TigerBlog was fascinated by last night’s Cavs-Celtics game and all of its implications. After 48 hours of the all-hands-on-deck media watch of the King, could Lebron inspire him to match his Game 5 performance in Detroit three years ago? Would we, as the ads like to claim, witness another historic night?
Somewhere between Bron-Bron’s first and ninth turnover, TB had a pretty good hunch the answer was no.
TB feels like the only true NBA fan left between New York City and Philadelphia — a fact that could quickly change come free agency this summer. While it is somewhat stunning to think that Lebron is out of the playoffs and the hated Celtics aren’t, there is something comforting in knowing that the individual could not beat the team.
Outside of a few exceptions, sports are traditionally centered around the team philosophy. Even some individual-based ones like track and swimming still honor the team ultimately; Princeton won four Ivy League titles in an eight-day stretch this past winter to prove that very fact.
But there may not be another sport that is as dependent on the team philosophy as rowing.
Eight rowers. One coxswain. One boat. One rhythmic motion.
For 2,000 meters, each member of the boat must be in absolute harmony with everybody else to achieve peak speed. The slightest of errors, be it at 300 or 1800 meters, can cost two to three seconds.
Two to three seconds will cost somebody the Ivy League title Sunday.
When current heavyweight coach Greg Hughes was leading the Princeton lightweights, he talked at length about the excitement of the Eastern Sprints (each team competes for the Eastern title Sunday, while all but women’s lightweight crew also competes for the Ivy League title). It is a day when all slates are clean, and an Ivy League title is only 4,000 meters away.
The day is fairly simple. All of the Eastern conference (EARC for men, EAWRC for women) crews are seeded into heats. There are the varsity eight heats, which determine the top champions, but also competitions for other J.V. and freshman boats. With only a few exceptions, a team needs a certain finish in a heat to qualify for a grand final.
That’s the first half of the 4,000 meters. You don’t need to be perfect, but you better be pretty good.
In the late afternoon or early evening, the six boats left standing (rowing?) will line up side-by-side. Between them and the Eastern and Ivy title is 2,000 meters of water. In that moment, eight rowers, each of whom spent countless hours on an erg preparing for these next few minutes, know that perfection is mandatory.
There has been plenty of talk (and there will be plenty more) that the overwhelming pressure of the series was what hurt Lebron most. But that was pressure spread over seven games in one of a possible four series. For these rowers, many of whom will never compete at a higher level than this, the pressure is condensed into seven minutes on one day.
And that’s not just for Princeton rowers. You don’t think the student-athletes at Harvard, Yale, Navy and Penn want to win just as badly? They will feel the same pressure too.
In many sports, you can analyze matchups and get a sense of how things should go. How has this line handled a blitzing defense? How does that point guard react in a press? Does this wrestler prefer to ride or be on his feet?
On Sunday, Harvard’s crew can’t go into a left-wing lock against Princeton. Yale can’t go into a four corners offense if it leads Cornell. Every team gets eight oars and 2,000 meters of open water to figure out a winner.
It is one of the great days of sport in the Ivy League, and it has the chance to be an incredible one for Princeton. Each of the Tigers’ four varsity crews has a good chance to make its own grand final, and three are seeded in their respective top two heading into the weekend. Lightweight rivalries (the men with Harvard, the women with Wisconsin) will be the story of those two championship regattas.
The heavyweight men, seeded fifth, are looking to bounce back from a disappointing effort last season and possibly stun some of the top ranked boats in the national polls, including Brown and Harvard.
And the open women, possibly the best story at Princeton this spring, are looking to punctuate a storybook regular season with its first EAWRC title since 2006. The Tiger women are ranked second nationally and have three boats with very real chances to win their respective finals. But with recent national powers like Brown and Yale lurking, they know that nothing is assured.
All we know is the 2010 Eastern rowing championships are Sunday, and thrills are most definitely assured.
And maybe Lebron will stop by to watch.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
World Stage
TigerBlog Jr. was told that the United States national team was practicing in Princeton prior to the World Cup, and his first response was that he wanted to go watch. When told it was closed to the public, he shrugged.
Then he started to run down some of the names of the players who'd be there: Ryan Boyle, Doc, Paul Rabil, and a few others.
TigerBlog pointed out to TBJ that this was the other World Cup.
TBJ figured it was the U.S. men's lacrosse team who would be on campus, practicing before the World Championships in Manchester, England, this July. Instead, TB steered him back to the correct team, the U.S. soccer team that will be here next week in advance of the World Cup.
Even TigerBlog will admit that the soccer event is bigger than the lacrosse event. Hey, TB is looking forward to the World Cup, which begins next month in South Africa.
The list of preliminary rosters for 31 of the 32 teams was released yesterday. Not shockingly, the only country not to release its roster is North Korea.
Of the 30 names on the U.S. team, TB recognized more than half. This is way up from the number of U.S. players he could name on previous World Cup teams, and this is largely due to: 1) the Fox Soccer Channel, 2) the great job of marketing that soccer has done in the last few years and 3) the fact that soccer is, as TB has said before, a perfect TV sport.
TB was even up on most of the Champions' League stuff, though that one semifinal game where the one team needed to a tie to advance and then went a man-down on a red card early and just packed it in for 70 minutes was soccer at its worst.
Also, TB isn't quite over what happened to Ireland in the final qualifying playoff stage, when an obvious handball by Thierry Henry of France wasn't called, knocking the Irish out.
And TB didn't understand why Conor Casey wasn't on the list for the U.S. team, which still has to be trimmed to 23. Casey was the one who scored the big goals in the final qualifier.
Speaking of trimming the roster to 23, how tough will it be for the seven who don't make the list?
Maybe one reason TB is so into the U.S. team is that it has such strong Princeton connections. It was great to read the wire story and all the other stories online that mentioned how the U.S. would be practicing here all next week.
The reason why, of course, is Bob Bradley, who played at Princeton and who coached the Tigers through the early-1990s, when TB covered a bunch of games for the newspaper, including Princeton's run to the 1993 Final Four.
Bradley coached current Princeton head coach Jim Barlow when Barlow played here in the late 1980s. Bradley's brother Scott is the baseball coach at Princeton.
Bradley left Princeton to take a risk on the new professional soccer league in this country, Major League Soccer, back in 1995, and he would end up being the head coach for three different MLS teams. Eventually, this path led him to the U.S. national team after the 2006 World Cup didn't quite work out for the Americans.
Now who knows what the immediate future holds for him and his team. The Americans start out against England and have a group, unlike four years ago, from which they will be reasonably expected to advance, with games against Slovenia and Algeria after England.
The team showed a year ago at the Confederation's Cup that it could beat the very best teams in the world.
If the U.S. can make a similar run in the World Cup, maybe even get to the semifinals, then Bradley will have stamped himself as one of the hottest coaches in the world. That accomplishment would be one of the great coaching achievements in the history of American sports.
On the other hand, not advancing out of the group four years ago cost Bruce Arena his job as U.S. head coach.
And it sort of starts here, with training camp next week. Closed, of course, to the public.
TB isn't sure about the lacrosse practices.
Then he started to run down some of the names of the players who'd be there: Ryan Boyle, Doc, Paul Rabil, and a few others.
TigerBlog pointed out to TBJ that this was the other World Cup.
TBJ figured it was the U.S. men's lacrosse team who would be on campus, practicing before the World Championships in Manchester, England, this July. Instead, TB steered him back to the correct team, the U.S. soccer team that will be here next week in advance of the World Cup.
Even TigerBlog will admit that the soccer event is bigger than the lacrosse event. Hey, TB is looking forward to the World Cup, which begins next month in South Africa.
The list of preliminary rosters for 31 of the 32 teams was released yesterday. Not shockingly, the only country not to release its roster is North Korea.
Of the 30 names on the U.S. team, TB recognized more than half. This is way up from the number of U.S. players he could name on previous World Cup teams, and this is largely due to: 1) the Fox Soccer Channel, 2) the great job of marketing that soccer has done in the last few years and 3) the fact that soccer is, as TB has said before, a perfect TV sport.
