Sports Birthdays for October 5 — Mario Lemieux and More

Here are some of the people in the sports world celebrating birthdays on October 5:

Bill James
Age: 63
Profession: Sports Statistician
Best Known For: Most famous for his Baseball Abstracts, Bill James has become a leading baseball historian and statistical analyst. James has invented and devised new metrics of analyzing the performance of baseball players which are now used by major league clubs in determining player value.

Michael Andretti
Age: 50
Profession: Retired Race Car Driver
Best Known For: Winner of 42 races on the Indy car circuit, Michael Andretti is a former American CART and Formula One driver and current owner of the Andretti Autosport team in the IndyCar Series. Andretti is the son of racing champion Mario Andretti and the father of driver Marco Andretti. Michael was the 1991 CART racing series champion. He was elected to the Indianapolis Speedway's Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 2012.

Mario Lemieux
Age: 47
Profession: Retired NHL Player
Best Known For: A 10-time All-Star center, Mario Lemieux is one of the greatest hockey players in history. He played 17 seasons between 1984 and 2006 with the Pittsburgh Penguins, a franchise of which he is now principal owner. Lemieux led the Penguins to Stanley Cup titles in 1991 and 1992. He won three Hart Trophies as the league's most valuable player (MVP), six Art Ross Trophies as the league's leading scorer, and two Conn Smythe trophies as MVP of the playoffs. Lemieux stopped playing from 1997 to 2000 because of lymphoma, but returned once he was healthy. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997.

Patrick Roy
Age: 47
Profession: Retired NHL Player
Best Known For: An 11-time All-Star goalie, Patrick Roy played for the Montreal Canadiens and Colorado Avalanche from 1985 to 2003. Roy won the Vezina Trophy as the league's best goaltender in 1989, 1990 and 1992. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the Stanley Cup playoffs three times in three different decades. Roy was on the Canadiens' teams that won the 1986 and 1993 Stanley Cups and the Avalanche teams that won the title in 1996 and 2001. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2006.

Grant Hill
Age: 40
Profession: NBA Player
Best Known For: A seven-time All-Star forward, Grant Hill has played with the Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers since entering the league as the third-overall pick of the 1994 NBA Draft. Hill was co-winner of the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in 1995. He was a member of the US men's basketball team that won the gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Hill played college basketball at Duke, winning NCAA titles in 1991 and 1992. His father, Calvin, is a former NFL player.

Jesse Palmer
Age: 34
Profession: Retired NFL Player / Analyst
Best Known For: A former starting quarterback at the University of Florida, Jesse Palmer had a brief NFL career with the New York Giants from 2001 to 2004. Palmer was cast as the object of young ladies' affection on the ABC-TV reality competition show 'The Bachelor' in 2004. He is currently a college football analyst.