What Kind Of Car Was It? A Blue One.

TigerBlog was at a stoplight the other day when a blue sedan pulled up next to him.

It looked like any other sedan - until TigerBlog noticed the word "Maserati" across the back of it. Yeah, it was a Maserati, an elite Italian car.
TigerBlog went to Maserati's website. Judging by what he saw of the car, he thinks it lists for $76,000. And that's the low-end model. There are others that approach $90,000.

Here's TigerBlog's question - how many people can tell a Maserati by sight without seeing any identifiable markings? How many people know what any given car looks like and what makes one car different from another?

Could TB take, say, a Toyota and put the "Maserati" lettering across the back and pass it off as a $76,000 automobile? How many people would say "no, that's a Toyota?"

TB assumes that the value of the car is in the way it rides? But how great can the ride be to be worth that much? Does it come with a driver? A valet? No. You still have to drive it yourself.

Perhaps you're just paying for the name?

Maybe TB would feel differently if he drove one, but he'd be way too nervous about scratching it - or worse.

TB owns two cars. For eight months of the year, he can use either one. The rest of the year he drives one and TigerBlog Jr. drives the other. Miss TigerBlog will be able to get her permit in a few weeks, so she's going to want the other car when she gets her license. TBJ wants to take the car back to school with him, while MTB will want to be able to drive herself to school, so that battle is coming soon to TB's world.

The car that TBJ drives is a Honda CR-V. It is closing in on 198,000 miles. TigerBlog's car is a Nissan Rogue. It is closing in on 75,000 miles.

About the only complaint TB has about his car is that the seats come up close to but not exactly touching the console, so things like pens, cookies and phones can fall into the opening. And then it's a nightmare to try to get them back. 

Before the CR-V, TigerBlog had a Toyota Sienna minivan, which had 155,000 miles when he traded it in on the CR-V. It was TB's understanding that his old minivan was sent to the Caribbean to be a taxi - that's not a bad retirement.

And in fairness, TB bought all of these cars before his former and now current boss became the Ford Family Director of Athletics. And he did own two Ford's before that, both of which were Tauruses, which, now that he thinks about it, is what the Maserati looked like.

When TB went to goprincetontigers.com yesterday, he saw that, here in the middle of July, two of the top stories were about men's basketball.

One is about T.J. Bray.

As a longtime basketball player in Europe, T.J. Bray must have been given a car at some point. Even though Bray is a veteran of the Italian leagues, TB doubts it was a Maserati.

Bray recently moved from the Italian second league to the top league in Germany. Bray, who graduated in 2014, spent two seasons in Italy.

If you look at the assist leaders in Princeton men's basketball history, you'll notice Billy Ryan is first, Kit Mueller is second and T.J. Bray is third. Bray also had 1,024 points and was a total fan favorite at Jadwin Gym.

The complete story about Bray's move to Germany is HERE.

Another fan favorite at Jadwin is current Tiger Devin Cannady, who also was on the front page of the website yesterday.

Cannady, if you've been following, has been spending his summer in Tanzania, studying Swahili and immersing himself in local culture. He has been reporting on his trip on the Princeton website, and you can read about it HERE (Part I), HERE (Part II) and HERE (Part III).

Cannady is an exciting player who had a great freshman year. He's tough when toughness is needed most, and he's the kind of player you can't help but notice while the game is going on. He's one of those players where anytime he touches the ball he's capable of doing something extraordinary.

If you read his posts, you'll see he's capable of doing extraordinary things off of the court as well. And of incredible personal depth.

It's hard to imagine too many people are getting more out of their summer than Cannady.

Make sure you read his entries. They're well worth it.