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.
Showing posts with label softball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label softball. Show all posts
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
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.
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.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Overflowing
TigerBlog heard a bad sound coming from the basement the other day.
The washing machine was on, and from upstairs TB could hear a sloshing sound that wasn't quite right. He thought it might be the normal cycle, only to figure out relatively quickly that he'd never heard it before in all the loads he'd done.
When he went downstairs, he immediately saw that there was an issue. The water hadn't stopped filling into the machine even when it went past the point it should have, and it eventually overflowed and starting flooding the basement.
Fortunately, TB figured it out when he did, before it got to be too bad down there.
The moral of the story is that you never want to turn the washing machine on and then leave, figuring you can put the clothes in the dryer when you get back. Had TB done that, the time with the wet vac would have been far longer. In fact, the basement would have been replaced by an indoor swimming pool - inadvertently.
TB counts doing the laundry as one of his best skills. He's certainly one of the great folders of all time.
Doing the laundry is a bit of a pain, and it's one of those chores that never seems to be completely finished. Really, by definition, it can't be, because there's always something that can be washed - towels, sheets, the clothes currently being worn. Everything can't be clean all at once.
Folding clothes for babies is a nightmare. Everything is so small that one load can have about 10,000 items in it. Well, not really, but you get the point.
TB's kids have reached the point where they do their own laundry, which is very helpful. As for TB, his own laundry needs are on hold, at least until this afternoon, when the washing machine is being fixed.
Or at least he hopes it's being fixed. What he wants to hear is that some hose came loose somewhere. What he doesn't want to hear is this: "It's an old machine and isn't worth fixing so go buy a new one."
Less than a week before Christmas isn't the right time to have to purchase major appliances.
TB loves the car commercials where the husband gives the wife the small box and then watches as she opens it, finds a set of keys and gives him a quizzical look. He then points to the driveway, where the brand-new car with the big ribbon is sitting (always in the snow; people in Florida don't do this?).
The implication is that he's just bought his wife a very expensive gift. TB's take is that they needed a new car anyway and so he's really cheap and getting away without buying a real gift.
From TigerBlog's view out of his office door, it's hard to miss the fact that Christmas is around the corner.
Softball coach Lisa Sweeney and her assistant Jennifer Lapicki went around putting wrapping paper on several doors on the Jadwin balcony, including TB's. Beyond the door is the railing, which for the first time in TB's memory has Christmas lights on it.
The railing stretches the length of the balcony, from Courtney Banghart's office on one end to the mailroom on the other. There is one strand of lights that is wrapped around it, with colored lights, not the white ones. TB prefers the colored ones.
TB assumed it was the work of the softball coaches, but it turns out it was actually done by Gary Walters, who has never done that before.
Christmas and New Year's Day are both on a Wednesday this year. It makes the work weeks a bit fuzzy, with the big holidays and Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. TB assumes he won't see too many people around here for the next two weeks.
It's not all that crowded right now, what with people out shopping (or getting their washing machines fixed).
There is only 10 athletic events remaining for Princeton Athletics in the calendar year, and of those 10, almost all - nine - are on the road. There are two men's basketball games in Las Vegas this weekend, two women's basketball games next weekend at UVa, two men's hockey games in Florida after Christmas and three days of wrestling that weekend as well.
The only remaining 2013 home event is a New Year's Eve afternoon men's basketball game at noon against Kent State. TB is interested in seeing what attendance for that game will be.
And so, before TB runs out of here to get the washing machine taken care of, he leaves you with this question:
The basketball game against Kent State is the last home athletic event in 2013. How many home athletic events did Princeton have in 2013 across all sports?
This takes into account all home events that counted, so exhibition games and scrimmages are not on the list. Also, if the men's heavyweight rowing team had a home event with three schools competing across five different boats, that all counts as one.
Brad Pottieger, Princeton's Manager of Intercollegiate Programming, very nicely took the time to figure this out for TB this morning.
Give up? TB's guess was 252, and he wasn't that far off.
The answer is 226.
As in 225 down, one to go, 12 days from now.
And with that, it's time to find out if TB will have a new washing machine by then. He hopes not.
The washing machine was on, and from upstairs TB could hear a sloshing sound that wasn't quite right. He thought it might be the normal cycle, only to figure out relatively quickly that he'd never heard it before in all the loads he'd done.
When he went downstairs, he immediately saw that there was an issue. The water hadn't stopped filling into the machine even when it went past the point it should have, and it eventually overflowed and starting flooding the basement.
Fortunately, TB figured it out when he did, before it got to be too bad down there.
The moral of the story is that you never want to turn the washing machine on and then leave, figuring you can put the clothes in the dryer when you get back. Had TB done that, the time with the wet vac would have been far longer. In fact, the basement would have been replaced by an indoor swimming pool - inadvertently.
TB counts doing the laundry as one of his best skills. He's certainly one of the great folders of all time.
Doing the laundry is a bit of a pain, and it's one of those chores that never seems to be completely finished. Really, by definition, it can't be, because there's always something that can be washed - towels, sheets, the clothes currently being worn. Everything can't be clean all at once.
Folding clothes for babies is a nightmare. Everything is so small that one load can have about 10,000 items in it. Well, not really, but you get the point.
TB's kids have reached the point where they do their own laundry, which is very helpful. As for TB, his own laundry needs are on hold, at least until this afternoon, when the washing machine is being fixed.
Or at least he hopes it's being fixed. What he wants to hear is that some hose came loose somewhere. What he doesn't want to hear is this: "It's an old machine and isn't worth fixing so go buy a new one."
Less than a week before Christmas isn't the right time to have to purchase major appliances.
TB loves the car commercials where the husband gives the wife the small box and then watches as she opens it, finds a set of keys and gives him a quizzical look. He then points to the driveway, where the brand-new car with the big ribbon is sitting (always in the snow; people in Florida don't do this?).
The implication is that he's just bought his wife a very expensive gift. TB's take is that they needed a new car anyway and so he's really cheap and getting away without buying a real gift.
From TigerBlog's view out of his office door, it's hard to miss the fact that Christmas is around the corner.
Softball coach Lisa Sweeney and her assistant Jennifer Lapicki went around putting wrapping paper on several doors on the Jadwin balcony, including TB's. Beyond the door is the railing, which for the first time in TB's memory has Christmas lights on it.
The railing stretches the length of the balcony, from Courtney Banghart's office on one end to the mailroom on the other. There is one strand of lights that is wrapped around it, with colored lights, not the white ones. TB prefers the colored ones.
TB assumed it was the work of the softball coaches, but it turns out it was actually done by Gary Walters, who has never done that before.
Christmas and New Year's Day are both on a Wednesday this year. It makes the work weeks a bit fuzzy, with the big holidays and Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. TB assumes he won't see too many people around here for the next two weeks.
It's not all that crowded right now, what with people out shopping (or getting their washing machines fixed).
There is only 10 athletic events remaining for Princeton Athletics in the calendar year, and of those 10, almost all - nine - are on the road. There are two men's basketball games in Las Vegas this weekend, two women's basketball games next weekend at UVa, two men's hockey games in Florida after Christmas and three days of wrestling that weekend as well.
The only remaining 2013 home event is a New Year's Eve afternoon men's basketball game at noon against Kent State. TB is interested in seeing what attendance for that game will be.
And so, before TB runs out of here to get the washing machine taken care of, he leaves you with this question:
The basketball game against Kent State is the last home athletic event in 2013. How many home athletic events did Princeton have in 2013 across all sports?
This takes into account all home events that counted, so exhibition games and scrimmages are not on the list. Also, if the men's heavyweight rowing team had a home event with three schools competing across five different boats, that all counts as one.
Brad Pottieger, Princeton's Manager of Intercollegiate Programming, very nicely took the time to figure this out for TB this morning.
Give up? TB's guess was 252, and he wasn't that far off.
The answer is 226.
As in 225 down, one to go, 12 days from now.
And with that, it's time to find out if TB will have a new washing machine by then. He hopes not.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
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.
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.
Friday, April 12, 2013
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.
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.
Monday, April 8, 2013
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?
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?
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Which Is Better?
TigerBlog sent this text message to Scott Jurgens, Princeton's former marketing director: "Mazel tov on the CIT."
Jurgens uprooted his Northeastern dog Barnaby and headed south back in the fall of 2011, and he (Jurgens, not Barnaby) is now in charge of marketing at East Carolina, which defeated Weber State 77-74 on a three-pointer at the buzzer Tuesday night to win the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
By all accounts, ECU had a great experience in the CIT, which meant five games for the Pirates, four of which were at home. Attendance for those games went up by about 1,000 each time, until there were 5,625 people there for the semifinal win over Evansville.
It was a pretty good consolation prize for a team that lost its Conference USA tournament opener to Tulsa back on March 14, after a 9-7 league regular season.
Contrast that with, say, Villanova, who also was two games over .500 in its league during the regular season (going 10-8 in the Big East). The Wildcats got a bid to the NCAA tournament and lost to North Carolina in the first round.
This brings up the age-old question of which is better, a first-round loss in the NCAA tournament or a long run in another postseason tournament, which used to mean just the NIT but now includes the CBI and CIT.
In other words, whose postseason was better this year, Villanova's or East Carolina's?
