Craigslist is good for any number of things. It's good for finding roommates. It's good for finding discount furniture for that aforementioned dwelling, or a used car. It's even good for finding a catcher for your local 9-and-under travel baseball team.
Wait, what? Coaches are using Craigslist to find youth baseball prospects?
Incredibly, in North Carolina it appears they are. In an ad that ran for at least a day before it was exposed by the Gawker sports blog Deadspin on Tuesday (and subsequently removed), someone in the Raleigh-Durham area was directly soliciting for "a power hitting catcher" for their travel baseball squad.
It's unknown whether they assumed that alluded to slugging backstop would find the bizarre ad himself or whether the listing would be picked up upon by his parents. Either way, the instructions for anyone interested in the opportunity were quite explicit, as you can see above.
"We are in Wake County … Email us with your info. and we will get back to you."
Aside from the grammatical issues which only serve to reinforce stereotypes about Craigslist authors, the insinuation that a dominant, "very skilled, All-Star type player," who is a decent catcher and also takes the time out from hitting in indoor batting cages throughout the winter to surf Craigslist ads before practicing his multiplication tables is slightly absurd, not to mention an affront to the general spirit of youth sports.
Incredibly, there's no indication that the unique listing was any kind of a hoax. Instead, as soon as it began to receive significant media attention, the author of the listing -- not a Craigslist official, mind you -- pulled it down, leading one to believe that either:
A) a power hitting catcher was miraculously found from this online listing or, more likely,
B) they finally thought better of their rather postmodern plan to fill a vacancy in a travel baseball roster.
Let's all hope it was option B that preceded the premature pulling of the listing. If it's the alternative and this is just the start of a Craigslist youth sports boom, that can't be a good sign for our collective American future.
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