This Side Of Paradise

TigerBlog is reading "This Side Of Paradise," which was the first novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

He recently finished "Tender Is The Night," which Fitzgerald claimed was his masterpiece. He has read "The Great Gatsby" about a thousand times, or at least enough to be able to quote his favorite parts regularly.

TigerBlog is about halfway through "This Side Of Paradise." Whatever Fitzgerald thought, TB thinks "The Great Gatsby" is head and shoulders above either one of the other two.  

At the same time that he's doing this reading, he's also watching "Z - The Beginning of Everything," which is a 10-part series that tells the story of Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda. It's turned out to be a bit confusing, since "This Side Of Paradise" is somewhat autobiographical and it can be hard to remember what was written in the book versus what was done in the miniseries.

Because it is autobiographical, much of it takes place on the Princeton campus, a place Fitzgerald describes in great detail, including so many places that still exist today. It's pretty fascinating to read it, if just for that alone.

The main character is named Amory Blaine, and the first name was taken from the middle name of Hobey Amory Hare Baker. Yes, that Hobey Baker. Fitzgerald was in the Class of 1917, which made him a freshman when Baker was a senior. 

The book refers to a Princeton football captain named "Allenby," who is clearly supposed to be Baker. For the record, Princeton has never had a football captain named "Allenby," which is something TigerBlog knew when he first came across it early in the book.

"This Side Of Paradise" was published in 1920, so you have to consider the language in terms of that time frame. For instance, Amory is talking to his mother's friend about where he wants to go to college and says this:

"I want to go to Princeton," said Amory. "I don't know why, but I think of all Harvard men as sissies, like I used to be, and all Yale men wearing big blue sweaters and smoking pipes."

Is it okay if TigerBlog writes: "There were no Yale women back then, but it'll be Yale women on Princeton's campus this weekend, not Yale men?" Or is that way too contrived? 

If you think so, then forgive him and just keep going. 

The Yale women who will be here this weekend will be playing in the second game of a soccer doubleheader Saturday at 7 on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium. It begins with the men's game against Columbia at 4.

Those two games, by the way, are two of only four home events this weekend. The other two are the football game against Lafayette Saturday at 1 and the field hockey game Sunday at noon against Syracuse. 

The field hockey team has an Ivy League game at Brown tomorrow at 3 as the Tigers, who xxx Penn yesterday, are in the midst of a stretch of three games in five days. 

The Ivy League has added tournaments in both soccers and field hockey to this year's athletic calendar. The field hockey and women's soccer events will be the first weekend in November; the men's soccer one will be the following weekend. They'll all be at the home of the top seed.

Right now, the Princeton men are 0-1-1 in the league, which means they're one point out of fourth place and one point out of eighth place. With each league weekend that goes by, the race will start to tighten a bit, but clearly 1) it's a pretty balanced group of teams and 2) every point will be crucial.

Dartmouth, who defeated Princeton 2-1 two weeks ago, is 2-0-0 and in first place. Harvard and Brown are 1-0-1. The other five teams? They are a combined 0-4-6. 

As for the women, all eight teams played a league game yesterday, which TB believes is something new because of the tournament, which will end the regular season a week earlier than before. Princeton defeated Penn 1-0, giving the Tigers six points, tied with Harvard and Dartmouth behind Brown, who has nine. 

Behind them, Columbia has four, while Yale, Penn and Cornell have one each. 

Like the men, each point is big for the women. There will be three on the line for both teams Saturday at home in a doubleheader, one with no admissions charge.

Who's the Best

The Major League Baseball playoffs began yesterday with the Wild Card round. 

TigerBlog went back and looked at an ESPN.com story from March 28 that ranked all 30 Major League teams in order to start the season. To show you how difficult it can be to predict such things, the top six teams were, in this order: Houston, San Diego, Atlanta, the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Mets. 

How'd those picks work out? It's like the first six picks in the NFL draft. Three hits. Three misses.

The Orioles were picked 17th. Again, how'd that go? By the way, the Orioles in three seasons have gone from 52 to 83 to 101 wins. 

Texas was one spot ahead of the Orioles, at No. 16. Arizona was No. 21. Toronto was No. 8.

All three of those teams made it to the postseason. All three of those teams are led by Princeton grads: Chris Young (Texas), Mike Hazen (Arizona), Mark Shapiro (Toronto).

That's pretty good. There 12 Major League playoff teams, and one-quarter of them are run by Princeton alums — Princeton alums who played three different sports as Tigers between baseball, basketball and football.

Young, as you know, was a great basketball and baseball player at Princeton, and he went on to a long career as a pitcher in the Majors, during which he won a World Series and Comeback Player of the Year Award and pitched in an All-Star Game.

It's been 10 days since Tom Schreiber scored the game-winning goal in the Premier Lacrosse League championship game as his Archers team (coached by former Tiger head coach Chris Bates, with assistant coach and former Tiger goalie Brian Kavanagh and former Tiger Ryan Ambler) defeated the Waterdogs (with former Tigers Zach Currier and Michael Sowers). 

Schreiber's goal came with just over a minute left, as time was expiring on the shot clock, and was a spectacular individual move. His lacrosse resume now includes two World Championships (including the game-winning goal with one second left in the final), professional championships in both Major League Lacrosse and the PLL, MVP Awards in both of those leagues and a Rookie of the Year award in the National Lacrosse League (box league).

