Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Why So Glum, Tommy Lee Jones?

TigerBlog figures that the picture of Tommy Lee Jones from the Golden Globes must have been taken right after he checked the Princeton-Harvard men's and women's squash scores Sunday.

Why else could the former Harvard football player have looked so glum?

Oh, could it have been a moment of self-introspection, where he looked around the room at the phoniness, narcissism and lack of genuine talent and wondered what it said about him. Or maybe, as everyone says, he looked up at the stage, saw people trying way too hard and said "what's funny about this?"

TigerBlog is glad that "Homeland" and "Les Miserables" both won big at the Golden Globes. He watched almost none of the show, probably because he couldn't handle the self-absorption that was everywhere.

As an aside, you pronounce the "bluh" at the end of "Les Miserables."

Anyway, as TB has said many times before, singing requires talent. Dancing requires talent. Playing an instrument requires talent. Playing sports obviously requires talent.

Acting - in movies or on TV at least - is less about talent than it is about having the right looks and getting the right break.

There are not 50,000 other people out there who can play basketball like LeBron James but who never got a break. There are not 50,000 other people out there who can sing like Sinatra could but never got a break. There aren't 50,000 people out there who can play the trumpet like Dizzy Gillespie could but just aren't hot enough.

As for the parade of movie stars from the other night, please feel free to show TigerBlog the one on the list who is really ugly. What? Oh, that disqualifies you?

Okay, TB gets it. Just don't tell him that Sofia Vergara is talented. 

Instead of watching much of the show, TB watched some more "Two And A Half Men" reruns. He's seeing the show completely out of order, which makes it somewhat difficult to figure out what's happening chronologically, though Jake's age makes it somewhat easier to figure out. The plots involving Rose jump around so much, though, that it's really hard to remember what just happened and what hasn't happened yet.

He also watched a little of the squash on the videostream Sunday, which doesn't make him all that unique.

In fact, the squash matches were the most-watched events on goprincetontigers.tv this weekend, ahead of men's hockey, women's basketball and anything else.

If you were rooting for Princeton, then it was great television.

Princeton defeated Harvard 5-4 in both the men's and women's matches. The Princeton men are the No. 1-ranked team in the country, while the Harvard women were No. 1.

The squash teams play for two big goals, the Ivy League title and the national title. The two wins Sunday were huge steps towards the first, though both teams have some big hurdles left.

The women's road is tougher, as Yale will be the new No. 1, while Penn can also beat anyone. As for the men, Yale is also the toughest remaining challenge, while Cornell is strong.

Still, beating Harvard is big, because Harvard could come back and beat Yale and give the Tigers some margin for error. Harvard has none and on top of that needs help to win.

Maybe the biggest point of the day came from Princeton sophomore Samuel Kang, who won the first two games and was up 10-5 in the third game, only to see Harvard's Brandon McLaughlin fight off five match balls and win Games 3 and 4 to even that match at 2-2. Then, when Kang was cramping up, McLaughlin hit a drop shot that Kang dove for and hit a perfect cross-court winner to end the match.

Jadwin Gym has seen more than its share of great squash matches of late, including last year's national men's final in which Princeton ended Trinity's 13-year run as champion.

This past Sunday was another one, as the squash gallery was again packed and the drama played out over many hours.

Again, Princeton came away with the big wins.

It was a nice start to a possible run at championships for both teams.

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