Friday, April 15, 2011

Thierry Henry

Henry was born in Les Ulis, Essonne (a suburb of Paris) where he played for an array of local sides as a youngster and showed great promise as a goal-scorer. He was spotted by AS Monaco in 1990 and signed instantly, making his professional debut in 1994. Good form led to an international call-up in 1998, after which he signed for the Serie A defending champions Juventus. He had a disappointing season playing on the wing, before joining Arsenal for £11 million in 1999.

Thierry Henry Got Medals For His Best Perfromance

Thierry Henry Elegant Performance

Henry was a member of France's Euro 2000 championship squad, again scoring three goals in the tournament, including the equalizer against Portugal in the semi-final, and finishing as the country's top scorer. France later won the game in extra time following a converted penalty kick by Zinédine Zidane. France went on to defeat Italy in extra time in the final, earning Henry his second major international medal. During the tournament, Henry was voted man-of-the-match in three games, including the final against Italy.


Thierry Henry Greatest Goals

Thierry Henry Cool Fashion

Henry has received many plaudits and awards in his football career. He was runner-up for the 2003 and 2004 FIFA World Player of the Year award; in those two seasons, he also won back-to-back PFA Players' Player of the Year titles. Henry is the only player ever to have won the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year three times (2003, 2004, 2006), and the French Player of the Year on a record four occasions. Henry was voted into the Premier League Overseas Team of the Decade in the 10 Seasons Awards poll in 2003, and in 2004 he was named by football legend Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers.

Henry is currently third in the list of all-time Premier League goal-scorers, behind Alan Shearer and Andy Cole. Given his accomplishments, France's all-time goal-scorer was in his prime regarded by many coaches, footballers and pundits as one of the best footballers in the world. In November 2007, he was ranked 33rd on the Association of Football Statisticians' compendium for "Greatest Ever Footballers". Arsenal fans honoured their former player in 2008, declaring Henry the greatest Arsenal player. In another 2008 survey, Henry emerged as the favourite Premier League player of all time among 32,000 people surveyed in the Barclays 2008 Global Fan Report.

Kansas City Royals Baseball Team

The Kansas City Royals are a Major League Baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals are a member of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From 1973 to the present, the Royals have played in Kauffman Stadium. The Royals have participated in two World Series, winning in 1985. The "Royals" name originates from the American Royal, a livestock show, horse show, and rodeo held annually in Kansas City since 1899. The "Royals" name may also have been selected as a respectful recognition of the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League and a nod to the Kansas City Blues franchises of the Western League and American Association. This is reflected in the similarity of the Royals logo to that of the Monarchs. The name also followed a theme of the other professional franchises in the city, including the Kansas City Chiefs football team and the-then Kansas City Kings basketball franchise. Entering Major League Baseball as an expansion franchise in 1969, the club was founded by Ewing Kauffman, a Kansas City businessman. The franchise was established following the actions of Stuart Symington, then-United States Senator from Missouri, who demanded a new franchise for the city after the Athletics—Kansas City's previous major league team from 1955 to 1967—moved to Oakland, California. The new team quickly became a powerhouse, appearing in the playoffs 7 out of 10 seasons from 1976 to 1985, including one World Championship and another pennant, led by stars such as George Brett, Frank White and Bret Saberhagen. The team remained competitive through the mid-1990s, but more recently has struggled, posting a winning record only once in the past 15 seasons.

