USA, USA

As the marathon tennis match entered Day 3 yesterday, TigerBlog found himself rooting for the guy who ended up winning, even though he'd never heard of either one of them before. Why? Because he was an American, that's why.

As it turned out, the American guy turned out to a pretty good guy, at least from the post-match interview, when he said that he knew he'd be remembered for this match but didn't want this match to define his career. Plus, he was extraordinarily gracious to his opponent.

TB's World Cup experience has been defined by rooting first for the Americans and then for the countries he likes and against those he doesn't like (with a bit of pity reserved for the North Koreans).

It's been a stark contrast to the Olympics, when TB doesn't get as caught up in the jingoism of the event.

Usually on such issues, he goes back to what Marvin Bressler, professor emeritus of sociology, said about the Stanley Cup Finals in the 1970s, when the Flyers were winning back-to-back times: "Why should I care if our Canadians can beat their Canadians?"

One of the great dynamics of sports is why people root for the teams they root for and against the ones they root against. TB's favorite professional sports team, for instance, is the Giants, a team he's rooted for since he was a little kid because he grew up in a New Jersey suburb.

But that doesn't seem to be the common denominator for rooting for an NFL team. Ask someone which NFL team is his/her favorite, and you'll get all kinds of answers. If that person has a favorite baseball, hockey or basketball team, it's more likely that it is because of where they grew up.

On the college level, fans usually fall into two groups - alums, and those who live around the school. That's easy to understand.

But internationally? It often transcends the games themselves and becomes more of "our way of life against their way of life."

None of this ever comes down to "hey, the guys on that team are really good guys, while the guys on that team are jerks, so let's root for the nice guys," because nobody usually knows any of these people. For this World Cup, people from Princeton have a more direct connection, but that it really, really rare.

And so, who could ever shrug their shoulders at a great opportunity to chant "USA, USA," whether it's in a sports bar or at a soccer camp at Northwestern University.

C'mon, how cute was that?

TigerBlog was directed to the video by Northwestern's John Mack, a Princeton alum and former Roper Trophy winner who is coming to grips with the fact that current Princeton athletes were little kids when he competed.

Had it just been a story about how the campers watched the game, it would have had about 1% of the impact that it has with the video.

And when TB watched the video for the first time, he was taken back a year - and he was amazed that it's only been a year since the big topic around here was the decision to go from doing printed media guides to a focus more on video.

Now, a year and about 500 videos later, the only shocking thing to TB is that Princeton did media guides for as along as it did. And that people still want to do them.

In the last athletic year, the switch from media guides - or abandonment of media guides, as Bradley Director of Athletics Michael Cross would say - in favor of video could not have gone smoother.

Here at HQ, we have a record book for the updated records, results, letterwinners, etc., for every sport. There is a printed-out version that sits on a shelf behind TB's desk, as well as online versions for all sports.

The other day, when TB was going through trying to find out how many years in a row Princeton has actually had a team or individual national champ, he used the record books. The online ones, not the printed one. It never even dawned on his to use the printed one.

That's the world of today. Everything's online, and the more video the better.

Especially the ones where little kids in Chicago chant "USA, USA."