TB was even up on most of the Champions' League stuff, though that one semifinal game where the one team needed to a tie to advance and then went a man-down on a red card early and just packed it in for 70 minutes was soccer at its worst.
Also, TB isn't quite over what happened to Ireland in the final qualifying playoff stage, when an obvious handball by Thierry Henry of France wasn't called, knocking the Irish out.
And TB didn't understand why Conor Casey wasn't on the list for the U.S. team, which still has to be trimmed to 23. Casey was the one who scored the big goals in the final qualifier.
Speaking of trimming the roster to 23, how tough will it be for the seven who don't make the list?
Maybe one reason TB is so into the U.S. team is that it has such strong Princeton connections. It was great to read the wire story and all the other stories online that mentioned how the U.S. would be practicing here all next week.
The reason why, of course, is Bob Bradley, who played at Princeton and who coached the Tigers through the early-1990s, when TB covered a bunch of games for the newspaper, including Princeton's run to the 1993 Final Four.
Bradley coached current Princeton head coach Jim Barlow when Barlow played here in the late 1980s. Bradley's brother Scott is the baseball coach at Princeton.
Bradley left Princeton to take a risk on the new professional soccer league in this country, Major League Soccer, back in 1995, and he would end up being the head coach for three different MLS teams. Eventually, this path led him to the U.S. national team after the 2006 World Cup didn't quite work out for the Americans.
Now who knows what the immediate future holds for him and his team. The Americans start out against England and have a group, unlike four years ago, from which they will be reasonably expected to advance, with games against Slovenia and Algeria after England.
The team showed a year ago at the Confederation's Cup that it could beat the very best teams in the world.
If the U.S. can make a similar run in the World Cup, maybe even get to the semifinals, then Bradley will have stamped himself as one of the hottest coaches in the world. That accomplishment would be one of the great coaching achievements in the history of American sports.
On the other hand, not advancing out of the group four years ago cost Bruce Arena his job as U.S. head coach.
And it sort of starts here, with training camp next week. Closed, of course, to the public.
TB isn't sure about the lacrosse practices.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
The Dead Poet
TigerBlog got an email the other day, an email from an address that began with "deadpoet."
It always takes TB a second to remember whose email that is, especially when the message itself doesn't say so. Then it comes to him: deadpoet is Paul Franklin.
Specifically, the dead poet asked if we had "a flat space and an outlet" for him to use for a few hours Tuesday morning.
TB's response was: "Are you going to come here and do your ironing?"
Franklin, for those who don't know, is a writer for the Home News-Tribune, a local newspaper in Somerset County.
As it turned out, Franklin was going to be on campus, and he needed a place to work for a little while. While he was here, he said that it had been years since he'd covered anything at Princeton. What was it, he tried to remember. Oh yeah. It was the day Sydney Johnson was hired as men's basketball coach.
Johnson, of course, will be entering his fourth year at Princeton.
There was a time when Franklin or someone else from the Home News-Tribune (Bob Nobleman? Tara Finnegan?) would be here several times per week. Hey, when TB was in the newspaper business, back in his Trenton Times days, he was in this office at least three times per week.
That's how sportswriting was back then. You'd hang around the places you covered, and you'd get to know the people. There was no web, no email, no cell phone, nothing like that.
It was all face-to-face. And, of course, without the web, the people who worked in athletic communications needed to have those kinds of relationships with the local writers to get coverage of their programs.
TB can't remember the last time, before yesterday, that a local sportswriter just stopped in to hang out and talk to the people here. The coaches. The athletic director. Athletes. Administrators. Just to put a face to the name in the paper and to earn some trust and credibility.
When TB first started here, there were sportswriters around all the time. People like Chris Thorne from the Star-Ledger. Brian Dohn and Rich Fisher from the Trentonian. The Home News people. And of course, the granddaddy of them all, Harvey Yavener from the Trenton Times.
Of course, when TigerBlog first got into the newspaper business in the mid-1980s, it was still thriving. By the time TB started here, it was all about to change.
Today that whole profession is different, changed completely and forever by the web.
So far TB has received way more requests for credentials for the NCAA lacrosse tournament (opening round and quarterfinals) from websites than from printed publications. Everything is about a website, a blog, etc.
In many ways, it's for the better. The amount of information available has skyrocketed. This information goes directly to those who want it. Nobody has a monopoly on reporting. There are any number of points of view, any number of approaches.
It's great for consumers. How many websites do you go to everyday? How many other choices are there?
At the same time, it's a shame for what sportswriting has become. At its top levels, sportswriters are now way more about getting on TV and radio (and screaming when they get there) than they are about writing good stories. On the local level, everything is about high school sports, because Mommy and Daddy will always buy the paper when their kid's name/picture are in it.
Back when TB was a sportswriter, there were few better jobs out there. Maybe you didn't get rich. Maybe you didn't drive the nicest car.
But you had a great job, one that you had a great time doing.
TB continues to be a big fan of the new direction that athletic communications is going. Still, every now and then, when a Paul Franklin wanders in, TB gets a little wistful for the old days, back to a time when it was all about the ink, and not about the web.
It always takes TB a second to remember whose email that is, especially when the message itself doesn't say so. Then it comes to him: deadpoet is Paul Franklin.
Specifically, the dead poet asked if we had "a flat space and an outlet" for him to use for a few hours Tuesday morning.
TB's response was: "Are you going to come here and do your ironing?"
Franklin, for those who don't know, is a writer for the Home News-Tribune, a local newspaper in Somerset County.
As it turned out, Franklin was going to be on campus, and he needed a place to work for a little while. While he was here, he said that it had been years since he'd covered anything at Princeton. What was it, he tried to remember. Oh yeah. It was the day Sydney Johnson was hired as men's basketball coach.
Johnson, of course, will be entering his fourth year at Princeton.
There was a time when Franklin or someone else from the Home News-Tribune (Bob Nobleman? Tara Finnegan?) would be here several times per week. Hey, when TB was in the newspaper business, back in his Trenton Times days, he was in this office at least three times per week.
That's how sportswriting was back then. You'd hang around the places you covered, and you'd get to know the people. There was no web, no email, no cell phone, nothing like that.
It was all face-to-face. And, of course, without the web, the people who worked in athletic communications needed to have those kinds of relationships with the local writers to get coverage of their programs.
TB can't remember the last time, before yesterday, that a local sportswriter just stopped in to hang out and talk to the people here. The coaches. The athletic director. Athletes. Administrators. Just to put a face to the name in the paper and to earn some trust and credibility.
When TB first started here, there were sportswriters around all the time. People like Chris Thorne from the Star-Ledger. Brian Dohn and Rich Fisher from the Trentonian. The Home News people. And of course, the granddaddy of them all, Harvey Yavener from the Trenton Times.
Of course, when TigerBlog first got into the newspaper business in the mid-1980s, it was still thriving. By the time TB started here, it was all about to change.
Today that whole profession is different, changed completely and forever by the web.
So far TB has received way more requests for credentials for the NCAA lacrosse tournament (opening round and quarterfinals) from websites than from printed publications. Everything is about a website, a blog, etc.
In many ways, it's for the better. The amount of information available has skyrocketed. This information goes directly to those who want it. Nobody has a monopoly on reporting. There are any number of points of view, any number of approaches.
It's great for consumers. How many websites do you go to everyday? How many other choices are there?
At the same time, it's a shame for what sportswriting has become. At its top levels, sportswriters are now way more about getting on TV and radio (and screaming when they get there) than they are about writing good stories. On the local level, everything is about high school sports, because Mommy and Daddy will always buy the paper when their kid's name/picture are in it.
Back when TB was a sportswriter, there were few better jobs out there. Maybe you didn't get rich. Maybe you didn't drive the nicest car.
But you had a great job, one that you had a great time doing.
TB continues to be a big fan of the new direction that athletic communications is going. Still, every now and then, when a Paul Franklin wanders in, TB gets a little wistful for the old days, back to a time when it was all about the ink, and not about the web.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Unofficially Speaking
TigerBlog first met Brett Hoover back when Hoover was working at Penn in, what, 1990 or so? Looking back on it, TB can't remember where Hoover went after that, or, for that matter, when he resurfaced as the head of communications for the Ivy League.
