End Of The Streak

It is simply impossible to walk out onto the field at Yankee Stadium and not be awed by it.

It doesn't even matter if you like the Yankees. Or even like baseball, for that matter.

TigerBlog has stood on a lot of fields in a lot of major venues. That field is just different, and it's very special.

It's weird, too, because this version of Yankee Stadium only dates back 10 years, having opened in 2009. The real history was all in the old stadium, which was torn down and now is simply a park.

Still, it's almost like the ghosts of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and the rest of the great Yankees are inhabiting the place. Or maybe it's just their pictures, which are everywhere.

And they're not just any pictures. They're huge poster-sized portraits of some of the most iconic athletes in American sports history. They're extraordinary.

They certainly make you think back to what the Yankees have meant to that history. They just sort of leave you, as TB said, awed. 

TigerBlog had never been to the new Yankee Stadium before this past weekend, when Princeton and Dartmouth met there in honor of the 150th anniversary of the first college football game and the 250th anniversary of Dartmouth.

When he arrived Friday afternoon for the walk-through, he went into the main lobby and then was escorted through the lower level of the stadium out onto the field. In fact, everywhere you went there you were escorted, and every person who worked there was extraordinarily friendly.

Anyway, eventually the escort led TB down a tunnel and through a door, and suddenly he was out on the field. His first word was just a simple "wow."

That was Friday.

The next day was game day. It was the culmination of months of planning on the part of Princeton and Dartmouth, who worked pretty hard to get the game there in the first place and then make it as special as possible for the fans and especially players.

From Princeton's standpoint that meant weekly meetings, every Wednesday at 9:15, going back into the spring. Every detail was discussed, and then this weekend, all of those details were activated.

It would have been a great event no matter what. That the teams were both 7-0 made it even more dramatic.

It was the second straight year that Princeton and Dartmouth met when both were unbeaten, and the teams have now each won one of those two games. One year after Princeton won the game at Princeton Stadium, this past Saturday was the Big Green's day, with a 27-10 win that snapped Princeton's 17-game winning streak.

Princeton never was able to get into the rhythm it normally does, and Dartmouth deserves the credit for that. Also, while crediting Dartmouth, TB would like to give his colleague from Dartmouth, Rick Bender, a salute for all of the work he did on the media relations end, including the design of the game program and the handling of all of the credential requests.

When it was over, it was time to put the winning streak into some perspective.

The 17-game winning streak was the fourth-longest in Princeton football history, and it tied for the second-longest in the last two centuries. The school record is 24 straight, from 1949-52. The 17-game streak tied one from 1964-65 (one that ironically also ended to a Dartmouth team on a nine-game winning streak).

And that's it.

There were streaks of 19 and 18 - but those were back in the 1800s.

When you consider that, it's an incredibly impressive run. Then throw these numbers in:
* the average score was 43.5-13.3
* Princeton won 14 games by double figures, 11 games by at least 20 points and eight games by at least 30 points

That's amazing stuff.

Of course, all streaks eventually end.

This one ended in an amazing stadium, on an amazing day of celebration by people wearing orange and black and by others wearing green.

The game last year at Princeton Stadium - won by Princeton 14-9 - was the most suspenseful Ivy League football game TigerBlog has seen. Suspenseful. That's the best word to describe it.

This year's game was different. This one was the biggest party TB has been to at an Ivy League football game. It was a party that Dartmouth would enjoy more.

Then again, as TB said last week, it was his belief that no player on either team will ever forget the time they played at Yankee Stadium.

After being part of the experience Saturday, he's even more sure he was right.