PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. – Baseball was the only sport Travis d'Arnaud's mother would let him play. The reason was simple: baseball was safe.

"She's really protective," said the Mets' prized catching prospect at his locker Wednesday.

Marta d'Arnaud was right. Baseball is considered a safe sport. Except perhaps for one position: catcher. Home plate is where most of the sport's brutal collisions take place. And catcher happened to be the position where d'Arnaud became a star prospect.

Now, the California native is becoming a test case in an era of developing concussion awareness. He's never played a big-league game, yet he's a crucial piece of the Mets' future plans. And because of both his promising future and a recent past filled with injuries and a concussion, d'Arnaud is suddenly at the center of a sport-wide debate: Should home-plate collisions be banned?

Travis d'Arnaud's injury history makes the collision discussion an interesting one. (USA Today Sports)Mike Matheny, the Cardinals manager and a former catcher himself, came out in favor of a rule change earlier this week,

When Leo Klink stood up to speak at his mother's funeral, just about all of the 700 in attendance knew about the tragedy that took place at the 17 year-old's last high school soccer game. Leo's mom's dying request made news all over Hawaii, and so did the soccer star's inspired performance that day.

Leo Klink and his mother, Hiroyo. (Courtesy of Klink family)The mourners all wanted to know Leo a little better, and know his late mom a little better, too. Leo could have said anything at that funeral, or nothing at all, and been embraced for it. Yet his choice of words was telling and powerful.

Leo decided to tell a story about a little moth.

Leo Klink wasn't destined to be a great high school soccer player, or even a member of a great high school team. "I didn't think we were that good my freshman year," Klink said. His mom, Hiroyo, started him in the sport when he was seven, and she didn't have the World Cup in mind. She wanted most of all for her only child to go to college, and Leo worked hard in the classroom to make that happen.

Darrell Wallace Jr. is set to become just the fourth African American to race full time in NASCAR's national series.DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Darrell Wallace Jr. has been hit with the "n" word all his life. He's heard it in whispers, in shouts, up close, from a distance, and even from an official at a race track. He was 14 years old, running late models in North Carolina, when his dad heard an official describe his son as "that n----- kid." Darrell Wallace Sr., calmly approached the official and said, "Did you forget my son's name?"

The official "went to stuttering," Wallace, Sr. says. He was soon out of a job.

Wallace Sr., who is white, shrugs when he retells the story outside the media center Thursday at Daytona International Speedway. There isn't a hint of anger. Not even an extra octave of shock in his voice. The "n" word has been used about his son "too many times to count," he says. It's not worth ranting and raving about hurled epithets.

"He's gonna get 'em til the day he dies."

It's hard not to wonder why father and son aren't more upset. They each speak about the occasional burst of

LAKELAND, Fla. – Miguel Cabrera was the American League's most valuable player in 2012, but one teammate says Cabrera should have made himself even more valuable.

Octavio Dotel, the Detroit Tigers' veteran reliever, is still bothered over what he saw as a lack of leadership when Cabrera refused to agree to a team meeting after some devastating postseason defeats last October.

"You have to step up and say something," Dotel told Yahoo! Sports. "Miggy's more about his game. I don't see him as a leader."

Miguel Cabrera's dream season of 2012 included a Triple Crown and AL MVP award. (Getty Images) Dotel says he approached Cabrera to suggest a players' only meeting after a heart-wrenching Game 4 loss in the American League Division Series to Oakland. He was rebuffed. Then, after losing Games 1 and 2 to San Francisco in the World Series, Dotel hoped again for a meeting. It didn't happen. The Tigers got swept.

Now, in a new season, Dotel hopes Cabrera takes a stronger off-field role on the team.

"Everybody," Dotel said, "has their eyes on Miggy Cabrera."

[Related:

Christmas Abbott is set to become a pit crew member in NASCAR. (Poetic Edge photography)

DAVIDSON, N.C. – The laws of physics explain why there aren't any female members of a NASCAR pit crew: The average woman of 5-4 weighs around 130 pounds, and the average racing tire weighs between 55 and 70 pounds. So physics explains a woman of average size would have to lift and move half her weight – twice – and bolt two tires in 12 seconds or less to succeed in a NASCAR pit.

Physics never met Christmas Abbott.

Physics never visited her house, saw the lug nuts on her kitchen counter, or stumbled across the air gun and wheel-and-axle set outside her bedroom. Physics never saw her garage, filled not with an automobile but with barbells and plates on top of plates. Physics never saw her lift a 70-pound barbell and leave it to rest on her shoulders like it's a winter shawl.

Danica Patrick is a badass, but the 5-3, 115-pound Christmas Abbott makes her look like a hand model. Abbott, 31, has a gun tattooed on her hip to remind her of time she spent in Iraq. She can squat 255

DUNEDIN, Fla. – Here's another case of baseball justice vs. real world justice.

Admitted performance-enhancement drug user Melky Cabrera made his first appearance as a Toronto Blue Jay on Friday morning, refusing to take questions about his PED past. Yet he did take a question about his place on the world champion San Francisco Giants, and he was quite honest.

"I feel like I deserve a ring," Cabrera said. "I gave everything to that organization. If they decide not to give me a ring, I'd understand that, too."

Wouldn't it feel a little like real world justice if the cheater didn't get a ring? Cabrera said he had no idea if he would get one. He said the Giants have not asked for his size. 

Melky Cabrera didn't say much about what got him a 50-game suspension last season. (AP) Then, hours later, the Giants chimed in: "He's getting a ring. We have his ring size," team communication executive Staci Slaughter told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I don't know where that's coming from."

That's baseball justice.

Cabrera had an MVP-caliber performance in the

DUNEDIN, Fla. – Last November, then-Marlins shortstop Jose Reyes sat down to dinner with his boss, owner Jeffrey Loria. The two chatted about the future – specifically, Reyes’ future in Miami. Loria encouraged his star to find a nice house in South Florida.

Days later, Reyes was traded.

Jose Reyes is looking forward to stepping up with Toronto. (AP Photo)That was the story Reyes told Friday here at Blue Jays camp, where he is now starting another spring training as a member of a supposed dream team. The last dream team, as we now know, was built on false promises and empty words. The Marlins, looking like World Series contenders opening a brand new, mostly publicly financed ballpark one year ago, have been mostly dismantled by their owner. Loria's Marlins dealt Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson, John Buck and Emilio Bonifacio to Toronto last November for a few prospects and other players. All the hope for another World Series title in South Florida has, much like Reyes, gone north. Reyes, like star pitcher Buehrle, was only in town for one

Michael Jordan watches the game against the Orlando Magic with his son Marcus in 2011. (Getty Images)Marcus Jordan was 16 years old when he first beat his dad at basketball.

He was a sophomore in high school. The game took place in the gym of his famous father's palatial Chicago house. Marcus, now 22, doesn't remember the score.

"I was so caught up in winning," he says, laughing. "It was a great feeling. I was really excited. It was like, 'I do know what I'm doing!' The time I spent practicing – it's kind of paying off."

What was Dad's reaction? He quickly moved to the top of the key, checked the ball and started a new game. The old man won.

They haven't played since.

"He walked away on top," Marcus says. "I hope I get another chance."

This story probably doesn't surprise a lot of fans. Michael Jordan is competitive to the point of being sinister. Remember his Hall of Fame speech in 2009? He devoted a curious amount of time to pouring salt on old wounds, baiting Bryon Russell and Jeff Van Gundy. When he addressed his family, Jordan said, "I wouldn't want to be you guys."