On the one hand, TB would say that everything that goes into the NCAA tournament, from the Selection Show through the competition itself, is so exciting that even a first-round loss is better than anything any of the other tournaments can conjure.
On the other, ECU has definitely put together some momentum for next season and, perhaps more than that, simply had a really good time while ending its season with a championship.
TB has always wondered whether Princeton would have been better off with a one-and-done trip to the 1999 NCAA tournament or the three games it had in the NIT. Yes, it's the NIT, but Princeton had three great games in the tournament in 1999, with the only-five-guys-played win over Georgetown, the game where Brian Earl went off at N.C. State and then the tough loss to a really good Xavier team in the quarterfinals.
TB has also wondered whether or not the average Princeton fan would trade the team's NCAA championships from the winter - fencing, Eliza Stone in saber fencing and the distance medley relay team - for an Ivy League men's basketball championship and first round NCAA tournament loss.
TB suspects a higher number would take the basketball title.
Oh, and by the way, ESPN did an amazing job with its NCAA fencing championship production. Rather than simply show bouts that viewers wouldn't be able to comprehend, ESPN instead turned it into a 90-minute documentary about the sport and gave a great insight into the competitors. It was really one of the best products TB has seen on the network in a long time.
Princeton's commitment is to broad-based athletic participation. There are 38 varsity teams, and the accomplishments where all 38 teams contribute - like the Ivy all-sports points standings or the Directors' Cup or having a team or individual national champion - are as exciting as when high-profile teams do well.
TB has always thought that way, back to when he was covering most of those 38 sports while still at the newspaper.
Princeton brought nine Ivy League championships in this academic year into the spring, meaning one more would mark the 21st time that Princeton would reach double figures in Ivy titles in an academic year. The rest of the league combined has done it five times.
Interestingly, no spring sport is a prohibitive favorite, but most will be in the mix.
One team that is trying to make a run is the softball team.
Princeton went 8-12 in the Ivy League a year ago, when Penn and Cornell were both 15-5 in the South Division. Princeton went 14-32 overall a year ago; this year Princeton is already 18-9.
Princeton went 3-1 last weekend in the first weekend of league play, sweeping Brown and splitting with Yale. This weekend the Tigers are at Harvard tomorrow and Dartmouth Saturday.
Last year, Harvard went 17-3 in the league.
This year, Princeton and Penn are 3-1, followed by Cornell at 2-2 and Columbia at 1-3. In the North, Yale is 3-1, Harvard and Dartmouth are 2-2 and Brown is 0-4.
Princeton is coached by Lisa Sweeney, in her first year, with assistant coach Jen Lapicki. The Tigers are hitting .312 as a team with three players over .400.
Princeton's 18-9 record is its best through 27 games since 2006, when the Tigers were also 18-9. The 3-1 Ivy record is its best start since 2008.
The Tigers certainly give every indication that they have as good a chance as anyone in the South. The division winners will play for the Ivy League championship and the league's NCAA tournament berth.
It's been a great start to the spring for Princeton softball. And, for that matter, to the Sweeney/Lapicki era.
Yesterday, TB was sitting in his office when the two softball coaches walked by his door, holding not bats but squash racquets.
That makes them even easier to root for, right?
Jurgens uprooted his Northeastern dog Barnaby and headed south back in the fall of 2011, and he (Jurgens, not Barnaby) is now in charge of marketing at East Carolina, which defeated Weber State 77-74 on a three-pointer at the buzzer Tuesday night to win the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
By all accounts, ECU had a great experience in the CIT, which meant five games for the Pirates, four of which were at home. Attendance for those games went up by about 1,000 each time, until there were 5,625 people there for the semifinal win over Evansville.
It was a pretty good consolation prize for a team that lost its Conference USA tournament opener to Tulsa back on March 14, after a 9-7 league regular season.
Contrast that with, say, Villanova, who also was two games over .500 in its league during the regular season (going 10-8 in the Big East). The Wildcats got a bid to the NCAA tournament and lost to North Carolina in the first round.
This brings up the age-old question of which is better, a first-round loss in the NCAA tournament or a long run in another postseason tournament, which used to mean just the NIT but now includes the CBI and CIT.
In other words, whose postseason was better this year, Villanova's or East Carolina's?
On the one hand, TB would say that everything that goes into the NCAA tournament, from the Selection Show through the competition itself, is so exciting that even a first-round loss is better than anything any of the other tournaments can conjure.
On the other, ECU has definitely put together some momentum for next season and, perhaps more than that, simply had a really good time while ending its season with a championship.
TB has always wondered whether Princeton would have been better off with a one-and-done trip to the 1999 NCAA tournament or the three games it had in the NIT. Yes, it's the NIT, but Princeton had three great games in the tournament in 1999, with the only-five-guys-played win over Georgetown, the game where Brian Earl went off at N.C. State and then the tough loss to a really good Xavier team in the quarterfinals.
TB has also wondered whether or not the average Princeton fan would trade the team's NCAA championships from the winter - fencing, Eliza Stone in saber fencing and the distance medley relay team - for an Ivy League men's basketball championship and first round NCAA tournament loss.
TB suspects a higher number would take the basketball title.
Oh, and by the way, ESPN did an amazing job with its NCAA fencing championship production. Rather than simply show bouts that viewers wouldn't be able to comprehend, ESPN instead turned it into a 90-minute documentary about the sport and gave a great insight into the competitors. It was really one of the best products TB has seen on the network in a long time.
Princeton's commitment is to broad-based athletic participation. There are 38 varsity teams, and the accomplishments where all 38 teams contribute - like the Ivy all-sports points standings or the Directors' Cup or having a team or individual national champion - are as exciting as when high-profile teams do well.
TB has always thought that way, back to when he was covering most of those 38 sports while still at the newspaper.
Princeton brought nine Ivy League championships in this academic year into the spring, meaning one more would mark the 21st time that Princeton would reach double figures in Ivy titles in an academic year. The rest of the league combined has done it five times.
Interestingly, no spring sport is a prohibitive favorite, but most will be in the mix.
One team that is trying to make a run is the softball team.
Princeton went 8-12 in the Ivy League a year ago, when Penn and Cornell were both 15-5 in the South Division. Princeton went 14-32 overall a year ago; this year Princeton is already 18-9.
Princeton went 3-1 last weekend in the first weekend of league play, sweeping Brown and splitting with Yale. This weekend the Tigers are at Harvard tomorrow and Dartmouth Saturday.
Last year, Harvard went 17-3 in the league.
This year, Princeton and Penn are 3-1, followed by Cornell at 2-2 and Columbia at 1-3. In the North, Yale is 3-1, Harvard and Dartmouth are 2-2 and Brown is 0-4.
Princeton is coached by Lisa Sweeney, in her first year, with assistant coach Jen Lapicki. The Tigers are hitting .312 as a team with three players over .400.
Princeton's 18-9 record is its best through 27 games since 2006, when the Tigers were also 18-9. The 3-1 Ivy record is its best start since 2008.
The Tigers certainly give every indication that they have as good a chance as anyone in the South. The division winners will play for the Ivy League championship and the league's NCAA tournament berth.
It's been a great start to the spring for Princeton softball. And, for that matter, to the Sweeney/Lapicki era.
Yesterday, TB was sitting in his office when the two softball coaches walked by his door, holding not bats but squash racquets.
That makes them even easier to root for, right?
Friday, March 29, 2013
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.
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.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
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.
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.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Eyewitness Weather
TigerBlog saw some interesting things in the morning newspaper, which by the way, he still actually reads.
For instance, there was this headline: "Teen Volunteers To Be Honored."
TB read that very quickly, and read it as one specific teenager volunteered to be honored, as opposed to a bunch of different teenagers who volunteer their time were going to be honored.
Then there was one story that had a direct quote, except the attribution was withheld because the person giving the quote "wasn't authorized to comment publicly on the situation."
TB sees this all the time.
If you're not authorized, keep your mouth shut. Isn't that supposed to be how it works?
It's not always easy, though, when a reporter calls up and asks you for information you have and promises they'll keep your name out of it, especially when it's someone you know and like. Hey, though, that's the job.
Keep your mouth shut.
What else was in the paper this morning?
Oh yeah, there was the weather, which suggests that today and tomorrow are going to be nice and then it's going to rain Sunday and Monday.
Of course, TB could look out the window and see it's nice today. It reminds him of a line from the first episode of one of the most underrated sitcoms of all time, "WKRP in Cincinnati."
Andy, the new program director, is meeting with his staff, and he tells Les Nessman that there's an item called "Eyewitness Weather." When Andy asks him what that is, Les says quite casually "I open up the window, and I witness the weather."
Witnessing the weather this morning is relatively easy. No clouds. Bright sun. Warm. All good.
Because of the forecast, the decision was made to move Princeton-Columbia baseball and softball this weekend from Saturday/Sunday to Friday/Saturday.
It's the kind of decision that TB applauds, and he's always wondered why it's not done more often. Games that are rained out are moved back? Why not move games up to take advantage of good weather.
In situations like this, the paranoid first reaction is always "who gets the advantage," not "it doesn't matter; let's play when it's nice out."
TB has always found that to be the case when he proposes moving games because of television, and they in the heat of the game itself, he realizes that not one player or coach is thinking that the game originally would have been the next day or two hours earlier or whatever.
Meanwhile, back on the Ivy League diamonds, Princeton is hoping to get to next weekend's games against Cornell in softball within striking distance.