And that leads to today's question, which is this: Who are the most accomplished Princeton athletes outside of what they did as Tigers?

Usually, when the subject is about who the greatest Princeton athletes of all time are, the caveat is that it can only include what they did as undergrads while they were representing the Tigers. This question is the opposite of that. 

For instance, Scott Bacigalupo is one of the greatest collegiate lacrosse players of all time who didn't have the chance to do much post-Princeton. Matt Striebel was a really, really good player at Princeton who went on to become one of the greatest professional and international lacrosse players ever (as well as one of the great pickup basketball players ever). His spot in the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame was earned through what he did post-Princeton, so he would be higher on this list than Bacigalupo.

By the way, the subject here is sports, not anything else they accomplished. And TigerBlog is only talking about athletes here.

Understanding the criteria, who gets your vote? 

The three obvious choices are Ashleigh Johnson from water polo, Caroline Lind from rowing and of course Bill Bradley in basketball. All three are Olympic gold medalists; Lind and Johnson have two golds and have been the best in the world at what they do at various points of their careers.

Bradley, in addition to his international career, was a cornerstone of two NBA titles with the New York Knicks. Since his era, the Knicks have won zero additional titles, though it's only been 50 years.

Not shockingly, those three are also on the very short list for the greatest athletes at Princeton as well. So where does that leave the discussion? 

For starters, there's a matter of opportunity. 

Recent men's lacrosse players, for instance, have had the chance to win championships in the professional leagues and at the World Championships  — and several have. Then there is the other end of the spectrum, the athletes who compete in sports where having that kind of international and professional success doesn't present itself as readily.

TigerBlog started to make a list, a top 10 of sorts, but it's way too difficult, and subjective. That alone is a testament to just how accomplished Princeton athletes are post-Princeton. 

He came up with names in football, hockey, soccer, basketball, lacrosse, rowing, track and field, squash, field hockey, water polo, and swimming and diving — and that was just off the top of his head. 

Want a few names? Young, obviously. Schreiber is certainly moving up the list. Anne Marden. Donn Cabral is already up there. Jeff Halpern. Julia Ratcliffe. Lizzie Bird. Brian Taylor. Armond Hill. Geoff Petrie. Andreanne Morin. Lauren Wilkinson. Lynn Jennings. Moe Berg. Charlie Gogolak.

If you don't know who some of them are, they all did amazing things either as professional or international athletes.

Your list can go in any direction you'd like. It's certainly an interesting debate to have if you'd like.

In the meantime, the playoffs are underway. It would be great to see the three Princetonians all get out of the first round.

The Penalty Shootout

Is eight seconds a long time?

Depends if you're shooting or defending in a field hockey penalty shootout, apparently.

For a little context, college field hockey games consist of four 15-minute quarters. If there is a tie at the end, then it goes to two 10-minute overtimes, though the first goal wins. One quirk of the field hockey overtime is that four players are taken off the field, and teams go from playing 11v11 to 7v7.

If that doesn't break the tie, then it goes to a penalty shootout. This is not like penalty kicks in soccer, or even penalty strokes in field hockey. 

Instead, the ball is placed on the restraining line 23 meters from the goal. Eight seconds are put on the clock. When the umpire blows the whistle, the shooter has eight seconds to attempt to score. Play continues until the ball is in the goal, knocked out of the circle or goes out of bounds or until the horn sounds after those eight seconds.

Each team gets five chances, just like in soccer. If it's still tied after five, it goes to sudden death and continues that way until there is a winner. 

If you've been following TigerBlog's theories through the years, you know that he is not a fan of penalty kicks used to decide knockout games in soccer, whether it's the World Cup or the NCAA tournament. In field hockey, the penalty shootout is a bit more balanced, giving a mostly equal chance for shooter and goalie. 

If you're not going to have ties, then you have two choices: keep playing until someone scores, or go to this sort of definitive tiebreaker. While TB would still prefer to see games keep going, he's much more okay with the field hockey penalty shootout.

One thing that is inarguable is that it is unbelievably dramatic. Take Friday's game between Princeton and Cornell on Bedford Field. 

Actually, TB will get back to the shootout later. First, there was the matter of what happened before the game. 

Field hockey fields are watered pregame, and they're watered by huge, strong, high-paced water cannons. You definitely don't want to be standing next to one when it goes off — and now TB can tell you that from first-hand experience, as he was zapped with the water cannon at midfield. 

When he got home from the game, he was still able to wring water out of his clothes. His sneakers, by the way, are still wet. Also, he sends a special thank you to Derek Griesdorn, from the equipment room, for getting him dry shorts and a t-shirt and Anna Pitingolo from the marketing office for going and getting them. 

Anyway, fast-forwarding through the game, Princeton and Cornell ended regulation at 2-2. Then they went through the two 10-minute OTs without a goal, though Cornell certainly had a massive chance when a turnover led to a breakaway that Tiger goalie Robyn Thompson stopped and cleared.

When the clock got to zeroes again, it was time for the shootout. And for the eight-second clock. 

And, as TB said before, those eight seconds seemed to take forever when Cornell was shooting and zoom by when Princeton was. A player would start towards the circle. TB would glance at the clock. Then back to the field. Then back to the clock.

Imagine what it had to be like to be on the field?

Both teams scored on their first attempt. After that, there would be 12 more attempts but only one goal, as Thompson and Cornell's Martha Broderick were both fantastic.

