Clayton Kershaw

One of the most successful pitchers in 2010s baseball, Clayton Kershaw was born in Dallas, Texas in 1988. After spending his youth excelling in Little League Baseball, Kershaw enrolled at Highland Park High School where he continued to impress his coaches, even being named USA Today's High School Baseball Player of the Year during his senior year. Kershaw was offered a scholarship from Texas A&M University, but he walked away from the school after he was recruited by the Los Angeles Dodgers with a signing bonus estimated at $2.3 million. He would put in a year playing for the Arizona League Dodgers, the Major League team's minor league affiliate, and was later promoted to the Low Class A minor league team the Great Lakes Loons.

But in 2008, the Dodgers bought out Kershaw's contract and added him to the team's active roster. He would prove to be a hugely valuable asset to the team, renewing his contract with the organization at record breaking rates and even playing with the team at the 2017 World Series, where he would strike out 11 batters in the opening game. In addition to his work as an athlete, Kershaw also became active in the charities Arise Africa and CURE International, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the organizations.