The Royals began play in 1969 in Kansas City, Missouri. In their inaugural game, on April 8, 1969, the Royals defeated the Minnesota Twins 4–3 in 12 innings. The team was quickly built through a number of trades engineered by its first General Manager, Cedric Tallis, including a trade for Lou Piniella, who won the Rookie of the Year during the Royals' inaugural season. The Royals also invested in a strong farm system and soon developed such future stars as pitchers Paul Splittorff and Steve Busby, infielders George Brett and Frank White, and outfielder Al Cowens. After the Royals finished in second place in 1979, Herzog was fired and replaced by Jim Frey. Under Frey, the Royals rebounded in 1980 and advanced to the ALCS, where they again faced the Yankees. The Royals vanquished the Yankees in a three-game sweep punctuated by a George Brett home run off of Yankees' star relief pitcher Goose Gossage. After reaching their first World Series, the Royals fell to the Philadelphia Phillies in six games.The Royals returned to the post-season in 1981, losing to the Oakland Athletics in a unique divisional series resulting from the split-season caused by the 1981 Major League Baseball strike. In July 1983, while the Royals were headed for a second-place finish behind the Chicago White Sox another chapter in the team's rivalry with the Yankees occurred. In what has come to be known as "the Pine Tar Incident," umpires discovered illegal placement of pine tar (more than 18 inches up the handle) on third baseman George Brett's bat after he had hit a 2-run home run off Gossage that put the Royals up 5–4 in the top of the 9th.In the 1985 regular season the Royals topped the Western Division for the sixth time in ten years, led by Bret Saberhagen's Cy Young Award-winning performance. Throughout the ensuing playoffs, the Royals repeatedly put themselves into difficult positions, but managed to escape each time. With the Royals down 3-games-to-one in the American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Royals eventually rallied to win the series 4–3.In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Royals developed young stars such as Bo Jackson, Tom Gordon, and Kevin Seitzer, made some successful free-agent acquisitions, and generally posted winning records, but always fell short of the post-season. For example, in 1989, the Royals won 92 games and posted the third-best record in baseball, but did not qualify for the playoffs.At the start of the 1990s, the Royals had been hit with a double-whammy when General Manager John Schuerholz departed in 1990 and team owner Ewing Kauffman died in 1993. Shortly before Kauffmann's death, he set up an unprecedented complex succession plan to keep the team in Kansas City. The team was donated at his death to the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and Affiliated Trusts with operating decisions of the team decided by a five member group chaired by Wal-Mart executive David Glass. According to the plan the Royals had six years to find a local owner for the team before opening ownership to an outside bidder. The new owners would be required to say they would keep the team in Kansas City. Kauffman had feared that new owners would move it noting, "No one would want to buy a baseball team that consistently loses millions of dollars and had little prospect of making money because it was in a small city." If no owner could be found the Kauffman restrictions were to end on January 1, 2002 and the team was to be sold to the highest bidder. In 1999 New York City lawyer and minor league baseball owner Miles Prentice, vowing not to move the team, bid $75 million for the team. This was the minimum amount Kauffman had stipulated the team could be sold for. MLB rejected the bid, saying that Prentice did not produce the funds necessary to back up the bid. The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation then agreed to a $96 million bid from Glass.

In 2002, the Royals set a new team record for futility, losing 100 games for the first time in franchise history. They fired manager Tony Muser and he was replaced by Tony Peña. The 2003 season saw a temporary end to the losing, when manager Tony Peña, in his first full season with the club, guided the Royals to their first winning record (83–79) since the 1994 season. He was named the American League Manager of the Year for his efforts and then shortstop Angel Berroa was named AL Rookie of the Year. The team spent a majority of the season in first, but ended up in third place behind the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins, who won the AL Central. In 2005, the Royals continued a youth movement, with the second-lowest payroll in the Major Leagues. The Royals ended the 2005 season with a 56–106 record (.346), a full 43 games out of first place. It was the third time in four seasons that the team reestablished the mark for worst record in the history of the franchise. During that season, the Royals also suffered a franchise record 19-game losing streak highlighted by a three-game stretch of blowout losses at home from August 6 through August 9; in that stretch the Royals lost 16–1 to the Oakland Athletics, were shut out 11–0 by Oakland, and then in the third game, against the Cleveland Indians, built a 7–2 lead in the eighth inning before allowing 11 runs to lose 13–7. During the season manager Tony Peña quit and was replaced by interim manager Bob Schaefer until the Indians' bench coach Buddy Bell was chosen as the next manager.Kansas City entered the 2007 season looking to rebound from four out of five seasons ending with at least 100 losses, and appeared to be opening up its wallet a bit, with a payroll exceeding $60 million dollars for the first time (rising to 22nd-highest in the major leagues). The Royals outbid the Cubs and Blue Jays for free agent righty Gil Meche, signing him to five-year, $55 million contract. Reliever Octavio Dotel also inked a one-year, $5 million contract. The team also added several new prospects, including Alex Gordon and Billy Butler. Among Dayton Moore's first acts as General Manager was instating a new motto for the team: "True. Blue. Tradition."Kansas City's 2008 season began with the team searching for its new manager after the departure of Buddy Bell. On October 19, the Royals hired Trey Hillman, formerly the manager of the Nippon Ham Fighters and a minor league manager with the New York Yankees, to be the 15th manager in franchise history.Prior to the 2009 season, the Royals renovated Kauffman Stadium. After the season began, the Royals ended April at the top of the AL Central, all of which raised excitement levels among fans. However, the team faded as the season progressed and finished the year with a final record of 65–97, in a last-place tie in its division (tied with the Cleveland Indians).The Royals began the 2010 baseball season with a rocky start, and after the team's record fell to 12–23, General Manager Dayton Moore fired manager Trey Hillman. After Hillman's departure, former Milwaukee Brewers manager Ned Yost took over as manager.

