Wednesday, December 28, 2016

The Year In Athletic Alums

So at one point yesterday, there was a "Gilmore Girls" marathon on one channel, a "Breaking Bad" marathon on another channel and an episode of "Hill Street Blues" on a third channel.

That's three of TigerBlog's six favorite shows of all time.

He supposes that he could have also added "The Sopranos" and "Homeland" on demand and "The Odd Couple" on YouTube. Either way, it was hard enough to pick from the first three.

The Princeton women's basketball team played Rutgers the Friday after Thanksgiving at 2 in the afternoon. By then, TigerBlog had watched all six hours of "Gilmore Girls, A Year In The Life," which was released on the East Coast 11 hours before tip-off of the basketball game.

TigerBlog gives the sequel very high marks, with one caveat. There was definitely one part that he didn't like at all, and if you saw it, you know which part it was.

As for the rest, it was really, really good. And TB never, ever saw the ending coming, much like he never saw the ending of "The Sting" coming.

And yes, he probably thinks there will be a sequel to the sequel.

Elsewhere in recent TV-watching, TigerBlog watched "The Crown," also on Netflix. It tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II as a young woman, beginning with her marriage and then continuing through the early days of her reign as Queen.

The show was tremendous. There were two things that really stood out.

The first was during her coronation, which her uncle, Edward VIII, watched on TV from France. Edward VIII abdicated the throne to marry a divorced American. As Elizabeth is becoming Queen, Edward is being questioned by his friends about why this is such a big deal, and how he explains it is perfect - he refers to his niece as a simple girl with no real curiosity and nothing that makes her special, but put the crown on her head, and "she becomes a goddess."

The second is that John Lithgow gives what might be the best acting performance TigerBlog has ever seen anywhere with his portrayal of Winston Churchill. He's worth the whole show by himself.

Meanwhile, back at the week between Christmas and the New Year, TigerBlog continues his recapping of the year in Princeton Athletics.

Beginning tomorrow, he'll have his countdown of the top stories of 2016. As he made his list, he considered including one entry of the accomplishments of former Princeton athletes.

Instead, he'll run some of them down today, leaving the next two days to just current Tigers.

It was a really good year for Princeton alums in the athletic world. Before TB gets to the list, he can start with what he thinks is the best picture of 2016 of a former Tiger, in keeping with the theme of counting down the best pictures of the year on Instagram and Twitter.

And here it is:

That's Gevvie Stone, after she won a silver medal in single sculls at the Rio Olympics. Think she was happy about it?

Stone's story is a great one. She wrote it herself, actually, before the Olympics began, and you can read it again HERE. It's definitely worth it.

The Olympics were big for Princeton, with 13 athletes who competed and three who won medals, including Stone and Diana Matheson, who won another bronze medal with the Canadian women's soccer team.

Maybe the best non-Olympic performance by a Princeton alum happened on New Year's Day, when Mike Condon made 27 saves in a 5-1 win for the Montreal Canadiens over the Boston Bruins in the Winter Classic at Gillette Stadium. Condon grew up not far from there, as a Bruins' fan.

Condon had a meteoric rise up the professional hockey ranks, all the way to NHL starter last season for the Canadiens. This year he's on the Ottawa Senators, where he has continued to establish himself as a goalie with a future, not to mention a present, as he ranks 11th in the league in goals-against average.

Princeton had a big year in Major League Baseball, with an astonishing six alums who made it to the majors: Danny Barnes, Chris Young, Matt Bowman, David Hale, Ross Ohlendorf and Will Venable. That's an incredible number of Major Leaguers for any school.

Seth DeValve became Princeton's highest NFL draft choice in the modern era when he went to the Cleveland Browns in the fourth round. He scored his first NFL touchdown in a Thursday night game against the Dolphins.

Of course, DeValve isn't the only Princeton alum who scored an NFL touchdown this season. Caraun Reid, now on the San Diego Chargers, scored his second career TD, which isn't too bad for a defensive lineman. Unfortunately, Reid's season ended early due to injury.

Tom Schreiber, one of several Princeton alums in Major League Lacrosse, was named the Most Valuable Player of the league after leading MLL in assists with 36 while adding 23 goals. Schreiber helped the Ohio Machine to the MLL championship game.

There are a lot of Princeton alums who are in coaching. TigerBlog will mention two.

Jason Garrett has led the Dallas Cowboys to the No. 1 seed in the National Football Conference. Bob Bradley became the first American ever to be the head coach of a team in the English Premier League when he took over at Swansea.

There were other stories of course for Princeton alums. TigerBlog apologizes to those he's missed.

Starting tomorrow - the top stories at Princeton for 2016.

That is, if TigerBlog can turn off the TV.

1 comment:

George Clark said...

Sadly, it appears Bob Bradley may be the first American coach to be sacked as well. Right on for "The Crown", TB, and I thought Ms. Foy's performance was nuanced as she took her character forward.