The Resurgence Of Chris Young

So the Giants are 3-0 in the preseason. Yay.

This record shows how meaningless the preseason is. The Giants haven't exactly lit it up with their first team players and instead of have relied on exciting - if not quite significant - comebacks to win all three times. Undrafted free agent wide receiver Corey Washington, from Newberry College, has caught the game-winning TD pass in all three games.

Of course, Washington isn't listed as a starter. In fact, he's hardly a lock to actually make the team, as he is listed as a fourth-string receiver, which explains why he's in the game at the end to catch the game-winning passes.

TigerBlog watched the end of the Giants-Colts game the other night. It was 26-0 Indianapolis when TB put the game on; the Giants won 27-26. Had this been a regular-season game, it would have been an epic comeback, an all-time comeback.

Instead, it was a bunch of guys trying to make the team.

Eli Manning - TigerBlog's favorite current pro athlete who did not go to Princeton and a two-time Super Bowl MVP - went 1 for 7 for six yards. Ryan Nassib, who has no chance of starting over Manning, went 11 for 15 for 158 yards and the game-winner to Washington.

When the game ended, it dawned on TigerBlog that he had watched more football than baseball since the start of the 2014 baseball season.

Seriously. He'd watched less than one quarter of one preseason football game, and that was more time spent watching football than baseball.

Thinking back to the 2013 baseball postseason, TB hardly watched any of it, and he can't remember watching any of the World Series.

There was a time he'd watch the Atlanta Braves on TBS pretty much every night. Then TBS went away from showing Braves games, and TB got more into lacrosse anyway. Lax? He's watched lots of it on TV.

Had you told TigerBlog 25 years ago that he would watch way more lacrosse and soccer on TV than baseball in a summer, he wouldn't have believed it.

TigerBlog hadn't even checked the Major League standings all season until last week. And what did he find?

The Kansas City Royals are in first place? How did that happen? And the Orioles are 7.5 games in front in the AL East? Again, who knew?

TigerBlog doesn't really have a favorite baseball team. He prefers rooting against the Yankees. He figured the Yankees were right in the thick of it, but it's not looking good for them in Derek Jeter's last season, as they are unlikely to catch the O's and are in fourth place in the wildcard race, three games back of three teams - the A's, the Tigers and the very surprising Mariners.

TigerBlog is all on board the Mariners' bandwagon now. For starters, BrotherBlog lives in Seattle, and TB went to a Mariners' game last summer when he was there.

And of course, there is Chris Young. TB clicked on Grantland yesterday and was greeted by a big picture of Chris Young.

Actually, all pictures of Young are basically the same. He has the same exact look on his face, with his lips tightly pressed together and all of his muscles straining on each pitch. He looks like he just jumped out of an airplane or something like that.

Young is having a great season with the Mariners, and this on the heels of a nightmarish stretch that saw him have 2012 wiped out by injury and 2013 spent in the minors.

After shutting out the Tigers for six innings Sunday, Young is 12-6 on the year for the Mariners, who are 67-57, largely because of their great pitching. The story on Grantland details Young's resurgence largely in the context of sabermetrics, which TigerBlog both understands and doesn't really love.

Yes, they are great predictors of success, way more than the traditional stats. Yes, a team would have be dumb not to embrace them.

No, TigerBlog doesn't love what they've done to sports, which will never be as cut-and-dry as a math test, where it's either right or wrong. Much of the beauty of sport is the intangible side, which can't be measured in advanced analytics.

Still, TB admits they do a pretty good job of explaining the success of a 6-10 pitcher who can barely break 85 on the gun. That 6-10 pitcher used to play basketball and baseball at Princeton, and he remains one of TB's all-time favorites to ever wear orange and black.

Actually, TB's belief is that Young is pretty much every Princeton fan's favorite. There haven't been too many athletes who have come through here who seemed to be as well-liked as Young. 

One of the most startling things in the story on Grantland was that Young is 35 years old. How is that possible?

When TB thinks of Chris Young, he'll always think of what might have been had he competed his final two seasons, instead of signing a professional baseball contract. And first, he'll think of the time Young put a very, very small TigerBlog Jr. on his shoulders on the side court at Jadwin so TBJ could dunk.

Young has had a very successful career in Major League Baseball. The Grantland story suggests that he's a leading contender for the AL Comeback Player of the Year Award.

And, of course, he's a major reason why his team is in the thick of the wildcard race.

TB is rooting hard for the Mariners.

If they get to the postseason, TB might actually watch it.

Good Catch

The last thing TigerBlog expected when he heard from Tom McCarthy Friday was that the former Princeton football and men's basketball play-by-play man and current Philadelphia Phillies television voice would end up in SportsCenter's top 10 plays of the day.

When McCarthy checked in Friday, it was to ask for information about David Hale, the Princeton alum who was to pitch Saturday night for the Atlanta Braves against the Phils. And about Princeton's current Major Leaguers, and baseball execs.

This was during the afternoon.

Then, at about 10, TigerBlog got a text from his colleague Yariv Amir, asking if he had seen Tom's catch.

TigerBlog replied that he had not, so Yariv forwarded to him a video clip.

McCarthy was broadcasting from a location in deep centerfield at Citizens Bank Park, something that is done a few times a year, apparently. Freddy Freeman of the Braves launched a towering shot that made its way to where McCarthy was, and as he was calling the home run, he reached out with his glove and caught the ball without ever losing his train of thought.

It was a fairly routine home run call and a relatively easy catch, especially for a former first baseman like Tom McCarthy. To do both at once though? Now that was impressive.

It was so impressive that it reached SportsCenter's top 10 plays. Okay, it was only No. 10. Still, it was something that probably doesn't really happen too often, if ever.

Think of everything that had to happen. They had to be broadcasting from the outfield. A home run had to be hit to their exact location. And he had to catch it.

And why in the world would McCarthy be wearing a baseball glove at that exact moment? TB texted him after the game but forgot to ask him why he had the glove on and if he had worn it the entire game prior to that.

After he caught the ball, McCarthy threw it back onto the field. TB wondered if the security people would take issue with that, which apparently they didn't, though TB doesn't recommend doing so if you happen to be a fan at the game.

McCarthy's career has gone from writing at the Trenton Times to broadcasting Princeton and Rutgers to Minor League baseball to the Mets on the radio and now Phillies on television, along with work on radio and TV for NFL football and NCAA basketball. That's pretty big-time stuff.

Among TigerBlog's best memories of his time at Princeton is the time he spent traveling with McCarthy when he was doing games here. TigerBlog couldn't even begin to estimate the number of hours he and McCarthy spend together driving back and forth throughout the Northeast and to every Ivy League school, as well as flying all over the country for basketball games.

In fact, TB and McCarthy watched Princeton play in five different time zones - the four in the continental U.S. and the one in Hawaii, where TB and McCarthy went on Christmas Day 1998 for the Rainbow Classic, which Princeton would win.

To this day TigerBlog figures he has not spent more time traveling with any other single person than Tom McCarthy. They were great times.

Way back when, McCarthy did an ESPN radio show every afternoon, and on Fridays during Ivy League basketball season he'd do his show either from Jadwin or the away venue. One of TB's favorite pictures ever is of a young TigerBlog Jr. with McCarthy courtside at Jadwin some Friday afternoon while McCarthy did his show.

These days, McCarthy is constantly on airplanes and in hotels. It's the life of the Major League player and broadcaster. It's glamorous, but it's also grueling.

Even when the Phils are home, it's a long day and longer night. And Saturday was a day-night doubleheader.

Hale pitched Game 2 of the doubleheader, going five innings and getting the win as the Braves completed a sweep with a 5-1 victory. Now in his first full season in the Majors, Hale improved to 3-2, with a 3.02 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP.

Hale has quickly developed in a very important member of the Braves' staff. He can start - something he's done five times - and come out of the bullpen - something he's done 19 other times. He has pitched 53.2 innings, with 25 strikeouts. He needs to cut down on his 23 walks, which is what has pushed him WHIP up, but he only walked one in five innings against the Phillies Saturday.

What he's mostly doing is establishing himself as a legitimate Major League pitcher, something that is Step 1 for a 26-year-old pitcher he had 11 innings in the big leagues for his career prior to this season.

As for the Braves, they're in what figures to be just a two-time race in the NL East, along with the Washington Nationals. Having someone like Hale is invaluable during the long summer.

So far, he's been a good catch for Atlanta.

Not as good as the one Tom McCarthy made, but still a good one.

A 2-2 Loss

Had the United States men's soccer team been offered the opportunity to take one point from its game against Portugal yesterday without having to actually play the game, TigerBlog is pretty sure the answer would have been "where do we sign?"

That would especially have been true five minutes into the game, when the U.S. gave up an awful goal to fall into an early hole.

So why did it feel like the Americans lost when the final whistle of its 2-2 tie with Portugal - the fourth-ranked team in the world in the current FIFA rankings - sounded?

It sure did, didn't it? TigerBlog can't remember too many situations like that, where a team came away with the outcome that it really hoped for and yet had it seem to be so crushing at the same time. The famous 29-29 Harvard-Yale tie in 1968 doesn't even fit, because a tie wasn't really what Harvard was hoping for, though it did lead to the immortal headline in the Harvard student paper: "Harvard Beats Yale 29-29."

