When TigerBlog Jr. was one, TigerBlog decided to make a videotape of pictures set to music to commemorate the occasion. TB had to take the actual prints of the pictures he liked to a photo shop (not PhotoShop, as we think of it today) and have the project done there by someone else.
The result? A high pricetag and a VHS tape that is completely unusable today.
A few years later, TigerBlog was in charge of creating the video for the Princeton Varsity Club senior athlete banquet. Basically, it was a new project where each senior athlete got an action shot in a video, set to music. Again, TB's role was mostly organizational; someone else had to be paid to create the actual video tape.
Fast forward a few more years and a few more PVC banquets, and TigerBlog spent a great deal of time with Greg Busch, a former Princeton Department of Athletics assistant compliance director and current Associate Athletic Director at Rider, producing the senior-athlete video. By then, the technology existed to do the project somewhat in-house, but it was an arduous nightmare.
TB remembers one year when Busch spent basically the entire night before the banquet in the New Media Center, where the only computer with the right software was housed. By the next year, the program i-movie appeared on the computers at TigerBlog HQ, but it hardly made the process smooth.
Instead, a little pinwheel would turn for agonizingly long stretches at a time once the file got to be too large, and often the program would freeze. To TB and Greg Busch, it appeared that i-movie was taunting us.
Back then, and it was only three or four years ago, the PVC banquet project was a full-month headache. Today, i-movie has advanced a few versions and the memory on the computers at HQ has skyrocketed. TigerBlog put together the most recent PVC video in one day.
As an aside, it's never easy to pick the music for the video. TB likes to go with Bruce Springsteen, Train, Bon Jovi - TB's video; TB's music.
The big lesson that TigerBlog learned from Greg Busch was that creating video was relatively easy, once you got the hang of it and had the proper equipment. Beyond being easy to do, it was also a great outlet for creativity, perhaps the best one available these days.
TigerBlog used to think that a well-designed publication was a great expression of creativity in athletic communications. Even the webpage offers a chance to make something that is visually appealing.
But publications offer limited distribution, and their days are in varying states of being numbered (here at TB HQ, we've gone from being heavily invested in media guides to not doing them at all, and the world seems to have continued spinning).
And the options in video are going in the other direction, and what's most amazing is the ease with which these videos can be produced. In many ways, the tools available at HQ are the same as those used to edit Hollywood movies, and yet they're fairly easily mastered, once you get the Greg Busch message and get past being intimidated by it.
Back in the summer, TigerBlog wasn't as worried about not doing media guides as he was about not being able to produce the quantity of video that would be necessary to make goprincetontigers.tv a viable product.
That site is less than two months old, and the quantity and variety of content available has far exceeded TB's expectations. And, of the five-member staff at HQ, TigerBlog has by far done the least for the new site.
TigerBlog has sat in meetings of late where issues like video streaming, publications, TV and other mass media issues have been discussed, and TB can't help but chuckle about the futility of trying to make long-term decisions in a medium that is changing so fast and so furious.
But now, as Princeton athletics goes further and further down the path it planned last spring and summer - no media guides, limited print materials, and more and more multimedia, including TigerCast podcasting and all of the video - TigerBlog becomes more and more convinced it's the right way to go.
It's easy. It's cost-effective. It's fun to do. It's been incredibly well-received.
In some ways, we have Greg Busch to thank for it all. Maybe it doesn't erase the memory of the little pinwheel as it spun for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes - all as the clock raced past midnight.
Still, TigerBlog appreciates the lessons learned.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Kickoff? It's Between Noon And 4
One of TigerBlog's favorite domestic chores is doing the laundry. There's nothing quite like knowing that everything you own is clean and that TB is free to wear any of his 20 or so official Nike-issue "Princeton Athletics" shirts.
Sadly, TB put the laundry into the dryer Sunday afternoon, went back to get it an hour later and found that it was still wet and that the dryer wasn't heating up properly. First thing Monday, TB made a service call to get the dryer fixed, and he was told the first available appointment was for Thursday and that his options were either "between eight and noon or noon and 4."