The lone goal came on the second round of sudden death, when Princeton's Helena Große snuck one into the cage. Thompson made one more save, and Princeton had the win. 

If you're keeping track, Thompson turned aside the final six shots that came her way, and that doesn't even take into account the breakaway in the second OT.

The win was big, as Cornell was 2-0 in the league heading in. Now Princeton is 2-0, one of three unbeatens, along with Harvard (3-0) and Penn (2-0). The Quakers are on Bedford Field tomorrow at 4 for yet another big game.

Remember, this is the first year of the Ivy League tournament in field hockey. The top four teams will make the tournament, which will be held at the site of the No. 1 seed, and the winner will get the league's automatic NCAA tournament bid. The Ivy League champion (or champions) will be considered the team (or teams) who win the regular season.

Going For A Drive

First and 10 at the Princeton 19. Princeton drive starts at 12:14.

Princeton and Columbia played in the mist of Powers Field at Princeton Stadium Friday night. It was the first Ivy League game for both. The Tigers defense was magnificent all evening, but a two-yard interception return had the Lions on top 7-3 into the fourth quarter. Princeton forced a Columbia punt, and with 12:14 left the Tigers took over on their own 19.

First and 10. Blake Stenstrom pass complete short right to Tamatoa Falatea for six yards to the Princeton 25.

Princeton has won 13 Ivy League championships. It has never won an Ivy League championship when it hasn't won its first Ivy game. 

Second and 4. Blake Stenstrom rush middle for 3 yard loss to the Princeton 22. 

It had not been a great offensive night for the Tigers. In fact, when this drive started, Princeton had for the night only 182 yards in total offense and had converted four of 12 third downs.

Third and 7. Blake Stenstrom pass complete short right to Darion Murphy for 9 yards to the Princeton 31. FIRST DOWN.

The play was nothing fancy. Murphy pretended like he was blocking and then flared out to the right. He made one tackler miss and got the first down easily. 

First and 10. Blake Stenstrom pass incomplete short right to Dareion Murphy

Princeton had defeated San Diego 23-12 in its opener two weeks earlier in the California sunshine. When the Tigers played their home opener last weekend, it was in the remnants of a hurricane. Nothing was easy offensively. Princeton would lose that game 16-13 in overtime to Bryant. The weather wasn't quite as bad Friday night, but it was hardly conducive to throwing the ball with the rain and wind.

Second and 10. Jiggie Carr rush middle for 22 yards to the Columbia 47. FIRST DOWN.

This play was huge. Carr tried the middle and was hit immediately by three Columbia defenders. The play by all rights should have ended there, and it would have been third and long. Instead, Carr bounced off those three and then shed two more Columbia tackles as he got to the corner. By the time he was taken out of bounds, the Tigers had crossed midfield, something they had done only once on the previous four drives and only twice on the previous eight. 

First and 10. Jiggie Carr rush middle for 0 yards to the Columbia 47. 

There was now 9:30 left in the fourth. Columbia's defense had now gone 128:33 since allowing a touchdown.

Second and 10. Blake Stenstrom rush middle for three yards to the Columbia 44.

Other than the Carr run for 22 yards, Princeton had picked up 26 yards on the six other plays on the drive. It was a patient offense, to be sure.

Third and 7. Blake Stenstrom pass complete short middle to A.J. Barber for 11 yards to the Columbia 33. FIRST DOWN.

Princeton was now 2 for 2 on third downs on the drive, both of which were third and seven. In other words, they weren't easy conversions. This one was especially tough, as Stenstrom was forced out of the pocket but found Barber, who had smartly found an open spot well beyond the first-down marker.

First and 10. John Volker rush for 2 yards to the Columbia 31.

The last 24 Columbia drives to this point had seen the opponent come up pointless 22 times, with only a pair of field goals mixed in. 

Second and 8. Blake Stenstrom pass complete short right to JoJo Hawkins for 2 yards to the Columbia 29.

This play was snapped just as the clock dipped below seven minutes to go. Princeton had controlled it for more than five minutes, which was good, but now the thinking had to shift to the toughest question to answer in this situation: At what point do you start to think that you might not get the ball back if you don't get a touchdown here?

Third and 6. Blake Stenstrom pass incomplete to A.J. Barber. 

The Tigers were lucky that the pass wasn't intercepted. Now it was fourth down and 6, with 6:18 on the clock. What do you do? There are three options. Try a 46-yard field goal on a rough night for kicking and then hope the defense gets you the ball back. Punt it (possibly another pooch punt from Stenstrom), pin the Lions down and hope the defense gets you the ball back. Go for it. If you've watched Bob Surace coach at Princeton, you knew that he had already eliminated No. 1 and No. 2.

Fourth and 6. Blake Stenstrom pass complete to Luke Colello for 8 yards to the Columbia 21. FIRST DOWN.

Stenstrom had great protection. His throw to Colello was a little behind him, but it was also in the only place where no Columbia defender had a shot at it. Would Colello hang on? Yes. He also cradled the ball with everything he had when he hit the ground. This ball was not getting away from him. 

First and 10. Blake Stenstrom pass incomplete to JoJo Hawkins.

Stenstrom had Hawkins open briefly, but a Columbia defender got a hand in the way and tipped the ball from Hawkins. Now what?

Second and 10. Jiggie Carr rush middle for 2 yards to the Columbia 19. 

