Jeter is the talented shortstop for the Yankees and a heartthrob to countless ladies in New Jersey and Long Island.

A Jersey boy by birth, Jeter was raised in Michigan by a Black dad and Irish-American mom. Though he was drafted by the Yankees straight out of high school in 1992, Jeter spent four years in the minor leagues before making his debut with the Yanks in 1995, winning the American League Rookie of the Year award and serving as a key member of the team's World Series-winning squad in 1996. Jeter hasn't looked back since. He was the face of the team as they won three straight World Series from 1998 to 2000 and subsequently in 2009, and became the first player to win All-Star Game MVP and World Series MVP in the same year in 2000. In 2003, Jeter became the first Yankee team captain since Don Mattingly retired in 1995, joining the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and former Mets skipper Willie Randolph, and in 2011 the rare feat of slugging 3,000, qualified him as a franchise leader.

While he's never put up numbers like teammate and one-time friend Alex Rodriguez, Jeter is the most famous player on baseball's most famous team, and arguably the sport's most popular and marketable star. His media-friendly image has led to a slew of rich endorsement deals: Jeter's been in ad campaigns for Nike, Gatorade, Ford, and Visa, among many others, and he has his own fragrance, Driven, produced by Avon. It's this mediagenic image that's made him a far bigger star than the moody A-Rod or the unassuming Mariano Rivera, teammates who will likely go down as better players on paper. Jeter does have his share of detractors, though. To critics, he's baseball's biggest hype job: a very good but not superlative player made famous by his movie-star looks and the constant exposure that comes with playing for the Yankees. Jeter has gotten around over the years, his past romances including Mariah Carey, Miss Universe Lara Dutta, actress Jordana Brewster, Vanessa Minnillo, Jessica Biel and Minka Kelly. [Image via Getty]