Study What You Like

TigerBlog wrote about the Mets the other day - and then they went out and got swept.

Jim Barlow, Princeton's men's soccer coach, pointed that out to TigerBlog yesterday morning.

The Mets are an interesting team. They play in the largest market, and they're biggest rival is the Yankees, who have what appears to be unlimited money.

And yet the Mets are basically small-market, crippled, it appears, by the whole Bernie Madoff situation, from which the team's owners lost a ton of money. In fact, the Mets - the New York Mets - have the 21st-highest payroll in baseball.

That's just ahead of the San Diego Padres. Just behind the Minnesota Twins, Milwaukee Brewers and Colorado Rockies. For that matter, the Mets' payroll is $12 million less than the Royals.

In other words, the Mets are basically a small-market team, or at least what you think of in terms of how a small-market team operates. The team is strapped for money and can't simply go out and write blank checks to get whoever is needed for the stretch drive.

On the other hand, small market teams are easy to root for, right? They're the gritty underdogs, or at least as much as a team from New York City can be.

Anyway, when TB got the email from Barlow about how the Mets had been swept, his response was that the Nationals were swept also, so the Mets ended the weekend still 4.5 games up.

The whole conversation reminded TB of what John Thompson used to say when he was Princeton's men's basketball coach. The goal, he'd say, was to finish each weekend in first place.

And that's what the Mets have done.

TigerBlog remembered what Thompson said because he heard him say it a million times. What he meant was for everyone to calm down if the team had lost a game during the previous weekend, because it's not the end of the world. Just be in first place every Monday and you'll be fine.

Of course, if you lose too many games, you won't be in first place one of these Mondays. But mostly what Thompson was saying was that he couldn't go back and change what happened last week, so just focus on the next week, the next game, the next possession even. He said that all the time too.

When you hear someone say something you like over and over, it sticks with you. It resonates. You file it away and use it when it applies, which is when you'll need it most.

Bill Tierney, for instance, would always say "when things are going poorly, stop and ask yourself what you do best and do that." There's a lot to that, and TigerBlog has referred back to that many times.

And then there was this one: "Study what you like." TigerBlog heard Clayton Marsh say that a bunch of times in Freshman Student Athlete Orientation.

Clayton Marsh has been Princeton's Deputy Dean of the College since 2011. Prior to that, he was a member of the Office of the General Counsel.

In addition to his current position, Marsh also serves as the Faculty Athletic Representative, a position that is basically what you think it would be. Clayton's role has been to be a liaison between the Department of Athletics - and especially the athletes - and the members of the faculty.

As such, few people impact the experience Princeton's athletes have as much as the Faculty Athletic Rep, which for the last few years has meant Clayton Marsh.

Clayton is a 1985 Princeton grad who was an English major. He got a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Columbia and then graduated from Michigan law school.

His days at Princeton will be winding down, though, as he is leaving his positions here to move to Arkansas and start a new independent school. The University's official story is HERE.

TigerBlog has always liked Clayton Marsh. He doesn't know him that well, but he's worked with him enough to know that he's everything Princeton's athletes have needed in an advocate. He's passionate, smart, personable, approachable and friendly.

Oh, and "Study What You Like?"
That was always Clayton's advice to the incoming freshmen. Find what you have a passion for and study that. You'll be more successful that way.

What he was saying was that you shouldn't study something that you think is going to make you more marketable when you graduate if you have no interest in it, because you'll be shortchanging your undergraduate education here, of which you only get one.

The late, great Marvin Bressler, someone else who said a lot of things that resonated with TigerBlog, used to say that the Faculty Fellows program, for which he was the original, was good because it gave the athletes an "adult" to talk to. Clayton has been an extension of that.
Sometimes the athletes need an adult they can talk to. Other times, they don't need an adult to talk to, because they have an adult talking FOR them and they don't even realize it.

Clayton Marsh has reached so many Princeton athletes in that way. They probably haven't even realized it.

Good luck to him in Arkansas. He's definitely left a mark in Central New Jersey.