By now you know what happened in the U.S. Portugal game, which could be called a 2-2 loss.

The U.S. rebounded from that awful goal to basically dominate Portugal. Even when the Americans still trailed 1-0, the sense that the game was turning was obvious.

And then Jermaine Jones curled in one of the best goals TigerBlog has ever seen to tie it at 1-1 in the 64th minute. And then Clint Dempsey chested the ball in to put the U.S. up 2-1 in the 81st minute.

It stayed that way through the 90th minute. Then TB saw five minutes of stoppage time, which is a lot, and thought "oh no."

As it turned out, that was one minute - or 30 seconds - too much. Christiano Ronaldo made a perfect cross to set up Varela, and it was a 2-2 final. In fact, the final whistle was blown just after the U.S. restarted the game.

Had the U.S. won, it would have clinched a spot in the knockout rounds and would have eliminated Portugal. Instead, all four teams in the group are still alive, as the U.S. plays Germany and Portugal plays Ghana Thursday, with both games at noon.

The U.S. is still in great shape to move on, even if it loses to Germany. Should the U.S. win or tie, it would definitely advance. Should the U.S. lose to Germany, then it would still have a huge edge in the tiebreakers.

As for the benefit of winning the group instead of finishing second, well, that's a big one. The first-place team in the U.S. group will play either Algeria, Russia or South Korea in the round of 16 (Sweet 16?). The second-place team in the U.S. group will play Belgium. That's a huge difference.

Still, when the draw was announced, the goal for the U.S. was to simply make it through, something that seemed unlikely with the fourth-ranked Portuguese, the second-ranked Germans and the long-time nemesis Ghana.

And now the Americans figure to get there. Of course, the team was so agonizingly close that it's hard to look at the tie against Portugal as a step in the right direction.

The World Cup is like no other event in the world, and this country is really missing out on what it's all about. There is no national fervor surrounding the World Cup in the U.S. like there is elsewhere.

TB emailed Diego Quesada, one of the men's lacrosse team's guides in Costa Rica in 2012, after "Los Ticos" knocked off Italy to go to 2-0-0 and clinch a spot in the knockout rounds. Diego said it was nuts there after the win.

In the U.S. it would have been nice to win, but there are still way more "what's the fuss about" people than there are "this is the greatest sporting event in the world" people.

TB was more into the U.S. team when Princeton's Bob Bradley was the head coach four years ago. Now he's rooting for the Americans, but he won't be crushed if it doesn't work out for them, as opposed to four years ago, when Ghana knocked the U.S. out. TB really wanted to see Bradley take the U.S. deep into the World Cup playoffs.

There is still a Bradley on the U.S. team - Michael Bradley, Bob's son and a former Princeton ballboy.

Shortly before Michael Bradley was about to play for the U.S. team, his uncle Scott - Princeton baseball coach Scott Bradley - was playing in the Old Timers' game at Yankee Stadium.

Scott ripped a solid single to rightfield and the was interviewed on the YES network, where he was asked primarily about his nephew and the World Cup.

It was pretty cool four years ago to have the Princeton baseball coach be the brother of the U.S. men's national team coach at the World Cup. It's not as cool this year, with only one Bradley on the U.S. team.

Still, the game yesterday was fairly heart-stopping, and it was much of what makes the World Cup great. An early goal always make the game better, as it changes the strategy for both teams. And to have the U.S. team come back the way it did was awesome, and from simply a fan of great sports moments perspective, the ending was also ridiculous.

And it sets up a wild Thursday to decide the group's two representatives in the next rounds.

If you're still ho-humming the World Cup, you're missing out big time.

Going Deep, Times Four

TigerBlog stayed in the Baltimore Hilton this past weekend.

Room 447, to be specific. It was a basic hotel room, with a few minor oddities tossed in.

First, the shower in the room was pretty good, except that when it was turned on, it was immediately scalding. Usually a shower is cold until the hot water kicks in, which takes different amounts of time in different showers. The common denominator is that they all start off cold.

Not the one in Room 447. Nope. This one started out at about a million degrees, even when the shower was turned to cold. Then it cooled off.

There was also the matter of the view.

The shades were closed when TigerBlog entered the room. When he opened them, he saw about the last thing he ever expected to see from a fourth-floor window: a sidewalk that went right up next to it.

It seems like the building next to the hotel has a garden or something on its roof, and this happens to be on the exact same level as the fourth floor of the Hilton. Either that, or it's part of the Hilton.

Anyway, it was a bit freaky for TigerBlog, who wasn't expecting to be able to walk out of his fourth-floor room and be in a courtyard. Of course, his window didn't really open or anything, but it was still an odd view.

Lastly, Room 447 is right next to the elevator, and the fourth floor is the floor that the pool is on. As a result, the hallway between the pool and the elevator featured a constant flow of foot traffic - or wet foot traffic, more accurately.

There was a front door and a side door to the hotel. If you walked out of the side door and made a right turn, you'd be in the alley that goes between the rightfield wall and the famous warehouse at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

TigerBlog didn't need a parking pass for M&T Bank Stadium, which is beyond the baseball stadium, because it was a short walk from the Hilton. He left his car in the hotel lot until Monday's championship game (he's talking men's lacrosse here), when he finally drove over to the M&T.

The Orioles were home Saturday and Sunday afternoon, at the same time as NCAA lacrosse at M&T Bank Stadium. As a result, TigerBlog couldn't walk through the alley on the way to the football stadium, and so he had to walk around the baseball stadium, which made it an eight-minute walk instead of a six-minute one.

TB did walk through the alley Monday morning, since apparently it's left wide open on non-game days. As a result, it made for a pretty good place to go for a walk on a really nice morning in Baltimore.

The entry point to the alley features a small monument park, with big concrete numbers of the retired numbers for the Orioles. TB has always liked the Orioles, because they can be a thorn in the Yankees side, and he was proud of his ability to match the concrete number with the corresponding all-time great for the franchise. The only one he struggled a little bit with was 33, until he realized that it was Eddie Murray obviously.

Somewhere in the middle of his big lacrosse weekend, TigerBlog read a tweet that mentioned that Mike Ford, the 2013 Ivy League Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year in baseball, had hit four home runs in a Minor League game.

And it turned out to be true.

TigerBlog isn't sure how in the case of a player like Ford he decides his future is as a hitter rather than a pitcher or the other way around. He assumes that this comes up a lot, since the best athletes in baseball tend to be great pitchers and hitters.

In Ford's case, the four home run day suggests that he may have made a good decision, so far at least.

Ford left Princeton as an undrafted free agent and signed with the Yankees. He is currently playing for the Charleston RiverDogs, and his four home runs came against the Hickory Crawdads.

Ford is hitting .318 with eight home runs and 25 RBIs in 44 games this year. His line is .318/.416/.522, which sounds pretty good.

It's probably a long way from that game to playing in places like Oriole Park at Camden Yards, but it's hardly undoable. Chris Young, for instance, began his professional career with the Crawdads.

In other Princeton baseball news, Ben Badua arrived yesterday. And who is Ben Badua? He's the newest addition to the Office of Athletic Communications, and he replaces Diana Chamorro, who left to go home to California.

Ben comes to Princeton from Amherst, where he was the head SID for one of the top athletic programs in Division III. He's a Rutgers grad.

With Princeton he'll be covering baseball, women's basketball, field hockey, sprint football and men's and women's water polo. Yesterday was Day 1 for him, hopefully of a very successful stay here.

So welcome Ben. TB is glad you're here.

Buy Me Some Peanuts And Crackerjack

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville Nine that day ...

You recognize that? It's the opening line from a very famous poem/story.

Then there's Katie Casey or Nelly Kelly.

Katie Casey was baseball mad. Nelly Kelly loved baseball games.

Those are the alternating first lines of another famous song, from two different versions. They have different verses but the same choruses.

The Mudville Nine? They lost that day, 4-3. They had a chance in the ninth inning to pull it out, of course. They were down a run with two out and none out before Flynn and Blake hit back-to-back singles, bringing up the big man himself, mighty Casey.

In modern day baseball, Casey would have been on his second or third team by now and be locked into a long-term, $100 million deal. He'd hit a lot of longballs, strikeout a lot, rarely run hard out of the box and be essentially inaccessible to the local fans.

Back in 1888, he was the hometown hero.

Anyway, TB doesn't have to look up what happened next: "Oh somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright. The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light. And somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout. But there is no joy in Mudville. Mighty Casey had struck out."

Or is it has?

As for Katie and Nelly? Well, they were the kind of dates that you always wanted to find, the ones who wanted to be taken to the Polo Grounds, as opposed to the art museum. Not that TigerBlog doesn't enjoy a good impressionist exhibit or anything.

The common chorus for Katie and Nelly?

It starts out: "Take Me Out To The Ballgame." Perhaps you've heard it.

It has to be up there with "Happy Birthday," "My Country Tis Of Thee" and the Star Spangled Banner an as the most universally known songs in American history. And "Born to Run."

TigerBlog loves both slices of Americana.

"Casey at the Bat" was actually a newspaper column from 1888, written by either Earnest Lawrence Thayer or Earnest Thayer Lawrence. TB never gets that straight.

