Small World

Did you hear about Caleb Pendleton?

He's a freshman at Florida Atlantic University, a catcher on the Owls baseball team. He had his first two collegiate at-bats over the weekend, and did you see what happened?

Both of them were grand slams. In the same inning. 

How's that for a debut? Has anyone ever done anything like that before? How many players have ever been in that position before, to even come up to the plate twice in one inning with the bases loaded both times, let alone to hit two grand slams, let alone to do so in the first two at-bats of their career? 

👀 WATCH as @FAUBaseball's Caleb Pendleton hits not one, but TWO GRAND SLAMS IN ONE INNING 😶

...did we mention these were the true freshman's first two collegiate at-bats? #SCTop10 | @SportsCenter | @ESPNAssignDesk | @notthefakeSVP | #TheCUSAWay pic.twitter.com/YcJFs7FRXn

— Conference USA (@ConferenceUSA) February 21, 2021

If you listen to the announcer, you can hear his complete bewilderment that someone could actually have done what Pendleton did. And the best part is when he says "it's all downhill from here."

Will Pendleton ever hit another grand slam at FAU? What would you guess on that one?

TigerBlog didn't have to look up FAU's nickname, by the way. He's been to FAU. In fact, he has a picture of himself next to a giant bronze Owl in a courtyard across the street from the football stadium there. 

In fact, TigerBlog's book on Princeton women's athletic history began at Florida Atlantic, or at least about five minutes from there. That's where Merrily Dean Baker, who started the women's athletic program in 1970, lives.

And, as more than one person told TB, you can't write about Princeton women's athletic history without talking to Merrily Dean Baker first.

So TB went to Florida to speak with her. And Baker went to FAU to record some video about her role in Princeton history as well.

Among the many women TB has spoken with for the project is Tyler Lussi, who is the all-time leading scorer for Princeton soccer, men or women. Lussi, it turns out, wrote her senior thesis on the history of women's athletics, and she too heard the same thing, that she couldn't properly do so without starting with Merrily Dean Baker.

Lussi also has given TB one of the best quotes of the entire project when she mentioned how much her family had emphasized athletics when she was a kid and gave this as her family's unofficial motto: "three sports a day is the Lussi way."

If you recall yesterday, TigerBlog mentioned that Amie Knox, another all-time great Princeton athlete, worked for ABC Sports during the 1980 Winter Olympic Games. Knox, who lettered in field hockey, squash and tennis before winning the 1977 von Kienbusch Award, was working on the alpine skiing events in Lake Placid.

On the night of Feb. 22, she watched the USA-Soviet Union hockey game from the comfort of the TV truck.

Well, as it turns out, there was more to the story than that. 

TB got an email yesterday morning from Patrick Tewey, who has taken some unreal pictures for Princeton Athletics the last few years, including this one:

That was taken at halftime of Princeton's game at Harvard in 2018, during the undefeated season. It actually, as TB looks at it now could have been something out of "Game of Thrones."

Anyway, Tewey has relocated to Florida these days, where his considerable photography skills are being used to take pictures of birds and especially horses. 

Tewey reached out yesterday to let TB know that his wife's father was the producer for ABC Sports for that game. He also mentioned that his wife, who was seven at the time, was also there that night. 

Small world, no? 

TB also heard from his colleague Jess Deutsch, who said this about the 1980 Olympic hockey:

There are no words to describe how obsessed I was with the US Hockey team in 1980 which was fifth grade for me. I can remember everything about where I was,  clearer than most  ever other childhood memory, and I actually remember quite a lot. But that was beyond all imagination and thrill. I’m sure I was not alone in reliving it a million times in my mind… and I didn’t even watch hockey at all before that game.

And then there was this from Tim Kane:

another Tiger who was working ‘80 Winter Olympics was Jay Moses ‘81, an alum of Princeton SID office. We were juniors, hustling on our JP’s and he says, ‘see you in a couple of weeks, I’m going to Lake Placid’.

— Tim Kane (@TKaneNBATV) February 23, 2021

He made a good choice.