When the next play would be snapped, the clock was under five minutes. Princeton had two remaining timeouts. Now you're really thinking about whether you'll get the ball back.

Third and 8. Jiggie Carr rush middle for 6 yards to the Columbia 13. 

This was a tough run by Carr, who spun his way for about four more yards than he otherwise would have had. Field goal or go for it? A field goal makes it 7-6 with now less than four minutes to go, meaning a three-and-out gives you a chance to drive for a winning FG. Again, Surace never entertained that thought. This was go-for-it all along. How do you know? First, Princeton didn't call a timeout between third and fourth down, meaning that there was already a play in mind. Second, you don't run that play on third down unless you're going for it on fourth.

Fourth and 2. Blake Stenstrom pass complete to Luke Colello for 3 yards to the Columbia 10. FIRST DOWN.

The Tigers just beat the play clock to get this off in the first place. Colello ran a slant pattern, and Stenstrom hit him perfectly. They both knew exactly how many yards they needed for the first down, and again Colello was not letting this ball get away. This was a bigger moment than the last fourth down. Had Princeton not converted the earlier fourth, there was still a really good chance the Tigers would get the ball back. This time, with now 3:45 or so to go, had Princeton not gotten the first down and Columbia then gotten one first down of its own, that would almost certainly have been that. Either way, even if Princeton did get a three-and-out, it would have spent its two remaining timeouts, meaning it would have to drive presumably 70 or so yards in about 2:30 without a timeout.

First and 10. John Volker rush 2 yards to the Columbia 8.

These were two tough yards. They were also something of a foreshadow. The clock, by the way, was now under three minutes. 

Second and 8. Blake Stenstrom pass incomplete to John Volker.

Good defense by Columbia stopped Stenstrom's pass, but even had it been complete, the play would have been for minimal gain. It did stop the clock, which now had 2:50 left. 

Third and 8. Blake Stenstrom pass complete to Tyler Picinic for 7 yards to the Columbia 1.

Picinic lined up wide right, caught the pass and then took on three Columbia defenders. Had it been two, he probably would have gotten in. Instead, it was now fourth and 1. Columbia called its first timeout, with 2:14 to go.

Fourth and 1. John Volker rush middle for 1 yard and a touchdown. Jeffrey Sexton extra point is good. Princeton 10, Columbia 7. 2:07 to play.

This was one of those "who spent more time in the weight room in the off-season" plays. There was nothing fancy about it. Volker took the handoff and bulled his way straight ahead. He just got enough of a push and got just enough on his own to push the ball to the goal line. The play was reviewed for what seemed like an eternity. Then came the ruling. Call stands. Touchdown Princeton. 

Princeton's drive totaled 20 plays, traveled those 81 yards and took 10:07 off the clock. It could have stopped at almost any point, as the Tigers converted two third downs and three fourth downs to take the lead. Columbia got the ball back and did get to the Princeton 40, but Princeton's Sekou Roland sacked Columbia quarterback Caden Bell for a 22-yard loss and forced a fumble, which Ryan Savage recovered. 

Final score: Princeton 10, Columbia 7.

Tigons And Ligers

Wait, tigons and ligers are real things?

Turns out they are. A tigon is a hybrid big cat whose father is a tiger and whose mother is a lion. A liger is the opposite.

Tigons and ligers apparently tend to be a bit smaller than your average lions and tigers, weighing in at somewhere from 350 pounds up to 1,000 pounds. 

At least that's what it says on Wikipedia. 

Imagine those extended family get-togethers? Actually, they don't have too many get-togethers, since Tigers and Lions don't share any habitat in the wild. 

They do, however, in Ivy League sports.

The subject for today is not hybrids but instead pure-bred Lions and Tigers, as in Columbia and Princeton. The two meet this evening at 7 on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium in the Ivy League football opener for both.

Princeton has won 13 Ivy League championships all time. Columbia has won one, back in 1961. While Columbia topped Penn 37-6 in its final Ivy game that year, the end of the 1961 season was a pretty excruciating one for Princeton.

That was actually a two-tie for the championship, with Columbia and Harvard both at 6-1. Columbia defeated Harvard 26-14 in Cambridge that year, and the only thing that stood between the Lions and a perfect Ivy record and outright title was its Ivy opener, a 30-20 loss to Princeton.

It would have been a three-way tie for the championship, but Princeton was defeated 24-6 by Dartmouth on the final day of the season. Princeton also lost to Harvard, 9-7, also in Cambridge. If it was any consolation for Princeton, and it probably wasn't, its 1961 team had as many key players injured and unable to go by the end of the year as any other Tiger team has ever had.

Meanwhile, here in the present, there have been two Ivy games played so far this season, and if they have shown anything, it's that the 2023 race figures to be crazy.

Yale, the preseason favorite and defending champion, fell to Cornell, who has won three Ivy titles, the most recent in 1990. Harvard defeated Brown, but it was a 34-31 game. 

Who is the favorite now? It doesn't matter.

Princeton and Columbia are both 1-1 after two non-league games. The Tigers defeated San Diego 23-12 two weeks ago in California and then lost 16-13 in overtime to Bryant at home. 

Columbia opened with a 24-3 loss to Lafayette and then came back to take down Georgetown last week 30-0. 

Statistics through two weeks of football games don't really tell you a whole lot ... or do they? Princeton ranks second in the FCS in fewest rushing yards allowed per game and total yards allowed and is third in the FCS in sacks per game. 