"Take Me Out To The Ballgame" came out 20 years later. Frank Deford, a Princeton alum, wrote a story in 1988 suggesting that Katie Casey was the daughter of Casey from Mudville. TigerBlog didn't know that until he saw it on Wikipedia. He already knew the rest.

He also knows that in the movie "The Naughty Nineties," Dexter Broadhurst (Bud Abbott) sings "Take Me Out The Ballgame" as part of a vaudeville routine, presumably before the song was written. Sebastian Dimwiddle (Lou Costello) interrupts him with questions about the St. Louis lineup, which of course has Who on first, What on second and I Don't Know on third.

TigerBlog would rather watch "Who's On First" or reread "Casey At The Bat" rather than actually watch Major League Baseball right now. It's a little early in the season for it.

Plus, there's so much lacrosse on TV and the web all the time now, who has time for baseball?

It's even too early for TigerBlog to work up a good hate for the Yankees yet. He's on the Phillies bandwagon (it's like rooting for Tom McCarthy), but that train probably isn't going anywhere this year.

If anything, TB will keep early-season tabs on Princeton's four Major Leaguers.

There's Chris Young, making a comeback with the Seattle Mariners. Young pitched two innings in relief, striking out two and not allowing a baserunner in his first appearance.

There's David Hale, who pitched five shutout innings in his first start of the year for the Braves. He got a no-decision, but he's establishing himself as a legitimate Major Leaguer.

There's Will Venable, who is an established Major League with a history of getting off to slow starts and then heating up. He's had 21 at-bats and is hitting just below .200 early on for the Padres, but he will start putting up power and speed numbers relatively quickly.

And there's Ross Ohlendorf, who has yet to pitch this year for Washington Nationals.

Those four are TB's main interest in baseball right now.

And the current Tigers, who host Monmouth today and then play 10 league games in eight days, beginning with four at Columbia this weekend.

It's still the National Pastime, even if lacrosse is closing fast.

First Pitches

TigerBlog is pretty sure that the Major League Baseball season started already.

The Los Angeles Dodgers played two games that counted against the Arizona Diamondbacks in, of all places, Australia.

It wasn't that long ago that Opening Day in Major League Baseball was played in a far more exotic location than Australia, and that place was Cincinnati. Each year, tradition held that the first regular-season baseball game would be played in Cincinnati, though in recent years that went by the wayside in favor of more of a made-for-TV primetime Sunday night event.

TigerBlog tried to figure out how many years in a row the first baseball game of each season was played in Cincinnati, so he went to, of course, Wikipedia. Before he ever got around to figuring out the whole thing about the Reds, he was struck by a picture of Princeton alum Woodrow Wilson as he threw out the first pitch on Opening Day 1916.

In fact, according to the site that knows all, there have been 12 Presidents who have thrown out the first pitch on Opening Day. The first was William Howard Taft - a Yale man - in 1910, something that TigerBlog already knew.

Something that TB didn't know was that Harry Truman threw out first pitches lefthanded and righthanded in 1950. Now that's bi-partisan spirit.

TB always liked Opening Day. Each stadium would be packed, and there would be a promise of a new year for each team. For one day at least, everyone was even. The reality of the long season sets in for Game 2, which has a fraction of the attendance of Game 1 and which begins a very, very long grind.

Tom McCarthy, the former Princeton football and basketball play-by-play man, is now the TV voice of the Philadelphia Phillies. Before his current assignment he spent a few years as the radio voice for the New York Mets.

It's great, glamorous work, but it's also grueling. And that's for an announcer. How about for the players?

The physical aspect of playing football or hockey or even basketball is much greater than baseball, until you factor in the grind of 162 games. Every night, night after night, city after city, from now through October, especially in the heat of the summer.

It can't be easy.

Scott Bradley did it for years and years, as a Major League Baseball player from 1984-92. Since 1998 he has been the Princeton baseball coach, and he has led the Tigers to 10 Gehrig Division championships and six Ivy titles and NCAA appearances.

Unlike Major League Baseball, Ivy League baseball is more of a sprint. The same, by the way, applies to softball.

Ivy baseball and softball teams go through the same formula each year. The season starts not in Cincinnati but instead with a trip or trips to areas with favorable late February/early March weather, always against opponents with a big head start to their seasons.

The results are fairly predictable. If you look at the current Ivy League baseball and softball standings, you'll notice no team in either sport is over .500 right now.

Still, there is a lot going for Ivy baseball and softball.

For starters, Princeton's baseball and softball teams made early-season trips to both Florida and California to play. For another, there are an endless number of opponents out there, so there's always someone new to play.

And then there's the league season itself. Five weekends, doubleheaders back-to-back, either Friday/Saturday or Saturday/Sunday.

It builds to the Ivy League Championship Series for both sports, which matches the winners of the two divisions for the league title and NCAA bid.

TigerBlog is on the record as being vehemently anti-basketball tournament but very pro-lacrosse tournament. He's also a big fan of the ILCS.

Would something like this work in basketball? Probably not, since in baseball and softball each team plays 20 games, four against the other three in the same division and two against the teams in the other division. Still, a basketball championship game between the top two teams? Sure. TB would be okay with that.

The run to the Ivy League Championship Series begins this weekend. Of course, the schools have to compete with another issue each "spring" around here - rain, which is in the forecast. That's another great thing about lacrosse. It gets played in the rain.

Princeton is scheduled to open at home against Harvard and Dartmouth in both sports, with softball tomorrow and Saturday and baseball Saturday and Sunday. It will be the home opener for the baseball team and the first games on Class of 1895 Field for the softball team, who did play two games on Finney/Campbell Fields earlier this month.

The goal for both is to playing on a beautiful May weekend, with the ultimate hope of getting to the NCAA tournament.

First pitches for both are at home this weekend. Weather permitting, of course. 

In The Criminal Justice System ...

TigerBlog has been watching "Law & Order" reruns lately.

It's one of his favorite shows of all time. It's a great concept - half the show is about "the police who investigate crimes" and the other half is about the "district attorneys who prosecute the offenders."

It's a rare show that endured for 20 years and had several complete turnovers in its cast and yet managed to survive and thrive. TB can't think of another show that was able to accomplish anything close to that level of upheaval and still maintained its high level of quality. Most shows that have to replace even one key character often disintegrate.

TB likes to DVR the show, which is running regularly these days on WE TV. TB also doesn't get the idea of programming three episodes of "Law & Order" in the late afternoon and early evening on a network that otherwise appears to be devoted to targeting a strictly women's audience, with shows like "Marriage Boot Camp," "Mary, Mary" and returns of "Will & Grace" and "Roseanne," as well as skin care infomercials with Vivica Fox and Cindy Crawford.

And in between all of that is "Law & Order," three times a day.

This week, We has been advertising the coming season premiere of "Joan and Melissa," which TB would only watch if he was given a $100 bill for every minute he could stand it.

WE has also been advertising that this week is "Sopranos meets Law & Order" week. Now that is right in TB's wheelhouse.

Edie Falco has appeared as a public defender. It's easy to pick out Carmela Soprano. Junior appears as a judge. Christopher is a defendant in one episode who comes back as a detective later in the series. Big Pussy is a defendant more than once.

Anyone can see them.

But can you also find Father Intintola as a police offer who gets ripped into by Lennie Briscoe in a brief scene, after the murder weapon is found in a drain that the soon-to-be spiritual adviser/creepy stalker of Carmela didn't want to search (though it turned out not to be his fault)?

Or, for that matter, that Profaci - who was a pretty good character who didn't get a big enough role, in TB's mind - was played by the same guy who would play Gigi on "The Sopranos." On a series where many characters had unfortunate endings, nobody had it worse than Gigi - and let's just leave it at that.

Every now and then, there will be a Princeton reference on "Law & Order." In fact, one honor student-turned-bad was referred to as having had a chance to play soccer at Princeton, something that Jim Barlow was never able to confirm.

TB can't think of any Princeton references on "The Sopranos," though Meadow did go to Columbia.

Meanwhile, back at Princeton Athletics, spring break continues for a few more days, which means that several spring teams are spread out around the country.

There are six Princeton teams (technically one is a winter team) who will be competing today, and here are their opponents - Miami, USC, Duke, Tulane, Barton College, Mt. Olive, Pacific.

Actually, here's a fun game. Match the team with the opponent, as Princeton will have events in women's lacrosse, men's basketball, softball, baseball, men's volleyball and women's tennis today. The men's volleyball team has two opponents.

Anyway, it's a pretty interesting mix of opponents.

Let's start with the women's lacrosse game at USC, a program in its second year. Last year, Princeton defeated USC 18-13 on Sherrerd Field as USC went 8-10 in its first season. This time around, USC is 3-2 this year, with a win over Columbia in its most recent game.

It wasn't that long ago that the idea of being able to go to California to find Division I women's lacrosse opponents was unthinkable. Now? The Princeton women are playing two California teams on the spring trip, with a game Saturday against San Diego State. Now in Year 3, San Diego State started out 5-10 in 2012, then went 8-8 last year and now is off to a 6-1 start.

San Diego State has two players from New Jersey on its roster. USC has 11 players from New Jersey on its roster.

Princeton? One New Jersey player.