The Royals' most prominent rivalry is with the intrastate St. Louis Cardinals, stemming back to the Royals' victory over the Cardinals in the 1985 World Series. The series is still a source of contention among fans, notably the controversial call in the bottom of the ninth of game 6 in which Jorge Orta was called safe on a play that replays later showed him out. A Royals rally let them tie and later win the game and then later the series. Interleague play in 1997 allowed the I-70 Series to be revived in non-exhibition games. The first few seasons of the series were rather even, with the Cardinals holding a slight advantage with a 14–13 record through the 2003 season. Through the 2010 season, the Cardinals hold the series advantage 34–26. The Royals took two out of three from the Cardinals in 2010 behind victories from starting pitchers Zack Greinke and Bruce Chen. Historically, one of the Royals' major rivalries was with the New York Yankees. The rivalry stems largely from the period between 1976 and 1980, when both teams were in top form and met four times in five years for the American League Championship Series. An older factor in Kansas City-New York relations is the "special relationship" between the Yankees and the Kansas City A's during the 1950s, in which Kansas City's best players (such as Roger Maris and Ralph Terry) were repeatedly sent to New York with little compensation. The Royals' recent lack of success, however, as well as the Yankees' more popular and historic rivalry with the Boston Red Sox has caused this rivalry to lose its prominence. Also of note are division rivalries with the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, and Minnesota Twins. The Detroit Tigers swept the Royals in the 1984 playoff season, and in the early 2000s, Detroit and Kansas City had a number of bench clearing brawls. In recent years the rivalry with Minnesota has become more prominent, with the Twins' consistent standings atop the division, as well as the relatively short drive between the two clubs in which many fans from Minnesota make the trip and heavily populate Royals home games versus the Twins. Previously, the Twins had narrowly beat out the Royals for the 1987 American League West pennant, in which the Twins later took the World Series versus the St. Louis Cardinals. Forgotten in recent years is the old division rivalry between the Royals and the Oakland Athletics. In the early 1970s, Oakland won three World Series titles from 1972–1974, and after the A's left Kansas City under less than honorable terms, a strong rivalry existed between the two teams during this period. This was soon forgotten by the late 1970s when the Royals came to prominence and the terrific rivalry with New York began. Also strong in the late 70s was the rivalry against the California Angels, particularly in the fights for the American League West pennant in 1979.

Gregory Helms

Gregory Shane Helms (born July 12, 1974) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) where he wrestled as The Hurricane and Gregory Helms. He is also known for his time with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) where he wrestled as "Sugar" Shane Helms. Helms first began wrestling in 1991 at the age of 16, and wrestled in numerous independent promotions, including the Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts, winning numerous light heavyweight and tag team championships. In 1999, he signed with WCW, and gained fame as "Sugar" Shane Helms, a member of 3 Count. During his time there he won both the WCW Hardcore Championship and the WCW Cruiserweight title. When WCW was bought by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) (now WWE), Helms' contract was kept by WWF. Helms renamed himself "The Hurricane" and won the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. He later picked up a sidekick, Rosey, and they won the World Tag Team Championship together.