Yes, it's been two games. On the other hand, Princeton's linebacking corps might be its best this century, or even long before this century, with Liam Johnson, Ozzie Nicholas, Will Perez and Nicholas Sanker as tackling machines. 

Columbia is also off to a strong defensive start under interim head coach Mark Fabish, who you probably remember from his playing days as a Penn wide receiver/kick returner. Columbia has defended the pass better than the run through two weeks, allowing 137 yards per game, while Princeton has gone for 163 per game for two games.

Princeton has been led on the ground by John Volker, who is second in the Ivy League with 240 yards. He averages 7.1 yards per carry, and he has had long runs of 49 against San Diego and 51 against Bryant. 

The other Ivy League game this weekend is tomorrow's game between Penn and Dartmouth. 

Princeton finishes its non-league schedule next week at home against Lafayette. After that it'll be six Ivy games in six weeks.

They're all big. And they're all unpredictable. 

At some point, the Ivy race will start to sort itself out. Will there be a 7-0 team? Will 5-2 get a share of the championship? 

These answers are a few weeks away. 

For tonight, it's Tigers and Lions on Powers Field.

Pure-breds, as it were. 

Jack Nicholson's Junior Prom Date And More

Time to catch up:

* TigerBlog flew out to Northwestern with the field hockey team this past weekend. Sitting next to him on the flight to O'Hare was a very lively 86-year-old woman named Joan who was from Manasquan. TB asked her if she knew Jack Nicholson, who went to Manasquan High School, and Joan said 1) that she did, 2) that he was a very nice boy, 3) that they had stayed friends through the years and 4) that he had taken her best friend to the junior prom.

* Speaking of the field hockey team, the Tigers are home tomorrow at 4 against Cornell, who is now ranked 20th in both this week's NFHCA poll and the RPI. Princeton is ineligible to be ranked in the NFHCA poll because its record is 3-5 — though four of those losses are to Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 8 in this week's RPI — but Princeton is No. 16 in RPI. 

Princeton has a stretch of three Ivy games in eight days, with Penn at Bedford Field Wednesday and then a trip to Brown a week from tomorrow. The Brown game, by the way, is followed two days later with a home game against Syracuse, who is 14 in the RPI.

* Speaking of teams with three Ivy games in eight days, the women's soccer team will also be starting that run this weekend, only a day later than the field hockey team.

Princeton is at Brown Saturday at 4, followed by a trip to Penn Wednesday at 6 and a home game against Yale a week from Saturday at 7. Brown, by the way, is 19-0-2 in its last 21 Ivy League games, making Saturday's game one of the biggest for a Princeton fall team.

The Ivy League has six teams in the top 77 of the RPI, led by Princeton, who checks in at No. 6. Brown is 30 spots back 36, with Columbia in between at 22. The others are Harvard at 68, Dartmouth at 76 and Yale at 77.

Princeton, Brown, Columbia and Dartmouth all won their first Ivy game (the Tigers defeated Cornell 4-2 and Brown defeated Harvard 2-0).  

* If you're in Providence this weekend, you have a chance to see two very big Princeton events. 

The first is tomorrow night, when the women's volleyball team takes on Brown to start its weekend trip, which ends Saturday at Yale. Brown lost to Yale in five sets this past weekend, with four decided by two points, including 18-16 in the fifth. Princeton opened its Ivy schedule by sweeping Penn.

Brown won the Ivy title in 2021. Princeton and Yale tied for the title a year ago, but Brown defeated Princeton in the Ivy League tournament semifinals before losing to Yale in the final.

* If you think you've seen a better fielding third baseman than Brooks Robinson, you haven't. The Orioles Hall of Famer passed away earlier this week, and he was before your time, check out some of the plays he made on YouTube.

* If you haven't been paying attention to the Major League Baseball standings, then you might not realize that Princeton alums Chris Young and Mike Hazen have done incredible jobs in turning around the Rangers and Diamondbacks as their general managers.

A year ago, those two were a combined 142-182. This year? The Rangers just took three straight from the Mariners while the Astros were getting swept as well to move 2.5 games in front in first place in the AL West. The Diamondbacks are in a four-team run for the final two NL Wild Card spots.

Whether they reach the postseason or not, the teams have improved already from those 142 wins to 171 and counting. That's an impressive turnaround in one year for the two former Tigers. 

* The women's rugby team, in Year 2 as a varsity program, has made a huge jump in terms of competitiveness. In fact, the Tigers fell just one point short of their first win in the 15s when they fell 27-26 to Mount St. Mary's in their last game.

Princeton is at American International College Saturday at noon. AIC is 1-1, with a 65-0 loss to Harvard and a 105-0 win over New Haven. 

* Finally, happy 78th birthday to Gary Walters, whose Princeton connection and love runs as deep as anyone's. Gary, of course, was the point guard on the 1965 NCAA Final Four men's basketball team, an assistant coach under Pete Carril and then the Director of Athletics for 20 years.

The 118 Year Old Uniform

FatherBlog turned 88 yesterday. 

For the occasion, TigerBlog took him to the diner that his father loves. What else would you do when you turn 88? 

He even got the usual, which for him is sunnyside eggs, breakfast potatoes, an English muffin with jelly, toast with butter, tomato juice and coffee. Apparently if you eat that at a diner in North Jersey four or five days a week for 40 or so years, you'll live well into your 80s.

