A Lot Of Teams Play This Weekend; Will Mike Ford?

If you are one of the people who emailed TigerBlog yesterday to let him know whether or not your senior thesis had a colon in it, well, he appreciates that you had fun with it like he did.

He got 11 emails yesterday from Princeton alums with their thesis titles. Of those 11, there were seven who had colons in them.

That's way more than 43 percent.

If you didn't read yesterday, then 1) you're wondering what in the world he's talking about and 2) why didn't you?

You can click HERE to see what he was talking about.

By the way, TB said yesterday he likes semicolons better than colons, so he decided to work one into today's headline. 

TB enjoyed that whole thing so much that he included it on a list of trivia questions that Mollie Marcoux Samaan asked him to put together for today's monthly staff meeting.

Another one involved Mike Ford, the Princeton alum who spent this season with the New York Yankees. Ford, the only player ever to be the Ivy League Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year, had a very productive rookie season.

In fact, Ford had 143 at-bats for the Yankees this year. How many home runs did he hit?

If you guessed 12, you'd be correct. That's a lot of home runs in a short amount of at-bats.

Ford actually hit .259 and scored 30 runs. In the world of baseball analytics, the 12 home runs and 30 runs scored matter way more than the 28 strikeouts. His .909 OPS would be considered pretty much excellent.

The Yankees begin the playoffs tomorrow night against the Twins in the American League Division Series. Ford probably won't know if he's on the 25-man roster for the series until the deadline tomorrow morning, but TigerBlog is hoping he will be.

He'd certainly include him. He's a lefty with power in Yankee Stadium. That bat would come in handy at some point in the series, TB would think.

Plus, the Yankees have been dealing with injuries all season. It was those injuries that gave Ford his chance in the first place, and he made the most of it.

He certainly appears to have a future, either in the Bronx or somewhere else.

So that's one of the things that TB wanted to share with you today.

What else does he have for you on your Thursday?

While the Yankees head into the playoffs, it'll be a typically busy early October weekend for Princeton Athletics.

As far as Ivy League events go, there are three teams who are playing at home this weekend in league matchups.

The football team is home against Columbia Saturday at 1 in a matchup of one of the top offenses in the country (Princeton's) and one of the top defenses in the country (Columbia). TB will have more on that one tomorrow.

In the meantime, he refers you to THIS STORY he wrote about senior offensive linemen Brent Holder and Alex Deters and what it's like to be on the O line when your quarterback (Kevin Davidson) and receiver (Andrew Griffin) are setting Ivy League records.

As for the rest of the fall teams, the women's volleyball team, who defeated Penn last weekend in its Ivy opener, hosts Columbia tomorrow night and then Cornell Saturday.

The field hockey team is home tomorrow at 5 against Yale before heading to Duke to take on the second-ranked Blue Devils Sunday. This was after a 1-0 win over yet another nationally ranked team, Delaware, Tuesday night.

If you're going to be in the Hanover, N.H., area, there's a soccer doubleheader Saturday afternoon between Princeton and Dartmouth. The women's game is at 1, followed at 4 by the men.

The Princeton women dropped their league opener to Yale last weekend, but there's a long way to go in a league where very, very few teams go unbeaten.

As for the men, this is the Ivy opener. They come in with a four-game winning streak, which includes a 6-3 win over St. Joe's Tuesday night. That's a lot of goals. In fact, that's the most Princeton has scored in a game since a 7-3 win over Seton Hall in 2011.

There will also be home men's water polo, against Harvard Saturday at noon and then Sunday against Brown (10 am) and MIT (3).

The women's golf team, women's tennis team, women's cross country team and men's cross country team are also playing away this weekend.

The complete schedule is HERE.