Gregory Helms Cool Pose

Gregory Helms Got Medals

Gregory Helms Proud To Him Self

Gregory Helms Sunglasses

Gregory Helms Keys His Rival

Gregory Helms During The Match

Gregory Helms Love His Family

Jenson Button

Jenson Alexander Lyons Button MBE (born 19 January 1980) is a British Formula One driver currently signed to McLaren. He was the 2009 World Drivers' Champion. Button began karting at the age of eight and achieved early success, before progressing to car racing in the British Formula Ford Championship and the British Formula Three Championship. He first drove in Formula One with the Williams team for the 2000 season. The following year he switched to Benetton, which in 2002 became Renault F1, and then for the 2003 season he moved to BAR. They were subsequently renamed Honda for the 2006 season, during which Button won his first Grand Prix in Hungary, after 113 races. Following the withdrawal of Honda from the sport in December 2008, he was left without a drive for the 2009 season, until Ross Brawn led a management buyout of the team in February 2009, and Button suddenly found himself in a highly competitive, Mercedes-engined car. He went on to win a record-equalling six of the first seven races of the 2009 season, and secured the 2009 World Drivers' Championship at the Brazilian Grand Prix, having led on points all season; his success also helped Brawn GP to secure the World Constructors' Championship. For 2010, he moved to McLaren, partnering fellow British racer and former world champion Lewis Hamilton. Button is currently Britain's highest Formula One point-scorer, with 567, due in part to the new scoring system which allocates more than double the number of points that were allocated in the past. Button was born on 19 January 1980 in Frome, Somerset and brought up in nearby Vobster. He was named after his father's friend Erling Jensen, changing the "e" to an "o" to differentiate it from Jensen Motors. He was educated at Vallis First School, Selwood Middle School and Frome Community College. He is the fourth child of South African-born Simone Lyons and former Rallycross driver John Button, who was well-known in the UK during the 1970s for his so-called Colorado Beetle Volkswagen. After his parents divorced when he was seven, he and his three elder sisters were brought up by their mother in Frome. He failed his first driving test for getting too close to a parked vehicle.

Button began karting at the age of eight, after his father bought him his first kart, and made an extraordinarily successful start. In 1989, aged nine, he came first in the British Super Prix. He won all 34 races of the 1991 British Cadet Kart Championship, along with the title. Further successes followed, including three triumphs in the British Open Kart Championship. In 1997, won the Ayrton Senna Memorial Cup, and also became the youngest driver ever to win the European Super A Championship. Aged 18, Button moved into car racing, winning the British Formula Ford Championship with Haywood Racing; he also triumphed in the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch. At the end of 1998, he won the annual McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award. His prize included a test in a McLaren Formula One car, which he received at the end of the following year Button entered the British Formula Three Championship in 1999, with the Promatecme team. He won three times —at Thruxton, Pembrey and Silverstone—and finished the season as the top rookie driver, and third overall. He finished fifth and second respectively in the Marlboro Masters and Macau Grand Prix, losing out by 0.035 seconds to winner Darren Manning in the latter. At the end of 1999, Button had his McLaren test prize at Silverstone, and also tested for the Prost team. A vacant race seat became available at the Williams team, following the departure of Alex Zanardi, and team boss Frank Williams arranged a 'shoot-out' test between Button and Formula 3000 racer Bruno Junqueira, with Button securing the drive. This made him Britain's youngest ever Formula One driver. Button was heavily hyped before his first race: former driver Gerhard Berger described him as a "phenomenon"; the head of his karting team, Paul Lemmens, compared him to Ayrton Senna; and Williams' technical director Patrick Head said he was "remarkably mature and definitely a star of the future". However some had misgivings about his lack of experience and ability to cope with the pressures of Formula One. Following the buy-out of Brawn by Mercedes, Button announced on 18 November 2009 that he would be leaving the team to move to McLaren for the 2010 season. He signed a three-year deal for a reported £6 million per season to drive alongside former world champion Lewis Hamilton. Button said he moved because he wanted the motivation and challenge from competing head-to-head with Hamilton, and that Brawn GP had offered him more money. A number of people, including former Formula One drivers John Watson, Jackie Stewart and Eddie Irvine, believed the move was a mistake, and that Button would struggle to compete with Hamilton at McLaren. After a seventh place finish in the opening round in Bahrain, Button won the second race in Australia from fourth on the grid. Button was the first to come in for slick tyres on a damp but drying track, which lifted him to second place after the other drivers had pitted. He inherited the lead when Vettel retired with brake problems and maintained his lead to the end without changing his tyres again. His victory made him the thirteenth driver in Formula One history to have won Grands Prix for at least three different constructors. Following an eighth place finish in Malaysia, Button went on to win his second race of the season from fifth on the grid in China, by staying on slick tyres while most of the other drivers pitted for intermediates, he was promoted to second place. However, the rain did not come, and the other drivers had to pit again for dry tyres. Subsequently, he went on to lead the Drivers' Championship, with McLaren leading the Constructors' Championship. In Spain he was leapfrogged by Michael Schumacher and finished a frustrated fifth, before retiring in Monaco due to an overheating engine on lap three. As a result, Button lost his lead in the Championship, dropping to fourth behind both Red Bull drivers and Alonso. Button then finished second in Turkey after Red Bull teammates Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, who were leading the race, collided with each other. His own teammate Hamilton took the win, after the two of them briefly touched after a few corners of wheel-to-wheel racing. This promoted Button to second overall in the Championship, just behind Webber. In Canada he followed up this result and remained second in the Championship, 3 points behind his teammate Hamilton. At the European Grand Prix in Valencia, Button finished 3rd and maintained 2nd place in the title race.

