Virtually Annoyed

This past Saturday would have been the Kentucky Derby.

The horse race, known as "The Run For The Roses," has been run every year since 1875. Even without the traditional first Saturday in May running this year, there are still plans to hold the event in early September.

That's good, because the Kentucky Derby is for three-year-olds, and you'll only be three once, as they say. All horses who were born in 2017, by the way, are considered three-year-olds this year, whether they were born in January or December.

TB saw a good quote about the race, from the president of Churchill Downs, where it's run. He was actually quoting someone else, but he said "if we have to have two horses on the track and two people in the stands, we will run this race."

TigerBlog grew up a few miles from Freehold Raceway, but he's hardly ever been to the races. He went to Liberty Bell Park Race Track once in college, and that track hasn't been there for 34 years.

He knows nothing about betting on horses. It's not his thing at all.

He does know that the Kentucky Derby is more than a horse race. It's a huge event, a huge party, and anyone he knows who has ever gone to it swears it's the greatest thing they've ever seen.

Speaking of the Kentucky Derby, did you see the virtual race of every Triple Crown winner that was on social media this weekend?

Watch it again! The 13 Triple Crown winners face off in a virtual race under the Twin Spires of Churchill Downs.

Donate to COVID-19 relief at https://t.co/6W7xpgby5a. | #KyDerbyAtHome pic.twitter.com/QCDkrrPB5p

— Kentucky Derby (@KentuckyDerby) May 2, 2020

As has been the case with all simulated or virtual sporting events, TB felt some real emotions as he watched. He also felt the right horse won.

It's worth your two minutes to check it out.

Speaking of virtual sporting events, the selections for the NCAA men's and women's lacrosse tournaments would have been this weekend, after the Ivy League tournaments for both.

US Lacrosse did a virtual tournament on social media, and that ended with Syracuse as the men's champion and the women's champion (defeating Princeton along the way). The men's final matched the Orange and Virginia, a team that Princeton defeated 16-12 on the field in a real game back in February.

For the men's championship, TB sends out virtual congratulations to Pat March, who left the Princeton staff to coach at Syracuse this season.

There is another website that has done a computer simulation of every game that wasn't played in Division I men's lacrosse. With the end of the league tournaments, that site released its NCAA field - and Princeton wasn't in it.

What the heck?

When TB saw the Tigers weren't in it, he was actually a bit pissed. How could Princeton not be in? The Tigers were 11-3 according to the simulations, and they had a win over No. 1 Cornell.

That's not an NCAA-worthy resume?

Then, as always, he had to step back and remind himself that, you know, it's not real.

Had Princeton actually gone 11-3, and beaten Cornell, and beaten Virginia - and not gotten in the real tournament? That would have been completely crushing.

Fortunately, that real disappointment from a simulated event waned when he saw the "TableTop Lacrosse NCAA Draw" that was announced yesterday. This is a field of 17 teams that was selected by some people from Inside Lacrosse, and the tournament will now be played out via a board game invented by TB's old, old lax buddy Christian Swezey, with whom he goes back as far as he does with anyone in the sport.

Princeton is the sixth-seed in that tournament. According to the draw, Princeton would be playing unseeded Villanova in the late game Sunday (6) on Sherrerd Field.

That made TB feel better.

Then he took it a little further, and he saw that the winner of Princeton-Villanova was going to take on the winner of third-seed Ohio State and unseeded St. Joe's, for a spot in the Final Four. He thought the quarterfinal matchup could be two Philly teams if the two unseeded teams won, with the Final Four at Lincoln Financial Field.

Then he thought that was a reasonable draw for the Tigers, and he liked their chances to get to Championship Weekend. He also thought fellow Ivy League schools Yale and Cornell had brutal draws, with potential quarterfinal matchups against either North Carolina or Maryland (in Cornell's case) or Virginia or Penn State (in Yale's case).

Brutal. But hey, maybe three Ivies could have made the Final Four.

Then, again, he remembered it wasn't real, and that there is no tournament this year.

Sad.