TAKE ME OUT OF THE BALLGAME: “Adam LaRoche walked away — walked away — from $13 million dollars, just in order to ensure that he spent more time with his son than on a baseball diamond, away from his home half the year. Not being a father myself, it’s hard for me to relate, but I don’t know if I could walk away like he did. It says a lot about LaRoche as a man, and more importantly, as a father. This is also an important story, because fathers today get a pretty bad rap. If pop culture is a reflection of the times in which we live, television fathers have gone from strong dads like Ward Cleaver and Ben Cartwright, to ridiculous buffoons like Al Bundy and Peter Griffin. The nuclear family is seen as less and less important by more and more people every day.”

Read the whole thing.