Ivy Leaguers are well represented in professional sports

	The Walk-On Pablo Torre is a rising senior in college and an intern at SI.com this summer. Sadly, he was rejected from an internship at Tru Warier Records.
	Cleveland Indians farmhand Frank Herrmann is used to the teasing he receives for going to Harvard. AP

By Pablo Torre

At first glance, taunting a guy for being intelligent doesn't seem to make for very good teasing. Frank Herrmann, however, has heard all the jokes. The 22-year-old righty is your typical Cleveland Indians farmhand, but to his teammates, there's one important catch: He went to Harvard.

"There's a lot of ribbing," Herrmann says. "I have grown accustomed to the endless questions and jokes about 'Hahhhvaddd.' I'm not given much leeway to mess up, or else I'll hear, 'You went to Harvard?' Or, 'You are the dumbest smart kid I know.' Trainers, coaches and players alike love to let me hear about it."

Such kidding is not unique to Class A Lake County. In the world of major professional sports -- where athletes are evaluated as physical specimens above all, by turns avian ("wingspan") and automotive ("wheels") --what usually passes for a compliment in the classroom becomes a gibe in the locker room. The humor reflects a common conception about what it means to come out of the Ivy League -- as in: Why aren't you an investment banker or lawyer? How did you end up here?

In the so-called Ivory Tower, the term student-athlete is not a throwaway slogan. The rules governing athletics are more stringent; football teams are forbidden to participate in the postseason, and -- most critically -- there are no scholarships. So it's not surprising if the Ivy League pro appears to be a rare species.

Not since Yale's Chris Dudley retired in 2002 has an alum from the Ancient Eight even grabbed NBA pine. And schools like Harvard are admittedly better at fencing (the Crimson won the NCAA title this year) and crew.

Forget about Penn's eight-point loss to Texas in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The biggest Ivy hoops story this year was not technically an Ivy hoops story at all: one-time Crimson football recruit and erstwhile rugger Zach Puchtel (he's 6-foot-6, 250 pounds) transferred to Minnesota, walked onto the Gophers basketball team and flourished in the Big Ten.