Maybe that guy from the school you’ve never heard of is right…

Elon is a college in North Carolina that you’ve probably never heard of, but since I grew up in the Tar Heel State, I’ve got a familiarity with the school.  Among North Carolina colleges, Elon is not quite as prestigious as Davidson (which you might have heard of thanks to Stephen Curry) but not as crappy as Campbell (once again, you’re giving me a blank stare).

The school has a fairly successful baseball program, and lately it’s making news for all the wrong reasons.  First off, Deadspin posted an email rant from an Elon student that they passed off as absurd and barely news worthy.  It happened to deal with the school’s baseball team, and here’s a snippet:

“I am told from credible sources - other athletes at the school - that most of the players use steroids, and by most, I absolutely mean all of them. The place is just a revolving door for these kids on their way to make it big*. They are all retarded and just crush scholarships for a couple of years until they get signed, at which point they drop out, and continue to live on campus while the major league clubs pay the Elon coaches to train them all day until spring training starts.” (Deadspin)

Let me reiterate by saying that what Deadspin posted is an unverified story from some random dude, who knows how much water it holds. But it’s timing is interesting because its posting comes on the heels of this:

That’s Elon and the Citadel having at it yesterday during the ninth inning of their meeting in the Southern Conference Baseball Tournament in Charleston, SC. The Citadel ended up winning 6-3 in 10 innings, but strangely, the bench clearing brawl is not even mentioned in the recap of the game on Elon’s web site.

I happen to have a connection to the Elon baseball team, I went to school in Fayetteville, NC with Phoenix (yeah, that’s Elon’s nickname) head coach Mike Kennedy.  He’s the guy in the red jacket in the video.

I don’t remember him being a confrontational guy back then, so I doubt he’s the cause of any violent streak his team may or may not have.  He did steal a bunch of baseball cards from me back in 1982, though, but he’s probably long since given up his thieving ways: Elon only ranked fifth in the SoCon in stolen bases this season.