The baseball team will take on Duke in North Carolina. The softball team takes on a different group of Tigers, the ones from Pacific, in California. The women's tennis team is in Florida to take on Miami.

The basketball team is in New Orleans to take on Tulane in the first round of the CBI.

And the men's volleyball team is also in North Carolina, to take on Mt. Olive and Barton.

Those would be your matching game answers.

Living The Dream

This is an actual conversation that TigerBlog had yesterday:

Co-worker: "Were you the men's basketball contact when Chris Young played here?"
TigerBlog: "Yes."
Co-worker: "Is he the nicest person of all time?"

The correct answer is "if he's not, he's way, way up there."

Young stands a shade below seven-feet tall, which means he stands out in any room he's in. Like yesterday afternoon, when he was at the Shea Rowing Center, one of the four Princeton alums in Major League Baseball who came back to campus as part of the Princeton Varsity Club Jake McCandless ’51 speaker series.

Young was joined by Will Venable, who like Young was also a first-team All-Ivy League men's basketball player, Ross Ohlendorf and David Hale first at a luncheon and then in the evening in McCosh 50.

Both times they spoke about their experiences in the Major Leagues, how Princeton helped prepare them and basically anything else they were asked about.

An athletic department - and a University for that matter - can't ask for much more out of four alums than Princeton gets from Young, Venable, Ohlendorf and Hale. They are smart, well-spoken, gregarious men who speak from the heart, laugh easily and genuinely appreciate the good fortune that they have been given.

All four are graduates, despite the fact that three of them were drafted before they completed their eligibility and had to completely dedicate themselves to graduating with their classes.

In the me-first, big-money world of professional sports, these four are a beacon. They are so easy to root for, and not just because they are from Princeton.

TigerBlog has never met Ohlendorf or Hale. He saw every basketball game that Young played at Princeton except for one and almost every basketball game Venable played here during his career.

As TB said earlier in the week, he'll always be left to wonder what Young would have done had he played his final two seasons, instead of losing his eligibility for basketball when he signed his professional baseball contract.

It was actually a bit of fluke that Young left when he did, as he was eligible for the 2000 draft by less than a week, since his 21st birthday came less than a week before the draft, even though he had only completed his sophomore year. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to be selected until after his junior year, which would have meant another season at least of basketball.

Instead, his Princeton basketball career ended after two seasons, just shy of 1,000 points and the school record for blocked shots. Had he played all four years? He would have probably bettered 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.

He also would have given Princeton an NBA-level center for two more seasons. The 2001 men's basketball team won the league in John Thompson's first year as head coach; Young would certainly have made that much easier. He also would have been the difference a year later, when there was a three-way tie for the Ivy title.

Ah, but TB will get over it one day.

Besides, if Chris Young isn't the nicest person he's ever met, like TB said, he's way up there. Anyone who has ever come in contact with him has reached the same conclusion.

TB has heard it so many times through the years, from broadcasters, writers, Penn fans - anyone who has ever met Young. TB is pretty sure Young would still be on an NBA roster today if he'd gone the basketball route, but it's hard to argue with his success in baseball.

Venable probably wasn't an NBA player, but he too was a dominant basketball player in the Ivy League. In fact, TB doesn't remember too many nights when Venable wasn't the best player on the court, and that includes when the Tigers played at, say, Duke, or against Texas in the NCAA tournament.

And, like Young, Venable was very easy to work with from TB's perspective during his time as a Princeton basketball player. Venable always seemed to have a grin on his face, and it was the same grin he had yesterday, when TB saw him for the first time in years.

It was great to see both of them yesterday, now both in their 30s, established Major Leaguers - and rich ones at that.

And yet they seem unchanged by it all. They've hardly become what TB fears most rich professional athletes become - unapproachable, distant jerks.

And that's the best part of all four of them. They spoke about their experiences with a sense of awe, of modesty. They were just very human, much like anyone other lower-profile Princeton grads would be, in front of a room talking about their professional lives.

The questions asked of them varied, and there some great ones. What was your debut like and how did you feel? What sort of rookie hazing experiences had they had (TB hesitates to use the word "hazing," though all four told stories of being subjected to initiations)? Had you ever met your idol and if so what was that like? What is drug testing like and how often are you tested?

There were questions about their time at Princeton and how that helped get them ready. About how they finished their schoolwork as professionals, especially Young, who graduated with his class despite signing as a sophomore. There were questions about how Scott Bradley, Princeton's baseball coach, prepared them. They were asked if they'd experienced any stereotyping as Major Leaguers because they came from the Ivy League.

Hale talked about his debut, which came last September for the Braves (his hometown team and the team he grew up rooting for), and how nervous he was beforehand and how focused he became once he was on the mound. He would go five innings that night, allowing no runs and four hits while striking out nine, only to have his bullpen give it away and come away with a no-decision.

The first batter he faced was Venable, whom he struck out, something the two were able to joke about.

Ohlendorf spoke about how he was in the Yankees bullpen on his first night in the Majors and how nervous he became when the phone rang in the sixth, in the seventh, before he finally got in in the ninth.

Like Hale, Young made his debut with the team he grew up rooting for, the Texas Rangers. He talked about his debut, with 200-300 familiar faces in the stands. He also mentioned the voice in the back of his head that every player must have, the one that whispers "can I do this?"

They all can. Young is battling back from injuries after a long career that has included an all-star game appearance.

Venable is a borderline all-star now in his prime. Ohlendorf is an established veteran. Hale is just starting out, but his future looks bright after his brief time up last year, including his Major League win, which came against the Phillies.

Listening to them yesterday, TB could see big things for any and all of them when their playing days are over. GM. Team president. MLB commissioner. Politics. Anything.

Princeton Athletics is about many things, including on-field success, entertainment, its coaches.

Mostly, it's about the athletes who come through here.

Four of them were back yesterday. Four of the great ones. Four who represent everything good that there is at Princeton.

They excelled athletically. They were dedicated students.

They didn't have to sacrifice their goal of playing professional baseball to get an Ivy League degree. In fact, the two have gone hand-in-hand for them.

They're now proud graduates - and graduates in whom the University can be decidedly proud.

They put on an amazing show yesterday.

Home Plate

Miss TigerBlog wanted to play Monopoly the other day, so she broke out the game, set up the board, got out the pieces and divided up the money.

Then she realized that there weren't any dice with which to play.

Back when TigerBlog was in middle school, the only solution would have been to steal the dice from another game. Eventually, when it was time to play that game, nobody would know where the original dice went.

So what does a 2013 middle school kid do when she can't find the dice?

Right, she downloads a dice app onto her iPhone. TigerBlog then did the same. And that's how they played.

For the record, TB won, employing a strategy of getting all four railroads and putting hotels on the green properties and red properties.

And now he has a dice app on his phone.

It was during the Monopoly game that TB first saw the news that the Seattle Mariners had signed Robinson Cano, the former Yankee, to a 10-year, $240 million dollar contract. To that, TB has one question - what in the world are the Mariners thinking?

TigerBlog attended a Mariners game last summer when he was in Seattle. If you've never been to that city, make sure you go. And do it between June and September, during the dry season.

It's a beautiful city, and the ballpark is also beautiful. TB saw the Mariners lose in 13 innings to the Twins after Felix Hernandez looked unhittable for eight innings.

TB understands why the Mariners would want Cano. He has no idea why they'd agree to that much money for that much time.

Do these people never learn? When was the last time a team gave a player that kind of contract and had it work out? Never?

Cano is a great player. But he's not a game-changing player. He's a second baseman. He's a really good piece on a really good team, not a player to build a championship around.

Besides, didn't anyone learn from the Red Sox last year? Take the money, divide it up among five or six really important pieces and build a winning team.

TB would love to see one of Princeton's Major League alums on a World Series winner.

He'll have to settle for seeing them back on campus, their home plate, as it were.

Will Venable, David Hale, Chris Young and Ross Ohlendorf will be back at Princeton tomorrow as part of the Jake McCandless ’51 PVC Speaker Series. The four will talk about their experiences as Major Leaguers and Princeton athletes and alums tomorrow evening at 7:30 in McCosh 50; the event is free and open to the public.

Young and Venable were two-sport athletes at Princeton who actually were much better known for their basketball careers as undergrads. Young could have had a long NBA career, TB supposes, and Venable was a thousand-point scorer and great defender, not to mention an explosive highlight reel type player.

Venable played all four years of basketball and his last three in baseball. Young only played two years of each before signing a contract after being drafted by the Pirates, which in the Ivy League rendered him ineligible in all sports. In the rest of Division I, he could have played basketball after signing a pro baseball contract.

TB will always wonder what Young would have done in basketball had he been able to play his final two seasons. TB senses it would have been a lot.

Like Young, Ohlendorf and Hale are both pitchers, and Hale made his Major League debut last season with the Braves. The first batter he faced was Venable, an outfielder with the Padres.

TB isn't sure what Young's future in baseball is, after he's had trouble the last two years staying off the DL. Ohlendorf is an established reliable pitcher, and Hale is just starting out.

As for Venable, he's in his prime. If he can get off to a good start next season, something he's struggled to do in his career, he could be an all-star, something Young was in 2007.

The life of a Major League baseball player is certainly an interesting one, with all the travel, all the money, all of the issues regarding steroids and PEDs. The perspective of four Princeton alums should be fairly fascinating.

