I never truly appreciated the art of being a backup catcher until watching Jose Molina hone his craft during his time with the Yankees. Molina would come off the bench roughly once per week for the Yankees and would seemingly gun down runners at will. It got to the point where I would be truly surprised when Molina’s arm would get tested because he was so good. He ended up leading the league in caught steal ...

The 6-7 SG/SF Jiří Welsch is from Pardubice, Czechoslovakia (same place as goaltender Dominik Hašek). Jiří was a prodigy, and begun his professional career as a teen, he was essentially the Justin Bieber of basketball in Pardubice (I guess a Ricky Rubio comparison could have sufficed too). He played in the Czech Republic League with BHC SKP Pardubice until 1998 when he signed with CSA Sparta Prague as a ste ...

DeAndre James (D.J) Hackett is from Fontana, CA; Fontana was founded in 1913, and continued to be a rural neighborhood until World War II when a steel mill was built by the industrialist/entrepreneur Henry J. Kaiser (same dude as Kaiser Permanente). Anyway Hackett was a big-time athlete in High School and chose to pursue his career in Football. The 6-2 WR started out at Cal State Northridge, and as a Freshm ...

I always wonder how rappers get there names, and  then I immediately think to myself if I was rapper what would mine be? Of course I'd be named after great athletes like Slava Medvedenko, Mark Madsen, or Mike Penberthy. Which is kind of how Busta Rhymes got his name...from Oklahoma Sooner George "Buster" Rhymes. Buster grew up in Liberty City, which is a real city in Miami and not the fictional city in Gran ...

The 6-3 German, Ralf Mojsiejenko, was originally born in Salzgitter (located between Hildesheim and Braunschweig), but moved to Bridman, Michigan as a child. Mojsiejenko was born with a special gift, he had a steel pendulum for a foot. Ralf brought his boot to collegiate football when he played for Michigan State. In his first career attempt he knocked in a 61 yarder against Illinois…a decent start to his k ...

  Former random MLB outfielder/first baseman Eric Valent is from La Mirada, CA, which is actually Spanish for “The View” or “The Glance” whichever you prefer.  Valent stayed in Cali for college and went to UCLA on teams stacked with Troy Glaus, Eric Byrnes, Chase Utley, and Garrett Atkins. Valent was actually one of the most promising out of the all-star bunch; he helped them to a College World Series ...

Larry Bigbie was born in Hobart, Indiana which is actually pronounced Hobert believe it or not.  Bigbie, a big 6-4 outfielder, was drafted 21st overall in the 1999 MLB Draft. He somehow only spent 2 years in the minors before being called up and I have no idea why (Wait yes I do, the Orioles aren't good/Steroids). After showing no power and hitting under .300 in the minors, he was called up in June 2001. At ...