The 6-6 Tigers are currently four games back of the Big Red (10-2), while Penn is at 8-4 heading into its four games with Cornell this weekend. To accomplish that, Princeton needs to root hard for Penn.
Princeton will also be rooting hard for Penn in baseball, though without as much urgency.
The four Gehrig Division teams are all at least .500, with Cornell in first at 10-2 and Princeton in second at 9-3. Columbia and Penn are 6-6.
Princeton has four games next weekend with Cornell. Being a game back heading in would require winning three of the four.
The goal, of course, is to get to the Ivy League Championship Series.
If you're looking for home events this weekend, there's women's lacrosse, who has a huge game against Dartmouth as it tries to get to the Ivy tournament, and the Larry Ellis track and field meet, which has more than 200 teams and 2,000 athletes.
Both events are free.
In case you're interested in some on-campus eye-witnessing.
For instance, there was this headline: "Teen Volunteers To Be Honored."
TB read that very quickly, and read it as one specific teenager volunteered to be honored, as opposed to a bunch of different teenagers who volunteer their time were going to be honored.
Then there was one story that had a direct quote, except the attribution was withheld because the person giving the quote "wasn't authorized to comment publicly on the situation."
TB sees this all the time.
If you're not authorized, keep your mouth shut. Isn't that supposed to be how it works?
It's not always easy, though, when a reporter calls up and asks you for information you have and promises they'll keep your name out of it, especially when it's someone you know and like. Hey, though, that's the job.
Keep your mouth shut.
What else was in the paper this morning?
Oh yeah, there was the weather, which suggests that today and tomorrow are going to be nice and then it's going to rain Sunday and Monday.
Of course, TB could look out the window and see it's nice today. It reminds him of a line from the first episode of one of the most underrated sitcoms of all time, "WKRP in Cincinnati."
Andy, the new program director, is meeting with his staff, and he tells Les Nessman that there's an item called "Eyewitness Weather." When Andy asks him what that is, Les says quite casually "I open up the window, and I witness the weather."
Witnessing the weather this morning is relatively easy. No clouds. Bright sun. Warm. All good.
Because of the forecast, the decision was made to move Princeton-Columbia baseball and softball this weekend from Saturday/Sunday to Friday/Saturday.
It's the kind of decision that TB applauds, and he's always wondered why it's not done more often. Games that are rained out are moved back? Why not move games up to take advantage of good weather.
In situations like this, the paranoid first reaction is always "who gets the advantage," not "it doesn't matter; let's play when it's nice out."
TB has always found that to be the case when he proposes moving games because of television, and they in the heat of the game itself, he realizes that not one player or coach is thinking that the game originally would have been the next day or two hours earlier or whatever.
Meanwhile, back on the Ivy League diamonds, Princeton is hoping to get to next weekend's games against Cornell in softball within striking distance.
The 6-6 Tigers are currently four games back of the Big Red (10-2), while Penn is at 8-4 heading into its four games with Cornell this weekend. To accomplish that, Princeton needs to root hard for Penn.
Princeton will also be rooting hard for Penn in baseball, though without as much urgency.
The four Gehrig Division teams are all at least .500, with Cornell in first at 10-2 and Princeton in second at 9-3. Columbia and Penn are 6-6.
Princeton has four games next weekend with Cornell. Being a game back heading in would require winning three of the four.
The goal, of course, is to get to the Ivy League Championship Series.
If you're looking for home events this weekend, there's women's lacrosse, who has a huge game against Dartmouth as it tries to get to the Ivy tournament, and the Larry Ellis track and field meet, which has more than 200 teams and 2,000 athletes.
Both events are free.
In case you're interested in some on-campus eye-witnessing.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Chocolate Ears
Halloween, of course, is the No. 1 candy day of them all. Except it's a bit misleading.
Halloween features the wide range of candy, where really nothing is off limits.
If, however, you're all about milk chocolate, as TigerBlog is, you really can't beat Easter. What's better than breaking off a piece of a chocolate bunny's ear?
And then there's the Dove chocolate eggs. They would be as perfect as any candy ever, were it not for how hard it is to peel off the wrappers.
Sometimes, you get the fold perfectly and it opens without issue, but that's only about 10% of the time. The other 90%, you have to fight your way through and end up with little scraps of wrapper and chocolate under your fingernails.
TB isn't sure why chocolate became such a big part of Easter, but he's fine with it.
Other than the fact that it involves the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Easter is as close to a Jewish holiday as there is in the Christian calendar.
How so? It's not on the same day every year. It's not like Christmas, which is always Dec. 25. Or, more secularly, Thanksgiving, which is not always the same exact day but is always on the same Thursday.
Easter is like Hanukkah, which can be anywhere from late November to late December. Or the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kipper and always seem to come "early" or "late" but never right on time.
This year, Easter and Passover fell on the same weekend, which is a rarity.
This year's Easter also fell on the Sunday of the first weekend of the baseball season.
If you look at the standings now, the Yankees are 0-3, while the Mets are 3-0. The Red Sox are 0-3, while the Orioles are 3-0.
What does it mean? Nothing. Though it did make for some good panicky phone calls on sports radio.
For a Yankee fan to panic now would be like a fan of an NFL team to panic if the team was down 7-0 at the end of the first quarter of the opener.
Meanwhile, Princeton has one active Major Leaguer - Will Venable of the Padres, who is 2 for 10 after going 1 for 4 yesterday. Venable had a very good spring for San Diego and a good start would be a nice carryover.
Ross Ohlendorf is at Triple-A Pawtucket for the Red Sox. Chris Young is in extended spring training for the Mets.
Back in the Ivy League, each baseball team has played eight games, all against the teams in the other division.
Right now, the four Gehrig teams are all over .500. In the Rolfe Division, no team is above .500.
TB has no way of checking this, but this has to be a rarity since the league started with two divisions around 2000 or so.
Princeton, at 6-2, is a game back of Cornell. Penn and Columbia are both 5-3. This weekend's schedule has Penn at Princeton and Columbia at Cornell for four games apiece.
On the softball side, the Gehrig Division (called the South Division in softball) is the stronger as well.
Cornell is 7-1, followed by Princeton and Penn at 5-3. Harvard is out to a 7-1 start in the other division, with no other team better than 3-5.
Each game is huge as the teams now play in their divisions in both baseball and softball.
TigerBlog is always amazed at the all-out sprint that is baseball and softball as the teams play their 20 league games in a span of 30 days, leading up to the Ivy League Championship Series.
Easter to Mothers' Day.
It goes pretty fast.
Halloween features the wide range of candy, where really nothing is off limits.
If, however, you're all about milk chocolate, as TigerBlog is, you really can't beat Easter. What's better than breaking off a piece of a chocolate bunny's ear?
And then there's the Dove chocolate eggs. They would be as perfect as any candy ever, were it not for how hard it is to peel off the wrappers.
Sometimes, you get the fold perfectly and it opens without issue, but that's only about 10% of the time. The other 90%, you have to fight your way through and end up with little scraps of wrapper and chocolate under your fingernails.
TB isn't sure why chocolate became such a big part of Easter, but he's fine with it.
Other than the fact that it involves the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Easter is as close to a Jewish holiday as there is in the Christian calendar.
How so? It's not on the same day every year. It's not like Christmas, which is always Dec. 25. Or, more secularly, Thanksgiving, which is not always the same exact day but is always on the same Thursday.
Easter is like Hanukkah, which can be anywhere from late November to late December. Or the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kipper and always seem to come "early" or "late" but never right on time.
This year, Easter and Passover fell on the same weekend, which is a rarity.
This year's Easter also fell on the Sunday of the first weekend of the baseball season.
If you look at the standings now, the Yankees are 0-3, while the Mets are 3-0. The Red Sox are 0-3, while the Orioles are 3-0.
What does it mean? Nothing. Though it did make for some good panicky phone calls on sports radio.
For a Yankee fan to panic now would be like a fan of an NFL team to panic if the team was down 7-0 at the end of the first quarter of the opener.
Meanwhile, Princeton has one active Major Leaguer - Will Venable of the Padres, who is 2 for 10 after going 1 for 4 yesterday. Venable had a very good spring for San Diego and a good start would be a nice carryover.
Ross Ohlendorf is at Triple-A Pawtucket for the Red Sox. Chris Young is in extended spring training for the Mets.
Back in the Ivy League, each baseball team has played eight games, all against the teams in the other division.
Right now, the four Gehrig teams are all over .500. In the Rolfe Division, no team is above .500.
TB has no way of checking this, but this has to be a rarity since the league started with two divisions around 2000 or so.
Princeton, at 6-2, is a game back of Cornell. Penn and Columbia are both 5-3. This weekend's schedule has Penn at Princeton and Columbia at Cornell for four games apiece.
On the softball side, the Gehrig Division (called the South Division in softball) is the stronger as well.
Cornell is 7-1, followed by Princeton and Penn at 5-3. Harvard is out to a 7-1 start in the other division, with no other team better than 3-5.
Each game is huge as the teams now play in their divisions in both baseball and softball.
TigerBlog is always amazed at the all-out sprint that is baseball and softball as the teams play their 20 league games in a span of 30 days, leading up to the Ivy League Championship Series.
Easter to Mothers' Day.