As anyone who has ever needed something fixed or delivered knows, the best you usually get is a four-hour window. TigerBlog has always wondered why this is, so he made three calls to three appliance service-oriented large chain stores to find out. As could be predicted, he got three different answers:
1) the service calls are outsourced, so it's up to the individual vendors to set their schedules each day
2) the store doesn't want to say a specific time and then have that time not be correct
3) it's the nature of the appliance service business
TigerBlog, like the rest of the world, is used to it, so it's just a part of life. Of course, it's not the nature of every business.
Athletics, for instance, operates on a little more precise time frame. Princeton plays Cornell in football Saturday, and the game is at 1. It probably wouldn't be a good marketing campaign to announce that kickoff is "between noon and 4" and then have people sit there from noon on waiting to see when it would start.
This weekend Princeton features a bunch of quality events. And, to show how customer-friendly we are, they all come with exact start times.
This weekend is the start of the fall/winter overlap, something that unlike the Central Jersey leaves won't peak for another 2-3 weeks. Still, the men's hockey team opens its regular season (about a month after the rest of Division I, by the way) with a pair of non-conference home games against Brown Friday at 4 and Yale Saturday at 7.
Those games are considered non-league games because Princeton will play those teams two other times during the regular season. The reason that the teams play non-league games is to start the regular season off on something of an equal footing, rather than playing against teams already in game shape after playing real games for four weeks already.
There are actually rare hockey doubleheaders at Baker Rink this weekend, as the women's team will play at 7 Friday against RPI and at 4 Saturday against Union.
There are four chances to watch Princeton play Cornell on campus this weekend. The field hockey team goes for at least a share of its fifth Ivy League title in a row (and what would be 14 of the last 15) Friday at 6, and then there are three events Saturday:
* football at 1
* women's soccer at 4
* men's soccer at 7
The women's soccer team hasn't given up a goal in 492 minutes and is 22-6-1 after Oct. 15 since 2004. The men's soccer team currently has a national RPI (not to be confused with the women's hockey opponent) of 10, which is a direct result of how strong Ivy League men's soccer is.
Then there's one of TigerBlog's favorite events of any year, the Heps cross country championships at Van Cortlandt Park in New York. The women's race begins at 11:15; the men's race is at 12:15.
If you're anywhere near, it's a great event to check out. Princeton has won the men's and women's races each of the last three years.
And that's the weekend schedule, complete with actual times. And a guarantee that when the event does start, you won't have to go through this again next week - after the part that needs to be ordered comes in.
Sadly, TB put the laundry into the dryer Sunday afternoon, went back to get it an hour later and found that it was still wet and that the dryer wasn't heating up properly. First thing Monday, TB made a service call to get the dryer fixed, and he was told the first available appointment was for Thursday and that his options were either "between eight and noon or noon and 4."
As anyone who has ever needed something fixed or delivered knows, the best you usually get is a four-hour window. TigerBlog has always wondered why this is, so he made three calls to three appliance service-oriented large chain stores to find out. As could be predicted, he got three different answers:
1) the service calls are outsourced, so it's up to the individual vendors to set their schedules each day
2) the store doesn't want to say a specific time and then have that time not be correct
3) it's the nature of the appliance service business
TigerBlog, like the rest of the world, is used to it, so it's just a part of life. Of course, it's not the nature of every business.
Athletics, for instance, operates on a little more precise time frame. Princeton plays Cornell in football Saturday, and the game is at 1. It probably wouldn't be a good marketing campaign to announce that kickoff is "between noon and 4" and then have people sit there from noon on waiting to see when it would start.
This weekend Princeton features a bunch of quality events. And, to show how customer-friendly we are, they all come with exact start times.
This weekend is the start of the fall/winter overlap, something that unlike the Central Jersey leaves won't peak for another 2-3 weeks. Still, the men's hockey team opens its regular season (about a month after the rest of Division I, by the way) with a pair of non-conference home games against Brown Friday at 4 and Yale Saturday at 7.