The woman whose family owns the place, whom FatherBlog has known forever, gave him a cannoli with a candle in it while the staff sang "happy birthday." She, by the way, is a classic North Jersey diner hostess, meaning she loves to talk to everyone who comes in, especially the regulars. When TigerBlog said it was his father's birthday, she said "how old are you?" When FB said to guess, she said "108?" 

You had to be there. It was sweet.

Of course, FB received the usual number of birthday calls. His hearing is awful, so the ringer on his phone is as loud as it can be. Also, he tends to speak loudly, so there he was in the diner, answering his really loud ringer with a bellowed "Hello," followed by an explanation that he and his son were in the diner eating and he'd have to get back to them.

Each time it rang, TB suggested he let it go and get back to the person. Each time, he picked it up with his "Hello." It took about five such calls for the people at the other tables to go from mildly annoyed to amused. 

As for TB, he went with "mortified," which gave way to a sigh of inevitability. But hey, FatherBlog is 88, retired, self-sufficient and able to do pretty much anything he'd like, with the exceptions of hearing and driving. He even has a cruise in the Caribbean scheduled for this coming winter. 

After breakfast, TB drove his father on some errands. At the last stop, as he waited in the parking lot, he saw his father come out of the store, walk up to the car and open the door. Unfortunately, it wasn't TigerBlog's car. It wasn't even a car that looked like TB's.

"I got in the wrong car," FatherBlog said with a laugh.
"What did the woman whose car it is say?" TB said without a laugh.
"She said that she's not going to press charges," FB said, again with a laugh.

After driving him on his errands, TigerBlog dropped his dad back at his house and then drove back to Princeton. Waiting for him here was a package from a woman named Adelaide Ferguson. A few weeks ago, she had sent this note to TB:

I am writing to ask whether you might be interested the donation of  the Princeton baseball uniform of my grandfather, Charles P Henry. I believe he graduated in 1905, which makes it about 120 years old. The uniform is completely intact and in good condition , with top, pants, striped  socks, a funny little hat unlike today’s baseball hats  and a sweater. It has his name tag inside.

Inside the box was a sealed plastic bag, one that had the uniform. Adelaide was right. The entire uniform was intact, and it was in amazing condition.

TigerBlog immediately showed it to equipment gurus Derek Griesdorn and Nicole D'Andrea, which was like showing TigerBlog a 1905 newspaper that was in great shape. 

The general consensus was that the uniform itself was very heavy and must have been very hot to wear. The look of it, though, was a bit mesmerizing. The idea that it was worn in baseball games that long ago is amazing.

Baseball was Princeton's very first varsity sport, debuting on Nov. 22, 1864. Charles Henry would have played for the great Bill Clarke, whose 564 wins are still the most by a Princeton coach — 120 more than Scott Bradley, who is in second place. 

Henry was the leftfielder on the 1905 team, which went 24-8, with one of those losses was a 4-3 decision to the Pittsburgh Pirates and another a 14-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles (at the time an Eastern League team). Princeton defeated Amherst 1-0 in 18 innings in a game where both teams used one pitcher each; Princeton's Don Doyle didn't walk a batter in his 18 innings while striking out 12. 

To get to Cornell to play, Princeton took two trains, first going to Newark and then taking an overnight train to Ithaca. Total time of the trip: 16 hours. 

Charles Henry went from Princeton to Penn for medical school, and he also played baseball for the Quakers, something that is rather unimaginable these days. He went on to a career as a surgeon in the Reading, Pa., area. 

He married a woman named Adelaide and had three children, Daniel, Joan and Charles. Adelaide Ferguson, Charles' granddaughter, is now a lawyer.

FatherBlog is now 88. The uniform was last used 30 years before he was born. 

It was good to see both of them yesterday.

That's 40 Years

TigerBlog was recently asked a simple question: If you could go back to being 18 years old, knowing everything you know now, what career path would you choose? 

He thought about it for a while. This is how he answered: "So many different possibilities, but this path is definitely the right path."

Even now, he can't think of anything else he might have done. He originally thought he might head to law school, but that was never going to happen. He's certainly no salesman, no businessman, no scientist. He was always good at math, so maybe an actuary? 

No, TigerBlog had only one possible career, and it's the one he found, even if it's not the one he was planning.

Like he said, when he went to college, he was thinking law school. When he was a freshman at Penn, he had a work-study job in the basement of the psychology department, where he and Fran McCaffery —yes, the Fran McCaffery who today is the head men's basketball coach at Iowa and who back then was a grad assistant at Penn — spent hours copying, collating and stapling assignments. 

Though Fran, TB met Jack McCaffery, who has been a longtime columnist for the Delaware County Times and who back then worked at the Trenton Times. Jack asked TB if he wanted to cover some high school football games, and TB said he would, even though he had absolutely zero experience as a writer. 

None would be necessary, Jack said. He'd learn on the job — but he also had to realize that "once you get the ink in your blood, you never get it out." TB has never forgotten those words. 

Jack went with TB to his first assignment, which was a high school football game in Bryn Athyn, Pa., between Pennington Prep and host Academy of the New Church. It would be the first 700 or so words TigerBlog ever wrote for public consumption.

That game, by the way, was played 40 years ago Saturday. 

Forty years? TigerBlog can still remember that game. It was a beautiful Friday afternoon. Pennington broke open a close game in the second half to win 22-0, breaking the school record for longest winning streak. 

