Mooney

It's once again Valentine's Day; a holiday in which romantics meticulously plan sincere expressions of affection for their loved ones … or wait until the last minute, run to the drug store, buy a poorly stitched-together teddy bear and a box of chalky candy hearts on the way home from work.

Ah, but the candy heart can be so much more than the last item left on the shelf. It can also communicate feelings or reveal true emotions, in a delicious bite-sized form.

Which is probably why so many NHL players, coaches and personalities have created their own candy hearts for this Valentine's Day that we invented and then Photoshopped collected in this handy gallery. Enjoy!

Whoa, Placido Polanco really let himself go (US Presswire)

The Philadelphia Phillies are coming off a 102-win campaign, led by a pitching staff that delivered a league-best 3.02 ERA in 2011. That team mark beat the National League average by 0.80 runs per nine innings, which is no small advantage. This starting rotation is just ludicrously good — Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels all rank as consensus top-seven fantasy starters — and Philly added Jonathan Papelbon to the bullpen during the off-season. In all likelihood, run prevention will not be a problem in the year ahead.

Run scoring, however, could be a different story. It's been a little while since we've had that worry with this team. The Phils ranked at or near the top of the National League in total runs every year from 2004 to 2010, but they slipped to seventh in 2011. Philadelphia's batting order is loaded with familiar names, but, in a way, that's part of the problem — there's a decent chance that 28-year-old Hunter Pence will be the only player under 30 in the opening day lineup. And he turns 29 in April. You'll recall that 32-year-old first baseman Ryan Howard tore his left Achilles tendon on the final swing of the Phillies' post-season, so we probably won't see him until May at the earliest.

Philly's rotation should be dominant enough to carry the team into October, but this roster isn't quite the fantasy juggernaut it used to be. Not surprisingly, all the pressing questions involve the first eight spots in the batting order...

It's been a big few days for super model Kate Upton. First, she pulls down the prized cover of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition, and then her hot, new commercial for the MLB 2K12 video game debuts on the Internet.

And, hoo boy — /tugs collar — is it just me or is it steamier in that RV than a marathon Walter White cooking session? Here's Upton teaching David Price, C.J. Wilson, Jay Bruce and Justin Verlander the finer points of, uh, digital manipulation.

So, uh, yeah. That's pretty much the sexiest baseball video game commercial ever filmed. Perhaps even needlessly so. (Had my 10-year-old self seen Kathy Ireland hawking RBI Baseball, I'm not sure I would've been able to speak until the sixth grade.)

Not that I'm complaining. Until this week, the clip embedded below was widely considered the  sexiest ad in baseball video game history. So there's that.

Big BLS H/N: @meechone

Go ahead, take a look at this video before we begin (Editor's note: the shot comes at the 0:35 second mark). It only seems fair since you'll most likely need a minute or two to pick your jaw up off the floor after watching Corey Pavin hit one of the most incredible recovery shots you're ever going to see.

Playing in the Champions Tour's Allianz Championship last weekend, Pavin found himself in a precarious spot on the 14th hole during Sunday's final round, after his approach shot went over the green and came to rest against a tree root next to the cart path.

It was an impossible shot. Not only did Pavin have to hit the ball cleanly and completely miss the root, but he had to accomplish the shot left-handed (he was unable to take a right-handed stance). You read that right: Left-freakin-handed.

Corey Pavin's ball against the root. / PGA Tour

I know Pavin is one of the best short game players in the history of the game, but even this shot seemed a little on the crazy side. But Pavin hit it anyway, catching the ball perfectly with an 8-iron, while missing the root in the process, and knocking the shot to within five feet of the hole.

Pavin not only went on to make par the hole and capture his first Champions Tour title in a playoff. Not a bad day's work for the short game magician.

After his round, Pavin called it a "once-in-a-lifetime shot" and probably the best up-and-down of his career. That's an understatement. It wasn't just the best of his career, it probably ranks right up there with some of the best, and most clutch, recovery shots in the history of the game.

Lots of things go on inappropriate or unbecoming things can occur when high school team practices get a little heated, and intra-squad fights are certainly not rare. Sometimes they even seem to be tautly encouraged by coaching staffs who want to get more passion from their struggling teams.

The next time a player gets upset and starts to go after a teammate during a team scrimmage, they might want to remember Tyler Grimshaw, a 17-year-old Greece (N.Y.) Athena High hockey star who has been charged with third-degree assault after a fight between the teen and a 14-year-old teammate left Grimshaw's opponent with a concussion.

