Here’s a heartwarming follow up story that I read this morning about this year’s addition of the Little League World Series held annually in Williamsport, PA. Apparently this year’s Little League World Series star, a 13 year old girl by the name of Mo’ne Davis, told reporters that even though she loved playing baseball her first love was basketball and her dream was to play point guard on the women’s team at the University of Connecticut and then to go on to the WNBA.
So wouldn’t you know that the coach for the University of Connecticut’s basketball team, Mr. Geno Auriemma, after hearing about that, thought it would be nice to call Mo’ne up to congratulate her on her big performance at the LLWS.
Then, another coach in the NCAA complained to higher-ups, and as a result the NCAA decided that the phone call violated recruitment rules!
Say what?!
Once upon a time a 13 year old could play little league baseball and there were no big important adult reporters around to write down what she was saying, let alone who cared to listen…and there were no news outlets who would broadcast 13 year old teenage statements to the world anyway… and certainly big important college coaches would not even bother to listen to such things even if they existed, but…today… in a world where organizations like the National Collegiate Athletic Association can make billions and billions and billions of dollars off of the hard work and play of youngsters only a few years older than Ms. Davis (while the youngsters get virtually nothing in return)
Well then you can certainly understand why the NCAA had to determined that the U Conn women’s basketball coach had indeed committed a secondary rules violation when he made that congratulatory phone call.
Of course then all eyes and ears were once again focused upon the 13 year old female pitching phenom who was asked about her feelings on this controversy. Like any 13 year old, Ms Davis said that the whole thing just made her “sad”.
Proving once again that here in the United States some folks can truly love money so much that it actually does hurt.
ipledgeafallegiance 
It’s kind of remarkable, isn’t it? The only realistic way that the interaction could have been seen as a violation of recruiting rules is if she was also so incredibly intellectually gifted that she would have been able to graduate high school and enter into college all but immediately after that phone call. All things considered, that wasn’t going to fucking happen but…yeah, it’s apparently best to not mix logic and reality.
Just fucking…wow…
I appreciate the ridiculousness of the rules and appreciate the need for them. Why? Because it is ridiculous that college coaches would go after a 13-year-old but the rules are necessary because there are college coaches that would do that. What the Connecticut coach did was relatively innocent, but the rules are there to protect against the ones who wouldn’t act so innocently if given half a chance.