Was his story any good? Probably not. He's written a lot of bad stories in his lifetime. He's also written some pretty good ones.

TigerBlog cannot even remotely guess how many words he's written since that day, how many games he's been to, how many stories he's churned out. He will say there can't be many people anywhere in any medium who have written as much as he has. 

Feature stories. Game stories. Pregame stories. Speeches. Books. He's around three million words in TigerBlogs alone, without counting anything else. 

He started out covering high school sports. Eventually, the late Harvey Yavener took him on as his assistant in covering local colleges, Princeton included. That was in the late 1980s. When the job opened at Princeton, he jumped at the opportunity. 

Where would he be today had it not been for that series of random events back at Penn that started when he took over for BrotherBlog in the psychology department. He met Jack through Fran, who could have worked anywhere on campus or coached at another school. Jack happened to work at a newspapers that needed people to cover games and didn't really mind if they had no experience.

Fast forward to today, and it turned out that becoming a writer suited TB perfectly. Like he said, he can't imagine what else he might have done all these years. He might have made more money in another line of work, but he wouldn't have enjoyed it and he wouldn't have been good at it. Really, to this day, he has no idea what people who have "real" jobs do all day.

More than anything else, writing has served TB in two ways. 

First, it's enabled him, and challenged him, to be creative on a pretty much daily basis. He's learned all about deadlines, how to write quickly, what works and what doesn't, whose work he respects and whose he doesn't.

Second, and way more importantly, it's opened up the doors to a lifetime's worth of experiences and even better, introduced him to almost all of the people in his life who are important to him. There are only a small handful of those people from before he wrote his first story.

When TB first started out writing, he figured it was something he would do for a few years and then move on to whatever it would be that he would do. Each year, he'd try to think of what that might be, and he was never able to figure it out. 

Then, each fall, when a new academic year was starting, he'd get the game excitement he always got, which made him say "okay, one more year." That excitement has never gone away.

And so here he is, in 2023. He's gone through his 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s and is now into his 60s. It's not something a lot of people stick with. It's weekends and nights. That's asking a lot, and not everyone wants to give those times up. 

For TB, it's always been an extension of his life. His son and daughter went to dozens of games and then became athletes themselves. They grew up around Princeton, and his daughter would become a four-year lacrosse player there. 

He's gotten to meet Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, Senators, Congressmen, even two Presidents. He's met professional athletes, actors, Olympians, Broadway stars, military leaders, religious leaders. He's seen Princeton play games in eight different time zones.

At Princeton, the talk is always of the four years and 40 years. Come here for four, and make relationships that will last 40 or more. TigerBlog went somewhere else for four years, but he's created a lifetime of friendships nonetheless. He's written stories about some of the most fascinating people you could ever possibly meet, and he has an endless numbers of stories he can tell, many of which he can never print.

Through all those years, there's always been another game to cover, another story to write, another person to interview, another person to meet, another person to see again. 

It's been an incredible forty years. 

He wouldn't trade them for anything.

Silver Linings

TigerBlog doesn't have to look at the forecast for Friday night in Princeton to know two things.

First, the weather will be better than it was this past Saturday. Second, there's a 100 percent chance of 0-0.

As frustrating as Princeton's home-opening 16-13 loss to Bryant Saturday was, there were a few silver linings. What's that they say about clouds? Well, there were certainly enough in Princeton Saturday. 

The game was played in driving rains and strong winds, all the residue of Hurricane Ophelia. But as TB says, there were silver linings.

First and foremost is that it did not come in an Ivy League game.

Princeton's first shot in the league comes up Friday night, when the Tigers host Columbia at 7. The Tigers may be 1-1 overall, but they are the aforementioned 0-0 in the league.

If early Ivy results have shown anything, it's that this season will be completely unpredictable.

And, as an aside, that Bryant, a Big South member for football, would make a serious run in the Ivy race. The Bulldogs have the win over Princeton, and they also lost 29-25 to Brown the week before Brown lost to Harvard 34-31. 

In other words, those are all toss-ups.

Then there's the No. 1 team in the preseason poll, Yale. Those Bulldogs lost Saturday to Cornell 23-21 on a 37-yard field goal as time expired. Such results predict one thing: no predictions in the league will be easy.

Meanwhile, back at the silver linings from Saturday, the weather made it hard to do anything other than run the ball offensively, and Princeton was able to do just that. John Volker continues to show what he's able to do as he ran for 149 yards on 18 carries, including a 49-yard touchdown run.

Volker averaged 8.3 yards per carry. Take away the long run and he still had a 5.9 average on 17 carries. Given how tough the footing was, those are big numbers.

Speaking of big numbers, there was the performance of Princeton's three top defenders: Ozzie Nicholas, Liam Johnson and Will Perez. Those three combined for 33 tackles on 67 offensive plays for the Bulldogs. 

Nicholas had 15 tackles. Johnson and Perez had nine each. Of their 33 tackles, a total of 25 were unassisted. Perez also recovered a fumble. 

The fourth Princeton linebacker, Nicholas Sanker, had five tackles, with a sack mixed in. 

Also, when you play two non-league games before your first league game, your tendency is to ease into things and not put too much on film for your future Ivy opponents. The film from Saturday? It's hardly worth watching, because of the idea of keeping things a bit simple and the fact that the weather didn't allow for opening up the playbook too much anyway. 