And free.

Traitors

Andy Reid was lying.

He knew it. The media knew it. Any casual fan paying the remotest attention knew it.

Reid is now the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. He spent the last 14 years as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. The Chiefs play the Eagles, in Philadelphia no less, tomorrow night.

The obvious question for Reid is what it will be like to play against the Eagles. The obvious answer is something like: "I had a great experience there. We did a lot of great things. They fired me last year. I want to beat them badly. I've had this game circled since the schedule came out."

Something like that.

Instead, Reid said all the expected things, how the game is what matters, it's not about him, blah, blah, blah.

What would have been the sin of answering honestly?

Then again, TigerBlog doesn't understand why media people don't call out coaches when they are either lying or are acting as if the media people don't get it when the questioning turns to something other than what they want to say. Why didn't someone say to Reid: "are you honestly saying that you have no special emotions about this game?" or even "hey, Andy, nobody here is buying it."

How about last week, when reporters were asking Alabama's universally loathed football coach Nick Saban about reports of violations. Saban went into "I will talk about the game" mode rather than admitting that he at least understood why someone might have the temerity to ask.

Why didn't someone say: "Hey, Nick, do you get it at all?"

Of course, that would require the backing of the higher ups at whatever publication it was, something that was insanely lacking on the part of one South Carolina newspaper. Did you see this story?

How could any self-respecting reporter work for The State, knowing that the publisher would do that to one of their own? And what does it say about the influence that the football coach can have over a state, not that anything bad could ever come of that, well, er, um, you know what TB is talking about.

Anyway, TB digresses.

Despite Reid's unwillingness to be honest about his emotions in returning to Philadelphia, TigerBlog will still be rooting for the Chiefs in this one.

First, he never roots for the Eagles. Unless they're playing the Yankees, which they don't usually do.

Two, the Chiefs have Mike Catapano, the Princeton alum who is a rookie defensive lineman for the team.

Reid's return to Philadelphia comes a few days before the Princeton women's soccer team hosts William & Mary. That game will be Sunday at 1 and is the only home soccer game of the weekend.

Princeton coach Julie Shackford is a William & Mary alum, which makes it somewhat similar to the Reid vs. the Eagles storyline, except that she didn't play at William & Mary last year or anything like that.

In fact, this will be the fifth time Shackford coaches against her alma mater, though her own college coach, John Daly, is still the Tribe head coach today. That has to make it even more emotional.

As for the rest of the Princeton coaching staff, there are many examples of those who coach against their alma maters. Actually, it happens way more than TigerBlog thought it did before he actually looked into it.

Harvard alum Chris Sailer does it every year in women's lacrosse. United States Naval Academy grad Luis Nicolao does as well in men's water polo.

Courtney Banghart goes head-to-head with Dartmouth, her alma mater, twice each year. Up until this point, she has been coaching against Chris Wielgus, who had been her head coach in college.

Penn alum Fred Samara has coached against the Quakers in track and field and cross country for decades. The men's hockey coach, Bob Prier, is a St. Lawrence grad.

The women's golf team, headed by alum Nicki Cutler, is competing this weekend at Vanderbilt's tournament. Susan Teeter has coached the women's swimming and diving team against Tennessee. Scott Bradley has coached Princeton against North Carolina many times in baseball; Lisa Sweeney coached against Lehigh twice in softball last spring.

TigerBlog isn't sure if he's missed anyone. If he has, he apologizes.

And hey, he can relate to the whole concept of competing against the alma mater.

He's happy to know he's part of a long list of Princeton traitors.

Pitchability

Is it possible that TigerBlog has finally seen enough of "The Sopranos?"

TB saw each episode multiple times when the show had its first run on HBO. Then he watched the edited reruns on A&E for years.

Now, as the show is repeated every night on one of the HBO channels, TB has been DVRing them and watching them again.

In this iteration, he has now seen each season two or three times through. And maybe, finally, he's had enough.

The show is currently in Season 3, and Tony's mother just died. TB started out watching it and then deleted it instead, opting for "Two And A Half Men," another show he's seen over and over. For some reason, seeing "2.5 Men" over and over is better than "Big Bang Theory" over and over, even if "BBT" is probably a better show. TB can't figure that out.

He's never seen an episode of "Modern Family," though he may be giving that one a chance now that it's coming to syndication. He tried to get into "How I Met Your Mother" but it didn't take. He's heard "Modern Family" is hilarious.

As for "The Sopranos," TB couldn't help but wonder if the reason the show is different now is because 1) he's seen each episode so many times or 2) because of the death of James Gandolfini, who played Tony Soprano.

He doubts it's the first, at least based on his history of watching the same show or movie a million times. Maybe it's tied to the second.

Either way, he doesn't really have a go-to show right now. He's getting ready for Season 3 of "Homeland," obviously.

He tried to get into "Walking Dead" and "Breaking Bad" with little success, and he will never be into a reality show. 

He's actually taken to watching, of all things, some Major League Baseball games of late. Oh, not a complete game or anything. But he's paying closer attention these days than he has in years, possibly because of how little else there is to watch.

He can't stand the Yankees, of course. And yet here they come, after a year of showing little in the way of promise for any kind of run.

He can't stand Alfonso Soriano, but the Yankees desperately needed a presence like his in the lineup. And A-Rod? He's played well enough to give them way more production than they'd been getting at third base, even if he's an unrepentant cheater who can't possibly have a friend on his team or any other.

Seriously, how can he in good conscience pretend he's being honest about anything? Right now, he's fifth all-time in Major League history in home runs, seven away from Willie Mays, and sixth all-time in RBIs, 29 away from Lou Gehrig. He has 2,936 career hits.

And yet he has absolutely zero chance of ever being in the Hall of Fame.

He was supposed to challenge Barry Bonds for the all-time home run record (if one acknowledges that Bonds is the legitimate home run champ). Instead, he's challenge Bonds for the all-time revulsion record.

And yet there are the Yankees, just a game behind the Rays for the final A.L. wild card spot, which is going to be the wildest part of September baseball, as the Yankees, Orioles, Indians and Royals are all within two games of the Rays, who are 2.5 games behind the Rangers.

In the National League, the playoff teams are set with the Braves, Dodgers and three Central teams - the Cards, Pirates and Reds, who are fighting it out for first place, which avoids the wild card game.

The Pirates are this year's feel-good story, after not having a winning season since well before Bonds decided to start his long career of cheating.

TB's fear is that the Yankees will come all the way back, get into the playoffs and win it all. Oh well.

TB has been following Will Venable's season pretty closely.

The Princeton alum had a great August, and he now has 21 home runs and 51 RBIs and a .271 batting average. He also earned a two-year contract extension, worth $8.4 million.

Venable figures to be in the lineup tomorrow night in Atlanta, where the Padres will take on the Braves. San Diego definitely won't be in the postseason and would need to finish 15-3 to get to .500, but the team has at least been competitive for most of the season.

On the mound in Atlanta tomorrow night will be David Hale, who will become the latest Princetonian in the majors when he makes his debut for the Braves.

Here's what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said about him:
Hale, a Marietta native and Princeton University graduate, was 6-9 with a 3.22 ERA in 22 games (20 starts) for Gwinnett, and seven of his last eight games were quality starts of six innings or more with three earned runs or fewer.
“He’s got some good stuff,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said after that outing. “Getting out of that jam… He’s got pitchability. He’s got some quality pitches. He elevated the fastball, he can sink it. He’s been impressive.”Hale had 77 strikeouts with 36 walks in 114-2/3 innings at Gwinnett this season, after posting 124 strikeouts with 67 walks in 145-2/3 innings at Double-A Mississippi in 2012. He had one or no walks in five of his last seven starts for Gwinnett.
A third-round draft pick of the Braves in 2009 out of Princeton, Hale returned to school for consecutive fall semesters after minor league seasons ended in order to complete work on his degree in economics. He said his dream was to pitch in the major leagues, but he wanted to make sure he had a solid fallback option if it didn’t work out.

While at Princeton, Hale was a .291 hitter with seven home runs and 29 RBIs in addition to his pitching success.

And now he's making his Major League debut. Against Will Venable, who sometimes leads off, which would mean the first batter Hale ever faced would be a fellow Princeton alum.

TB would root for Venable to hit a home run and then Hale to settle down for six strong innings in a win.

And for a Yankee loss.

His sense, though, is that this will be a bad fall for the anti-Yankee crowd.

Will's Walk Off

Let's just start out by saying it was a tough night to hate A-Rod.

Last night's Yankees-Red Sox game ran 4:12, of which TigerBlog probably saw half. What he saw was more entertainment than an average baseball game could ever hope to provide.

The fun started when Boston starter Ryan Dempster threw behind A-Rod on his first trip to the plate, in the second inning. It continued three pitches later, when Dempster hit A-Rod under his shoulder.

Yankee manager Joe Girardi came flying out of the dugout, incensed that both benches were warned but that Dempster wasn't tossed. For his troubles, Girardi was given the rest of night off, largely because the umpire knew Girardi was 100% right.

Unable to retaliate, C.C. Sabathia went back to being what he has become, which is someone who is getting old, is too overweight, can't go deep in games, has become very hittable - and is owed $71 million for the next three years.