Those games are considered non-league games because Princeton will play those teams two other times during the regular season. The reason that the teams play non-league games is to start the regular season off on something of an equal footing, rather than playing against teams already in game shape after playing real games for four weeks already.
There are actually rare hockey doubleheaders at Baker Rink this weekend, as the women's team will play at 7 Friday against RPI and at 4 Saturday against Union.
There are four chances to watch Princeton play Cornell on campus this weekend. The field hockey team goes for at least a share of its fifth Ivy League title in a row (and what would be 14 of the last 15) Friday at 6, and then there are three events Saturday:
* football at 1
* women's soccer at 4
* men's soccer at 7
The women's soccer team hasn't given up a goal in 492 minutes and is 22-6-1 after Oct. 15 since 2004. The men's soccer team currently has a national RPI (not to be confused with the women's hockey opponent) of 10, which is a direct result of how strong Ivy League men's soccer is.
Then there's one of TigerBlog's favorite events of any year, the Heps cross country championships at Van Cortlandt Park in New York. The women's race begins at 11:15; the men's race is at 12:15.
If you're anywhere near, it's a great event to check out. Princeton has won the men's and women's races each of the last three years.
And that's the weekend schedule, complete with actual times. And a guarantee that when the event does start, you won't have to go through this again next week - after the part that needs to be ordered comes in.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Thoughts From The Halfway Line
Back in the long-ago days when we here at TigerBlog HQ used to do something we called "media guides," pretty much every publication included language that Princeton was located at the midway point between New York City and Philadelphia.
Starting tonight, that distinction takes on even greater significance than letting college students on a bucolic campus know they have easy access to two great metropolitan areas. Starting tonight, Princeton is essentially the halfway point between the World Series opponents, the New York Yankees (evil) and the Philadelphia Phillies (reasonably good).
As an aside, it it TigerBlog's belief that 50 years from now, there will not be a World Series or Major League Baseball and that the most viewed sporting event (accessible via computer chips implanted in fingernails that allows the public to watch the event on their own internal mechanism) each year will be the championship game of Major League Lacrosse, to be played annually in front of 1,000,000 fans on a special stadium built on the international space station. Check back with TB in 2059 and congratulate him on being correct.
Anyway, back to Philadelphia and New York, it's actually 10 miles further to Yankee Stadium than Citizens' Bank Park, so the exact halfway point would be five miles up Route 1, around Raymond Road or so. Or maybe the Target in South Brunswick.
Still, it's close enough that there have been more than one media stories about it in the last few days.
Here at TigerBlog HQ, we have varying loyalties in Major League Baseball, including a Met fan who's going through a pretty rough time as his two least favorite teams play for the championship. There's also a Twins fan, a Dodgers fan and yes, a Yankees fan.
As for TigerBlog himself, he grew up rooting for the Mets but gave up on them when he moved to Hamilton Square in 1987 or so and couldn't get SportsChannel, which used to the cable home for the Mets (and no longer exists). That left his choices as the Yankees, Phillies and Braves, all of whom had all of their games on the local cable system.
TB chose the Braves because 1) he couldn't stand the Yankees, 2) he didn't usually root for Philly teams over New York teams and 3) MotherBlog had moved to Atlanta. This was in 1989, two years before the Braves went from being awful to being good. TB went to his first game at Fulton County Stadium in 1990, on a day when Tom Glavine lost to the Dodgers and about 10,000 people were in the stands.
As the Braves got better, TigerBlog got more into them. Looking back at those years, two things stand out. First was the night that TB went to a game in Atlanta while construction of the Olympic Stadium (now Turner Field) was going on, either in 1993 or 1994. During the construction, fans had to park downtown and be bused to the stadium, as there was no parking. After the game, 45,000 people or so had to wait on lines as buses pulled up, loaded and left for the parking areas. TB was shocked to find not a single pushing/shoving/cursing/escalating violence issue during the whole procedure; it was simply a huge line of people patiently waiting their turn.