To say that all is well, of course, is not accurate. Certainly no Princeton player or coach walked off the field Saturday feeling "hey, no big deal. Not an Ivy game."

But that's the reality of it.  

There have been two league games played so far. One was decided by three points (Harvard's win Friday night over Brown) and the other by two points (Cornell's win over Yale). This coming weekend's other Ivy game is Penn at Dartmouth. The Big Green, playing with the emotional weight of the loss earlier this week of head coach Buddy Teevens, defeated Lehigh 34-17 Saturday.

So who is favored? What can anyone expect? Those answers are both the same. No idea. 

If you've paid attention at all, you agree.

This is a big week in practice for Princeton. Its opponent Saturday defeated Georgetown 30-0 Saturday. The Tigers will need to dry out and turn the page from Saturday quickly. Getting off to a good start in the league is important if you want to be playing big games in November.

Oh, and by the way, TigerBlog just looked at the forecast for Friday in Princeton. It's for a high of 74, which probably means around 68 or so at kickoff, with no chance of rain.

Now that sounds perfect, right? 

Princeton will be 0-0. So will Columbia. 

That's the biggest silver lining out of Saturday.

Weather Changes, Ivy Openers

The forecast for this weekend is for sunshine and temps around 70, at least where TigerBlog will be. 

That should be the first hint that he won't be in Princeton, where this weekend's forecast isn't nearly as good. In fact, this weekend's rains have forced rescheduling of pretty much every home event. 

The football game, for instance, has been moved from a 3 pm start to a noon start. In the past, there haven't been too many issues with people who didn't get the start time messages, and hopefully that won't be the case this time either. 

Again, say it with TigerBlog — the football game is at noon tomorrow, not at 3. 

In other schedule changes, the women's soccer team — make that the 14th-ranked women's soccer team — hosts Cornell in its Ivy opener tonight at 6 on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium, as opposed to its originally scheduled tomorrow start. As for the men, they will also open their Ivy schedule, except they'll do so against Dartmouth and five hours earlier than planned. 

Instead of a 4 pm start on Myslik Field, it'll be an 11 am start for the Tigers and Big Green. Stay tuned to Princeton social media in case there are any further weather changes. 

As for TB, he'll be with the field hockey team, first this evening at 5 for yet another Ivy opener, against Columbia, on Bedford Field, and then in the Midwestern sunshine this weekend, when the Tigers play at No. 3 Northwestern (Sunday, noon Eastern time). For what it's worth, TigerBlog has never been to Northwestern before, or even the city of Chicago, so he's looking forward to the trip.

The other team opening its Ivy League schedule this weekend is the women's volleyball team, who will play a home-and-home with its travel partner, Penn, first tonight at the Palestra and then tomorrow at 5 at Dillon Gym.

That's four teams who start their Ivy seasons. 

The women's soccer team vaulted into the United Soccer Coaches national rankings after its impressive win over then-No. 10 Georgetown. The Tigers have only one loss, to No. 4 Penn State, but having a good record in Ivy women's soccer is not unique, since all eight teams are over .500 (Cornell is unbeaten, at 2-0-4). 

Five of the eight schools are ranked in the top 64 in Division I in RPI, led by Princeton at 24th.

As for the men's soccer side, no Ivy team is ranked in the top 25 or receiving votes in the weekly United Soccer Coaches' poll, and the RPI hasn't yet been announced for this year. The No. 1 team in the weekly poll? Unless you follow college men's soccer closely, you'll never get it: Marshall.

Princeton is 2-2-0 on the year, which puts the Tigers in the half of the league that has a .500 overall record. No team is more than a game over .500, and only one (Brown) is more than a game under .500. Every Ivy League men's soccer game is up for grabs. Getting hot early will certainly help.

The field hockey team is ranked 17th in RPI this week, while Northwestern is No. 2. Princeton is 2-4, with losses to No. 1 Louisville, No. 5 North Carolina and No. 5  Rutgers all by a goal (the last in OT) and with a win over No. 12 Maryland. The trip to Northwestern might be a first for TigerBlog, but it's a homecoming for Princeton players Gracie McGowan and Clare Brennan, both of whom grew up in Lake Forest. 

Keep in mind, this is Year 1 of the Ivy League tournaments for men's and women's soccer and field hockey. The top four teams in the regular season standings will play at the field of the top seed for the Ivy automatic bid to the NCAA tournament; the team (or teams) that win the regular season will claim the official championship still.

And of course, there is the football home opener. Like all Ivy games this weekend, it'll begin with a moment of silence in memory of the late Buddy Teevens, the Dartmouth head coach who passed away earlier this week.

At the newly announced noon kickoff, Princeton will take on Bryant in the first meeting ever between the teams. The Bulldogs lost to another Ivy team, Brown, by a 29-25 score a week ago in Smithfield. In fact, Bryant is 1-2 on the year, with a 21-10 win over LIU and an opening 44-14 loss at UNLV. 

The Bulldogs are in the Northeast Conference in most sports but compete in the Big South in football. 

Princeton is 1-0, having defeated San Diego last weekend in California 23-12. The Tigers open their Ivy schedule next Friday night at home against Columbia.

The men's tennis team is hosting its Farnsworth Invitational, almost certainly in Jadwin Gym. The women's tennis team is at Penn. The fourth-ranked men's water polo team is in California.

HERE is the complete schedule.