Button is known for having a very smooth driving style; journalist Mark Hughes wrote in 2009, "Button has a fantastic feel for how much momentum can be taken into a corner and this allows him to be minimal in his inputs—his steering and throttle movements in particular tend to be graceful and beautifully co-ordinated." This allows him to perform well in tricky conditions, such as his maiden win in the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix. Many believe using his smooth style he can conserve his tyres better during race conditions than other drivers. However, his smooth style can also mean he struggles to generate the necessary tyre temperature on cool days or undemanding tracks. Coupled with his driving style, Button has demonstrated intelligent race decisions such as his pit stop strategy during the 2010 Australian Grand Prix. Jackie Stewart drew similarities with the driving style and racecraft of Alain Prost. In an interview in 2003, Button said about Prost: "His way of driving was so smooth. He is the person I have modelled myself on". However, he contradicted himself in 2009, when he said, "I've never tried to model myself on anyone.I don't think many people do when they are pursuing their career." Parallels have also been made with the McLaren partnership and rivalry to 2008 World Champion Lewis Hamilton to the Prost-Senna rivalry of the 1980s, though the latter clearly had a more tempestuous relationship. Like many Formula One drivers, Button resided in the principality of Monaco but he has since moved to Guernsey. He said that it was the great training possibilities that took him away from the tax haven. He also has properties in the United Kingdom and Bahrain. His hobbies include mountain biking, competing in triathlons and body boarding, and his car collection includes a Nissan GT-R, a 1956 VW Campervan, a Honda S600 and a Mercedes C63 AMG. He previously owned a blue on black Bugatti Veyron. He was engaged to the actress and singer Louise Griffiths before ending their five year relationship in May 2005. Button has two tattoos: a black coat button on his right forearm; and Japanese kanji-characters on his ankle which say "一番" (Ichi ban, "Number One" in Japanese), this was done before he won the world title.

