The Courting of Marvin Clark

June 1, 2014 5:38 PM

The Courting of Marvin Clark: Inside Colleges's Pursuit of a Future Star
posted by SkylitDrawl (3 comments total)

I don't follow sports at all and didn't go to the kind of college where varsity athletics was really a thing. I never open the sports section and only watch games if something is showing at a bar. But I really like this kind of long-form article; it's a window into a world I don't know anything about and never will, and one that captures millions of people's attention and passion.

Mathematically, gambling on an NBA career is probably a long shot for this kid, but I hope he can make it work. If he doesn't, it won't be for lack of trying.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:35 PM on June 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

When I was a kid I played baseball for a time, both in the city and way out in the country. Puberty made it that some of us were small and some were big. There was this giant mullet-head pitcher in our league who had an obscenely fast fastball, in the high 60's or low 70's. He threw a ridiculous knuckle ball that didn't even knuckle but it was faster than anyone else in the league could throw a fastball. The ball went screaming by and you couldn't help your natural reaction to bail. I remember being afraid of both and just swing three times and get the hell out. In that league you faced each team twice a season and we faced him two times. Each was a no-hitter that took less than an hour.

He was courted by the Cincinatti Reds farm team as a prospect at the age of 13.
posted by vapidave at 9:51 PM on June 1, 2014

I honestly expected this to be about colleges recruiting a particularly academically gifted student. I've been out of the US for more than 17 years now and that must be it. The very idea that Canadian universities would be competitively recruiting somebody because he's a talented athlete is unthinkable.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 6:31 PM on June 2, 2014