The highlight of the game came during the in-game interview with Red Sox manager John Farrell said with a straight face that Dempster hadn't been throwing at A-Rod, that he'd just been trying to establish the inside part of the plate and it got away. In the history of baseball, there's never been a more obvious example of a pitcher who was throwing at a hitter. Oh well. What was Farrell supposed to say, right?

Just when it looked like it was going to be an easy win for the Red Sox, though, here came A-Rod in the sixth, launching one into the centerfield stands, sparking a four-run rally that became a 9-6 Yankees win. Should New York come all the way back to make the playoffs, it'll be because of last night.

After the game, A-Rod called it "the ultimate payback." Actually, no, the ultimate payback would be if he paid back all the money he's made through the years as an obvious cheater, but that's another story.

TB has hated A-Rod for so long that he can't remember if he ever liked him, but he assumes he did, at least back when he was a young player with the Mariners, especially when he played against the Yankees.

Now? He has to be the most hated player in sports, especially by his own teammates. And team management, which other than Girardi (who is in an impossible spot, since he has no chance of getting to the postseason minus Rodriguez) takes great pleasure in publicly ripping into the third baseman.

Still, TB has to tip his hat to A-Rod for coming back from being plunked to launch one the way he did, at Fenway Park no less.

It was a weird series, too, as the four games were on four different TV stations in New York (Channel 9, YES, Fox, ESPN). TB didn't watch the first three, but the one last night was sort of a three-man panel discussion about the A-Rod situation with a few baseball plays mixed in, something that TB assumes was repeated in the other three broadcasts as well.

Meanwhile, across the country, the other New York baseball team was doing something way below the Red Sox-Yankees interest level. Still, if you're a Princeton fan and you missed, well, it's worth checking out.

The Mets were in San Diego, where a certain sizzlingly hot Princeton alum won the game with a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Will Venable has been on the best run of his career with a 15-game hitting streak, the longest current one in Major League Baseball. That, and a .370 average since the all-star break, has raised his average to .266.

His home run leading off the bottom of the ninth yesterday was the 17th of the season, a career best and team high. He also has driven in 42 runs.

One of the most amazing parts of the recap of the Padres-Mets game was the part where it mentioned that Venable is 30.

TigerBlog remembers him from Day 1 as a Princeton basketball player, back when he was way better at that sport and wasn't even playing baseball at Princeton.

Venable was explosive on the basketball court, with great speed, defensive tenacity and, best of all, an obvious toughness that allowed him raise his game when it mattered most, such as in the NCAA tournament or in a regular-season game at Duke or with an Ivy title on the line.

He didn't play baseball as a Princeton freshman, but he did so after that. He finished his career as a 1,000-point scorer in hoops and as someone who had enough power to hit one off Princeton Stadium beyond the rightfield fence at Clarke Field and onto the highway past Penn's field (a shot TB didn't see but heard about from enough people).

He's spent his entire five-year career with San Diego, who picked him in the seventh round in 2005. Venable has career numbers of a .252 average, 62 home runs and 230 RBIs, and he's also a great defensive outfielder and base stealer.

If he was looking for national attention on the night of his big walk-off winner, well, he picked the wrong day for that.

Nope, last night, all attention was reserved for Alex Rodriguez.

He may be a despised cheater, but you have to give him credit for what he did against the Red Sox.

Will's Choice

If you factor out anything to do with lacrosse or the Giants in the Super Bowl, then TigerBlog would be willing to say that the World Cup is his favorite sporting event in the world.

He gets that it's not an annual event, though the drawn-out drama of the qualifying rounds makes it pretty close. Either way, he loves the World Cup.

Looking ahead, he's rooting for these five countries to make it - Egypt, Costa Rica, Ireland, Israel and the United States. It's possible all five will, though TB doubts it.

Should Egypt qualify - and the team has advanced through two rounds to the final home-and-home play-in in October and November - it would be one of the most amazing stories sports has seen in a long time, what with the complete upheaval in the country combined with the steady hand of American (and Princetonian) Bob Bradley as the head coach, one who has had to guide his team through not one but two violent revolutions.

Why Ireland? TB was there once and liked it. And because the Irish were hosed last time by a goal that never should have counted (due to a blatant hand ball) in the final qualifier, against a French team that completely tanked in the actual World Cup with a performance that is among the most disgraceful in the event's history.

Brazil, as the host country, already has a spot. So does Japan, Iran, South Korea and Australia. A total of 112 nations have been mathematically eliminated, with 87 countries still playing off for 27 remaining spots. 

The entire 2014 World Cup field will be decided within the next three months, which is very exciting. Then there will be the draw, followed by a proclamation that whatever group the U.S. would be in would be the "Group of Death."

The 2014 World Cup starts next June 12, and the championship game will be July 13.

At the complete opposite end of the spectrum is TB's least favorite sporting event, which happens to begin today. The Little League World Series.

Most sporting events that TB doesn't like he simply ignores. They don't anger him.

The Little League World Series angers him. Not the concept itself. Well, maybe the concept itself. But definitely the overkill of it all.

These are 12-year-olds. They shouldn't be experiencing the highlight of their entire lives at this age. And they shouldn't be glorified the way they are by TV. They're too young to handle it.

And just leave it at that.

While we're on the subject of baseball, TigerBlog saw the movie "Trouble With The Curve" the other day and liked it more than he thought he would. It's cute, and it has some smarter-than-normal-sports-movie moments to it, especially the part where Gentry rips a curveball over the fence in his last high school at-bat.

Don't worry. If you didn't see the movie yet, that doesn't ruin anything for you. It's just that in any other sports movie, he would have struck out. In this one, the point is made even better with the home run.

And then there's the continuing saga of A-Rod, who is actually being defended by some people on sports talk radio, both on-air hosts and caller. How can anyone defend him?

He's being singled out more than the others, is how it goes. Gee, could it be because he is more of an offender than they are?

The interesting side of the whole PED situation is that nobody is above suspicion anymore. Would it shock you to find out anybody at all in baseball was juiced or was juicing? No. Derek Jeter? Cal Ripkin? Mariano Rivera? Who knows for sure, right?

Jack Clark was fired from his radio job for suggesting that he had information from a trainer from 13 years ago that Albert Pujols was using steroids. If that story turned out to be true, would you be shocked?

And then there's the position of those who aren't juicing, or at least the assumption can be made that they aren't. People like Princeton alum Will Venable, the Padres' outfielder. Here's part of what he had to say to the AP about the situation:

"My personal opinion is that the penalties need to get back to the contracts. I believe that if you cross over and decide that you are going to use the banned substance, you also should forfeit the support of the players' association."

Read more here: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2013/08/04/2617147/will-biogenesis-penalties-deter.html#storylink=cpy

It's not easy for clean players, especially those from teams who have someone who has been suspended, like the Padres do. What are they supposed to say?

Look at Venable. He's established himself as a legitimate Major Leaguer. He has a career-best OPS of .779, as well as a career-best 15 home runs with six weeks left to the season. He figures to make a run at topping his career-high of 51 RBIs (he has 39 now), and his .257 average is more than respectable, especially considering what a great defensive outfielder he is.


For this he is making $2.68 million, which is an unfathomable amount to most people but a below average amount in the Major Leagues.

Now ask yourself this question - What if Venable had decided to take steroids, and the result was that his numbers went up? As did his earnings.

So many other people in the sport made that decision, and so many of them profited way more than Venable has.

This is the dilemma of being a Major League baseball player for the last, well, longer than it should be.

Maybe the game is being cleaned up. Maybe it isn't.

The position that players like Venable have been thrown into is an awful one. There are health risks. The risk of having one's entire career summed up in the word "cheater."

But there's the upside of more money than most players even could ever imagine.

It's not hard to see why so many of them went the steroid route, especially when for years the game turned away from it.

Baseball Update

There are three commercials that TigerBlog cannot stand, and they seem to be on every break of every show that TB watches these days.

The first two are for insurance, and they're both actually part of a series of commercials, all of which TB hates.

The first is from Geico, where the first part of the commercial plays out some trite expression and then the guys with the little guitars make a bad pun, like "people who save with Geico are happier than a camel on Wednesday" or something.

Then there's the "like a good neighbor State Farm is there" ones, where the people are in some sort of situation and they sing the jingle and the State Farm person comes and saves the day, while the people without State Farm are left with some other jingle that doesn't help them.

Both were clever the first time. Both are just over-the-top tedious now.

Even worse are the Kentucky Fried Chicken "we ate the bones" commercials. While you were eating, did you not notice there were no bones? Plus, in 2013, 99% of all chicken eaten is boneless chicken, even though it often is better with the bones, especially on a grill.

Anyway, all of those commercials are hellish to TB.

Perhaps, though, that's part of the point.

TB's favorite commercial of the last year or so was the one where the guy walks into the convenience store with the ski mask on and the clerk says he doesn't want any trouble. Now that's a great commercial.

Except if you ask 100 people what that commercial was for, how many will say Volkswagen? If you ask about the other three, everyone will get it right.

TB was bouncing through the channels last night when he came across all three of those commercials in about a 30-second span. Each time he would change the channel, there would be another one.