It goes pretty fast.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Welcome Home
The ride from Princeton to Providence isn't TigerBlog's favorite, largely because of the neverending (okay, a little more than 100 mile) stretch that is I95 in Connecticut.
One time, TB was driving to Brown for a football game, back when TB swore he'd leave by 11 am each football Friday when he had to go to New England, ended up leaving around 2 and ended up getting destroyed in traffic the whole way.
This time, it was 1995, and typical of TB and Tom McCarthy and whoever else went that day, it was a late start.
Now, when you have to drive to New England from here, there are all kinds of options.
TB likes to avoid the Cross Bronx Expressway at all costs, which usually means the Henry Hudson to the Saw Mill to the Cross County to the Merritt and cross over to 95 after the helicopter factory (though the Merritt isn't always a bargain either).
On that 1995 day, TB was following that route when traffic came to a complete stop. And stayed that way.
Eventually, a helicopter landed not far in front of where the line of cars was. An accident?
Nope. It was the Pope.
Anyway, by the time the Pope was all settled into the church where he was speaking, it ended up taking eight hours to get from Princeton to Providence.
TB makes the ride again this weekend, as he heads to Rhode Island for the Princeton-Brown men's lacrosse game.
Since 1995, TB has found a nice sandwich shop in Northern Connecticut, where he got a great turkey club hoagie the first time he was there and then an even-better roast beast, roasted red pepper, onion one the next time.
TB will be on the road this weekend.
Not many others in orange and black will be.
Between the end of the basketball doubleheader against Penn on March 6 and this coming Friday, there have been seven home events on the Princeton campus. For the record, there were two men's volleyball matches, two men's tennis matches, one men's lacrosse game, one women's lacrosse game and one crew race.
And this weekend?
There will be no fewer than 15 home events between Friday and Sunday, spread across seven sports.
And there is no admission charge for any of them.
This weekend marks the home openers and the Ivy openers for the baseball and softball teams, as both host Dartmouth and then Harvard.
In softball, that's Friday/Saturday.
In baseball, that's Saturday/Sunday.
Princeton had its worst Ivy League baseball record ever two years ago and then came back to win the league last year, defeating Dartmouth in three dramatic games in the Ivy League championship series.
The Ivy League format has two four-team divisions (Cornell, Columbia and Penn are in with Princeton) for baseball and softball. Each team plays the other four teams twice and then plays four games against each of the teams in its division.
At the end, the two division winners meet for the Ivy title and automatic NCAA tournament berth.
The women's lacrosse team hosts Cornell, one of four Ivy teams in the Top 20, as the Big Red are ranked 17th, followed by Princeton at 19th. Dartmouth (ninth) and Penn (10th) are also looming out there for the Tigers.
In other words, it's a big game.
There is also a visit from Penn State in men's volleyball as Sam Schweisky's team is home twice this weekend, as well as rowing and tennis.
The full schedule for Princeton games this weekend is here.
For the first time in awhile, it has a lot of events in bold.
One time, TB was driving to Brown for a football game, back when TB swore he'd leave by 11 am each football Friday when he had to go to New England, ended up leaving around 2 and ended up getting destroyed in traffic the whole way.
This time, it was 1995, and typical of TB and Tom McCarthy and whoever else went that day, it was a late start.
Now, when you have to drive to New England from here, there are all kinds of options.
TB likes to avoid the Cross Bronx Expressway at all costs, which usually means the Henry Hudson to the Saw Mill to the Cross County to the Merritt and cross over to 95 after the helicopter factory (though the Merritt isn't always a bargain either).
On that 1995 day, TB was following that route when traffic came to a complete stop. And stayed that way.
Eventually, a helicopter landed not far in front of where the line of cars was. An accident?
Nope. It was the Pope.
Anyway, by the time the Pope was all settled into the church where he was speaking, it ended up taking eight hours to get from Princeton to Providence.
TB makes the ride again this weekend, as he heads to Rhode Island for the Princeton-Brown men's lacrosse game.
Since 1995, TB has found a nice sandwich shop in Northern Connecticut, where he got a great turkey club hoagie the first time he was there and then an even-better roast beast, roasted red pepper, onion one the next time.
TB will be on the road this weekend.
Not many others in orange and black will be.
Between the end of the basketball doubleheader against Penn on March 6 and this coming Friday, there have been seven home events on the Princeton campus. For the record, there were two men's volleyball matches, two men's tennis matches, one men's lacrosse game, one women's lacrosse game and one crew race.
And this weekend?
There will be no fewer than 15 home events between Friday and Sunday, spread across seven sports.
And there is no admission charge for any of them.
This weekend marks the home openers and the Ivy openers for the baseball and softball teams, as both host Dartmouth and then Harvard.
In softball, that's Friday/Saturday.
In baseball, that's Saturday/Sunday.
Princeton had its worst Ivy League baseball record ever two years ago and then came back to win the league last year, defeating Dartmouth in three dramatic games in the Ivy League championship series.
The Ivy League format has two four-team divisions (Cornell, Columbia and Penn are in with Princeton) for baseball and softball. Each team plays the other four teams twice and then plays four games against each of the teams in its division.
At the end, the two division winners meet for the Ivy title and automatic NCAA tournament berth.
The women's lacrosse team hosts Cornell, one of four Ivy teams in the Top 20, as the Big Red are ranked 17th, followed by Princeton at 19th. Dartmouth (ninth) and Penn (10th) are also looming out there for the Tigers.
In other words, it's a big game.
There is also a visit from Penn State in men's volleyball as Sam Schweisky's team is home twice this weekend, as well as rowing and tennis.
The full schedule for Princeton games this weekend is here.
For the first time in awhile, it has a lot of events in bold.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Hank And Khristin
TigerBlog was on the verge of falling asleep last night when his attention was diverted by ESPN Classic's presentation of some "30 For 30" repeats.
If you haven't been paying attention to the "30 For 30" series, it's a series of documentaries by various filmmakers - including TB's friend from college, Jon Hock, who did one on former Oklahoma running back Marcus Dupree entitled "The Best That Never Was."
TB has watched many of the pieces in the series, and they've been, without exception, riveting.
Last night, TB was able to see the last 15 minutes or so of the one about Len Bias, the former Maryland basketball star who died of a cocaine overdose two days after the NBA draft in 1986.
When that one was over, TB managed to say awake for 60 more minutes, because he couldn't turn away from one second of the "Guru of Go," which was about basketball coach Paul Westhead and centered around the death Hank Gathers - who played for Westhead at Loyola Marymount - on March 4, 1990, from a heart ailment. Gathers' death came on the court seconds after he finished off an alley-oop against Portland in the first round of the West Coach Conference tournament.
TigerBlog was watching a different game on TV that night when the network, which TB assumes was ESPN, cut into the game that was on to show what had happened to Gathers. Like pretty much everyone else in the sporting world at that point, TigerBlog had become a huge fan of Loyola Marymouth, of Westhead's shoot-every-five-seconds "System," and especially of the team's two stars, Gathers and his childhood friend and high school teammate Bo Kimble.
Back when TB used to cover high school sports, he saw Gathers and Kimble play for Dobbins Tech in a tournament in the Trenton area. When they went to Loyola Marymount from USC when George Raveling took over the Trojans and dumped the pair, TigerBlog wrote a big story on Kimble for the Trenton Times after spending 30 minutes or so on the phone with him, during which time Kimble could not have been nicer.
Westhead, meanwhile, had coached the Lakers to the NBA title in 1980, Magic Johnson's rookie year, before Johnson decided he didn't like Westhead and famously orchestrated his removal as coach. From there, Westhead bounced around, eventually landing at LMU.
The Lions under Westhead were legendary for their conditioning, including running up a sandy hill on a beach, and the result was a combination of fast-paced offense and pressing defense designed solely to drive the opponent to exhaustion. Loyola Marymount didn't care if it gave up tons of points; the logic was that by the end of the game, their superior conditioning and familiarity with playing at that pace would eventually break the other team.
It usually worked.
LMU averaged 110.3 points during the 1987-88 season and 112.5 the next year and then turned it up in 1989-90, going for 122.4 per game, which is still the NCAA Division I record. Gathers, as a junior, led the nation in scoring and rebounding, and the program was approaching legendary status by the 1989-90 season.
The first sign that something was wrong came when Gathers collapsed during a game in December, and that's when he first was diagnosed with a heart issue. The medication to correct him made him sluggish, though, and he began to dial back on the dosage.
By March, though, he seemed to be his old self, and he pronounced himself 100 percent.
His death won't be forgotten ever by anyone who was watching the TV that night. Gathers took an alley-oop pass and threw it down like he always did, looking indestructible. Then, as he set up defensively, he suddenly stumbled and went down. He tried to get up and almost got his knees once before falling again, and he was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
Watching the video on the "30 For 30" movie, TB got the same chilled feeling he got when he first saw the horror, and it didn't seem like 21 years had passed by.
The most touching moment off the movie came when Westhead, Kimble, Gathers' brother and two other LMU teammates were all shown, one after another, completely speechless in response to either viewing the clip or being asked to talk about it.
Of course, LMU made a magical run in the NCAA tournament that year after making the decision as a team to keep playing and after the WCC gave the Lions its automatic bid, as the tournament was cancelled after Gathers' died.
