By Alex Trickett BBC Sport Online

The teams:

Baseball: Arizona Diamondbacks
American Football: Arizona Cardinals
Basketball: Suns
Ice Hockey: Coyotes

A prosperous city in the USA's arid southwest, Phoenix provides fertile ground for sport.

Its Arizona Diamondbacks broke the Yankees' stranglehold on the World Series in 2001 by prevailing 3-2 in a thrilling game seven.

Randy Johnson leads World Series celebrations

The Suns have fallen from grace, but can look back fondly on their teams of the 1990s.

The Coyotes, meanwhile, are on the up, having won a majority of their regular season games.

The Cardinals have hardly been spectacular.

Since migrating from St Louis in 1988, they have rarely embarrassed but have only once won more games than they have lost.

The venue:

Only at Sun Devil Stadium does an NFL franchise share its home with a college team.

Sun Devil Stadium: Home to students and NFL

Situated on the Arizona State University campus, the venue tends to be popular with away fans and the visit of the Cowboys draws thousands of Texans across the border.

Dallas fans have happy memories of the place.

When Sun Devil Stadium hosted Super Bowl XXX in 1996, Troy Aikman's men rolled to their third title in four years with a 27-17 victory over Pittsburgh.

The stadium is unlikely to host any more NFL showcases, however. In 2004, the Cardinals are due to fly away to their new Arizona home.

The legend:

Charles Barkley spent only four years with the Phoenix Suns, but they turned out to be the best in the team's history.

Sir Charles: MVP in 1993

Larger-than-life in many ways, "Sir Charles" fell short of his roster height by a couple of inches.

But what he lacked in size at the power forward position, he made up for with strength, tenacity and an incredible will to win.

That will almost carried the Suns to an NBA title in 1993 before Barkley's good friend Michael Jordan intervened on behalf of the Chicago Bulls in the finals.

No matter. Barkley won the MVP award that year and proved himself to be one the fiercest competitors to ever step on a court.

Men about town:

Two men can hold their heads higher than anyone else on the streets of Phoenix.

Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling were most responsible for landing the Diamondbacks baseball's biggest prize.

Priceless: Schilling is a World Series winner

And the two pitchers will be the bane of MLB batters again this term.

At 6 ft 10 in, Johnson uses his height to throw down fastballs at 100 mph. In 2001, he won his third straight Cy Young award and amassed the third highest strikeout total in modern history.

Schilling was no less impressive, building up a record of 27 wins and only eight losses in the games he started.

Together, these two represent the biggest one-two punch in baseball.