Eventually, he stumbled upon the Mets-Diamondbacks game, just in time to see a batter named "Young" who was at the plate for the Mets.

TB hasn't watched an entire inning of baseball on TV this season, and he doubts he will watch much more between now and the end of the year. Like most people (or not), TB has watched way more of Major League Lacrosse on television than he has Major League Baseball this season.

Anyway, when TB saw "Young," he immediately thought that the Mets had somehow gotten Chris Young (the other Chris Young). Then he found out it was actually Eric Young Jr., and he couldn't believe it.

Just last week, TB was talking about how he'd really feel old when the son or daughter of a former Princeton athlete that he covered shows up as an athlete here, and now here was Eric Young Jr.

Okay, it's not quite the same thing. But it was still a bit freaky.

Eric Young was a football and baseball star at Rutgers back when TB was covering Rutgers for the newspaper. He went on to a long career in the Majors, where he played for basically every team.

Rutgers baseball was one of TB's favorite teams to cover back then. Fred Hill Sr., still the Scarlet Knights coach, is one of the nicest and most sincere people TB has met in college athletics, and his teams were always very successful. Hill took RU to five NCAA tournaments in the eight or so years TB was covering them.

Young (Sr.) was one of several future Major Leaguers that TB covered, or saw play against Princeton. He once saw Penn's Doug Glanville, for instance, hit three triples in a game at Clarke Field, something that isn't easy to do.

TigerBlog is sort of rooting for the Pittsburgh Pirates this year. After all, it's been awhile since the team has even had a winning record, let alone made the postseason.

As always, he'd like to see the Braves do well and the Yankees do poorly.

For the most part, he roots for Princeton's two Major Leaguers, Ross Ohlendorf and Will Venable.

Ohlendorf has been moved to the Washington Nationals' bullpen, and he doesn't have a huge body of work so far this year. Ohlendorf made one really good start, beating the Rockies, and has now made two relief appearances.

In his three games, Ohlendorf is 1-0 with a 2.13 ERA and a 0.87 WHIP, which stands for walks + hits per innings pitched.

As for Venable, he's finding himself in the middle of baseball's most balanced division, the NL West, where only 3.5 games separate first from last. The AL East has eight games between first and last; the other four divisions are all 10.5 games or way more.

Venable's Padres were expected to be one of the worst teams in baseball this year, but they are three games away from .500, where they've hovered all year. They are also only 2.5 games out of first.

As for Venable, he is hitting .221, but with 10 home runs (best on the team), 29 RBIs and nine stolen bases (second on the team). He's also one of the top defensive outfielders in the National League.

So TB can root for San Diego and Washington. And to make sure the Yankees fade away.

And that'll be about it, baseball-wise for this year.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Do you ever fall asleep on the couch when you sit down to watch TV as it gets later, only to wake up an hour later, completely groggy and unaware of what time it is?

After a few seconds, it becomes apparent that it's not morning. In fact, it's actually bedtime, except that getting off the couch and into bed seems like a completely daunting task.

What about insomnia? That's even worse.

TigerBlog hates when he has to get up for something really early and yet can't fall asleep. He looks at the clock and then calculates how much time he has before he has to get up. Then he looks back at the clock and some more time has gone off, so he recalculates.

And the worst part is that he can't remember if he's been asleep during that time or not. That's even more frustrating.

Then there's no way to know exactly how much sleep TB actually has gotten. Has he been asleep? Has he dreamed he was awake?

When TB first graduated college, he worked in the newspaper business, which meant never having to wake up early. It meant working past midnight, sleeping really late and having it start again the next day.

As a result, TB became used to getting a lot of sleep.

Then he started working here, with a more regimented schedule. Then he had kids.

If you've ever tried to navigate the world of your average baby, it didn't take you long to figure out that they aren't exactly concerned with how much rest their parents get. Not in the least.

On the bright side, once babies get old enough to sleep through the night and then grow into little kids who can get themselves to bed - and ultimately to teenagers who sleep til noon or beyond if you let them - their parents realize that they didn't need nearly the amount of sleep each night that they thought they did.

These days, TB almost never sleeps past 7 am, if that. The idea of sleeping to 10, 11 or beyond? Hilarious.

Last night was a good night for insomnia, what with Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals drifting late into the third overtime. It was right at 1 a.m. Eastern time when the Blackhawks finally scored.

The most impressive performance of the night might have been Mike Emrick's, who at the age of 66 was still going strong into the third OT.

Not that TB is a huge hockey fan but he's rooting for the Blackhawks, largely because he hates the Bruins, who seem to come across as a bit smug as an organization.

The big stories in sports right now are the NBA finals, the Stanley Cup finals, World Cup qualifying and the U.S. Open golf tournament, which is being held in Ardmore, Pa. According to Mapquest, that would be 47 miles from Princeton, which means that the same gigantic rain/thunder/hail/wind/possible tornado storm that is bearing down on this area has the golf in a rain delay.

Lost in all of this right now is Major League Baseball. TB hasn't looked at the standings much this year and hasn't watched any games on TV yet.

His lone interest in baseball so far has been Will Venable, who began the year as the only Princeton grad in the Majors. Venable is hitting .228 with eight home runs, 24 RBIs, nine stolen bases, some really good defense and a .720 OPS.

Venable's team, the Padres, were supposed to be awful, but they are actually hanging in there at 32-34.

Another Princetonian, Ross Ohlendorf, returned to the Majors last night when he started for the Nationals against the Rockies in Denver. It was a great night for Ohlendorf, who apparently has reworked his wind-up.

The result was a line of six innings, two hits, one run, two walks, two strikeouts and 89 pitches. He left with a 4-1 lead that ended up being a 5-1 victory, making Ohlendorf 1-0 on the year.

It wasn't until TB read the box score that he saw that Washington has the same number of wins as San Diego, 32, though the Nats are at .500 at 32-32.

TB would have guessed that Washington was way better than that.

When he looked further, he saw that the Yankees were three games back, though they're also closer to fourth than first, which is good.

Like the Bruins, TB doesn't root for the Yankees.

TigerBlog Country Club

TigerBlog's can't-miss money-making plan is to have a four-hole golf course.

Four holes. A par 3, two par 4's and a par 5. Come to TBCC (TigerBlog Country Club), play four holes in less than an hour and be on your way.

TigerBlog has never been a huge golf fan, for a bunch of reasons. It's expensive. It's frustrating. He's not very good at it.

For all that, his No. 1 complaint has always been that it takes way too long. Like more than four hours worth.

By the time TB reaches the 12th or 13th hole, he's completely done.

So why not a four-hole course? It's perfect.

TB's attitude towards playing golf isn't that much different than his attitude towards watching it on television.

A few holes is okay. To watch 18? Way too much.

This weekend is The Masters. MotherBlog, at one point, lived in Augusta, Ga., for a year.

TB, when he went to visit her there, drove past the country club, like basically everyone else who goes to Augusta must. And, like everyone else, TB looked out the window and said "this is it?"

From the outside, Augusta National looks like nothing special. On purpose, TB assumed.

Anyway, all TB knows about The Masters is that he's rooting for anyone except for Tiger Woods.

Who's he rooting for this weekend?

Lots of Tigers. Hey, it's a spring Ivy weekend. Princeton must have 100 teams playing.

Oh, and he was rooting for an all ECAC final at the Frozen Four, which, when he first saw the field, seemed like one of those Christmas tournaments, or a round-robin where Yale and Quinnipiac got two teams to come to New Haven.

Anyway, the biggest event on Princeton's campus this weekend is probably the men's tennis match between Princeton and Harvard, who happen to be the last two unbeaten teams in the Ivy League. The teams face each other tomorrow at 2; Dartmouth is at Princeton Sunday.

By the way, all eight Ivy men's tennis teams are at least .500 overall, which could explain why so many Ivy matches end up 4-3 one way or the other.

The women's lacrosse team hosts Harvard tomorrow at 1 in a game that begins a huge eight-day stretch for the Tigers. Or actually a nine-day stretch, if you count tonight, when Dartmouth plays at Penn, which is followed by Princeton at Penn Wednesday and then Princeton at Dartmouth a week from tomorrow.

Right now, Princeton, Penn and Dartmouth are all unbeaten in the league. Every other team has at least two losses.

The baseball and softball teams are at Penn for four games, two each tomorrow and Sunday.

This is the first weekend of inter-divisional games in the two sports.

Princeton and Penn are tied, with Cornell, at 5-3 in the league, one game behind Columbia, in the Gehrig Division baseball race.

On the softball side, Princeton is two games back of first-place Penn in the South Division, so obviously these four games are somewhat important.

There is also golf, rowing, men's lacrosse, women's tennis, track and field, water polo and volleyball.

It's a typical spring weekend.

When it's over, if you need to relax, come play four holes at TBCC.

Oh wait. It's not open yet.

Oh well. He can dream.

Not Mad

Try as he has, TigerBlog just can't get into "Mad Men."

Last night was the season premiere of Season 6, and again, it wasn't doing it for TB.

He's not sure why. It seems like it would be something he would like. Set in the ’60s, which takes him back to his earliest memories. Intriguing characters. A mix of funny and serious.

Nope, it's just not doing it for him.