LMU would beat New Mexico State 111-92 and then destroy defending champion Michigan 149-115 to get to the Sweet 16, where it got past the slowdown tactics of Alabama 62-60. The run ended when the great UNLV team blasted LMU 131-101, but the Lions had made a big statement on behalf of their fallen friend.
And no statement was bigger than the one Kimble made when, in Gathers' honor, he swished his first foul shot of the tournament lefthanded.
A year later, LMU wasn't quite the same team, but it still was the leading scoring team in the country. Westhead was now the head coach of the Denver Nuggets in the NBA, and Kimble was in the NBA as well.
Still, the matchup at Jadwin Gym on Selection Sunday 1991 - March 10, or a year and six days after Gathers' death - was an intriguing one, featuring the top scoring offense against the top scoring defense of the Princeton Tigers.
Tom Peabody, who was one of the people interviewed extensively for the "Guru Of Go" movie, and Terrell Lowery, who threw the alley-oop to Gathers on the play before he died, were still on the team that came to Princeton on a day that would be all Tigers, who won 76-48.
It's been 20 years since that game at Jadwin and 21 years since Gathers died. Khristin Kyllo wasn't even born yet when Gathers passed away.
Tomorrow, in conjunction with Princeton's Ivy League opening doubleheader in softball against Brown, the Tigers team will be honoring Khristin Kyllo, who passed away a few weeks ago, four months into her freshman year at Princeton, where she was on the softball team.
by inviting those who knew her during here time here at Forbes College to attend. Khristin's parents and other family members will also be there.
The softball team is honoring her on its game jerseys and batting helmets this year, and clearly Kyllo made a strong impact on this team in a very short time.
And like Loyola Marymount, the Tigers are left to carry on without her. It's not in the same public spotlight, but doesn't make her loss any less tragic.
TigerBlog used the word "indestructible" earlier to describe Gathers, but he was really talking about young college athletes. They are so fit, so healthy, so seemingly unbreakable that it's hard to contemplate that they could be hear one minute and gone the next.
The "Guru Of Go" brought the emotion of the Gathers tragedy rushing back to TB for 60 minutes.
For Khristin Kyllo, the tragedy is much newer.
In both cases, it's hard to think of it as real.
If you haven't been paying attention to the "30 For 30" series, it's a series of documentaries by various filmmakers - including TB's friend from college, Jon Hock, who did one on former Oklahoma running back Marcus Dupree entitled "The Best That Never Was."
TB has watched many of the pieces in the series, and they've been, without exception, riveting.
Last night, TB was able to see the last 15 minutes or so of the one about Len Bias, the former Maryland basketball star who died of a cocaine overdose two days after the NBA draft in 1986.
When that one was over, TB managed to say awake for 60 more minutes, because he couldn't turn away from one second of the "Guru of Go," which was about basketball coach Paul Westhead and centered around the death Hank Gathers - who played for Westhead at Loyola Marymount - on March 4, 1990, from a heart ailment. Gathers' death came on the court seconds after he finished off an alley-oop against Portland in the first round of the West Coach Conference tournament.
TigerBlog was watching a different game on TV that night when the network, which TB assumes was ESPN, cut into the game that was on to show what had happened to Gathers. Like pretty much everyone else in the sporting world at that point, TigerBlog had become a huge fan of Loyola Marymouth, of Westhead's shoot-every-five-seconds "System," and especially of the team's two stars, Gathers and his childhood friend and high school teammate Bo Kimble.
Back when TB used to cover high school sports, he saw Gathers and Kimble play for Dobbins Tech in a tournament in the Trenton area. When they went to Loyola Marymount from USC when George Raveling took over the Trojans and dumped the pair, TigerBlog wrote a big story on Kimble for the Trenton Times after spending 30 minutes or so on the phone with him, during which time Kimble could not have been nicer.
Westhead, meanwhile, had coached the Lakers to the NBA title in 1980, Magic Johnson's rookie year, before Johnson decided he didn't like Westhead and famously orchestrated his removal as coach. From there, Westhead bounced around, eventually landing at LMU.
The Lions under Westhead were legendary for their conditioning, including running up a sandy hill on a beach, and the result was a combination of fast-paced offense and pressing defense designed solely to drive the opponent to exhaustion. Loyola Marymount didn't care if it gave up tons of points; the logic was that by the end of the game, their superior conditioning and familiarity with playing at that pace would eventually break the other team.
It usually worked.
LMU averaged 110.3 points during the 1987-88 season and 112.5 the next year and then turned it up in 1989-90, going for 122.4 per game, which is still the NCAA Division I record. Gathers, as a junior, led the nation in scoring and rebounding, and the program was approaching legendary status by the 1989-90 season.
The first sign that something was wrong came when Gathers collapsed during a game in December, and that's when he first was diagnosed with a heart issue. The medication to correct him made him sluggish, though, and he began to dial back on the dosage.
By March, though, he seemed to be his old self, and he pronounced himself 100 percent.
His death won't be forgotten ever by anyone who was watching the TV that night. Gathers took an alley-oop pass and threw it down like he always did, looking indestructible. Then, as he set up defensively, he suddenly stumbled and went down. He tried to get up and almost got his knees once before falling again, and he was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
Watching the video on the "30 For 30" movie, TB got the same chilled feeling he got when he first saw the horror, and it didn't seem like 21 years had passed by.
The most touching moment off the movie came when Westhead, Kimble, Gathers' brother and two other LMU teammates were all shown, one after another, completely speechless in response to either viewing the clip or being asked to talk about it.
Of course, LMU made a magical run in the NCAA tournament that year after making the decision as a team to keep playing and after the WCC gave the Lions its automatic bid, as the tournament was cancelled after Gathers' died.
LMU would beat New Mexico State 111-92 and then destroy defending champion Michigan 149-115 to get to the Sweet 16, where it got past the slowdown tactics of Alabama 62-60. The run ended when the great UNLV team blasted LMU 131-101, but the Lions had made a big statement on behalf of their fallen friend.
And no statement was bigger than the one Kimble made when, in Gathers' honor, he swished his first foul shot of the tournament lefthanded.
A year later, LMU wasn't quite the same team, but it still was the leading scoring team in the country. Westhead was now the head coach of the Denver Nuggets in the NBA, and Kimble was in the NBA as well.
Still, the matchup at Jadwin Gym on Selection Sunday 1991 - March 10, or a year and six days after Gathers' death - was an intriguing one, featuring the top scoring offense against the top scoring defense of the Princeton Tigers.
Tom Peabody, who was one of the people interviewed extensively for the "Guru Of Go" movie, and Terrell Lowery, who threw the alley-oop to Gathers on the play before he died, were still on the team that came to Princeton on a day that would be all Tigers, who won 76-48.
It's been 20 years since that game at Jadwin and 21 years since Gathers died. Khristin Kyllo wasn't even born yet when Gathers passed away.
Tomorrow, in conjunction with Princeton's Ivy League opening doubleheader in softball against Brown, the Tigers team will be honoring Khristin Kyllo, who passed away a few weeks ago, four months into her freshman year at Princeton, where she was on the softball team.
by inviting those who knew her during here time here at Forbes College to attend. Khristin's parents and other family members will also be there.
The softball team is honoring her on its game jerseys and batting helmets this year, and clearly Kyllo made a strong impact on this team in a very short time.
And like Loyola Marymount, the Tigers are left to carry on without her. It's not in the same public spotlight, but doesn't make her loss any less tragic.
TigerBlog used the word "indestructible" earlier to describe Gathers, but he was really talking about young college athletes. They are so fit, so healthy, so seemingly unbreakable that it's hard to contemplate that they could be hear one minute and gone the next.
The "Guru Of Go" brought the emotion of the Gathers tragedy rushing back to TB for 60 minutes.
For Khristin Kyllo, the tragedy is much newer.
In both cases, it's hard to think of it as real.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Weekend Forecast
Pete Carril used to have this big blue behemoth of a car that, as TigerBlog remembers, was an Oldsmobile. It was part of his contract when he was the men's basketball coach here.
After he left Princeton, the car became property of the motor pool, and TB first drove it to the 1997 men's lacrosse game at Penn State. It was an awful weather day, with rain and snow and sleet and ice and all, and it actually drove the game inside into a football practice facility.
TB noticed that Carril had left an umbrella in the car, and TB used it in an effort to stay dry that day. When he got back to Princeton, he called Carril and said that he had left his umbrella in the car and did he want it back, to which Carril probably said something funny that added up to "you keep it."
And so TB did. For years, TigerBlog used Carril's old umbrella, a red, white and blue one that was a little smaller than a golf umbrella but bigger than one of those little ones that snap open. It was sturdy, held up to the wind and was perfect, at least as umbrellas go.
And then one day? It was gone. TB took it to an event at Prospect House on the other side of campus and never saw it again. Whoever took it, TB hopes they gave it a good home, treated it with respect and all that.
Since then, TB never really found a good replacement umbrella. They were either too big or too small and too brittle. Eventually, TB gave up on the whole umbrella thing, choosing instead to just go with the hood on the waterproof windbreaker and hope for the best.
Besides, umbrellas are tough. The wind easily makes them turn inside-out, and it's a constant struggle to keep them from turning the holder into Mary Poppins.
And then there's the whole umbrella etiquette. If one person is walking with an umbrella and another person doesn't have one, is the first person supposed to hold the umbrella over both of their heads? If so, what if the distance between the two people is such that the umbrella is only covering three-quarters of each of them?