TB and Hoover agreed on many, many issues in their shared profession, and TB was sorry to see Hoover leave the Ivy office a few years back.
Hoover had the perfect mentality to work at a conference office, which is way different from being on a campus (even though the Ivy office is actually on this campus). Hoover was a firm believer in promoting all things Ivy League, and he did a great job in building up the Ivy League website, especially with historical information.
He also is an outstanding writer, a point proven by his extraordinary piece on racial unrest centered around the 1970 Heptagonal track and field outdoor championships. You're not going to find too many better stories anywhere this week.
Not that TB and Hoover saw eye-to-eye on everything. Politics was one area where they didn't quite agree, what with Hoover being on the far left and TigerBlog being a moderate.
And, of course, there was the Ivy League's all-sports points championship. Hoover insisted that there was no such thing, since the Ivy League didn't recognize it. He didn't like when TB would write about such an honor, because to him it didn't exist.
Eventually, TB and Hoover agreed that TB would insert the word "unofficial" in there somewhere, and as a result it became the Ivy League's unofficial all-sports points championship.
Hoover also did concede that it would only come to officially exist after a team other than Princeton won it, but that won't be this year.
The three rowing championships that will be determined this weekend at Eastern Sprints (women's lightweight is not an official Ivy sport) are the last three Ivy League championships up for grabs this year. The outdoor track and field championships that went to Cornell last weekend were the 29th and 30th league titles awarded this academic year.
And the Ivy League's unofficial all-sports points championship, the one that doesn't really exist, will once again be won by Princeton, this time for the 24th year in a row.
For those who don't remember, the points are awarded based on Ivy League finish. If you win a championship, you get eight points; if you're second, you get seven, and so on.
If a sport has fewer than eight teams competing, the winner still gets eight points. If there is a tie at a spot, the points are split, so that two teams who tie for second get 6.5 points each.
Heading into the rowing championships, Princeton has 183.5 points, 27.5 points ahead of second-place Harvard. Since Harvard can get at most 24 more points by winning all three boats, Princeton has clinched the championship again.
On the men's side, Princeton has 88 points, 15 ahead of second-place Cornell. The women have 95.5 points, 10.5 points ahead of second-place Harvard.
Princeton has won 11 Ivy League titles, while Cornell is second with seven.
Anyway, that's 24 straight years of having what could be mathematically called the best overall athletic program in the Ivy League. That's not too bad of an accomplishment.
As TB always says when he writes about this, the fact that Princeton has won 24 years in a row doesn't mean that a 25th is guaranteed. The other schools are out there trying just as hard, and there is going to come a day when someone else wins.
Probably, anyway. On the other hand, it hasn't happened in nearly a quarter-century.
Think about it. When the streak started, no current Princeton athlete was born.
TB and Hoover agreed on many, many issues in their shared profession, and TB was sorry to see Hoover leave the Ivy office a few years back.
Hoover had the perfect mentality to work at a conference office, which is way different from being on a campus (even though the Ivy office is actually on this campus). Hoover was a firm believer in promoting all things Ivy League, and he did a great job in building up the Ivy League website, especially with historical information.
He also is an outstanding writer, a point proven by his extraordinary piece on racial unrest centered around the 1970 Heptagonal track and field outdoor championships. You're not going to find too many better stories anywhere this week.
Not that TB and Hoover saw eye-to-eye on everything. Politics was one area where they didn't quite agree, what with Hoover being on the far left and TigerBlog being a moderate.
And, of course, there was the Ivy League's all-sports points championship. Hoover insisted that there was no such thing, since the Ivy League didn't recognize it. He didn't like when TB would write about such an honor, because to him it didn't exist.
Eventually, TB and Hoover agreed that TB would insert the word "unofficial" in there somewhere, and as a result it became the Ivy League's unofficial all-sports points championship.
Hoover also did concede that it would only come to officially exist after a team other than Princeton won it, but that won't be this year.
The three rowing championships that will be determined this weekend at Eastern Sprints (women's lightweight is not an official Ivy sport) are the last three Ivy League championships up for grabs this year. The outdoor track and field championships that went to Cornell last weekend were the 29th and 30th league titles awarded this academic year.
And the Ivy League's unofficial all-sports points championship, the one that doesn't really exist, will once again be won by Princeton, this time for the 24th year in a row.
For those who don't remember, the points are awarded based on Ivy League finish. If you win a championship, you get eight points; if you're second, you get seven, and so on.
If a sport has fewer than eight teams competing, the winner still gets eight points. If there is a tie at a spot, the points are split, so that two teams who tie for second get 6.5 points each.
Heading into the rowing championships, Princeton has 183.5 points, 27.5 points ahead of second-place Harvard. Since Harvard can get at most 24 more points by winning all three boats, Princeton has clinched the championship again.
On the men's side, Princeton has 88 points, 15 ahead of second-place Cornell. The women have 95.5 points, 10.5 points ahead of second-place Harvard.
Princeton has won 11 Ivy League titles, while Cornell is second with seven.
Anyway, that's 24 straight years of having what could be mathematically called the best overall athletic program in the Ivy League. That's not too bad of an accomplishment.
As TB always says when he writes about this, the fact that Princeton has won 24 years in a row doesn't mean that a 25th is guaranteed. The other schools are out there trying just as hard, and there is going to come a day when someone else wins.
Probably, anyway. On the other hand, it hasn't happened in nearly a quarter-century.
Think about it. When the streak started, no current Princeton athlete was born.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Sorry, But It's More Lacrosse Talk
With apologies to the person who left the comment after Friday's entry about there being more sports than lacrosse, today we offer more on, well, lacrosse.
Before we get to today's point, TigerBlog feels the need to respond to the idea that he writes about lacrosse more than other sports. The answer is that while lacrosse probably does get more than its share of space here, TB is mindful not to overdo it. And in the last two weeks, he's written about among others track and field, tennis and crew, and there'll be more on other sports in the next few days.
And, the main site, goprincetontigers.com, would never favor one sport over the others. Here at TigerBlog, it's not as easy to balance it out all the time, and if that's a problem, TB apologizes.
Today, though, is all about lacrosse. Specifically, the question is whether or not the Ivy League tournaments were a good idea or a bad idea.
The logic for having the tournaments was mostly to help the league's chances of getting additional teams in the NCAA tournament. As it turned out, only one women's team (Penn) and two men's teams (Princeton and Cornell) made the fields when they were announced last night.
A year ago, without the Ivy tournaments, there were three men's teams (Princeton, Cornell, Brown) and two women's teams (Penn, Princeton) in the tournament.
On the women's side, Dartmouth is the highest ranked team not to make the tournament. The Big Green finished the season by losing to Princeton, beating Cornell in the opening round of the Ivy tournament, losing the Ivy final to Penn and then losing the regular-season finale 17-6 to No. 1 Maryland.
Did losing the Ivy final to Penn help or hurt Dartmouth? Would the Big Green have had a better chance had there been no Ivy tournament? Playing Cornell a second time didn't help Dartmouth, and having an extra loss to Penn might have helped in terms of strength of schedule.
Also, Princeton and Cornell, the other two teams in the Ivy tournament, weren't bubble teams. They needed to win the tournament outright to get in, because both were below .500. In a normal year of Ivy women's lacrosse, both of those teams would have been in contention for NCAA spots, which would have meant the tournament would have worked
On the men's side, Yale and Brown came into the tournament with an opportunity to play their way in (especially Yale), possibly with just a semifinal win. In both cases, they lost.
Had Yale beaten Princeton, it's probably that the Bulldogs would have been in, as well as Princeton and Cornell. Of course, that's something that we'll never know.
There is more to the tournament format than just whether or not more teams got into the NCAAs, though.
For starters, there's the whole question of economics, something TB won't begin to try to answer here.
Beyond that, though, there is the student-athlete experience factor. In this regard, the tournament was a gigantic success, at least on the men's side.
Before the tournament ever happened, the idea of the tournament completely energized the regular season, in ways that wouldn't happen if there was a tournament in basketball. With a double round-robin in basketball, the delineation from top to bottom becomes clearer, and there is much greater separation in the standings. Maybe an Ivy basketball tournament with only the top four men's and women's teams would be okay, but not with all eight.
