College Player Shows Heartwarming Generosity | Yahoo! Sports

Classy move by a Virginia Tech football player, who chose to spend his Best Buy gift card on gifts for a couple of kids he met at the store.

Trailer for '42' (Movie about Jackie Robinson set to release April 2013.)

Yes, that's Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey!

R.A. Dickey and the Myth of One Great Year | FanGraphs Baseball

Awesome post about R.A. Dickey's performance over the last three years:

"Apparently, there’s this idea that pre-2012 R.A. Dickey was a worthless nothing, and after his fluke season, he’s headed right back to being a trick pitch sideshow. That idea is just hilariously wrong. ...if we’re going to look at a comp for Dickey, we need to find a guy who really established himself for the first time in 2010. Thankfully, there’s a highly touted ace who has performed at nearly the exact same level as Dickey in each of the last three years, and his track record in terms of run prevention is a dead on match for Dickey; that guy is named David Price."

Read on. It's worth it.

Tom Verducci advocates trading R.A. Dickey to Toronto

I agree with SI's Tom Verducci here, but only if the Mets can't work out a two-year extension running through the 2015 season.

What the Mets should do with R.A. Dickey

The Mets are making little progress in getting Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey signed to a two-year extension and the trade market for a young impact player hasn't materialized. They may be getting used to the idea of keeping him for another year at $5 million.

It seems the Mets are valuing Dickey as a number one pitcher on the trade market but as something less than that when it comes to an extension. A $20 million extension, for instance, would give Dickey $25 million over three years -- or just $4 million more than what the Reds are paying Broxton, a hybrid reliever, over the next three years.

What the Mets should do is send Dickey to Toronto for catcher J.P. Arencibia and outfielder Anthony Gose, which would net them two young, major-league-ready everyday players. The Blue Jays aren't enamored with the basic math of the deal: one year of Dickey for 10 years of control of two young players.

But here's why the Jays should do it: Both Arencibia and Gose are reserves right now and are blocked by young players who should be in Toronto for at least two years. Those "10 years of control" are not all years of full-time duty.

More than that, Toronto made a blockbuster move with Miami to rejuvenate baseball in the city. Manager John Gibbons said the goal is to get the franchise into the postseason for the first time in 20 years. If so, you need to go all in -- just as the Nationals are doing by trading a front-of-the-rotation prospect (Alex Meyer) to get a centerfielder (Denard Span) and by paying their fourth starter $13 million despite coming off a down year (Dan Haren).

The Blue Jays are not all in if they regard years of control for bench players above the chance to get a Cy Young Award winner. Think Toronto would have a better shot at the postseason with Dickey making 32 starts instead of J.A. Happ making 32 starts? Of course. But Toronto is hedging its bets.

Dickey has been so much fun to watch pitch these past three seasons, especially this year. If he's going to another team, I'd like it to be one in the American League (so the Mets don't face him) and the team that now employs Jose Reyes, who will forever be one of my favorite Mets of all time.

Also, imagine how awesome he could be with a controlled, retractable dome environment for that knuckleball. His worst start of the season came on a rainy, cold night in Atlanta. He wouldn't have to worry about the condition at home in Toronto, something that could come into play in Kansas City and, to a lesser extent, in Texas.

The GOP And Me. | Rany on the Royals

A long but worthwhile read about religion and politics from Rany Jazayerli, co-founder of Baseball Prospectus.