Or, what if one of them is tall and the other is short? Then there's the problem of making sure that the person holding the umbrella isn't poking the taller one in the eye or anything.
For all that, TB is going to try it again. He's got himself a brand-new umbrella - and just in time, apparently, as the immediate forecast around here is a wet one.
In fact, northwest New Jersey could get as much as six inches of snow tomorrow, with a headline on one story that read: "April Fools' Day Snow Is No Joke."
Around here, it should be rain and wet snow with no accumulations until late Friday before clearing up to be a pretty decent weekend, with no real chance of precipitation and temperatures in the low 50s.
Compared to the last 10 days around here - or ever since spring started - it'll seem like summer.
Of course, a nice weekend around here would come just in time, as there are no fewer than 21 home athletic events between tomorrow and Sunday. There are also four on the road - two in men's tennis, one each in women's open rowing and women's lacrosse - for a total of 25 athletic events in about 46 hours or so.
It's a classic example of what broad-based athletic participation looks like on a spring weekend.
Actually, the biggest events could be the two men's tennis matches on the road at Brown and Yale. Cornell is the highest ranked team in the league nationally at No. 49, followed by Princeton at No. 58, Penn at No. 61 and Harvard at No. 70.
In other words, it's a fairly balanced league, so each match is huge. Brown might not be ranked, but the Bears are 13-2, and really no match in the league is a gimme. Princeton is 1-0, with a win over Penn in the only league match played so far.
Then there's baseball and softball.
Both of those teams play their first four Ivy games this weekend, starting a 20-game, 30-day sprint from 0-0 to the end of the season. If sports like hockey and basketball take months and months to get to the end, baseball and softball are lightning quick.
Princeton is home against Brown Saturday and Yale Sunday in both. Next week will be trips to Harvard and Dartmouth, followed by doubleheaders against Penn, Columbia and then Cornell. Opening day on April 2; closing day on May 1.
Besides those games this weekend, there will be rowing, lacrosse, track and field, volleyball, water polo and women's tennis on campus this weekend.
Looking for something to see and have less than 10 minutes to do so? Then be at Weaver Track and Field Stadium tomorrow night at 6 to see Donn Cabral run in the steeplechase, an event in which he was the NCAA runner-up last year.
And hey, bring your umbrella with you. The rain will just be letting up around then, clearing the way for a sunny weekend, one that's loaded with Princeton athletic events.
After he left Princeton, the car became property of the motor pool, and TB first drove it to the 1997 men's lacrosse game at Penn State. It was an awful weather day, with rain and snow and sleet and ice and all, and it actually drove the game inside into a football practice facility.
TB noticed that Carril had left an umbrella in the car, and TB used it in an effort to stay dry that day. When he got back to Princeton, he called Carril and said that he had left his umbrella in the car and did he want it back, to which Carril probably said something funny that added up to "you keep it."
And so TB did. For years, TigerBlog used Carril's old umbrella, a red, white and blue one that was a little smaller than a golf umbrella but bigger than one of those little ones that snap open. It was sturdy, held up to the wind and was perfect, at least as umbrellas go.
And then one day? It was gone. TB took it to an event at Prospect House on the other side of campus and never saw it again. Whoever took it, TB hopes they gave it a good home, treated it with respect and all that.
Since then, TB never really found a good replacement umbrella. They were either too big or too small and too brittle. Eventually, TB gave up on the whole umbrella thing, choosing instead to just go with the hood on the waterproof windbreaker and hope for the best.
Besides, umbrellas are tough. The wind easily makes them turn inside-out, and it's a constant struggle to keep them from turning the holder into Mary Poppins.
And then there's the whole umbrella etiquette. If one person is walking with an umbrella and another person doesn't have one, is the first person supposed to hold the umbrella over both of their heads? If so, what if the distance between the two people is such that the umbrella is only covering three-quarters of each of them?
Or, what if one of them is tall and the other is short? Then there's the problem of making sure that the person holding the umbrella isn't poking the taller one in the eye or anything.
For all that, TB is going to try it again. He's got himself a brand-new umbrella - and just in time, apparently, as the immediate forecast around here is a wet one.
In fact, northwest New Jersey could get as much as six inches of snow tomorrow, with a headline on one story that read: "April Fools' Day Snow Is No Joke."
Around here, it should be rain and wet snow with no accumulations until late Friday before clearing up to be a pretty decent weekend, with no real chance of precipitation and temperatures in the low 50s.
Compared to the last 10 days around here - or ever since spring started - it'll seem like summer.
Of course, a nice weekend around here would come just in time, as there are no fewer than 21 home athletic events between tomorrow and Sunday. There are also four on the road - two in men's tennis, one each in women's open rowing and women's lacrosse - for a total of 25 athletic events in about 46 hours or so.
It's a classic example of what broad-based athletic participation looks like on a spring weekend.
Actually, the biggest events could be the two men's tennis matches on the road at Brown and Yale. Cornell is the highest ranked team in the league nationally at No. 49, followed by Princeton at No. 58, Penn at No. 61 and Harvard at No. 70.
In other words, it's a fairly balanced league, so each match is huge. Brown might not be ranked, but the Bears are 13-2, and really no match in the league is a gimme. Princeton is 1-0, with a win over Penn in the only league match played so far.
Then there's baseball and softball.
Both of those teams play their first four Ivy games this weekend, starting a 20-game, 30-day sprint from 0-0 to the end of the season. If sports like hockey and basketball take months and months to get to the end, baseball and softball are lightning quick.
Princeton is home against Brown Saturday and Yale Sunday in both. Next week will be trips to Harvard and Dartmouth, followed by doubleheaders against Penn, Columbia and then Cornell. Opening day on April 2; closing day on May 1.
Besides those games this weekend, there will be rowing, lacrosse, track and field, volleyball, water polo and women's tennis on campus this weekend.
Looking for something to see and have less than 10 minutes to do so? Then be at Weaver Track and Field Stadium tomorrow night at 6 to see Donn Cabral run in the steeplechase, an event in which he was the NCAA runner-up last year.
And hey, bring your umbrella with you. The rain will just be letting up around then, clearing the way for a sunny weekend, one that's loaded with Princeton athletic events.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Mourning Khristin
TigerBlog was staring at the screen yesterday morning in the front of the room as a slide with the names of Princeton athletes who were representing their teams as part of a student-athlete wellness leadership group.
A few minutes earlier, TB had learned the unthinkable news that Khristin Kyllo, a freshman softball player, had passed away earlier that morning, and now he was in the Department of Athletics' monthly staff meeting, where the news had not yet reached.
As he looked at the slide with all the names, TB tried to figure out which athlete went with which team, a task that wasn't always simple.
Princeton has nearly 1,000 athletes spread out across 38 varsity teams. Back when TB covered many sports, he got to know a great deal more of these athletes personally than he does today, when he only directly covers men's lacrosse.
Some of the names and faces are more familiar than others, and many of Princeton's athletes are just what the list of wellness leaders were: names on the roster or headshots on the webpage.
TigerBlog sees them all the time. They walk into Jadwin or into Caldwell or around campus. They wear their Princeton Athletics gear, or ice packs on their shoulders and knees.
Sometimes, TB will recognize them from their headshots and know instantly a great deal about them, from their athletic accomplishments to their hometowns and high schools to their academic honors to many other kinds of information.
Usually, when TB passes by, he gives the obligatory "hey, how are you" and then moves on his way, as they move on theirs.
Only they're not just the person on the webpage. They're all individuals, with different backgrounds, different goals, different dreams.
They play vastly different sports, from America's most mainstream games like football, basketball and baseball to the more exotic, like fencing and squash. They come from all over the country, and all over the world, for that matter.
TigerBlog sees them all gather at freshman athlete orientation and assumes he'll see them nearly four years later, at the PVC senior athlete banquet. The overwhelming majority of them will be there, and the ones who aren't TB assumes won't be there because of things like general attrition or or some who will leave Princeton for whatever reason.
Death? That's not something TB is ever thinking about when it comes to these athletes.
They're so young and so well-conditioned and so confident that they look indestructible. Every now and then comes the grim reminder that nobody is.
TigerBlog never met Khristin Kyllo. She was one of the many Princeton athletes whose path never intersected with TB's.
After learning of her death, though, TB spent much of yesterday getting to know about her. And trying to make sense of something so tragic and so unbearably sad.
He learned how she had battled seizures since last spring, how she had spent time in the hospital, how her condition had doctors confused, how she suffered from memory loss. He was struck by a story about a time she went to a favorite restaurant and never realized she'd been there many times before and how a teacher at her high school in northern Virginia spent time with her helping her relearn subjects she had already had.
TigerBlog learned that eventually she was able to return to finish her high school softball season and graduate. He knew that her high school boyfriend tried to recreate their prom in her hospital.
It all led TB to wonder about more than he learned. How was she doing at Princeton? What was the significance of the unusual spelling of her first name (K-H-R-I-S-T-I-N)? What would her future with the softball team have been? What could her parents possibly be going through? What were those friends closest to her thinking?
He thought about all the times that he'd probably walked past her on the balcony of Jadwin, probably carrying a softball bat or a glove.
And he thought about the day that the freshmen softball players came in to get their headshots taken, the very headshot that TB saw on the webpage.