In lacrosse, the result of the tournament was that six of the seven teams were alive for a spot in the top four through the final Saturday of the regular season, which, for TB's money, was the single greatest regular-season day of Ivy League men's lacrosse ever. Three one goals games, one in overtime. Had any gone the other way, the resulting effect on the field would have been dramatic.
And then there was the event itself. For Princeton's women, the Ivy tournament was the tournament experience for this year, with no NCAA bid out there.
For the men, the players were completely energized by playing in the tournament format. Yale and Princeton played a great game, and the Bulldogs nearly came all the way back to win it.
And then there was the final. TB has seen a ton of great Princeton men's lacrosse games in May, six of which have ended with a national championship trophy.
There was something different about this one, though. This was a fascinating battle of one team that always starts quickly and imposes its will on the other and another who has shown time and again that it can come from way back. Only this time, Princeton made it all the way back and won the game in overtime.
In other words, from a student-athlete experience standpoint, the tournament was a total success.
So, was it worth it? Depends on your point of view, it appears.
And coming tomorrow to TigerBlog? No lacrosse.
Promise.
Before we get to today's point, TigerBlog feels the need to respond to the idea that he writes about lacrosse more than other sports. The answer is that while lacrosse probably does get more than its share of space here, TB is mindful not to overdo it. And in the last two weeks, he's written about among others track and field, tennis and crew, and there'll be more on other sports in the next few days.
And, the main site, goprincetontigers.com, would never favor one sport over the others. Here at TigerBlog, it's not as easy to balance it out all the time, and if that's a problem, TB apologizes.
Today, though, is all about lacrosse. Specifically, the question is whether or not the Ivy League tournaments were a good idea or a bad idea.
The logic for having the tournaments was mostly to help the league's chances of getting additional teams in the NCAA tournament. As it turned out, only one women's team (Penn) and two men's teams (Princeton and Cornell) made the fields when they were announced last night.
A year ago, without the Ivy tournaments, there were three men's teams (Princeton, Cornell, Brown) and two women's teams (Penn, Princeton) in the tournament.
On the women's side, Dartmouth is the highest ranked team not to make the tournament. The Big Green finished the season by losing to Princeton, beating Cornell in the opening round of the Ivy tournament, losing the Ivy final to Penn and then losing the regular-season finale 17-6 to No. 1 Maryland.
Did losing the Ivy final to Penn help or hurt Dartmouth? Would the Big Green have had a better chance had there been no Ivy tournament? Playing Cornell a second time didn't help Dartmouth, and having an extra loss to Penn might have helped in terms of strength of schedule.
Also, Princeton and Cornell, the other two teams in the Ivy tournament, weren't bubble teams. They needed to win the tournament outright to get in, because both were below .500. In a normal year of Ivy women's lacrosse, both of those teams would have been in contention for NCAA spots, which would have meant the tournament would have worked
On the men's side, Yale and Brown came into the tournament with an opportunity to play their way in (especially Yale), possibly with just a semifinal win. In both cases, they lost.
Had Yale beaten Princeton, it's probably that the Bulldogs would have been in, as well as Princeton and Cornell. Of course, that's something that we'll never know.
There is more to the tournament format than just whether or not more teams got into the NCAAs, though.
For starters, there's the whole question of economics, something TB won't begin to try to answer here.
Beyond that, though, there is the student-athlete experience factor. In this regard, the tournament was a gigantic success, at least on the men's side.
Before the tournament ever happened, the idea of the tournament completely energized the regular season, in ways that wouldn't happen if there was a tournament in basketball. With a double round-robin in basketball, the delineation from top to bottom becomes clearer, and there is much greater separation in the standings. Maybe an Ivy basketball tournament with only the top four men's and women's teams would be okay, but not with all eight.
In lacrosse, the result of the tournament was that six of the seven teams were alive for a spot in the top four through the final Saturday of the regular season, which, for TB's money, was the single greatest regular-season day of Ivy League men's lacrosse ever. Three one goals games, one in overtime. Had any gone the other way, the resulting effect on the field would have been dramatic.
And then there was the event itself. For Princeton's women, the Ivy tournament was the tournament experience for this year, with no NCAA bid out there.
For the men, the players were completely energized by playing in the tournament format. Yale and Princeton played a great game, and the Bulldogs nearly came all the way back to win it.
And then there was the final. TB has seen a ton of great Princeton men's lacrosse games in May, six of which have ended with a national championship trophy.
There was something different about this one, though. This was a fascinating battle of one team that always starts quickly and imposes its will on the other and another who has shown time and again that it can come from way back. Only this time, Princeton made it all the way back and won the game in overtime.
In other words, from a student-athlete experience standpoint, the tournament was a total success.
So, was it worth it? Depends on your point of view, it appears.
And coming tomorrow to TigerBlog? No lacrosse.
Promise.
Friday, May 7, 2010
A Re-Laxing Weekend
The scouting report says that their top attackman is a great finisher who also sees the field, their big middie has a hard shot, their defense is very aggressive and their goalie makes saves, outlets the ball and generally takes charge of that entire side of the field.
TigerBlog is talking about the Lower Bucks-Central Bucks game Saturday morning for first place in the Southeast Pennsylvania Youth Lacrosse Association 7/8 grade Northern Division. Lower Bucks-Central Bucks. Now there's a rivalry.
What, you were thinking Ivy League tournament?
For the second time in five years, the sport of men's lacrosse is making national news for reasons it would prefer not to. TigerBlog has read a great deal about the current case, including an extraordinary piece on a website called sbnation.com.
On what would be considered the more mainstream sites, such as espn.com, every update to the story brings with it hundreds or thousands of reader comments. And, of course, many of the comments are from people who don't follow lacrosse closely, and almost all of those rip the lacrosse stereotype of spoiled rich kids from elite prep schools.
Lower Bucks has 18 players on its roster. Central Bucks probably has about the same. Of that group of nearly 40 kids, odds are good that none will become a Division I college player. But who knows? Maybe one will.
And then multiply that out by all of the leagues like Lower Bucks and Central Bucks that didn't exist anymore, and clearly the landscape of the sport is changing, at least at the youth and high school level.
The Lower Bucks and Central Bucks kids aren't poor, but they're hardly rich. For the most part they'll end up as public high school kids, just like the tens of thousands of other youth players around the country just like them.
Eventually, lacrosse on the college level will get away from the stereotype. And, who knows, maybe there will start to be a movement to grow the sport nationally with an expansion of the number of Division I teams, perhaps something that will one day trace its origin to Bill Tierney's move to Denver.
In the meantime, in the face of the horrible tragedy for which there are no words that can accurately sum up how sad it all is, college lacrosse hits its best time, with the end of the conference tournaments, the NCAA selections and then the tournament itself.
For the first time, there is an Ivy League tournament, won by the Penn women a week ago and kicking off today at 5 with the Princeton-Yale game at Cornell. The host school will face Brown at 8; the winners play Sunday at noon.
The tournament determines only the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The four teams competing have already shared the league title, and nothing this weekend will change that designation.
All in all, fans of Ivy lacrosse couldn't ask for more.
You have Princeton and Cornell, whose NCAA positions seem safe, and Yale and Brown, who probably need a win or even two to get in.
You have a very young Princeton team and a very, very young Yale team in a rematch of a game from March 27 that was tied 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5 and 6-6 before Princeton freshman Jeff Froccaro scored with 37 seconds left to win it.
You have Brown vs. Cornell in a game that Brown won two weeks ago, on the same field to boot. And down the road, in Sunday's final?
Any of the matchups are fascinating, but the one Princeton fans are hoping to see is one between their team and Cornell, after last weekend's dramatic and, for the Orange and Black fans, completely frustrating 10-9 win by the Big Red.
Of course, much of the lacrosse selections depend on RPI and quality wins. Could it be better for a team, mathematically at least, to lose? It's possible (but not something TB is going to get into here).
Stuck in the middle of the Ivy tournament is the 7/8 grade game. TB will watch both events with great interest and fascination.
