Some things were simply meant to be, and some were meant to be for only a couple years. Such is the case with Adam LaRoche, the ballplayer whom the Pittsburgh Pirates traded last week to the Boston Red Sox.

Pittsburgh is home not only to the Pirates, but to the Roman Catholic La Roche College, and Adam LaRoche's arrival in 2007 as the club's first baseman could only be described as a divine convergence.

"Adam LaRoche's tenure with the Pittsburgh Pirates was in large measure responsible for Sister Candace Introcaso, president of La Roche College, becoming the first ever college president, not to mention the first nun, to be named on a Topps baseball card," we learned from Ken Service, vice president for institutional relations at La Roche (the college, not the first baseman). Service's sources for his claim are unimpeachable: "I have asked my nephew, two neighbors, and a Girl Scout who came by selling cookies."

Last year Sister Introcaso tossed out the first pitch on "Adam LaRoche Bobblehead Night" at Steel City's PNC Park, an event recorded on LaRoche's Topps baseball card, No. 633.

But LaRoche (the southpaw player) is part of Pittsburgh history now, and La Roche College can only lament the loss of what was, and what might have been. On Saturday, LaRoche knocked in a two-run homer in his Red Sox debut, just three days after his trade.