Sunday Son Day

 

When TigerBlog took his seat at Audi Field in Washington, D.C., Sunday afternoon, he saw to his right a young couple with a child on their laps. 

He was remarkably well-behaved for a two year old, by the way, as he hardly squirmed and never once whined or cried.

He looked to be almost two, which is what he in fact turned out to be. TB learned this when he asked the parents. After they said the child's age, TB then pointed to his left, at his own 24-year-old son, and said "that's how old he was when he went to his first lacrosse game."

The occasion was the Premier League Lacrosse championship game. TigerBlog Jr. had bought tickets for TB's birthday, which was several months ago. 

TB of course was rooting hard for there to be Princeton representation in the game, which meant one of three teams: the Waterdogs (Zach Currier, Michael Sowers), the Archers (Ryan Ambler, Tom Schreiber, Chris Bates) or the Whipsnakes (current Director of Lacrosse operations Chris Aslanian, one-time Tiger Mike Chanenchuk).

As it turned out, it was Chaos vs. Whipsnakes. Aslanian, who played college lacrosse at Hobart, was active for six games this summer, scoring five goals with one assist. Unfortunately, with the minuscule 19-man rosters in the PLL, he was on the sideline for the championship game. 

Still, TB was rooting for the Whipsnakes. They didn't win, falling to Chaos 14-9. On this day, the better team clearly won.

Much was made about how the Whipsnakes were trying to win for the third straight year after having won the first two PLL titles. When Chaos won, it pointed out again just how difficult it is to win a championship three straight times. 

Prior to the PLL, there was Major League Lacrosse. In its 20-year history, only twice did a team win back-to-back championships, and on both of those occasions, the team going for three straight did not even reach the championship game.

The University of Virginia has won the last two NCAA men's lacrosse championships. Should UVa win again this coming year,  it would become the first team to win three straight since ... Princeton, who won in 1996, 1997 and 1998.

TBJ saw some of those games. He has no way of remembering them of course, but he was there for a few of them. He saw a lot of Princeton sports before he was old enough to remember and then a ton more after he was.

He was a ballboy for Princeton basketball for five or six years. He was a regular at football and lacrosse games. He loved going to pretty anything. Soccer. Squash. Hockey. Men's. Women's. Home. Away. He just liked being there.

From the time he was, say, five, until he was in high school, he and TB would look forward to a game all week and then go and have a great time there. 

TBJ was eventually too busy with his own games and being a high school kid to want to go to Princeton games all the time. Then he was off to college, and now he's down in DC, on his own, starting to make his own way in the world. 

Those days when he was a wide-eyed kid exist now in pictures and memories. It's as it should be.

Still, for one Sunday afternoon, it was like old times, father and son at a lacrosse game, talking about the players and the way the game was going and remembering other games they'd been to together through the years. 

After the Chaos won, they walked across the street to Nationals Park to see if they could get into the Nationals-Rockies game, which was in the fourth inning at the time. As it turned out, they were able to get $5 tickets. They might have been for the top of the section furthest from home plate, but that didn't matter. They went in and and sat downstairs actually, just a few rows behind the leftfield fence, slightly in foul territory.

From there it was off to a sports bar for food and some NFL games. And then TB got in his car and made the drive back.

Among the many other wonderful things Princeton Athletics has brought to TigerBlog through the years, the bond it helped created with his son is something for which he can never be grateful enough. As he spent his Sunday with his son, he was reminded of all of the great times they had together all those years ago and how much he'll always love them.

TB often looks at the pictures he has from back then, and they always make him smile.

For one more Sunday, he was there again, maybe in a more modern context, maybe with his grown up son, but back there nonetheless. It felt as good as ever.