In Ithaca, he'll see the best of what the sport has to offer, high quality Division I lacrosse played by nationally ranked teams in rivalries that date back a long time, in the case of Princeton-Yale to 1882, played by athletes who are also students at some of the nation's finest colleges. They play for teams that have great history and great presents, having battled each other in tremendous games this year and in recent years.
And in the youth game, he'll see a reminder that the game can be played with innocence, by kids who probably will never get to play in events like the college conference tournaments, by kids who are a walking monument to the game's evolution.
Go Princeton.
And Lower Bucks.
TigerBlog is talking about the Lower Bucks-Central Bucks game Saturday morning for first place in the Southeast Pennsylvania Youth Lacrosse Association 7/8 grade Northern Division. Lower Bucks-Central Bucks. Now there's a rivalry.
What, you were thinking Ivy League tournament?
For the second time in five years, the sport of men's lacrosse is making national news for reasons it would prefer not to. TigerBlog has read a great deal about the current case, including an extraordinary piece on a website called sbnation.com.
On what would be considered the more mainstream sites, such as espn.com, every update to the story brings with it hundreds or thousands of reader comments. And, of course, many of the comments are from people who don't follow lacrosse closely, and almost all of those rip the lacrosse stereotype of spoiled rich kids from elite prep schools.
Lower Bucks has 18 players on its roster. Central Bucks probably has about the same. Of that group of nearly 40 kids, odds are good that none will become a Division I college player. But who knows? Maybe one will.
And then multiply that out by all of the leagues like Lower Bucks and Central Bucks that didn't exist anymore, and clearly the landscape of the sport is changing, at least at the youth and high school level.
The Lower Bucks and Central Bucks kids aren't poor, but they're hardly rich. For the most part they'll end up as public high school kids, just like the tens of thousands of other youth players around the country just like them.
Eventually, lacrosse on the college level will get away from the stereotype. And, who knows, maybe there will start to be a movement to grow the sport nationally with an expansion of the number of Division I teams, perhaps something that will one day trace its origin to Bill Tierney's move to Denver.
In the meantime, in the face of the horrible tragedy for which there are no words that can accurately sum up how sad it all is, college lacrosse hits its best time, with the end of the conference tournaments, the NCAA selections and then the tournament itself.
For the first time, there is an Ivy League tournament, won by the Penn women a week ago and kicking off today at 5 with the Princeton-Yale game at Cornell. The host school will face Brown at 8; the winners play Sunday at noon.
The tournament determines only the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The four teams competing have already shared the league title, and nothing this weekend will change that designation.
All in all, fans of Ivy lacrosse couldn't ask for more.
You have Princeton and Cornell, whose NCAA positions seem safe, and Yale and Brown, who probably need a win or even two to get in.
You have a very young Princeton team and a very, very young Yale team in a rematch of a game from March 27 that was tied 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5 and 6-6 before Princeton freshman Jeff Froccaro scored with 37 seconds left to win it.
You have Brown vs. Cornell in a game that Brown won two weeks ago, on the same field to boot. And down the road, in Sunday's final?
Any of the matchups are fascinating, but the one Princeton fans are hoping to see is one between their team and Cornell, after last weekend's dramatic and, for the Orange and Black fans, completely frustrating 10-9 win by the Big Red.
Of course, much of the lacrosse selections depend on RPI and quality wins. Could it be better for a team, mathematically at least, to lose? It's possible (but not something TB is going to get into here).
Stuck in the middle of the Ivy tournament is the 7/8 grade game. TB will watch both events with great interest and fascination.
In Ithaca, he'll see the best of what the sport has to offer, high quality Division I lacrosse played by nationally ranked teams in rivalries that date back a long time, in the case of Princeton-Yale to 1882, played by athletes who are also students at some of the nation's finest colleges. They play for teams that have great history and great presents, having battled each other in tremendous games this year and in recent years.
And in the youth game, he'll see a reminder that the game can be played with innocence, by kids who probably will never get to play in events like the college conference tournaments, by kids who are a walking monument to the game's evolution.
Go Princeton.
And Lower Bucks.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Right On Track
TigerBlog used to work at the Trenton Times with a guy named Geoff Howell, who wisely left the newspaper business to become a lawyer.
Back then, and TB would guess to this day, Howell held the distinction of being the only person TB ever met who had seen every movie that won the Academy Award for Best Picture, dating to 1928 when "Wings" was the first to be so honored.
TB used to be a bigger fan of the Academy Awards, back when he used to go see just about every movie. There are two decisions that have always bothered TigerBlog.
For starters, how in the world could "Shakespeare In Love" win over "Saving Private Ryan" in 1998? "Saving Private Ryan" isn't exactly filled with laughs and a love story, but it may just be the best movie ever made.
Then there was 1981, when "Chariots of Fire" beat "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
As an aside, TigerBlog and BrotherBlog went to see "Raiders of the Lost Ark" back in December 1980, when they were visiting Aunt Frannie and Uncle Maurice in Florida. As a further aside, Uncle Maurice at one point was the mayor of South Palm Beach.
Anyway, when TB and BB were leaving the theater, the people behind them were ripping the movie. One of them said: "That was SO unrealistic." TB believes to this day, 30 years later, he has never heard a comment that missed the point by so much.
Not that "Chariots of Fire" was a bad movie. In fact, it was quite good. TB just felt "Raiders of the Lost Ark" took it to another level.
Maybe that's why TB never got into track and field the way he did some other sports. Or maybe it's that he can't really run that fast.
Princeton has 38 varsity teams who play 16 different sports (if TB is counting right). One of the best parts of working here is observing the different approaches each sport has to building its team, running its team, preparing its team and ultimately competing.
Track and field is one that an outsider can't really understand without a good deal of educating. Still, TB has a great deal of respect for what goes into it.
Through the years, the OAC has had more student workers from the track programs than from every other sport combined. This includes John Mack, who got his start working in intercollegiate athletics here at HQ and now is an Associate Athletic Director at Northwestern.
Not to mention a 10-time Heptagonal champion, something that is not easy to be.
Of course, the 2010 outdoor Heps come to Weaver Track and Field Stadium this weekend, beginning Saturday at 10 a.m. with the men's hammer throw and continuing until Sunday at 4:45 with the women's and men's 4x400 relays.
The Princeton women are trying to complete the "triple crown" of winning Heps in cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field, something that has happened once in program history, back in 1980-81.
As for the men, they're going for their second straight after winning Heps indoors this past winter. Outdoors of late it's been all Cornell, which has won the last seven titles; five times in that stretch Princeton was the runner-up.
Heps itself is one of the best annual events on the Ivy League athletic calendar. Any time all eight schools gather for one event is special, and the track meet is a two-day collage of races, jumps and throws with eight distinct colors mixed together.
It's certainly worth the trip.
Back then, and TB would guess to this day, Howell held the distinction of being the only person TB ever met who had seen every movie that won the Academy Award for Best Picture, dating to 1928 when "Wings" was the first to be so honored.
TB used to be a bigger fan of the Academy Awards, back when he used to go see just about every movie. There are two decisions that have always bothered TigerBlog.
For starters, how in the world could "Shakespeare In Love" win over "Saving Private Ryan" in 1998? "Saving Private Ryan" isn't exactly filled with laughs and a love story, but it may just be the best movie ever made.
Then there was 1981, when "Chariots of Fire" beat "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
As an aside, TigerBlog and BrotherBlog went to see "Raiders of the Lost Ark" back in December 1980, when they were visiting Aunt Frannie and Uncle Maurice in Florida. As a further aside, Uncle Maurice at one point was the mayor of South Palm Beach.
Anyway, when TB and BB were leaving the theater, the people behind them were ripping the movie. One of them said: "That was SO unrealistic." TB believes to this day, 30 years later, he has never heard a comment that missed the point by so much.
Not that "Chariots of Fire" was a bad movie. In fact, it was quite good. TB just felt "Raiders of the Lost Ark" took it to another level.
Maybe that's why TB never got into track and field the way he did some other sports. Or maybe it's that he can't really run that fast.
