To The Postseason

TigerBlog starts today with a correction.

He gave you the trivia question yesterday about the only four Major League players who finished their careers with at least 3,000 hits, 300 home runs and a .300 batting average. The answer he gave you was: Hank Aaron, George Brett, Stan Musial and Babe Ruth.

Ah, but he was incorrect. Actually, he had the right answer, only he for some reason entered one of the above instead of the actual person. Congrats if you knew that Babe Ruth did not have 3,000 hit (he had 2,873). 

The correct answer is the other three plus Willie Mays. TB knew that, but he wrote Babe Ruth for some reason. 

Of those four, by the way, who had the highest career batting average, at .331? None of the other three had more than a .305 career average.

The answer is Musial, who had these numbers: 3,630 career hits, a .331 career average and 475 career home runs. He's actually fourth all-time in career hits, trailing only Pete Rose (4,256), Ty Cobb (4,191) and Aaron (3,771).

Only one other player, Tris Speaker (with 3,514) reached at least 3,500 career hits.

So now you have it right. TB apologizes for the error.

Historical records are very important to TigerBlog. The need to be accurate.

This applies to statistics. That's why it's always been a big thing for TB to see as much consistency across stat-keeping on the college level, especially when it comes to the subjective. Assists should be assists, the same at one school as another. 

This also applies to award winners. TB likes being able to look back at previous winners of an award to give credibility to current winners and to the award itself. He felt this way when Princeton gave out its senior awards, and he's felt this way the whole time he's been writing the women's history book. 

Maybe you can't compare one athlete from one era to another athlete from a different one many decades later, but they do have the common achievement of having won an award such as the Roper Trophy or von Kienbusch Award, which puts them into an exclusive company of greatness.

That is one reason why TB was disappointed that there were no Tewaaraton Award winners last year in men's and women's lacrosse. Yes, the season hadn't even reached its midway point when it was postponed due to COVID, but it would have been great to be able to see winners announced so that there would have been continuity.

Plus, a Princeton guy would have won the men's award. But even without that, it would have been great to see a winner every year.

As an extension of this, it's great to see that the women's open rowing team will be able to compete in the NCAA championships. Princeton learned the news Tuesday, when the field was announced.

Princeton rowing has been able to get back to competition this spring. As a result, all four varsity teams will be sending boats to the postseason, including the women's open rowers at the NCAAs and then the men's and women's lightweights and the men's heavyweights at the IRA championships.

The NCAA women's rowing championships will be held next weekend in Sarasota. The Princeton first varsity is seeded ninth, with the second varsity seeded 16th and the varsity four seeded 10th. 

The IRA championships will be held also next weekend, though much closer to Princeton, on Mercer Lake at Mercer County Park. 

For the Princeton open rowing team, it continues a streak that has seen the Tigers earn a spot in each of the NCAA regattas, going back to the first one in 1997. 

The historian in TigerBlog is happy to see that COVID didn't end that streak. 

More importantly, though, the Princeton fan in him is happy to see that the athletes get the chance to compete.