Who's the Best

The Major League Baseball playoffs began yesterday with the Wild Card round. 

TigerBlog went back and looked at an ESPN.com story from March 28 that ranked all 30 Major League teams in order to start the season. To show you how difficult it can be to predict such things, the top six teams were, in this order: Houston, San Diego, Atlanta, the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Mets. 

How'd those picks work out? It's like the first six picks in the NFL draft. Three hits. Three misses.

The Orioles were picked 17th. Again, how'd that go? By the way, the Orioles in three seasons have gone from 52 to 83 to 101 wins. 

Texas was one spot ahead of the Orioles, at No. 16. Arizona was No. 21. Toronto was No. 8.

All three of those teams made it to the postseason. All three of those teams are led by Princeton grads: Chris Young (Texas), Mike Hazen (Arizona), Mark Shapiro (Toronto).

That's pretty good. There 12 Major League playoff teams, and one-quarter of them are run by Princeton alums — Princeton alums who played three different sports as Tigers between baseball, basketball and football.

Young, as you know, was a great basketball and baseball player at Princeton, and he went on to a long career as a pitcher in the Majors, during which he won a World Series and Comeback Player of the Year Award and pitched in an All-Star Game.

It's been 10 days since Tom Schreiber scored the game-winning goal in the Premier Lacrosse League championship game as his Archers team (coached by former Tiger head coach Chris Bates, with assistant coach and former Tiger goalie Brian Kavanagh and former Tiger Ryan Ambler) defeated the Waterdogs (with former Tigers Zach Currier and Michael Sowers). 

Schreiber's goal came with just over a minute left, as time was expiring on the shot clock, and was a spectacular individual move. His lacrosse resume now includes two World Championships (including the game-winning goal with one second left in the final), professional championships in both Major League Lacrosse and the PLL, MVP Awards in both of those leagues and a Rookie of the Year award in the National Lacrosse League (box league).

And that leads to today's question, which is this: Who are the most accomplished Princeton athletes outside of what they did as Tigers?

Usually, when the subject is about who the greatest Princeton athletes of all time are, the caveat is that it can only include what they did as undergrads while they were representing the Tigers. This question is the opposite of that. 

For instance, Scott Bacigalupo is one of the greatest collegiate lacrosse players of all time who didn't have the chance to do much post-Princeton. Matt Striebel was a really, really good player at Princeton who went on to become one of the greatest professional and international lacrosse players ever (as well as one of the great pickup basketball players ever). His spot in the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame was earned through what he did post-Princeton, so he would be higher on this list than Bacigalupo.

By the way, the subject here is sports, not anything else they accomplished. And TigerBlog is only talking about athletes here.

Understanding the criteria, who gets your vote? 

The three obvious choices are Ashleigh Johnson from water polo, Caroline Lind from rowing and of course Bill Bradley in basketball. All three are Olympic gold medalists; Lind and Johnson have two golds and have been the best in the world at what they do at various points of their careers.

Bradley, in addition to his international career, was a cornerstone of two NBA titles with the New York Knicks. Since his era, the Knicks have won zero additional titles, though it's only been 50 years.

Not shockingly, those three are also on the very short list for the greatest athletes at Princeton as well. So where does that leave the discussion? 

For starters, there's a matter of opportunity. 

Recent men's lacrosse players, for instance, have had the chance to win championships in the professional leagues and at the World Championships  — and several have. Then there is the other end of the spectrum, the athletes who compete in sports where having that kind of international and professional success doesn't present itself as readily.

TigerBlog started to make a list, a top 10 of sorts, but it's way too difficult, and subjective. That alone is a testament to just how accomplished Princeton athletes are post-Princeton. 

He came up with names in football, hockey, soccer, basketball, lacrosse, rowing, track and field, squash, field hockey, water polo, and swimming and diving — and that was just off the top of his head. 

Want a few names? Young, obviously. Schreiber is certainly moving up the list. Anne Marden. Donn Cabral is already up there. Jeff Halpern. Julia Ratcliffe. Lizzie Bird. Brian Taylor. Armond Hill. Geoff Petrie. Andreanne Morin. Lauren Wilkinson. Lynn Jennings. Moe Berg. Charlie Gogolak.

If you don't know who some of them are, they all did amazing things either as professional or international athletes.

Your list can go in any direction you'd like. It's certainly an interesting debate to have if you'd like.

In the meantime, the playoffs are underway. It would be great to see the three Princetonians all get out of the first round.