Princeton has 38 varsity teams who play 16 different sports (if TB is counting right). One of the best parts of working here is observing the different approaches each sport has to building its team, running its team, preparing its team and ultimately competing.
Track and field is one that an outsider can't really understand without a good deal of educating. Still, TB has a great deal of respect for what goes into it.
Through the years, the OAC has had more student workers from the track programs than from every other sport combined. This includes John Mack, who got his start working in intercollegiate athletics here at HQ and now is an Associate Athletic Director at Northwestern.
Not to mention a 10-time Heptagonal champion, something that is not easy to be.
Of course, the 2010 outdoor Heps come to Weaver Track and Field Stadium this weekend, beginning Saturday at 10 a.m. with the men's hammer throw and continuing until Sunday at 4:45 with the women's and men's 4x400 relays.
The Princeton women are trying to complete the "triple crown" of winning Heps in cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field, something that has happened once in program history, back in 1980-81.
As for the men, they're going for their second straight after winning Heps indoors this past winter. Outdoors of late it's been all Cornell, which has won the last seven titles; five times in that stretch Princeton was the runner-up.
Heps itself is one of the best annual events on the Ivy League athletic calendar. Any time all eight schools gather for one event is special, and the track meet is a two-day collage of races, jumps and throws with eight distinct colors mixed together.
It's certainly worth the trip.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Lots And Lots
To get to work, FatherBlog has to go through the Lincoln Tunnel every day. If he takes the bus, he has to go through the Port Authority building and walk a few blocks to his office.
He's actually one of the lucky ones. He lives not far from the tunnel on the New Jersey side, which means he's not dealing with the N.J. Turnpike or, way worse, anything that involves Long Island.
Here at HQ, we have a different take on the morning commute. One of the two traffic lights that TB has to deal with to get here can get a little backed up, and each morning people invariably cut through a strip mall to avoid the light.
TigerBlog once had a summer job in New York City. To get there, he would take a bus that would drop him off at 51st and Lexington, and he would walk from there to the office at 68th and Park. As an aside, something else for which there does not exist enough money to get TB to do is work in New York City.
Let's not talk about the actual commute, though. Let's talk instead about parking.
At Princeton, parking has become a huge deal, as more and more parking lots disappear in favor of construction. The impressive new chemistry building, for instance, is almost finished; it was built on what used to be Lot 15 by the armory.
Back in the Palmer Stadium days, TigerBlog used to drive his car into Lot 15 and then under the press box. Fortunately, the stadium did not collapse on his car, which as it turns out, could have happened.
Lot 15 was a big deal for those here at Jadwin, since you could drive through Lot 15 and then park right in front of the building if you had some short term reason to do so. When Lot 15 closed, it wiped out some key football parking spaces, as well as that access to the front of Jadwin.
Now, Lot 20 has gone the way of Lot 15. For those not well-versed in the campus parking map, Lot 20 is the one by Class of 1952 Stadium.
With that lot now out of operation, parking for lacrosse, field hockey and soccer games is more difficult. Lot 17 is the little lot by the tennis courts, and those spaces were reserved mostly for handicapped parking, as well as game officials and such. The majority of fans coming to the lacrosse game this past weekend - and to future events - had to park in Lots 16 and 23, on the other side of the circle.
For the record, while there is immeasurable joy in pulling up to the barricaded parking area and flashing a pass or mentioning your name to the guard and having the seas part just for you, TigerBlog gave up his space in Lot 17 and walked from Lot 16. Or was it 23?
Because Lot 20 was mostly used for parking on work days by University staff, those spaces had to be replaced. Most of the people who used to park there were relocated to Lot 21, the big lot by Jadwin Gym where athletic department staff parks each day.
The result is that Lot 21 gets pretty full pretty quickly. Even Lot 21A, the part of the lot off to the left that is reserved for athletics, is usually pretty crowded, even when Public Safety comes out to ticket those who don't belong.
Every time TB has to park all the way out in Lot 21, even close to FitzRandolph, he thinks of FatherBlog and laughs. On the one hand, it's inconvenient. On the other hand, it's still easier than the walk that 99% of the American work force has each day.
Through the years, there have been some spots around here that have become natural meeting places, but none of them have anything on Lot 21.
TB and women's track and field coach Peter Farrell often joke about how you can tell a lot about people based on how long they're willing to wait for you when you pull into the lot.
And then there are the conversations from parking lot to building, which range from the "how are you? what's new?" type to any number of subjects.
Today, for instance, TB walked in with another member of the OAC, the one who is the big NBA fan. TB asked him for his predictions on the playoffs (Lakers over Magic), where LeBron would be playing next year (Cleveland) and whom the Knicks would end up with (Joe Johnson).
It's, what, a three-minute walk from Lot 21 to the building? People will wait five, 10 minutes for someone to make that three-minute walk with at the end of the day.
Why? Because when you add up all those three-minute walks with the various people who work here, they become a huge part of the fabric of day-to-day life at Princeton athletics.
Years from now, the people who have worked here will remember the great games and the great coaches and athletes first.
The walks from the parking lot won't be at the top of the list, but they'll be close.
He's actually one of the lucky ones. He lives not far from the tunnel on the New Jersey side, which means he's not dealing with the N.J. Turnpike or, way worse, anything that involves Long Island.
Here at HQ, we have a different take on the morning commute. One of the two traffic lights that TB has to deal with to get here can get a little backed up, and each morning people invariably cut through a strip mall to avoid the light.
TigerBlog once had a summer job in New York City. To get there, he would take a bus that would drop him off at 51st and Lexington, and he would walk from there to the office at 68th and Park. As an aside, something else for which there does not exist enough money to get TB to do is work in New York City.
Let's not talk about the actual commute, though. Let's talk instead about parking.
At Princeton, parking has become a huge deal, as more and more parking lots disappear in favor of construction. The impressive new chemistry building, for instance, is almost finished; it was built on what used to be Lot 15 by the armory.
Back in the Palmer Stadium days, TigerBlog used to drive his car into Lot 15 and then under the press box. Fortunately, the stadium did not collapse on his car, which as it turns out, could have happened.
Lot 15 was a big deal for those here at Jadwin, since you could drive through Lot 15 and then park right in front of the building if you had some short term reason to do so. When Lot 15 closed, it wiped out some key football parking spaces, as well as that access to the front of Jadwin.
Now, Lot 20 has gone the way of Lot 15. For those not well-versed in the campus parking map, Lot 20 is the one by Class of 1952 Stadium.
With that lot now out of operation, parking for lacrosse, field hockey and soccer games is more difficult. Lot 17 is the little lot by the tennis courts, and those spaces were reserved mostly for handicapped parking, as well as game officials and such. The majority of fans coming to the lacrosse game this past weekend - and to future events - had to park in Lots 16 and 23, on the other side of the circle.
For the record, while there is immeasurable joy in pulling up to the barricaded parking area and flashing a pass or mentioning your name to the guard and having the seas part just for you, TigerBlog gave up his space in Lot 17 and walked from Lot 16. Or was it 23?
Because Lot 20 was mostly used for parking on work days by University staff, those spaces had to be replaced. Most of the people who used to park there were relocated to Lot 21, the big lot by Jadwin Gym where athletic department staff parks each day.
The result is that Lot 21 gets pretty full pretty quickly. Even Lot 21A, the part of the lot off to the left that is reserved for athletics, is usually pretty crowded, even when Public Safety comes out to ticket those who don't belong.
Every time TB has to park all the way out in Lot 21, even close to FitzRandolph, he thinks of FatherBlog and laughs. On the one hand, it's inconvenient. On the other hand, it's still easier than the walk that 99% of the American work force has each day.
Through the years, there have been some spots around here that have become natural meeting places, but none of them have anything on Lot 21.
TB and women's track and field coach Peter Farrell often joke about how you can tell a lot about people based on how long they're willing to wait for you when you pull into the lot.
And then there are the conversations from parking lot to building, which range from the "how are you? what's new?" type to any number of subjects.
Today, for instance, TB walked in with another member of the OAC, the one who is the big NBA fan. TB asked him for his predictions on the playoffs (Lakers over Magic), where LeBron would be playing next year (Cleveland) and whom the Knicks would end up with (Joe Johnson).
