Two Weeks Notice

There are two weeks until a big moment around here.

The start of the 2018-19 athletic year? That does start in two weeks, as the 13th-ranked women's soccer team plays at New Hampshire.

That, though, is not what TigerBlog is talking about here. Nope. He's talking instead about the reopening of that tiny little stretch of road between Washington Road and the Jadwin Gym parking lot on Faculty Road that has been closed all summer.

TB mentioned this before, but just that little quarter-mile stretch turns getting to Jadwin into a nightmare. No longer can you simply drive up Washington Road and make the right at the light and zoom into the parking lot.

Nope. There's really no good way to get here now. TigerBlog has spent all summer trying to find the best route, and he's concluded that there isn't one.

It was especially problematic yesterday, when he had a meeting to which he was running late, largely because he rode his bike and thought the meeting started a half-hour later than it did. Of course the fact that it was with Mollie Marcoux Samaan made it a bit more stressful than if it had been with pretty much anyone else in the building.

Anyway, he'd like to apologize to the guy he honked his horn at for stopped in front of him while the bus was next to him, slowing him down by another 45 seconds or so.

Besides, two more weeks and that road reopens. It'll be back to business as usual, which will be tremendous.

As TB said, the athletic year begins in two weeks as well. Another summer flying by, right?

You'd think this summer would be dragging about, since it's been so hot and humid throughout, with more than its share of thunderstorms. But not. August is a third of the way over already.

TigerBlog is often asked if he works in the summer. He does. It's just that there are no events, so it's much quieter in the summer.

It's the dog days of the baseball season, of course. TigerBlog used to be a huge baseball fan, back in the days before he realized that lacrosse existed.

Now he hardly pays attention. He roots for the Phillies because of Tom McCarthy, the former Princeton play-by-play announcer who now does the Phils games on TV.

He looked at the baseball standings yesterday for the first time all year. The American League seems sort of set, no? It'll be a wild card game between either Seattle or Oakland at the Yankees, with the divisions going to the Red Sox, Indians and Astros.

The National League is much closer. The division leads in the AL are by five, nine and 10 games. In the National League, the three division leads combined are just two games. The Phils, though, are in first place, which is good.

There is one team currently outside of the wild card that is within 10 games in the AL. There are six such teams in the National League.

TB listened to the "Politics and Polls" podcast yesterday by Woodrow Wilson School professor Julian Zelizer, who is an Academic Athletic Fellow for the football and men's basketball teams. This edition was entitled "Baseball and the Presidency."

It was with former Presidential speechwriter Curt Smith, and it was pretty good, with some interesting information and some humor. You can listen for yourself HERE.

Here's a trivia question that TB learned from the podcast: William Howard Taft became the first President to throw out the first pitch for a Major League Baseball game, and President Trump has yet to do so. In between, only one President never threw out a first pitch. Can you name him?

TigerBlog will give you a few paragraphs.

In the meantime, TB thinks that the Princeton Athletics will be expanding its own podcast offerings this coming fall. The ones that have been done so far have been very well received, and the format is perfect for reaching people who are most interested in getting questions answered and hearing those answers directly from the coach or the athlete or the administrator.

At some point in the near future, Princeton Athletics will have a podcast released each day, at the same time each day. That could possibly be as soon as this winter.

TigerBlog certainly likes doing them. They're informal and informative, which is a very good combination.

Oh, and the answer is Jimmy Carter. 

In the meantime, enjoy your summer weekend. And remember that opening day is creeping up here.

This is your two weeks notice.