Why this headshot? Why this young woman, wearing her Princeton uniform for the first time, smiling broadly, thinking - hoping - that whatever had caused her so many problems a few months ago was a thing of the past and that her best days were right around the corner.
TB was haunted by this quote that he read in a story about her from last spring, coming from her father:
"The scariest thing is that you don't know the future," Tom Kyllo said. "You have a daughter who has everything -- athletic ability, intelligence -- then within a matter of minutes, it may be all gone."
A year ago, she was a 17-year-old whose future included an Ivy League education, Division I athletics and then who knows what?
And then yesterday, she was an 18-year-old who died in her sleep.
By all accounts, her death was peaceful.
It was also 70 years too soon.
A few minutes earlier, TB had learned the unthinkable news that Khristin Kyllo, a freshman softball player, had passed away earlier that morning, and now he was in the Department of Athletics' monthly staff meeting, where the news had not yet reached.
As he looked at the slide with all the names, TB tried to figure out which athlete went with which team, a task that wasn't always simple.
Princeton has nearly 1,000 athletes spread out across 38 varsity teams. Back when TB covered many sports, he got to know a great deal more of these athletes personally than he does today, when he only directly covers men's lacrosse.
Some of the names and faces are more familiar than others, and many of Princeton's athletes are just what the list of wellness leaders were: names on the roster or headshots on the webpage.
TigerBlog sees them all the time. They walk into Jadwin or into Caldwell or around campus. They wear their Princeton Athletics gear, or ice packs on their shoulders and knees.
Sometimes, TB will recognize them from their headshots and know instantly a great deal about them, from their athletic accomplishments to their hometowns and high schools to their academic honors to many other kinds of information.
Usually, when TB passes by, he gives the obligatory "hey, how are you" and then moves on his way, as they move on theirs.
Only they're not just the person on the webpage. They're all individuals, with different backgrounds, different goals, different dreams.
They play vastly different sports, from America's most mainstream games like football, basketball and baseball to the more exotic, like fencing and squash. They come from all over the country, and all over the world, for that matter.
TigerBlog sees them all gather at freshman athlete orientation and assumes he'll see them nearly four years later, at the PVC senior athlete banquet. The overwhelming majority of them will be there, and the ones who aren't TB assumes won't be there because of things like general attrition or or some who will leave Princeton for whatever reason.
Death? That's not something TB is ever thinking about when it comes to these athletes.
They're so young and so well-conditioned and so confident that they look indestructible. Every now and then comes the grim reminder that nobody is.
TigerBlog never met Khristin Kyllo. She was one of the many Princeton athletes whose path never intersected with TB's.
After learning of her death, though, TB spent much of yesterday getting to know about her. And trying to make sense of something so tragic and so unbearably sad.
He learned how she had battled seizures since last spring, how she had spent time in the hospital, how her condition had doctors confused, how she suffered from memory loss. He was struck by a story about a time she went to a favorite restaurant and never realized she'd been there many times before and how a teacher at her high school in northern Virginia spent time with her helping her relearn subjects she had already had.
TigerBlog learned that eventually she was able to return to finish her high school softball season and graduate. He knew that her high school boyfriend tried to recreate their prom in her hospital.
It all led TB to wonder about more than he learned. How was she doing at Princeton? What was the significance of the unusual spelling of her first name (K-H-R-I-S-T-I-N)? What would her future with the softball team have been? What could her parents possibly be going through? What were those friends closest to her thinking?
He thought about all the times that he'd probably walked past her on the balcony of Jadwin, probably carrying a softball bat or a glove.
And he thought about the day that the freshmen softball players came in to get their headshots taken, the very headshot that TB saw on the webpage.
Why this headshot? Why this young woman, wearing her Princeton uniform for the first time, smiling broadly, thinking - hoping - that whatever had caused her so many problems a few months ago was a thing of the past and that her best days were right around the corner.
TB was haunted by this quote that he read in a story about her from last spring, coming from her father:
"The scariest thing is that you don't know the future," Tom Kyllo said. "You have a daughter who has everything -- athletic ability, intelligence -- then within a matter of minutes, it may be all gone."
A year ago, she was a 17-year-old whose future included an Ivy League education, Division I athletics and then who knows what?
And then yesterday, she was an 18-year-old who died in her sleep.
By all accounts, her death was peaceful.
It was also 70 years too soon.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Make It A Good One, Strap
A priest and a rabbi walk into a bar .. ah, never mind.
You're not supposed to talk about religion and politics, especially in a secular blog like this one. Today's subject, though, is in fact religion. Politics will have to wait for another day.
Specifically, let's talk about the Ivy League baseball and softball schedule, which sees Easter Sunday doubleheaders for all eight teams. Is this right?
The answer is a simple "yes." What else is the league to do? For starters, the Ivy League is another secular institution. For another, the league can't get into the business of scheduling around religious holidays, because the potential to offend one religion over another skyrockets. To ask the league to decide which holidays - and by extension which religions - are more worthy of respect would be a disaster.
Now, if it's possible to schedule around major holidays, ones that fall during the week, so be it. Rearranging the whole league schedule on the weekends is not practical. In fact, the Ivy League tried to do this years ago by playing baseball and softball on the Friday/Saturday of Easter weekend but gave up on that.
TigerBlog remembers Easter weekend of 2000. Bill Tierney scheduled Cornell on Saturday and Syracuse on Sunday for the weekend of April 22 and 23, not realizing that the 23rd was Easter (which has to fall between March 22 and April 25, by the way). So what happened? Princeton lost 17-4 for the worst loss Tierney has ever had as Princeton head coach, but at the same time, a crowd of 4,743 (at the time the largest crowd in Class of 1952 Stadium history; now the fifth-largest) attended the game.
Former Princeton basketball player (and numerous others) Ahmed El-Nokali often played during Ramadan after fasting all day. There was also the Yom Kippur Saturday when TigerBlog attended services across the street from Brown Stadium with one of the members of the Brown team in his uniform pregame.
The point is that religion and Ivy League sports exist independently, which is how it should be. About the only religious holiday that TigerBlog cannot remember an Ivy sporting event on is Christmas (which is also a federal holiday). And TB feels that if ESPN wanted to do an Ivy basketball or hockey game on Dec. 25, it would happen.
As Norman Dale said: "God wants you on the court."
You're not supposed to talk about religion and politics, especially in a secular blog like this one. Today's subject, though, is in fact religion. Politics will have to wait for another day.
Specifically, let's talk about the Ivy League baseball and softball schedule, which sees Easter Sunday doubleheaders for all eight teams. Is this right?
The answer is a simple "yes." What else is the league to do? For starters, the Ivy League is another secular institution. For another, the league can't get into the business of scheduling around religious holidays, because the potential to offend one religion over another skyrockets. To ask the league to decide which holidays - and by extension which religions - are more worthy of respect would be a disaster.
Now, if it's possible to schedule around major holidays, ones that fall during the week, so be it. Rearranging the whole league schedule on the weekends is not practical. In fact, the Ivy League tried to do this years ago by playing baseball and softball on the Friday/Saturday of Easter weekend but gave up on that.
TigerBlog remembers Easter weekend of 2000. Bill Tierney scheduled Cornell on Saturday and Syracuse on Sunday for the weekend of April 22 and 23, not realizing that the 23rd was Easter (which has to fall between March 22 and April 25, by the way). So what happened? Princeton lost 17-4 for the worst loss Tierney has ever had as Princeton head coach, but at the same time, a crowd of 4,743 (at the time the largest crowd in Class of 1952 Stadium history; now the fifth-largest) attended the game.
Former Princeton basketball player (and numerous others) Ahmed El-Nokali often played during Ramadan after fasting all day. There was also the Yom Kippur Saturday when TigerBlog attended services across the street from Brown Stadium with one of the members of the Brown team in his uniform pregame.
The point is that religion and Ivy League sports exist independently, which is how it should be. About the only religious holiday that TigerBlog cannot remember an Ivy sporting event on is Christmas (which is also a federal holiday). And TB feels that if ESPN wanted to do an Ivy basketball or hockey game on Dec. 25, it would happen.
As Norman Dale said: "God wants you on the court."
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
By the Slimmest of Margins...
The Princeton softball team stands at 7-11 overall and 2-2 in the Ivy after its first weekend of Ivy League play. While the 7-11 partially represents the Tigers annually getting off to a late start compared to most other teams and challenging themselves by playing schools from warmer climes with much more outdoor practice, standing at 2-2 after splitting doubleheaders with Yale and Brown isn't where the Tigers wanted to be.
Princeton hadn't lost a game to Yale since 2004 and Brown since 2001, teams Princeton has two games against annually. Both came by one run, a theme that has befallen the Tigers all too often this season.
Of the last 16 Princeton softball games, 11 have been decided by a single run. Seven of those games have gone against the Tigers. That's one more hit with runners in scoring position, a ball dropping for a double instead of a single, any number of mini-situations that could have tipped it another way.
There are only a few Princeton teams that know first-hand about having had so many nailbiters in 2008-09. Logically, the soccer teams know about sweating it out; the men's team had 11 of its 17 games (65%) decided by one goal or end in a tie, while the women's team had 13 of 17 decided by one goal or end all square (76%). The hockey teams were up there in total number of one-goal games and ties, with the men having 12 such games (of 35) and the women also 12 (of 31), but that's out of a much greater number of games.
