Tuesday, May 3, 2016

2001, A Blog Odyssey

If yesterday was Blog 2K, then does that make today "2001, A Blog Odyssey?"

And that's enough about that. Time to get started on the next 1,000.

Actually, before he does, TigerBlog would like to say that the whole thing about 2,000 entries made him think of John Nolan, a Syracuse grad who briefly did some broadcasting for Princeton and is now the radio voice of the Fort Wayne TinCaps, the single-A team of the San Diego Padres. John and TigerBlog had several conversations about the national obsession with round numbers.

And with that, it's time for 2,001.

TigerBlog wants to start with the ACC men's lacrosse championship game, a topic he briefly mentioned yesterday.

In case you missed it, Syracuse and Duke were playing outside of Atlanta Sunday in a pretty good game, being broadcast on ESPNU. With seven minutes to go and Syracuse ahead 9-8, though, the game had to be halted because of a thunderstorm.

Actually, it turned out to be something somewhat biblical. It included a lightning strike on the scoreboard at Fifth Third Bank Stadium and enough rain to completely flood the grass field.

By the way, Fifth Third Bank came about when the Third National Bank and Fifth National Bank merged in the early 1900s.

Anyway, with the grass field underwater, the game, after three hours, was moved to an adjacent turf field. There was no TV, no videostream - only a Periscope production from the iPhone of Duke athletic communications contact Meredith Rieder, with some commentary from ESPN's Paul Carcaterra. Considering the elements, it was quick thinking and strong execution, to at least get the end of the game out to the public in some format.

After that long delay, Syracuse scored five more goals, and won 14-8, by the way.

The whole situation made TigerBlog wonder what would have happened had this been a major college football championship game. What if there was an outdoor stadium and a game that became unplayable due to weather with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter? Then what?

Clearly television would be a major factor. TB doubts that having the end of, say, Florida State-Clemson (are they in the same league now?) sent out to the world via Periscope would be acceptable.

And would you move the end of a football game like that to an adjacent practice field? Push it back a day? Call it at some point?

It certainly would be interesting to see how it played out.

Anyway, that was the Duke-Syracuse game.

The random weather that seems to stretch from, say, October to June around here these days has been at it again. There's nothing quite like getting into the car in early May and turning on the heat, right?

In the last week, the temperature has been above 80 and below 40. That's a pretty neat trick. And it's been a tad rainy as well.

As a result, the baseball and softball schedules were adjusted for Princeton last weekend, and it worked out perfectly for both teams.

Princeton won the division title in both sports this weekend, as the baseball team won three of four against Cornell and the softball team swept four from Cornell. And with that, they look ahead to the Ivy League championship series in both.

Where and when? That's another story.

Princeton will definitely host either Dartmouth or Yale in the baseball championship series. That might be this weekend or next weekend, depending on what happens today, when Dartmouth plays Harvard twice.

Yale has finished its league season at 11-9. Dartmouth is 10-8, meaning that a Big Green sweep today gives Dartmouth the championship, a Harvard sweep gives Yale the championship and a split leaves Dartmouth and Yale tied.

If there is a sweep one way or another, then the ILCS will be at Princeton this weekend. If there is a split, then there would be a Rolfe Division playoff this weekend and the ILCS at Princeton next weekend.

As for the softball team, the Tigers will definitely be on the road this weekend in the ILCS. Whether it will be at Harvard or Dartmouth depends on today's doubleheader in Cambridge between those two.

Unlike baseball, there can be no tie. If Harvard wins one game, then the Crimson will win the division and host the ILCS. If Dartmouth sweeps, then Dartmouth will.

It's been a remarkable turnaround in one year.

The softball team finished 2.5 games out of the division title, in second place a year ago, at 10-9. Princeton is now 14-6 in the Ivy League.

The baseball turnaround is even more amazing. Princeton finished 12 games out of first in the division a year ago, when the Tigers were 4-16 in the Ivy League and 7-32 overall.

This year, Princeton went 13-7 in the league, an improvement of nine games. And overall? Princeton is 22-18, which means the Tigers have won more than three times as many games as a year ago.

TigerBlog doesn't really care which baseball team Princeton hosts in the ILCS, but he'd like to see it be this weekend. Keep the momentum going and all.

And that's it for today. One more entry done, on the way to TigerBlog's official goal - 5,000.

Let's see. That's 2,999 to go. 

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