As reported by Rochester NBC affiliate WHEC and Rochester ABC affiliate WHAM among other outlets, Grimshaw finds himself facing an assault charge for the beat down he put on his unnamed teammate in the two teenagers' on-ice squabble. The 17-year-old was informed of the charges against him on Monday, leading to speculation but no formal announcement about what kind of punishment Grimshaw will have to serve.

While the Greece Central School District has refused to be drawn about where Grimshaw will go next, the teen intimated to friends on Twitter that he feels he will be not be allowed back at Greece Athena High, as you can tell from the following two Tweets:

@djspitale34 @fcarne12 I love you boys I'm gonna miss Athena #heartbroken

@djspitale34 na man guess I'm done senior year was gonna be sick to man hasn't sank in yet #wanttocry

The teen also unintentionally started a brief hashtag movement to overturn his punishments, with #FREEGRIMSHAW drawing a number of mentions from other Greece Athena students on Twitter.

Jeff Withey (US Presswire)

With Kansas State surging and the purple-clad crowd roaring in the second half of Monday night's matchup against rival Kansas, Jeff Withey made a pair of huge plays that helped the Jayhawks regain momentum.

He tipped in an errant Elijah Johnson jump shot at one end and stuffed Rodney McGruder at the other end, part of an 11-0 Kansas run that enabled the Jayhawks to escape with a 59-53 win.

Withey's 18-point, 11-rebound, nine-block masterpiece was so impressive that it sparked discussion of whether he may be the nation's most improved player this season. Here's a look at where he'd rank on my list:

1. Fab Melo, So., Syracuse: It was less than a year ago that the highly touted Melo was labeled a bust after a discouraging freshman season in which he averaged 2.3 points and 1.9 boards in limited playing time. Now the 7-foot Brazil native has emerged as one of the Big East's top big man and perhaps the most indispensable player in top-ranked Syracuse's rotation. In addition to anchoring Jim Boeheim's two-three zone and fueling Syracuse's fast break by averaging 3.0 blocked shots per game, Melo has also scored in double figures in seven of the 11 Big East games he has played. He credits his improvement to an improved offseason diet that enabled him to shed weight and build greater stamina.

2. Jamaal Franklin, So., San Diego State: Since Franklin wasn't likely to crack San Diego State's rotation last season, coach Steve Fisher suggested to him that he redshirt as a freshman and then didn't play him at all in 15 games when he opted against it. Fisher knew he'd count on Franklin more as a sophomore after losing four starters from last year's 34-win team, but even he didn't expect the 6-foot-5 wing to develop this quickly. Despite playing out of position at power forward for the undersized Aztecs, Franklin has forced his way into the starting lineup thanks to his explosive athleticism, knack for rebounding and overhauled jump shot. He is averaging 16.0 points and 7.3 rebounds, good enough to challenge UNLV's Mike Moser for Mountain West player of the year.

Minnesota Wild prospect Justin Fontaine has fit in nicely with the team's AHL affiliate Houston Aeros in his rookie season, posting 34 points in 49 games, good for second in team scoring. He's also fit in well off the ice -- three weeks ago, he joined a large contingent of Wild prospects that are currently on Twitter, interacting with fans.

He's taken to Twitter quite well by all accounts too -- except for an unfortunate incident this weekend when he used a gay slur.

Hockey Wilderness

Sunday night, Fontaine's roommate David MacIntyre tweeted about the Foo Fighters' Grammy performance. Fontaine responded, attempting to sarcastically disparage Dave Grohl's critically-acclaimed grunge rock band. But he chose his words poorly.

Fontaine deleted the tweet, but not before a number of Wild fans had seen and reacted to it, and Houston Aeros captain John DiSalvatore had retweeted it for some reason.

Wild management didn't take too kindly to this and they responded immediately, suspending Fontaine for his next 2 games.

US PresswireMomentum for a deal between the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees that would send A.J. Burnett to western Pennsylvania "stayed strong" Monday night, according to the New York Post.

"The teams remained apart both on dollars and the type of prospects that would be included," the paper reports.

The Post notes that the Yanks are also talking to two other teams about Burnett as well, "but clearly (see) the Pirates as the best match for the righty."

The Pirates are up for paying $10 million of the $33 million owed to Burnett over the next two seasons, the paper notes, and will send the Yanks two prospects. The players being offered aren't very exciting to the Yankees at this point, the paper notes but the team would be more open to such players if the Pirates were willing to shell out more than $13 million of Burnett's salary.

With six other starters on the roster, the Yanks would like to unload Burnett before the season gets underway.

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