Hanging With Zack

Remember a few weeks ago when TigerBlog told you about his trigger finger? 

If you don't, TB's middle finger on his right hand was constantly getting stuck in a bent position. He went to see a doctor who gave him two steroid injections in hopes of fixing it. When it didn't, TB had two other options.

The first was a third injection. TB's question for the doctor was this: Will it work? The doctor's response was this: No. TB's response to that was: Then why bring it up?

With that, his other choice was to have the doctor numb it and cut into his hand. The doctor called it the "minorest" of procedures. It took 15 minutes from start to finish. Then it hurt like crazy for three days. 

Now TB is finally able to start to bend the fingers on his right hand. This past Saturday, though, he couldn't, and he also had a bulky bandage on his hand. As a result, he could barely type.

TigerBlog learned typing in a class in ninth grade and has been a great typist ever since, if he does say so himself. He realized while working at the newspaper that he had to keep his mind and his typing in sync for stories to flow, and so that's really the only way he can write. 

Without his right hand, though, that wasn't an option. He had to type one-handed, and it was problematic. Also, the bulky bandage kept accidentally hitting the arrow up key, which was a whole different issue.

When it came time to write the football story in the press box Saturday, TB was writing at about one-quarter his normal speed and making a ton of mistakes, including the arrow up fiasco. At first, TB's frustration amused Zack DiGregorio, who was standing next to him for the second half and the overtimes, all five of them.

Eventually, though, Zack's good side took over, and he offered to type while TB dictated. TB hadn't dictated a story since he was back in the newspaper days, calling in stories from payphones on deadlines after high school football games.

There's a difference between writing and dictating, at least for TB. The words have to take an extra step when you dictate, from thought to screen with speech in between. It's a bit odd, really.

Zack himself is no stranger to college athletic communications. He was a student worker at Penn under TB's friends and colleagues Mike Mahoney and Chas Dorman (who is now at Princeton). He helped a bit with keeping stats. It's an athletic communications thing. It's just how you're wired.

Zack began the day on the field, as part of the moment of silence for his father Steve, the former Princeton assistant football coach and New Jersey high school football coach who passed away two weeks ago. Digger, as he was known, was a beloved member of the Princeton football family.

It was at Digger's funeral the previous Monday that Zack had given the most stirring, most emotional, most impressive eulogy TB has ever seen. It was so good that, as TB wrote afterwards, it actually drew applause from the crowded church. TB has never seen that. 

Now it was five days later. In many ways, that's a much tougher time for someone who has just lost a loved one. The funeral is a time to be surrounded by people to whom you are close. The next few days is when the reality of it all, the brutal finality of it all, really sinks in.

That's why it was really good to see Zack at the Princeton-Harvard game.  

As TB has said several times before, he sees a lot of himself in Zack. They share the same sense of humor (dry, sarcastic). They have similar personalities. They like to laugh. They like to make fun of each other. Zack has often told TB that he's shown up for his brother's "Derek's Dreams" fundraising events not to helpful and supportive but instead for "the blog content." He is only kidding of course, but it's typical Zack to say it.

That's how it was in the press box Saturday. They did all of those things. TB told Zack a few stories about his dad, including the time when TB asked Digger when he first starting coaching high schools again after leaving Princeton how his game that day went. "How did it go?" Digger said. "I went in at halftime and told my quarterback he'd have to answer for Santino." That's from "The Godfather" if you don't know.

Zack laughed at that. The two told funny stories back and forth, and there was a lot of laughing Saturday afternoon. It was good for both of them.

TigerBlog can relate to what Zack is going through. He wasn't much older than Zack is now when his own mother passed away, also from cancer, also after a tough fight, also at a very young age. A few days after Digger's passing, TB texted Zack to tell him that, how he could empathize and understand, because he'd been through it too. Because he has, he was able to assure Zack that, just like his own mother has been with TB, Digger will always be there with him for the rest of his own life.

At one point in the game, as Princeton was faced with a fourth down play in the fourth quarter, Zack mentioned that the game hadn't seen a lot of Jacob Birmelin of late. On that play, Birmelin caught a short pass and turned it upfield, ending up in the end zone. As it turned out, replay showed he'd stepped on the line, nullifying the TD. That's when TB told Zack that the turn of events cost him a chance to lead off Monday's blog.

But not Wednesday's, as it turned out. 

And why? Because this is one case of many, one where Princeton Athletics serves to bring people closer together not only around games and parties but also when they need each other the most.