I understand that most of you are here for the politics, but trust me, you are going to want to read about this story. If you are a baseball nut like I am (or perhaps even a casual fan) you are probably aware of the controversy that flared up this offseason when first baseman Adam LaRoche walked way from the final year of his contract with the Chicago White Sox, which was set to pay him $13M for playing six months of baseball, allegedly because the White Sox told him that he couldn’t bring his son to the clubhouse every day.

Holy cow, did that not turn out to be the entire story:

LaRoche, along with Brewers pitcher Blaine Boyer, spent 10 days in November in Southeast Asian brothels, wearing a hidden camera and doing undercover work to help rescue underage sex slaves. All of which raises a question: After 12 years in the big leagues, the endless days and nights in dugouts and clubhouses, how did LaRoche’s nearly cinematic level of nonconformity escape detection?

… Working through a nonprofit called the Exodus Road, LaRoche and Boyer conducted surveillance in brothels and tried to determine the age of the girls — known only by numbers pinned to bikinis — and identify their bosses.

“Something huge happened there for us,” Boyer says. “You can’t explain it. Can’t put your finger on it. If you make a wrong move, you’re getting tossed off a building. We were in deep, man, but that’s the way it needed to be done. Adam and I truly believe God brought us there and said, ‘This is what I have for you boys.’”

I can’t even fathom this. A couple of fantastically wealthy white professional athletes going undercover in foreign country with uncertain legal systems in order to save young girls from sex slavery. And doing it during the middle of their career.

You need to read, as they say, the entire article. Adam LaRoche appears to be an amazing, off-the-beaten path devoted Christian in a more compelling and sincere (and understated) way than someone like Tim Tebow is (and to be clear, I am a huge fan of Tim Tebow). After reading this, I only wish I had known what LaRoche was like earlier, so I could have spent his career rooting for him wherever he went.