The Other Pitch

TigerBlog was in the deli the other day when he noticed the stuffed tiger in the Claw machine. 

You know. It's the machine where Woody and Buzz got stuck before Sid won both of them in "Toy Story." It's one of the best scenes:

"Who's in charge here?" "The clawwwwwwww. The claw decides who will stay and who will go." 

TB wrote that paragraph back in October, after witnessing the field hockey team's interaction with a Claw machine on a rest stop on I-95. Izzy Morgan was able to win a stuffed animal out of the machine, with guidance from Pru Lindsey. 

Ah, but those two were nowhere to be found in the deli this week. TB knew he had no chance at doing this, but he did see a mother with two 10 or so year olds who were about to try their luck. He offered them $20 if they could get the Tiger. Try as they might, they couldn't — but they did get one of those green things and seemed pretty happy about that. 

Oh well. The tiger must still be there. 

The Princeton field hockey team reached the NCAA championship game a year ago before falling to Northwestern 2-1 in two overtimes. You know all about Beth Yeager, who graduated this past spring after putting together a resume that included being a four-time first-team All-American, a U.S. Olympian and a von Kienbusch Award winner. 

Because of her graduation and the huge hole it leaves, it's easy to forget that Yeager was the only senior who started in the NCAA final for Princeton. In fact, Princeton started four freshmen and four sophomores against Northwestern last November. 

The TFH (Tiger Field Hockey, as the group likes to go by) begins its season in seven weeks (and one day), when the Tigers will be in Chapel Hill for the Conference Crossover. It'll begin against Old Dominion on Friday, Sept. 4, and then conclude with a game against North Carolina two days later, while Penn plays the opposite schedule. 

Princeton will play six of its first seven games on the road, a run that ends Sept. 26 at Harvard for the annual showdown between the teams that have dominated Ivy field hockey of late. A year ago the teams met three times, with Harvard the winner in the regular season and then Princeton the winner in the Ivy tournament final and NCAA semifinal. 

There will be plenty of time to talk about TFH once the season rolls around. For today, TB sends out his best wishes to the eight players on the team who are from a sad place right now — England. 

If you watched the World Cup semifinal yesterday, then you know to what TigerBlog refers. England, looking for its first final berth since the 1966 championship team and second final berth ever, was up 1-0 with fewer than 10 minutes plus stoppage time to go. Argentina, though, was swarming. Could the English hold up? 

As it turned out, the answer was no. From the time England scored early in the second half until just past the 80-minute mark, TB was planning ahead. He'd get quotes from all eight of the English players, pictures of them with friends and family as they celebrated. 

And then? Argentina tied it. And then? Argentina won it. The game never even made it to extra time. 

TB did text with Caitlin Thompson, a rising sophomore. Caitlin doesn't know this, ut she was going to be one TB would have asked to coordinate all of the texts and photos. She did say there was a lot of chatter on a group text. 

When England went up 1-0, TB texted her that he was confident. Caitlin responded with an emoji that suggested nervousness. After it ended, she sent this:

😔

It'll be Argentina and Spain Sunday in the final from the Meadowlands. France and England will play Saturday in Miami in the third-place game. TigerBlog stays with his original thought from last week that the game offers little consolation to the teams who will be competing. 

Or to their fans.