Complete Games

Where to start today? 

How about with this: There have been four complete games in the Major Leagues so far in the 2024 season.

There were 38 complete games all of last season, when there were also 11 teams that had ZERO complete games. How is that possible? Analytics. And a change of mindset.

If you're in TigerBlog's age range, you remember when a complete game was almost the norm. A year ago, the Major League lead in complete games was three (Sandy Alcantara, Jordan Lyles). Back in 1975 — a year TB has picked at random — the Major League leader was Catfish Hunter, who threw 30 complete games. There were 39 pitchers who had at least 10 complete games that season.

Want to know how many there were in the 1975 season as a whole? Go ahead. Guess.

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While the subject is baseball, the Princeton baseball team has seven regular season games to play, all on the road, all after yesterday's home finale against Wagner. There is a midweek game next week at Rutgers, and that is sandwiched around a trip to Dartmouth this weekend for three and then a trip to Columbia next weekend for three more.

To keep playing beyond that, Princeton needs to be in the top four of the Ivy standings, which would mean a return to the league tournament. Right now Princeton is 8-7 and in third place, trailing 12-3 Columbia and 10-5 Cornell.

Behind the Tigers sit Yale, Penn and Harvard, all one game back at 7-8. Princeton has the tiebreaker over Penn of the group tied for fourth, achieving that with a 3-2 win in the series opener and then a 3-1 win in the third game last weekend. 

Who was the winning pitcher in those two games? In Game 1 it was Jacob Faulkner. In Game 3, it was Jacob Faulkner. The junior from Venice, Fla., has carried the Tigers this season, and he upped his record to 6-1, with a 3.11 ERA and 37 strikeouts with nine walks in 46 innings.

Are those good numbers?

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In other sports played on diamonds, the Princeton softball team finds itself in first place in the Ivy League at 11-4, ahead of 12-6 Harvard and Yale. While the baseball team is away the next two weekends, the softball team is home for three this weekend against Brown (Saturday at 12:30/2:30 and Sunday at 2:30) and then finish the regular season with three at home against Cornell next weekend.

The Tigers have not yet clinched a spot in the Ivy League tournament, with a three-game lead over 8-7 Dartmouth and Columbia, who are tied for fourth. 

Princeton had a huge sweep of Yale last weekend. Unlike baseball, the Ivy softball race has two teams who have played 18 of their 21 games, while the rest have played 15.

Princeton split its first eight Ivy games. Since then, the Tigers have won seven straight.

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The answer is that in 1975, there were 1,052 complete games. There were also 3,866 games in all that year, which means that one of every 3.67 games was a complete game.

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The Penn Relays return to Franklin Field this weekend for the 128th edition of what Penn's website refers to as "the world's oldest and largest annual track & field carnival."

TigerBlog has been to the Penn Relays, and it is indeed a carnival. If you're going to watch track and field at the Olympics this summer, its worth your time to head to Penn for this weekend's show. 

The event starts today, and you can find all information HERE.

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The College Water Polo Association has its tournament this weekend at Harvard. The winner of the six-team field will get an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. 

Princeton is the top seed after running through the league regular-season unbeaten. The second seed is Michigan, and those two have first-round byes. 

The quarterfinals tomorrow will have third-seeded Harvard take on sixth-seeded St. Francis, and fourth-seeded Brown will play fifth-seeded Bucknell. Princeton's semifinal game will be Saturday at noon, and the final will be Sunday at noon.

Princeton is 21-6 overall, with 13 wins against ranked teams. The Tigers have the CWPA Player of the Year in goalie Lindsey Lucas, and Derek Ellingson was named the league's Coach of the Year for the third time.

Lucas is Princeton's third CWPA Player of the Year, following Ashleigh Johnson and Jovana Sekulic, both of whom are in the running for spots on the U.S. Olympic team for this summer.

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The complete schedule for this weekend's events can be found HERE.