It's, what, a three-minute walk from Lot 21 to the building? People will wait five, 10 minutes for someone to make that three-minute walk with at the end of the day.
Why? Because when you add up all those three-minute walks with the various people who work here, they become a huge part of the fabric of day-to-day life at Princeton athletics.
Years from now, the people who have worked here will remember the great games and the great coaches and athletes first.
The walks from the parking lot won't be at the top of the list, but they'll be close.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Nice Hat
Did you see the SportsCenter commercial with Jorge Posada and David Ortiz?
No? In this commercial, Posada and Ortiz are sitting with an ESPN personality and discussing Posada's new hat, which isn't broken in. Obviously, Posada's hat is a Yankees' hat, and Ortiz obviously is a Boston Red Sox legend.
Ortiz tries the hat on, so he now has on his Red Sox uniform with a Yankee hat. Just then, the Red Sox mascot walks by.
When TB first saw it, his first thought was: "That's hilarious."
His second thought was: "How could Ortiz agree to do that?"
The SportsCenter commercials have always bothered TB somewhat. They are, to be sure, very, very creative.
On the other hand, there are two problems with them. First, they completely destroy the line between the ESPN on-air people and the athletes who are in the commercials. If Posada and Ortiz - and numerous others - are in these commercials, how can the people at ESPN objectively cover them during the bad times?
Second, the over-exposure of the ESPN anchors is too much. When TB was in the newspaper business, he loved the anonymity of it. TB could stand in the bagel place and see someone who was reading his story, and that person would have no idea that TB was the one who wrote it.
Today, all that is different. Today, it seems the goal of every media person is to be on TV and be on TV as much as possible. As a result, they achieve "celebrity," which, of course, appears to be the goal of the entire country these days.
Getting back to the Posada/Ortiz commercial, the question of how Ortiz could agree to do that is based on the idea that the Yankees and Red Sox are supposed to have as bitter a rivalry as any two teams in sports. And yet here is Ortiz, who along with Tom Brady is the most beloved athlete in New England for the last 20 years or so, on ESPN with a Yankees hat on? While wearing a Red Sox uniform?
Yes it supposed to be in fun, but isn't there a line that has to be drawn? Especially if the rivalry is as bitter as it's made out to be?
The answer is that in modern American professional sports, the rivalries and such mean more to the fans than they do to the players. Professional athletes in the major professional sports these days are more like members of an exclusive club, one that's not open to the overwhelming majority of society. That they compete against each other is irrelevant.
It's because of the money, of course. You think Otis Sistrunk would have worn a Kansas City Chiefs' hat while joking around with Willie Lanier back in the 1970s? You think the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants would have made such a commercial?
No chance. No, if you want to see real rivalries these days, you have to look beyond the pro ranks.
TigerBlog spent the last two Saturdays seeing this first-hand, in both cases in men's lacrosse. Two weeks ago in Cambridge, it was Princeton-Harvard, in a rivalry that dates to 1881.
For those who don't know, Princeton and Harvard didn't exactly get along in the early days. There was a time when Princeton and Harvard hated each other so much that they dropped all athletic contests between the schools for a 15-year stretch spanning the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th.
Princeton and Harvard play in 37 sports each year (Harvard does not have sprint football), and each one of those games takes on an extra meaning for the people who are competing in them and for the people who are watching them.
This past weekend - and possibly this coming one - featured Princeton-Cornell men's lacrosse. TB has written in the past that this specific matchup is now the Ivy League's best single-sport rivalry, and he saw nothing last week to dispel that notion.
Even if Princeton-Cornell isn't the best these days, it's way up there. Harvard-Yale football and Princeton-Penn men's basketball are by far the two greatest rivalries in Ivy history, but TB says it's Cornell-Princeton men's lacrosse today.
There's something a little different when you're playing a real rival or when you're watching your team play against a real rival.
Unfortunately for pro sports, the money has ruined it.
For college sports, especially in the Ivy League, it's impossible to ruin. These rivalries have too much history and are so ingrained in the people who care about them.
As for Ortiz and Posada, well, TB was at Little Miss TigerBlog's lacrosse tournament Sunday when he saw a woman wearing a Cornell men's lacrosse hat.
The money does not exist that would have gotten TB to wear it.
No? In this commercial, Posada and Ortiz are sitting with an ESPN personality and discussing Posada's new hat, which isn't broken in. Obviously, Posada's hat is a Yankees' hat, and Ortiz obviously is a Boston Red Sox legend.
Ortiz tries the hat on, so he now has on his Red Sox uniform with a Yankee hat. Just then, the Red Sox mascot walks by.
When TB first saw it, his first thought was: "That's hilarious."
His second thought was: "How could Ortiz agree to do that?"
The SportsCenter commercials have always bothered TB somewhat. They are, to be sure, very, very creative.
On the other hand, there are two problems with them. First, they completely destroy the line between the ESPN on-air people and the athletes who are in the commercials. If Posada and Ortiz - and numerous others - are in these commercials, how can the people at ESPN objectively cover them during the bad times?
Second, the over-exposure of the ESPN anchors is too much. When TB was in the newspaper business, he loved the anonymity of it. TB could stand in the bagel place and see someone who was reading his story, and that person would have no idea that TB was the one who wrote it.
Today, all that is different. Today, it seems the goal of every media person is to be on TV and be on TV as much as possible. As a result, they achieve "celebrity," which, of course, appears to be the goal of the entire country these days.
Getting back to the Posada/Ortiz commercial, the question of how Ortiz could agree to do that is based on the idea that the Yankees and Red Sox are supposed to have as bitter a rivalry as any two teams in sports. And yet here is Ortiz, who along with Tom Brady is the most beloved athlete in New England for the last 20 years or so, on ESPN with a Yankees hat on? While wearing a Red Sox uniform?
Yes it supposed to be in fun, but isn't there a line that has to be drawn? Especially if the rivalry is as bitter as it's made out to be?
The answer is that in modern American professional sports, the rivalries and such mean more to the fans than they do to the players. Professional athletes in the major professional sports these days are more like members of an exclusive club, one that's not open to the overwhelming majority of society. That they compete against each other is irrelevant.
It's because of the money, of course. You think Otis Sistrunk would have worn a Kansas City Chiefs' hat while joking around with Willie Lanier back in the 1970s? You think the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants would have made such a commercial?
No chance. No, if you want to see real rivalries these days, you have to look beyond the pro ranks.
TigerBlog spent the last two Saturdays seeing this first-hand, in both cases in men's lacrosse. Two weeks ago in Cambridge, it was Princeton-Harvard, in a rivalry that dates to 1881.
For those who don't know, Princeton and Harvard didn't exactly get along in the early days. There was a time when Princeton and Harvard hated each other so much that they dropped all athletic contests between the schools for a 15-year stretch spanning the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th.
Princeton and Harvard play in 37 sports each year (Harvard does not have sprint football), and each one of those games takes on an extra meaning for the people who are competing in them and for the people who are watching them.
This past weekend - and possibly this coming one - featured Princeton-Cornell men's lacrosse. TB has written in the past that this specific matchup is now the Ivy League's best single-sport rivalry, and he saw nothing last week to dispel that notion.
Even if Princeton-Cornell isn't the best these days, it's way up there. Harvard-Yale football and Princeton-Penn men's basketball are by far the two greatest rivalries in Ivy history, but TB says it's Cornell-Princeton men's lacrosse today.
There's something a little different when you're playing a real rival or when you're watching your team play against a real rival.
Unfortunately for pro sports, the money has ruined it.
For college sports, especially in the Ivy League, it's impossible to ruin. These rivalries have too much history and are so ingrained in the people who care about them.
As for Ortiz and Posada, well, TB was at Little Miss TigerBlog's lacrosse tournament Sunday when he saw a woman wearing a Cornell men's lacrosse hat.
The money does not exist that would have gotten TB to wear it.
Monday, May 3, 2010
175:32 of 180
Back in 2004, TigerBlog was the women's soccer contact during the team's run to the the NCAA Final Four. The key moment of the season, as far as TB is concerned, came when Princeton defeated Harvard during the Ivy season.