Maybe it's because he didn't jump on from the beginning or because he hasn't even seen every episode. Then again, that didn't stop him from completely catching up on a show like "Two And A Half Men," which he is pretty much up-to-date on.

Maybe it's all the smoking. Maybe he just doesn't have a can't-miss character on the show.

Last night, TB was half paying attention to the new season while he was doing his pregame story for the Princeton-Rutgers men's lacrosse game, which comes up tomorrow night in Piscataway.

Anyway, while "Mad Men" droned on about something in Hawaii and some missing kid who didn't get into Julliard and something else about headphones, TB was more focused on the game tomorrow night.

As such, he was back-and-forth on Princeton's website and Rutgers' website. As is usually the case, he was easily distracted.

And why wouldn't he be? The baseball story on Princeton's site from Sunday was ridiculous.

Princeton put up 32 runs in two games at Harvard and yet only came away with a split. The Tigers won Game 1 13-1 and then lost Game 2 20-19.

Game 1 took 1:47 to play. Game 2? How about 3:58?

And why wouldn't it? The teams combined for 39 runs (not a record), 38 hits and nine errors in the second game. Of the 18 times at-bat, there were seven half-innings with at least three runs scored.

Of the 38 hits, 29 were singles. There were also 24 men left on base. Princeton trailed 17-15 entering the ninth inning and then scored four times to go up 19-17, only to see Harvard come back to win.

The Ivy League baseball and softball races are two weekends old and has three weekends left. There are few league sports that compare when it comes to how quickly it all unfolds.

So far, the teams have all played twice against the four teams in the other division. The next three weekends will see back-to-back doubleheaders each weekend against the other other three division opponents.

The Gehrig Division in baseball (in softball it's just North and South) is the stronger of the two apparently, as all four teams are over .500. In the Rolfe Division, no team is.

Princeton, Penn and Cornell are all 5-3, one game behind 6-2 Columbia. Princeton is at Penn next week for four.

The same is true in softball, where Princeton will be at Penn for four games.

The Tigers are two games behind the Quakers, who are 7-1 in the league. Columbia and Cornell are each 4-4. 

In the North, Dartmouth and Harvard are 4-4 , with Yale at 3-5 and Brown at 1-7.

The divisional winners in both sports meet in the Ivy League Championship Series, and the winner of that gets the league spot in the NCAA tournament.

The races are sprints, with 20 games in five weekends. Clearly every game is big, and this is an exceptionally big weekend for both Princeton teams.

TB was able to catch up on all this last night, while "Mad Men" once again was sort of white noise in the background.

And so he was able to get his work done.

Would he ever dream of doing that during the first episode of the new season of "Homeland?" Are you insane?

Taking A Hammer To A Chocolate Bunny

You know those big chocolate Easter bunnies, the ones that are solid throughout the body but hollow in the ears?

The really big ones?

TigerBlog loves the littler ones. The big bunnies are far too problematic.

For starters, when he bites into the ears, they collapse all over the place. And when he bites into body, well, it goes nowhere. If he tries to break off a piece of the body, all he gets are really little pieces until ultimately he has to almost take a hammer to the bunny to get any sort of worthwhile reward.

When TB was a kid, his grandmother used to buy him and BrotherBlog the little bunnies, which came like 10 to a package. Now that was quality chocolate - even for a Jewish kid.

TB's connection to Easter isn't quite like that of some other members of his religion, like, say, Judah Ben-Hur, who witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus - after Judah had been through a lot, including a stint with the Roman Army's rowing team and some horseback riding.

This Sunday is Easter Sunday, which means the supermarket was flooded with holiday candy. TigerBlog went into this in depth a year ago.

A few years ago, TB also wrote about the dilemma that the Ivy League has in scheduling athletic events around religious holidays, especially Easter, which always falls on a spring Sunday, which would mean Ivy baseball and softball.

As TB said four years ago, there's nothing the league can do. It can't start deciding which religious holidays are worthy of having no events and which ones are okay.

As a result, the weekend that begins with Good Friday and lasts through Easter is stocked with huge athletic events.

Maybe the biggest is tonight, when Princeton hosts Penn State in men's volleyball.

TB doesn't know much about volleyball, including how to keep stats at a match.

What he doesn't know is that Penn State is always good and Princeton has spent most years looking up in the standings at the Nittany Lions.

One exception was 1998, when Princeton defeated Penn State and advanced to the NCAA tournament, which in men's volleyball consists of four teams. In 1998, it sent Princeton to Hawaii.

This year, Princeton is on a roll, having won five straight EIVA matches, including last night's win over St. Francis. The Tigers are now 8-2 in the league, while Penn State comes to Dillon at 9-1.

Princeton hasn't beaten Penn State since 1998, and the closest the Tigers have come was last year at Dillon, when the Nittany Lions fought off eight match balls to win the fifth game 37-35.

This year? A win and the teams are tied. A loss and Penn State is in control for the regular season title, but Princeton is already headed to the EIVA playoffs.

Tomorrow is a big rowing day at Princeton, with all four crews at home, something that will result in racing all morning.

There is a big men's lacrosse game on campus, as Princeton hosts Brown. The Tigers are 1-1 in the league, and both games have been one-goal games, while Brown is 1-0 with a win over Harvard. Brown is playing its third game in six days; Princeton hasn't played in eight days, since the 10-9 win over Yale last Friday.

A good side note - only twice in the last 30 years (1991, 2002) - have both Princeton and Brown reached double figures in a game against each other. This year, both average more than 12 goals per game.

The women's lacrosse team is at Cornell tomorrow in another big Ivy early-season game.

And the men's tennis Ivy opener against Penn.

And then there's baseball and softball, who have their home openers tomorrow and Sunday, with Yale and Brown here.

In other words, it's a fairly busy weekend.

All of those events, and all except for men's lacrosse completely free.

Happy Easter to all.

Snow Job

TigerBlog spent a week in Costa Rica and saw all kinds of great displays of nature, basically everywhere he looked.

There were mountains and rivers and flowers and wild looking bugs and birds and even some lizard-type fellow who strolled across the pool deck where Nick Bates and TigerBlog Jr. were swimming.

You know what TB didn't see in Costa Rica? Snow.

Okay, it was June. Still, TB has a feeling that even if he went back in December, he wouldn't exactly see the ground covered by a blizzard.

TB could just picture Diego and Victor and the rest of the people who showed their home country to the Princeton men's lacrosse team last June, all being amazed that a World Cup Qualifier - a game of unreal importance - was being played in a snowstorm in Denver last week.

Oh, and Diego's father, Don Carlos? He probably took it the hardest.

TB isn't quite sure what to think about it, even after FIFA announced that the 1-0 victory by the U.S. would stand, despite protests by the Costa Ricans.

During the men's lacrosse trip, TB and about 15 other members of the group went to the WCQ between Los Ticos and El Salvador, in the first round. It was a ridiculous experience, a fervor that TB has never seen in an American sporting event.

And here was an even more important game, being played in driving snow, between a nation where snow is routine and another where it never falls. Oh, sure, most of the Costa Rican players play in cold weather in Europe.

But still, such an important game? Played in those conditions?

On the one hand, each WCQ game is so significant that TB figures they should be played in as optimal conditions as possible. On the other hand, how is playing in snow in Denver any different than having the U.S. go and play in 100 degree weather. 

Anyway, he's still rooting for Costa Rica to make the World Cup, and he likes their chances.

As for snow, there wasn't that much of it around here this winter. There were flurries, and sometimes there was enough snow to cover the grass, though it rarely stuck to the roads. TB can't remember a time he was all that inconvenienced by a storm this winter, and certainly there was no major event with a foot or more.

What there was around here this winter was cold weather. Lots and lots of it. It never got bitterly ridiculously cold, like around zero and all, but even as late March rolls around, it's been weeks and weeks of temperatures in the 30s.

Princeton has played seven men's lacrosse games, six of which have been played in extremely cold weather and one of which was played in 65 degree sunshine in Chapel Hill. And that doesn't even mention the practices for spring teams, all of which have caused everyone to put on layers and break out hand warmers.

Until this week. Actually, this week began with a threat of 5-8 inches of snow, which turned out to be nothing but a few wet flakes and a lot of rain.

And now? It appears that the week, and March itself, will be going out like a lamb.

And it's just in time for that.

This weekend marks the home openers for baseball and softball, with Ivy League doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday against Yale and Brown.

The forecast is for temps to be in the mid-50s both days.

Because of mid-terms and spring break, Princeton has had almost no home events the last three weeks. That changes dramatically this weekend, with 16 home events on the schedule between tonight and Sunday.

The softball team is the only Ivy League team over .500 to this point, with a record of 14-8. Princeton is batting .321 as a team and has hit 18 home runs to just six for its opponents.

The games this weekend will be the first at home for first-year head coach Lisa Sweeney and assistant coach Jen Lapicki.

In Ivy League baseball, three teams are better than .600 overall while the other five are below .400. Dartmouth is 12-1. Still, in baseball and softball, all it takes is a few timely hits one way or another to radically change the races.

In addition to baseball and softball, there's also men's lacrosse, rowing, men's volleyball and men's tennis on campus this weekend.

In fact, all four crews are home this weekend, which is a real rarity.

And no snow.

It appears that spring is finally showing up around here.

It's about time.