The outpouring of support from the sports world for the anguished Virginia Tech community keeps coming. On Tuesday night, of course, the Nationals wore the "VT" caps for the game against the Braves - and congratulations to the Marylander, Dave Lanham, who came up with the idea and emailed it to the Nationals.

Michael Vick's foundation got together with the United Way and raised $10,000 to support the families and others at his old school - which, to be honest, is largely known as much as it is because of him. This should get him off the hook for the airport fake-water bottle for a while.

Speaking of getting off the hook, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, who melted down earlier in the week after a loss and challenged a talk-show host to a fight, wore a "VT'' cap at the game at RFK last night.

NASCAR cars and trucks racing for the next three weeks will be allowed to display the "VT" logo. Like Major League Baseball, NASCAR did a nice job getting out of its own way and letting the rules be tweaked to accommodate a generous gesture. Of course, if there is one state besides North Carolina that can legitimately claim itself to be NASCAR country, it's Virginia, especially that region of it. And, as it turns out, several vital members of the Hendricks racing team are Virginia Tech grads.

Last but not least, thanks to the phenomenal NBA blog True Hoop, we learn that there's a student-run website, Planet Blacksburg, that has been an outstanding source of up-to-date information on the campus situation. The faculty adviser is journalism professor Roland Lazenby, who on the side is a prolific author on NBA topics, including tons on the Michael Jordan Bulls and the Shaq-Kobe Lakers. Lazenby talked to the True Hoop creator, Henry Abbott, after the massacre.

There may be more examples out there that I'm missing. If you readers come across then, feel free to send them along.

More often than we want to admit in this atmosphere of nonstop multimedia negativity, the sports world steps to the forefront at times of strife and tragedy.