career. Hopkins would later join De la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, a boxing promotion firm.

De la Hoya faced WBC world junior middleweight Ricardo Mayorga on May 6, 2006 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He won this bout in by a TKO in round 6. De La Hoya said that he will not fight again in 2006 but will not retire.

Bob Baffert is on of the nation’s top horse trainers.

Casual fans can probably recount the brilliant campaigns of Silver Charm, Real Quiet, War Emblem, Silverbulletday, Chilukki, Point Given or Vindication. All of these champions were trained by Baffert.

He received the Eclipse Award for leading trainer in 1997, 1998, and 1999 and has been among the the nation’s top trainers for nearly a decade.

In 14 years, his horses have earned more than $100 million.

Chris Rock is a vibrant, toothpick-thin comedian, actor and writer whose stand-up material dares to take on the African-American establishment.

Rock started out by performing in comedy clubs as a teenager and was taken under the wings of such comics as Sam Kinison and Eddie Murphy. By 1987, he made his 1st TV appearance on the HBO special "Uptown Comedy Express".

After distinguishing himself on NBC’s "Saturday Night Live" (SNL) from 1990-93. Rock headlined two HBO specials "HBO Comedy Half-Hour: Chris Rock — Big Ass Jokes" and "Chris Rock: Bring the Pain" he later launched his own talk show "The Chris Rock Show" on HBO in 1997.

Rock’s film career consists of many roles from cameos to starring roles. Rock’s reputation earned him one of Hollywood’s most coveted–and risky–gigs in 2005 when he was tapped to host the 77th Annual Academy Awards.

Rock currently serves as creator, writer, executive producer and narrator of his semi-autobiographical sitcom "Everybody Hates Chris".