103 Straight

The Ryder Cup starts today outside of Chicago. Apparently, it's Craig Sachson's favorite sporting event.

Sachson told TigerBlog this yesterday as they warmed up for squash. He loves the Ryder Cup.

For those who don't know, the Ryder Cup is a golf competition between a team of golfers from the U.S. and a team representing Europe. It is held every two years.

Sachson talked about the pressure on each player, the fact that they're not getting money but instead are representing a team for one of the rare times in the sport, the reaction of the normally mellow golf crowds.

TB prefers the World Cup to the Ryder Cup. And the NCAA men's lacrosse championships and the Super Bowl (in that order, unless the Giants are winning the Super Bowl, as they have two of the last four years). And the Olympics. And probably a few others.

The pregame squash talk turned to another interesting fact about Sachson. In his role as football contact for Princeton Athletic Communications, Sachson will be attending his 103rd consecutive football game tomorrow, when Princeton opens its Ivy season at Columbia.

Armed with this news, TB tried to figure out what his longest consecutive streak of attending Princeton football games was.

TB was the football contact before Sachson, and he spent eight years in that role. Prior to that, he covered the team at the newspaper. Since Sachson's arrival, TB has been on the radio and of late the PA announcer for the games.

And for all that, he thinks his longest streak is 28 straight games. Basketball, it seemed, often got in the way of the Princeton-Dartmouth (and then sometimes Princeton-Yale) football games.

Still, all told, TB still has he edge on Sachson in total number of Princeton football games. If he had to guess, TB would say he's seen between 150 and 170.

His current streak of consecutive games stands at two, as in the two played this year. It'll go back to zero tomorrow, as he won't be making the trip to New York City.

The Princeton team that goes to Columbia does so with an 0-2 record, but the results are still encouraging.

Princeton lost 17-14 at Lehigh in what was its first game and Lehigh's third - and the Mountain Hawks have one of the top programs in Division I-AA. Princeton then fell at home last week to Georgetown 21-20 on a field goal with 14 seconds to play.

So are all 0-2 starts created equal?

Last year Princeton was outscored 68-31 in its first two games (Lehigh/Bucknell) and then defeated Columbia 24-21 to open the Ivy season.

The Lions are 1-1 on the year, with a win over Marist and a loss to Fordham. Like the Tigers, Columbia very much wants to be 1-0 in the league come tomorrow night.

The interesting thing about the early season for TB is that there's no way to guess what will happen next. TB has the sense the Tigers are much-improved, but as he has been saying, it's important that wins follow that.

Besides, after the Columbia game, there is one at a much-improved Lafayette and then the sprint of six Ivy games in six weeks.

Whatever happens, it's going to happen quickly.

When Sachson gets to 110 straight, what will Princeton's record be for the year?

It's possible that tomorrow's game will be a huge piece of answering that question.