Mark Foster

Mark Andrew Foster (born 12 May 1970 in Billericay, Essex, UK) is a British professional swimmer, specialising in butterfly and freestyle at 50 metres. He is a specialist short course (25 metre pool) swimmer. In terms of medals and longevity (1986–2008), Foster is amongst the most successful British swimmers of all-time. He made a comeback at the national championships in July 2007 winning both events he competed in after barely training. He achieved the fifth best time in 2007 in the world at 50 metres freestyle and retired for the second time after the 2008 Olympics. Mark was first taught by the mother of Sarah Hardcastle at a pool in Southend-on-Sea. He was the fastest swimmer in the country by age 15. Mark Foster was educated at Alleyn Court Preparatory School in Westcliff on Sea, Millfield School, and Southend High School for Boys where he excelled in athletics, football and tennis. Foster competed in the sixth series of Strictly Come Dancing with professional dancer Hayley Holt He managed to stay in the competition until Week Six when he was voted off by the judges in the dance-off, while they saved Andrew Castle.



Mark Foster Crawl Technique

First selected for the British team in 1985, the breakthrough came in 1990 when he won his first individual international medal - bronze - in the Commonwealth Games in Auckland. He finished the 50 metres freestyle with a time of 23.16 seconds. He had previously won bronze as part of the 100 metre freestyle relay in the Edinburgh games four years previous, but cites the 1990 medal as his first great sporting moment. Success followed rapidly, and in the next few years Foster broke the World Short Course freestyle record four times, the World Short Course butterfly record twice, and set the World Long Course butterfly record (in 1996) with a time of 24.07 seconds. Despite success at Commonwealth, European and World championship level, Olympic titles eluded him, and he has never won a medal. Some have suggested that he has never quite achieved his full potential, arguing his maverick approach to training and preparation cost him a higher world ranking. In 2004, Foster was to face the disappointment of not being selected for the Olympic Games. At the British Olympic Trials, he won the 50 free in 22.49 seconds, well under the Olympic qualifying standard but seven hundredths of a second below the standard National Team Director Bill Sweetenham had set for inclusion in the British Olympic Team. Foster has openly criticised Sweetenham's management style, so Sweetenham ensured he was not selected. Nonetheless he was to respond to his omission from the Olympic squad with a stunning gold in the World Short Course Championships in Indianapolis later that year. In the 50 metre freestyle he touched in 21.58 seconds, ahead of Stefan Nystrand of Sweden. Although Mark announced his retirement from swimming after the European short course championships in April 2006 at the age of 35, he still occasionally competed that year at invitational meets. He returned from "retirement" in 2007 with an aim to win an Olympic medal at the 2008 Olympic Games. Returning to the British squad he won a silver medal in the 50 m freestyle at the 2008 FINA Short Course World Championships, and qualified to represent Great Britain at the same distance in the Olympics. At the opening ceremony on 8 August, he carried the flag for Great Britain during the Parade of Nations. He failed to qualify for the men's 50 m freestyle semi-finals, finishing almost two-tenths of a second outside the top 16.



In May 2009, Mark Foster became patron of The Anaphylaxis Campaign, the UK charity for people with severe allergies. He won £10,000 for the Campaign by participating in Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, broadcast on ITV on 8 September 2009. In October 2008, Mark Foster was announced as a celebrity judge for the Miele Fashion Prize, in aid of children's medical charity, Sparks. In June 2009, Mark Foster supported ActionAid's PoverTee Day by having a T-shirt painted on his torso. Mark appeared on the ITV show Beat the Star first broadcasted on 4 April 2008 in which he won 18-3, appearing as the 'star' and as a guest home owner on BBC2's Through the Keyhole first broadcast on 28 May 2008. During Summer 2008, Mark appeared on the new series of Superstars broadcast on Five in the UK. He later appeared on a Strictly Come Dancing special of the Weakest Link in December 2008, and won £15,900 for charity, beating Anton du Beke in the final round. He had previously appeared on an Olympic special, but did not win. Foster co-presented BBC Look East's 6.30pm bulletin, with Susie Fowler-Watt on Thursday 12 February 2009. Mark is a contestant on the BBC1 programme 'Let's Dance For Sport Relief' as of 20 February 2010 as part of the dance group The Olympians. Mark also regularly appears on BBC TV regional news and local radio in his role of Ambassador of Pools 4 Schools, a programme run by Total Swimming with the Amateur Swimming Association to increase participation in swimming amongst primary school children.