Nothing To Say?

Hmmm, it's the first Monday morning of August, and TigerBlog has nothing to write about. It was TB's big fear heading into the summer that because there were no events, there'd be nothing to come up with here every day.

Here at TigerBlog HQ, we talked about writing only three times per week, or possibly rerunning entries from during the year. If that didn't do it, we talked about seeking out "guest bloggers" to offer pieces.

And yet, none of that has been necessary. In many ways, June and July have been the "glory days" of TigerBlog, with readership up and no shortage of subjects. In fact, perhaps it's easier to write when there are no events, since there's more time to focus on bigger picture stuff.

Of course, none of that is helping today. What is there to say today, on a Monday morning in early August when summer has finally, finally kicked in around here, with temps nearing 90 this week and humidity on the upswing.

As an aside, Rich Fisher, who has written about Princeton athletics for just about every publication within 20 miles of here, once said that he hated the month of February, because "one day in February is like six days in August." TigerBlog has always thought the opposite, that no month drags like August. Summer is beginning to wind down but hasn't quite yet; every day is 90 degrees with high humidity and a chance of a late afternoon thunderstorm. NFL teams play dreadful preseason games. Baseball is getting tedious. College sports aren't quite back underway. September, on the other hand, is when a new academic year kicks in, and everything revs up.

As a further aside, as TigerBlog was typing the previous paragraph, Dean Martin's version of "Silver Bells" came on TB's i-tunes. TB has about 30 Christmas songs (and both of Adam Sandler's "Hanukkah Song" versions) among his 1,000 songs on i-tunes and is always torn about listening to them or fast-forwarding past them during the summer. In this case, TB hit fast-forward and was pleased that the next song that came on was Bruce's "Meet Me At Mary's Place," which played for the 139th time, according to the counter.

None of that helps fill space today, though. TigerBlog though of revisiting Ross Ohlendorf, whose nine wins leave him in the top 50 in the Major Leagues. TB thought of listing some high name-value pitchers who make a ton of money and don't have at least nine wins. Then TB was going to try to put together some sort of list that quantifies pitchers whose winning percentage far exceeds their team's. But when it came time to do that, TB figured he'd wait until Ohlendorf reached double figures.

So it was off to another topic. The upcoming Major League Lacrosse playoffs? Nah. How the rest of college football is practicing and having media days and Princeton is still weeks away from either? Nah.

The obligatory "we're about a month away from the first events; where did the summer go?" piece seems too trite. TB thought about something about how Princeton and ESPN put together the events that will be televised each year, but we haven't put them together yet.

There's always budget cut news, courtesy of the Ultimate Sports Insider. Or some comments on new media? TigerBlog has a good one for that, but it can wait.

Coaching changes have been good material this summer, what with four coaching changes in the books and one more to go. But it's quiet today, too quiet for that.

Nah, TigerBlog is at a loss today. Besides, TB has to go through the annual Unified Appeal calendar and count up the number of pictures of each team in the book. TB is always fascinated to hear a complaint about how Team A is not represented in the book properly (usually from people who receive it, not from coaches, to be fair), when TB has taken the time each year to mark down how many pictures there are of each. In the past, we've often taken pictures out of a team that has way more than another and balanced it out.

So, with that looming, TB is going to cut it short for today and just leave it as a day with nothing to say.

TigerBlog will try to do better tomorrow.