Before the game, TB wrote this in his game notes:
The ninth-ranked Princeton women's soccer team takes on Harvard - and some history - Saturday evening (7) at Lourie-Love Field. The Tigers are 5-18-1 all-time against the Crimson and haven't defeated Harvard at home in 12 years.
He also added this:
Princeton is 0-4-0 at home against Harvard under Julie Shackford. Princeton has not scored a goal in any of those four games.
About an hour before the game, TigerBlog was cornered in, of all places, the men's room at Class of 1952 Stadium (Lourie-Love Field had no bathrooms, and TB isn't a huge fan of the port-o-johns) by the father of one of the players, who informed TB that if Princeton lost, it would be because of what TB wrote. His implication was that the players had read that and it had them psyched out.
TB thought about that through the game, as Princeton completely outplayed Harvard, allowed one transition goal early in the second half and looked like it was going to lose 1-0. Then, with 41 seconds left in regulation, Emily Behncke finally got Princeton on the board, and then after Emily Vogelzang stopped a breakaway in overtime, Esmeralda Negron gave the Tigers the 2-1 win.
The whole time the game was unfolding, TB kept wondering if it was his fault that Princeton wasn't scoring. Had he, indeed, psyched out the Princeton players?
TB flashed back to that episode in the first five minutes of the Princeton-Cornell men's lacrosse game this past Saturday.
TigerBlog's pregame story (they're not game notes anymore) for the game referred to Princeton's struggles in the early moments against Cornell. And then what happened? History repeated itself.
Cornell won the opening face-off and scored on its first possession. It was 3-0 after five minutes and 4-0 after the first quarter.
In the last three Princeton-Cornell games (the one this weekend and the two last year), Cornell has outscored Princeton 8-0 in the first five minutes of the games combined and then had Princeton outscore Cornell 20-18 in the combined final 55 minutes.
Still, those first five were too much to overcome, as Princeton never tied the Big Red at any point of the three games. Cornell, in the 180 minutes of the three games, had the lead for 175:32. The games were tied for 4:28; Princeton never led.
Think about that. Cornell had the lead for 175:32 of 180 minutes. That's staggering.
You can go back further in history and find that Cornell gets off to a fast start every time against Princeton. In fact, you have to go back to 2004 to find a game where Cornell did not score first - and early in the game, at that.
So why does it happen? Is it TB's fault? Are the players psyched out by reading about this stuff?
TB can't imagine that it's the case. If anything, TB's belief is the opposite, that players who read that information are motivated to change it.
Whatever the reason, the game Saturday ended what has to be the single greatest regular-season day in Ivy League men's lacrosse history. There were three games with eight possible scenarios to affect the championship race and the field for the first Ivy League tournament.
And did you see the results? Yale beat Harvard 9-8. Brown beat Dartmouth 10-9, in overtime to boot. Had those games gone the other way, then Harvard and Dartmouth would have made the tournament field.
Then it was Princeton-Cornell. If the stat about how Cornell has had the lead for 175:32 of the 180 minutes of the last three games isn't wild enough, how about this for Princeton from Saturday:
Princeton had two separate scoring droughts of more than 20 minutes (20:40 to start the game and then 20:38 from the second to the fourth quarters) and then scored six goals in a 7:52 span of the fourth. Princeton had a chance to tie it at the end, which considering it was 9-3 after three quarters is amazing.
When the day was over, it was three one-goal games and a four-way tie for the league championship for the first time ever.
So where does it leave the Tigers? The NCAA tournament brackets are being debated on laxpower and Inside Lacrosse, but it seems that Princeton is secure in the field of 16. Getting a first round home game? That might depend on this weekend's Ivy tournament, to be held at Cornell, who won the tiebreaker.
Princeton plays Yale Friday at 5, followed by Cornell-Brown at 8. The final is Sunday at noon. The winner receives the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament; the four-way tie for the title stands.
TigerBlog is rooting for two things to come out of this. First, he'd love to see a Princeton-Cornell rematch, just to see if it'll happen again.
And second? Well, we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here, but how about a first-round NCAA tournament game with the ECAC champ at Princeton.
Before the game, TB wrote this in his game notes:
The ninth-ranked Princeton women's soccer team takes on Harvard - and some history - Saturday evening (7) at Lourie-Love Field. The Tigers are 5-18-1 all-time against the Crimson and haven't defeated Harvard at home in 12 years.
He also added this:
Princeton is 0-4-0 at home against Harvard under Julie Shackford. Princeton has not scored a goal in any of those four games.
About an hour before the game, TigerBlog was cornered in, of all places, the men's room at Class of 1952 Stadium (Lourie-Love Field had no bathrooms, and TB isn't a huge fan of the port-o-johns) by the father of one of the players, who informed TB that if Princeton lost, it would be because of what TB wrote. His implication was that the players had read that and it had them psyched out.
TB thought about that through the game, as Princeton completely outplayed Harvard, allowed one transition goal early in the second half and looked like it was going to lose 1-0. Then, with 41 seconds left in regulation, Emily Behncke finally got Princeton on the board, and then after Emily Vogelzang stopped a breakaway in overtime, Esmeralda Negron gave the Tigers the 2-1 win.
The whole time the game was unfolding, TB kept wondering if it was his fault that Princeton wasn't scoring. Had he, indeed, psyched out the Princeton players?
TB flashed back to that episode in the first five minutes of the Princeton-Cornell men's lacrosse game this past Saturday.
TigerBlog's pregame story (they're not game notes anymore) for the game referred to Princeton's struggles in the early moments against Cornell. And then what happened? History repeated itself.
Cornell won the opening face-off and scored on its first possession. It was 3-0 after five minutes and 4-0 after the first quarter.
In the last three Princeton-Cornell games (the one this weekend and the two last year), Cornell has outscored Princeton 8-0 in the first five minutes of the games combined and then had Princeton outscore Cornell 20-18 in the combined final 55 minutes.
Still, those first five were too much to overcome, as Princeton never tied the Big Red at any point of the three games. Cornell, in the 180 minutes of the three games, had the lead for 175:32. The games were tied for 4:28; Princeton never led.
Think about that. Cornell had the lead for 175:32 of 180 minutes. That's staggering.
You can go back further in history and find that Cornell gets off to a fast start every time against Princeton. In fact, you have to go back to 2004 to find a game where Cornell did not score first - and early in the game, at that.
So why does it happen? Is it TB's fault? Are the players psyched out by reading about this stuff?
TB can't imagine that it's the case. If anything, TB's belief is the opposite, that players who read that information are motivated to change it.
Whatever the reason, the game Saturday ended what has to be the single greatest regular-season day in Ivy League men's lacrosse history. There were three games with eight possible scenarios to affect the championship race and the field for the first Ivy League tournament.
And did you see the results? Yale beat Harvard 9-8. Brown beat Dartmouth 10-9, in overtime to boot. Had those games gone the other way, then Harvard and Dartmouth would have made the tournament field.
Then it was Princeton-Cornell. If the stat about how Cornell has had the lead for 175:32 of the 180 minutes of the last three games isn't wild enough, how about this for Princeton from Saturday:
Princeton had two separate scoring droughts of more than 20 minutes (20:40 to start the game and then 20:38 from the second to the fourth quarters) and then scored six goals in a 7:52 span of the fourth. Princeton had a chance to tie it at the end, which considering it was 9-3 after three quarters is amazing.
When the day was over, it was three one-goal games and a four-way tie for the league championship for the first time ever.
So where does it leave the Tigers? The NCAA tournament brackets are being debated on laxpower and Inside Lacrosse, but it seems that Princeton is secure in the field of 16. Getting a first round home game? That might depend on this weekend's Ivy tournament, to be held at Cornell, who won the tiebreaker.
Princeton plays Yale Friday at 5, followed by Cornell-Brown at 8. The final is Sunday at noon. The winner receives the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament; the four-way tie for the title stands.
TigerBlog is rooting for two things to come out of this. First, he'd love to see a Princeton-Cornell rematch, just to see if it'll happen again.
And second? Well, we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here, but how about a first-round NCAA tournament game with the ECAC champ at Princeton.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
