Goodbye, April

Goodbye, April. 

You have to love the month. It has no idea what it's trying to do. 

According to AccuWeather, in Princeton this April you had five days where the high temperature was over 80 degrees, with four more with a high between 77 and 79. That's eight of 30 days where it was at least 77.

Ah, but then there's the flip side. There were 11 days where the low was below 40, six of which where it was below freezing. 

The truly fun part is that five of the sub-40 days came after the five 80-plus days. 

Don't ever change, April.

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The Ivy League baseball regular season comes to an end this weekend. There are three teams who are locked into the tournament — Penn, Brown and Yale, any of whom could still be the host. 

There are also four teams in a race for the fourth and final spot — Princeton, Columbia, Cornell and Dartmouth. 

Princeton ends its season with three home games against the Crimson, who have already been eliminated from the ILT. The enter the weekend in fifth place, at 8-10 in the league, one game up on Dartmouth and Cornell. 

Then there is Columbia. The Lions had a postponed game against Brown from earlier in the season that was made up yesterday, when Brown did Princeton a big favor with a win that dropped the Lions to 8-9-1. That "-1" is a tie game with Yale that won't be finished, so winning percentage will be the ultimate decider of the last spot.  

Working in Princeton's favor is the fact that it holds the tiebreaker over Dartmouth and Cornell after having won the season series against each. The Tigers also have the tiebreaker over Columbia, but unless Princeton somehow ends up with a tie then that won't matter. 

The other three matchups this weekend have Columbia at Cornell, Dartmouth at Yale and Brown at Penn. 

First pitch for Saturday's doubleheader at Clarke Field is 11:30 and for Sunday's single game is noon.  

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The Larry Ellis Invitational Meet will be held at Weaver Track & Field Stadium this weekend, beginning tomorrow and running through Sunday. 

As was the case with the Sam Howell Invitational a few weeks ago, TigerBlog would like to remind everyone who Larry Ellis was. 

Does the name Bob Beamon mean anything to you? Beaman was the one who soared 29-2 1/4 in the long jump at the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City, shattering the existing record by nearly two feet. For more than two decades, nobody came close to touching the record, and it was among those considered unbreakable — until it was broken in 1991, when Mike Powell leapt 29-4 1/4. Now, 38 years later, Beamon's jump is still second. 

Why bring up Beaman? He grew up in New York City, Jamaica, to be exact. It was there that he was first mentored by the then-Jamaica High School coach. His name? Larry Ellis.

That's the same Larry Ellis who went on to become one of Princeton's most legendary coaches ever, with a 22-year run with the men's track and field program, as well multiple cycles as an Olympic coach. Also like Howell, Ellis was a true gentleman and a warm, welcoming person. 

He could also cut to the chase, at least in one example that TB overheard. He was walking down the Jadwin Gym balcony one day when he saw Ellis and one of his athletes in a conversation against the railing:

Athlete: What do I have to do to get my time down?
Ellis: Run faster.  

TB will never forget that. 

Ellis passed away in 1998 at the age of 70.  

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Among the rowing highlights this weekend will be a matchup Saturday between the third-ranked Princeton heavyweight men and No. 6 Brown on Lake Carnegie for the Content Cup, which honors Martha Content Joukoswky, Brown Class of 1958, and dates to 1994. 

The women's open rowing team welcomes Penn and Central Florida Saturday as well. The lightweight women have their Eastern Sprints Sunday in Worcester. 

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The Princeton softball regular season ends this weekend with three games against Dartmouth at Cynthia Paul Field. The facility will be back in business next weekend, for the Ivy League tournament.

Princeton, 17-1 in the league, has already clinched the Ivy title and the host role for the ILT. Should Princeton get at least one win this weekend against the Big Green, it would tie the record for most wins ever in an Ivy softball season.

The rest of the field for the tournament isn't set yet, as three out of Columbia, Harvard, Brown and Penn will be in town next weekend. 

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The complete weekend schedule is HERE.