Making History?

It's possible that TigerBlog is making history this weekend, and he'll get to that shortly.

First, TigerBlog has put a lot of miles on his car this week.

Actually, he put 34 more miles on it than he should have.

TigerBlog was driving up to Boston Monday night. When he got to where I-84 ends and the Mass Pike begins, he did something ridiculously dumb.

There is construction going on there now, and the way TB remembers going isn't exactly how it used to be. Instead of getting on going east, he instead started going west.

He realized it in an instant, but it was too late to get over to the eastbound side. And how far is the next exit?

Yup, 17 miles. Seventeen freaking miles.

So that was 17 miles there, get off the highway, make a u-turn in a gas station and then 17 miles back. The entire time, all he wanted to do was scream.

Ah, but Miss TigerBlog was with him, and she was asleep. It reminded TigerBlog of a story that former women's tennis coach Louise Gengler told more than once.

Back before the tennis team traveled by bus, Louise had to drive the team in a van. This was a long time ago, and it's unthinkable today.

Anyway, one time Princeton was at Dartmouth. Louis had driven an hour south on I-91and then stopped to get gas. When she got back on 91, she was going north, instead of south, something she didn't realize until she'd gotten all the way back to Dartmouth, where she made a u-turn. She said nobody noticed, because all of the women on the team were asleep.

If you know Louise, that makes perfect sense. TigerBlog's favorite Louise Gengler story is the one where she came into his office for this actual exchange:
LG: Is it 2 or 3?
TB: It's 2 o'clock.
LG: Good. I have a meeting at 3 and I wasn't sure if I turned my clock back or not.

Anyway, MTB didn't wake up until they were close to the city, and she had no idea about the inadvertent detour. And it still took less time to get there than it did to get back, what with the rush hour traffic and all Tuesday.

This will be a weekend of travel for a few Princeton teams, though not all. The field hockey team, back at .500 with its brutal schedule, plays at home tomorrow night at 6 against Yale. The men's water polo team is home Saturday morning against Harvard, and there are invitationals here for women's golf and women's tennis.

And of course there is a home football game, the Ivy opener against Columbia. Kick-off is at 12:30 Saturday.

As for the travelers, the soccer teams will be playing a doubleheader at Dartmouth Saturday, with the women at 1 and the men at 4.

It's very, very early in the women's soccer race, as each team has played one league game. Princeton, Columbia, Brown and Penn are all 1-0-0.

Princeton is 8-1-0 overall after a big 2-0 win over RPI top 100 Yale in the league opener last week. Princeton is ranked 14th nationally, but more importantly is an incredible seven in the RPI rankings.

The men's race is even earlier than the women's, as this is Week 1 for league games. There is no team happier about that than Princeton, who has had a series of tough losses outside the league so far and a win over nationally ranked FDU.

Whatever it took to get to this point, Princeton and the rest of the league are all 0-0-0. Should the Tigers get to 1-0-0, the early season struggles will have paid off.

And all of that brings TB to his brush with history.

The women's volleyball team, who has won two straight Ivy titles, is at Brown tomorrow and Yale Saturday.

TigerBlog, by the way, was going to stop in at Sacred Heart and say hi to TigerBlog Jr. on the way to Boston and the way back, but the timing never worked out. Sacred Heart is about the halfway point on the ride, minus the extra 34 miles.

If you've never been to Sacred Heart, it's not far from Yale. Princeton's good friends recruited TBJ to be the public address announcer for women's volleyball, and apparently he's pretty good at it.

Princeton will be at Brown tomorrow night and Yale Saturday. TBJ will be there as the PA announcer tomorrow night against Penn and Saturday against the Tigers.

While he's doing that, TigerBlog will be doing the PA for Princeton football Saturday. TB's question - has any father/son combination ever done the PA at two Ivy events in the same day?