While soccer has long had the criticism that it doesn't have enough offense to keep fans who are used to 100-point basketball and 35-point football games interested, the same kinds of things have been long held about softball. It's all about the pitchers and small-ball, and most of the games end up 1-0 because there's hardly any offense.
Not true.
Last season, softball had 12 one-run games out of 49. At no time in the history of Princeton varsity softball, which began play in 1982, have the Tigers had more than nine one-run games in their first 18 (For completeness' sake, those seasons were in 2000, 1998 and 1992). No preponderance of 1-0 games around here.
The Tigers will return to play Wednesday at Class of 1895 Field for a 4:30 single game against Hofstra, which, for the record, has had six one-run games through 24 this season.
The 2-2 Ivy start can be made up. The 20-game league schedule accounts for that, and Princeton won't necessarily need any help as long as it keeps on winning. Cornell stands at 2-0 with two make-up games later today against Yale, while Penn and Columbia are both 1-3 in the Ivy South. Princeton will have two more each against Harvard and Dartmouth next weekend up in New England, along with four more each at Penn, versus Columbia, and home-and-home against Cornell. There's a long way to go.
Speaking of make-up games, Princeton has none this week. A big note of recognition goes out to the grounds crew, headed for softball by Garfield Brown, who worked early and tirelessly to ready the field after overnight rain for Sunday's doubleheader against Brown (and after overnight rain before Saturday's DH against Yale too). Princeton played Sunday, but the three other sites, to the south and the north, had their games washed out. Good job, Garfield.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Dr. K
Erin Snyder's last collegiate pitch came on May 20, 2006 at Louisiana State's Tiger Park (not to be confused with the other "tiger park," Class of 1895 Field), closing a career that saw Snyder win two Ivy League Pitcher of the Year awards (2005, 2006), the 2003 Ivy League Rookie of the Year award, three first-team All-Ivy honors and three NCAA tournament berths.
She may never have been more dominant than on the weekend of April 9-10, 2006. That Saturday, she threw a five-inning perfect game while the offense obliterated Yale, 16-0. Snyder got 11 of 15 possible outs via the strikeout, a number that was probably obscured by the 11 runs Princeton's bats put up in just the second inning. The top eight batters in the Princeton lineup each had at least two hits. Clearly, the day belonged to the offense.
Yale's softball sports information director, Tim Bennett, said to TigerBlog that day, "Good luck in the tournament." There were still 10 of 14 Ivy League games left to go.
But Snyder had more the next day, and her efforts are still recognized in the NCAA record book.
The first three Brown batters came up, and all three went down via the K. In the top of the second, same story. In the third, three more Ks. Nine outs, nine Ks.
The bid for 21 Ks ended there, with the first out of the fourth inning ending up in Brianna Moreno's glove in left field. Snyder quickly got back on track, and the next eight outs were Ks.
Entering the last inning, Snyder had 17 strikeouts. TigerBlog remembers joking about how Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson were still in reach with the Major League Baseball record of 20 strikeouts in a game. Of course, they had nine innings to do it.
The first batter of the seventh inning popped up to Cristina Cobb-Adams at shortstop, but the next two were punchouts. The result comes out every year in the record book:
Strikeouts in a Seven-Inning Game
19, Erin Snyder, Princeton vs. Brown, April 10, 2006
That's not the all-time NCAA record, but it's pretty close. Michele Granger from Cal, who went on to pitch Team USA to a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics, got all 21 Creighton Blue Jays swinging in a game in 1991, and all-time NCAA career strikeout leader Monica Abbott from Tennessee, an Olympian in 2008, fanned 20 Liberty batters in 2004. But then there's Snyder, along with Abbott, Angela Tincher from Virginia Tech and Abbott's understudy, Megan Rhodes from Tennessee, with 19 Ks in a game. Tincher pitched in the Women's College World Series, like Abbott's Tennessee team, and also no-hit the U.S. Olympic softball team in an exhibition game. Not bad company.
Yale and Brown haven't been to '95 Field since that weekend. The next year was Princeton's regular return visit to the two schools, and in 2008, the Ivy League opted to make the softball schedule identical to baseball, sending Princeton to Connecticut and Rhode Island again.
There will be no Erin Snyder for Yale and Brown to face this weekend, but the Bulldogs and Bears will have to contend with Michelle Tolfa, who did a remarkable job against No. 4 Stanford last weekend, and a Princeton offense that leads the Ivy League with a .291 average.
Let the Ivy League season begin.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
It's The Pit
A look out the window from TigerBlog HQ shows a quick reminder that it snowed yesterday. This was the big, thick snow, the kind that gathers on branches and weighs the trees down. When the sun came out this morning, the result was a reminder that nature has its very heavy moments.
Unless you're a baseball or softball coach. In that case, all you have is a frozen field covered with about 3-4 inches of snow. In any event, it's unlikely that either Clarke Field (home of Princeton baseball) or 1895 Field (home of Princeton softball) is going to provide much of a practice facility for either team prior to Feb. 27, when the baseball team opens at UNC Greensboro and the softball team opens at Chattanooga.
So where do you go? How about four floors below the main court at Jadwin Gym?
Down on E level sits "The Pit," which is beyond the indoor tennis courts. The Pit offers the baseball and softball teams batting cages, pitchers' mounds and most importantly a full-sized infield. It's not quite like being outside, but it does offer the opportunity for indoor intra-squad games and for pitchers and hitters to get in the preseason work they need.
Still, this figures to be another year when the first time the teams are on a real field will be warmups before the first game.
Unless you're a baseball or softball coach. In that case, all you have is a frozen field covered with about 3-4 inches of snow. In any event, it's unlikely that either Clarke Field (home of Princeton baseball) or 1895 Field (home of Princeton softball) is going to provide much of a practice facility for either team prior to Feb. 27, when the baseball team opens at UNC Greensboro and the softball team opens at Chattanooga.
So where do you go? How about four floors below the main court at Jadwin Gym?
Down on E level sits "The Pit," which is beyond the indoor tennis courts. The Pit offers the baseball and softball teams batting cages, pitchers' mounds and most importantly a full-sized infield. It's not quite like being outside, but it does offer the opportunity for indoor intra-squad games and for pitchers and hitters to get in the preseason work they need.
Still, this figures to be another year when the first time the teams are on a real field will be warmups before the first game.
Friday, December 19, 2008
A Comeback, And The Greatest Comeback In Princeton History
The No. 8 story on the goprincetontigers.com countdown of the Top 12 Princeton athletic events of 2008 is the softball team's twin rallies against Cornell to win the Ivy League South Division title.
Princeton trailed 7-1 and 11-6 in the first game before winning it 12-11 on a grand slam from Kathryn Welch and a two-run shot from Jamie Lettire in the sixth. The second game ended when Welch and Lettire homered in the bottom of the seventh for a 6-5 win.
It was a wild comeback, to be sure. You don't usually expect balls to be flying out of softball fields, where dominant pitching and slap-hitting usually win games. Princeton, though, hit 55 home runs last softball season, an extraordinary number.
Any talk of Princeton comebacks, of course, leads back to Feb. 9, 1999, at the Palestra. That was the night that Princeton trailed Penn 29-3 (after a 29-0 Penn run), 33-9 at halftime and then 40-13 at the first media timeout of the second half before coming back for a 50-49 win.
If you were in the building that night, you'll never forget it. If you weren't, you can't possibly imagine what it was like. It is the best comeback in Princeton athletics history, and there is ZERO chance that it'll ever be topped.
What amazes TigerBlog now, though, is that it's been 10 years already. This decade is simply flying by (what is this decade called, anyway? the zeroes?); doesn't it seem like yesterday that Y2K was the biggest problem anyone faced? Contrast this decade with the ’70s, which to TigerBlog will never end.
The twin countdown stories will now break for the weekend, to be picked up next week at No. 7. A break for Christmas will enable the No. 1 stories to appear on Dec. 31.
Princeton trailed 7-1 and 11-6 in the first game before winning it 12-11 on a grand slam from Kathryn Welch and a two-run shot from Jamie Lettire in the sixth. The second game ended when Welch and Lettire homered in the bottom of the seventh for a 6-5 win.
It was a wild comeback, to be sure. You don't usually expect balls to be flying out of softball fields, where dominant pitching and slap-hitting usually win games. Princeton, though, hit 55 home runs last softball season, an extraordinary number.
Any talk of Princeton comebacks, of course, leads back to Feb. 9, 1999, at the Palestra. That was the night that Princeton trailed Penn 29-3 (after a 29-0 Penn run), 33-9 at halftime and then 40-13 at the first media timeout of the second half before coming back for a 50-49 win.
If you were in the building that night, you'll never forget it. If you weren't, you can't possibly imagine what it was like. It is the best comeback in Princeton athletics history, and there is ZERO chance that it'll ever be topped.
What amazes TigerBlog now, though, is that it's been 10 years already. This decade is simply flying by (what is this decade called, anyway? the zeroes?); doesn't it seem like yesterday that Y2K was the biggest problem anyone faced? Contrast this decade with the ’70s, which to TigerBlog will never end.
The twin countdown stories will now break for the weekend, to be picked up next week at No. 7. A break for Christmas will enable the No. 1 stories to appear on Dec. 31.
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