First Pitches

How about some baseball and softball questions to get you started today?

After all, it's a big day for Princeton in both sports.

Trivia question No. 1: Who is the only Major League catcher to catch two perfect games (hint, they were thrown by Len Barker and Dennis Martinez)? 

Trivia question No. 2: Who was the catcher who was behind the plate when Kirk Gibson hit his legendary home run off of Dennis Eckersley (hint, it's the same guy)?

Trivia question No. 3: What seven Division I softball teams have made the NCAA tournament each year this century? 

The answer to No. 1 and No. 2 is Ron Hassey. It's amazing that someone who had a relatively nondescript career could so randomly be part of three such historic moments.

As TigerBlog wrote yesterday, the Ivy League baseball tournament begins today at Columbia. Game 1 features the second-seed Princeton against No. 3 Cornell at 11, followed by top-seed Columbia and No.  4 Penn. It's a double-elimination tournament that could run through Monday, and TB's prediction is that the team that emerges with the Ivy League's automatic NCAA tournament bid will be one of the two teams who win today.

The answer to No. 3? That would be:

Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida State, Oklahoma, UCLA, Washington and ... Louisiana. That's not LSU. That's the University of Louisiana, the one in Lafayette.

The Ragin' Cajuns are back in the tournament this year. In fact, they are hosting a regional, one that begins this afternoon when they play the Ivy League representative — your Princeton Tigers. First pitch has been moved up to 1 Eastern time due to the threat of rain (something that TB experienced a lot of back in 2016 when he was there with the baseball team).

The second game in the regional features Ole Miss and Baylor, and then the double-elimination event will take shape from there. 

The challenge of playing Louisiana is a big one. The home team has won at least 40 games in each of the last 25 seasons, including this year's 42-17 record that includes the Sun Belt championship. 

The tournament will be held at Yvette Girouard Field at Lamson Park. If you're wondering, Yvette Girouard was the coach who built the program into a national powerhouse, and the Lamsons are longtime supporters.

Girouard was the first softball coach in school history, starting the team in 1981 and coaching for 20 seasons. When she was done, she had a record of 758-251, with three trips to the Women's College World Series mixed in. One of those was in 1996, when her team defeated Princeton 7-0 in the second game. 

From the website, the stadium is "often called the most beautiful and nostalgic field in the country by opposing teams who play on it." 

Ole Miss is in the NCAA tournament for the seventh straight time. Baylor is in for the 11th time in 13 years. The two played in the same regional last year as well, that time in Salt Lake City, where the Rebels went 2-0 against the Bears but lost twice to the host Utah.

As TB tried to learn a bit more about the teams, three things stood out.

First, there was this quote by Baylor coach Glenn Moore: 

"Take my wife home to her home state and get to back to where there's great food and play some softball," Moore said. "What else could you ask for."

If you read earlier in the week, TigerBlog can 100 percent vouch for the fact that there is no shortage of good food in Lafayette.

The second item came as he checked out each team's rosters. They are dominated by players from either Texas or California, with the rest of the South and Southwest represented. 

And yet there is one player on Ole Miss who sort of jumps out. That would be Lexie Brady, the starting catcher who hit a team-best 13 home runs this season. 

Where is she from? Sioux City, South Dakota. How did she end up in Oxford, Mississippi?

Lastly, there is one of Baylor's assistant coaches, Steve Johnigan. The website lists his nickname as well: "Hoot." 

What it doesn't say is why he's called "Hoot." TB emailed him to find out why, and here's what he said:

Not a great story but here you go. When we were kids, we used to watch the TV show Green Acres! In the show, there is a town that the train goes through called “Hooterville.” My brother called me “Hooterbill” when we were young just to make fun of me. I used to call him names in rebuttal but my names didn’t stick. His name for me stuck and shorten to Hooter or Hoot. He stayed with it to this day.  Everyone calls me Hoot except my mother!  It was so prevalent that many people don’t know my real first name and I find that out when they try to introduce me to other people and kind of hesitate at which time I jump in and bail them out. I was dating my wife for two years before her dad knew what my first name was. He never blushed, but when he was caught in the moment, it was the only time I ever saw him blush. Hoot has expanded to “Hootie” as that is what my grandpa name is today. I became a grandpa last year and that is what I will be called! Even some of the girls will call me “Hootie” at times so even they have fun with it! The things we do so these ladies will relax and have some fun!!

And there you have it.