Almost Time

TigerBlog has no problem with Mariano Rivera as a first ballot Hall-of-Famer and even as a unanimous one.

He does have a few issues though. First, it's not that Rivera shouldn't have been unanimous. It's that why was he the first unanimous one? Who didn't vote for Babe Ruth? Or Joe DiMaggio? Or Hank Aaron?

On the other hand, at least it means that Derek Jeter can't be the first unanimous selection. Hey, if anything, players should only be on the ballot for one year. Either you're a Hall of Fame player or you're not.

TB's take on Rivera is that yes, he was the dominant closer of all time. In many ways, he tilted the balance of power for the Yankees because the other team knew that if it trailed after eight innings, it was over.

Having said that, the closer phenomenon has never made sense to TB, since it's the only position in sports that TB can think of where coaching strategy is driven by stat-keeping. Managers now would never dream of bringing in the closer in a non-save situation or, more importantly to TB, when the game is actually on the line, say, when it's 3-2 in the seventh with the bases loaded and one out.

Also, TB could point out that for all his greatness, Rivera is most famous for two blown saves, one against the Diamondbacks in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series and one in Game 4 against the Red Sox with the Yankees up three games to none in the 2004 ALCS.

Pitchers and catchers will be reporting soon to Florida and Arizona. First pitch for Princeton baseball is March 1, when the Tigers open a three-game series at George Mason. The softball team opens a week earlier, when it plays in Liberty's tournament with a five-game weekend.

Yes, spring is coming.

The spring semester is coming too. First semester exams are winding down, though they do run through Saturday. And when they end, so too does the break in athletic events.

No Princeton teams have played since the squash teams played at Yale on Jan. 13. The women's basketball team hasn't played since Jan. 5, which seems like a long time ago.

This won't exactly be the busiest weekend of the year, but it is a weekend with athletic events. There will be five teams who compete this weekend, and then it really kicks into high gear the following weekend, as February arrives.

The only one on the road is women's tennis, who has a series of matches at North Carolina. 

The men's and women's track and field teams host the HYP meet Saturday. The men's tennis team hosts Liberty and Army Sunday. The men's basketball team hosts Wesley, also Sunday.

The men's basketball team is 2-0 in the league, having swept its travel partner, Penn. The other six Ivy teams have all played one game against their travel partners, and they'll all have played the second game by the time Princeton tips with Wesley.

After that, it'll be six straight weekends of Friday/Saturday games leading to the Ivy League tournament. Right now, all eight teams are thinking they have a real chance of being in New Haven for the third edition of the event. It should make for a fascinating month-plus of basketball.

There are also three travel-partner games on the women's side this weekend. Princeton and Penn will play again at the Palestra on Feb. 26.

In addition to the three Ivy games on the men's side this weekend, Penn will also play St. Joe's Saturday. The Princeton-Wesley game Sunday will then become the last non-league game for any Ivy team on either side of the regular season.

If you're looking for a sign that Ivy League basketball has progressed, with a handful of league games having been played and the overwhelming majority of games played to date non-league games, there are two teams out of 16 who have losing overall records.

There are three that are .500, and one of those is the Princeton women, who played a brutal non-league schedule and did so with major injuries for most of that time. The other 11 teams are all over .500.

Anyway, if you're a basketball fan, the Ivy League is going to be putting on a good show the next six weekends.

And if you're a Princeton fan, you're ready to see your teams play again. In basketball and every sport.

Starting this weekend, you get your chance again.