Happy 95th

Tom McCarthy, one of the top sportscasters in the business, celebrated a birthday a few days ago. 

He's also a new grandfather, by the way. His son Patrick, also a sportscaster, recently became a dad. 

In fact, everybody say hello to Quinley Grace McCarthy:

The names "Tom McCarthy" and "Patrick McCarthy" should be quite familiar to any Princeton fan. Tom is the longtime television play-by-play man for the Philadelphia Phillies, as well as a mainstay on the NFL and college basketball. 

Patrick is behind the mic for the New York Mets. He's also, for some reason, a huge Winnipeg Jets fan, and he actually got TigerBlog to root for the team in the NHL playoffs this past spring. It didn't quite work out well. 

Both father and son can trace their current successes back to Jadwin Gym and Powers Field at Princeton Stadium, where they both spent time on the radio for Princeton football and men's basketball. If you ask either of them, they will tell you that they cherish their time at Princeton. 

When TB spoke to Tom on his birthday, he asked him if he had any idea how many baseball games he's broadcasted in his life, going all the way back to his time with the then-brand new Trenton Thunder. His estimate? 

It would be between five and six thousand. That's a lot of baseball games. And that doesn't count any other broadcasting.

TigerBlog asked him if he still gets excited for gamedays, which of course he does. 

As TB said those words, it reminded him of this quote: 

"The hardest thing in the world to do is to do one thing particularly well for a long period of time at whatever standards you establish. Take the doctor who delivers his first baby. That's a huge thrill. Does he, 30 years later, get the same thrill. Or did Rex Harrison after 1,000 performances of My Fair Lady?" 

That's a pretty good one, no? 

You probably, without much difficulty, guessed whose quote that is.  

Of course. The answer is obviously Pete Carril. It was one of many great quotes that Princeton's former men's basketball coach uttered in his 29 years on the Tiger bench, before he was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.  

If you want to hear something really wild, Carril spent 29 years at Princeton — and it's now been 29 years since he left. Wild, right? 

Pete Carril passed away in 2022, shortly after his 92nd birthday. He would have turned 95 today, July 10. 

There has never been anyone else like Pete Carril at Princeton, and there never will be anyone else like him. His personality, his backstory, his humor, his competitiveness, his appearance — they were all unique. 

He wore a pained expression on his face almost all the time, except for when he showed that wide grin that could take over his face. His voice was low and gravelly. He gave it to you straight, no matter who "you" were. When he wanted your attention, he certainly got it. 

His public speaking ability was off the charts. TB once collected the 21 best quotes from Pete Carril. That list didn't include the away-from-the-public ones that he couldn't repeat, the ones that are etched in TB's memory, most of which he has never mentioned publicly.  

Here's one that TB has shared before. After one of the in-season tournaments that Princeton played, a reporter asked Carril his thoughts on one of his players who had made the all-tournament team. Without flinching — almost as it he had it scripted — he simply said "so did the guy he was guarding." 

Pete almost never prepared any remarks. He simply took the microphone and said what was on his mind and what was in his heart. He was intimidating and engaging at the same time, in a way that TigerBlog means as positively as he can. 

If you were in his orbit, you didn't want to let him down. You wanted him to respect your contributions, and you knew it when he did.  

TigerBlog had a front row seat for most of the last seven years Carril spent at Princeton. He was also the last men's basketball sports information director to work with Carril, something that earned TB a lot of free soup on Fridays. 

His style wasn't for everyone, and he recognized that too, which is why he left Princeton after the 1996 season, which ended famously with the Ivy League playoff win over Penn and then NCAA tournament win over UCLA. It's not easy for TB to keep in mind that the number of people at Princeton who knew Carril well has dwindled down to a very small number. 

Ah, but those people cherish that they had the chance know him. TigerBlog certainly does. 

Happy 95th Coach.