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It's not often you see the word "thuggery" in the news – in fact, MS Word's never even heard of it. It's rarer that you hear that word in conjunction with blogging, even you might expect it in the sports world these days.

"There's No Live Blogging In Baseball"

A Louisville Courier-Journal reporter was ejected from a University of Louisville baseball game (can't believe I'm saying this: Go Cards! On to the College World Series after thumping Oklahoma State 20-2 – What? No mercy rule in college play?) for live-blogging the event.

Chalk this one up to ridiculously pedantic, pettifoggerous, and over-killed enforcement of NCAA guidelines. Brian Bennet, the C-J reporter furiously blogging his analysis from the press stands was asked (okay, told) to leave the game because live blogging was a violation of NCAA policies against simulcasting and live representations of the game.

The U of L staff said if they didn't eject him, they'd lose their ability to host further NCAA baseball games – an excuse C-J executive editor Bennie Ivory called "extortion and thuggery."

Yeah. Thuggery! A word like that gives this story a decidedly Southern feel.

Ivory also said it was a First Amendment violation, which might be a more difficult case to prove than the thuggerous (heh) actions of the NCAA.