Second, there was the time TB flew back to Philadelphia after visiting MotherBlog in the hospital, where she was battling what would turn out to be terminal cancer. MB had upgraded TigerBlog to first class (loved the hot towels), and it was pointed out to TB by the person sitting next to him that David Justice was on the same flight, across the aisle. TB told the stranger in the next seat about how he'd been visiting MB in the hospital and how David Justice was her favorite player. It led to this conversation:
Me: "It'd be great if he could send her something; that'd really lift her spirits."
Stranger On Plane: "Ask him to."
Me: "I don't want to be pushy."
Stranger On Plane: "Where can he go?"
So, with that logic, TigerBlog wrote a note about how MotherBlog was in Piedmont Hospital and how she watched all the games and how he was her favorite player and could he drop her a note, for which TB included MB's address. All the usual stuff. Later that night, MotherBlog called to say that David Justice had called her in the hospital and spoken to her for 20 minutes. He later sent her a package of Braves gifts, including a baseball autographed by about 15 members of the team and a tomahawk. TigerBlog has been a huge David Justice fan ever since.
Of course, eventually TBS went away from televising Braves games, and TB's interest in baseball began to wane. These days, his favorite teams are the Padres (Chris Young and Will Venable) and the Pirates (Ross Ohlendorf), neither of which made a run at the postseason.
As for this World Series, who is a Princeton fan to root for? Well, TB started by asking baseball coach Scott Bradley, who once played for the Yankees and is a regular at Yankees' Old-Timers' Day.
Bradley, though, likes everyone, so it's hard to get him to take sides. His basic comments were: "I just want it to go seven games and be close in the last inning and have someone have to get a big hit, like Chase Utley or Derek Jeter."
TigerBlog thinks the Yankees gave up on Ohlendorf too soon and that they'd be a better team right now had he taken Joba Chamberlain's spot in the rotation and had Chamberlain be the eighth-inning man all year. Plus, TB has never liked the Yankees.
As for the Phils, TB used to be a vendor at Veterans' Stadium, though he's never been a huge fan of the team. Still, TB will root for the Phillies for one reason: the team's TV play-by-play man, Tom McCarthy.
For those who don't remember, McCarthy used to call Princeton football and basketball on the radio, and he was the one behind the mic for the 1996 NCAA tournament win over UCLA and for the great 1997-98 season. He is an all-time favorite of basically anyone who's ever met him, and TigerBlog has had few better friends in his life than McCarthy. TB couldn't be happier that his career has skyrocketed, even if McCarthy was going to email TigerBlog a picture of his World Series ring from last year to put up here and forgot to.
As an aside, the only other time TB has ever flown first class was with McCarthy, when Princeton was coming back from Miami after playing Florida International (love the hot towels).
So, combining "Tom McCarthy" with "they gave up on Ohlendorf" and "a lifetime of hating the Yankees," TB is pulling for the Phils. And for a good, entertaining championship round.
After all, the day when the Major League Lacrosse championship wipes out the World Series is coming.
Starting tonight, that distinction takes on even greater significance than letting college students on a bucolic campus know they have easy access to two great metropolitan areas. Starting tonight, Princeton is essentially the halfway point between the World Series opponents, the New York Yankees (evil) and the Philadelphia Phillies (reasonably good).
As an aside, it it TigerBlog's belief that 50 years from now, there will not be a World Series or Major League Baseball and that the most viewed sporting event (accessible via computer chips implanted in fingernails that allows the public to watch the event on their own internal mechanism) each year will be the championship game of Major League Lacrosse, to be played annually in front of 1,000,000 fans on a special stadium built on the international space station. Check back with TB in 2059 and congratulate him on being correct.
Anyway, back to Philadelphia and New York, it's actually 10 miles further to Yankee Stadium than Citizens' Bank Park, so the exact halfway point would be five miles up Route 1, around Raymond Road or so. Or maybe the Target in South Brunswick.
Still, it's close enough that there have been more than one media stories about it in the last few days.
Here at TigerBlog HQ, we have varying loyalties in Major League Baseball, including a Met fan who's going through a pretty rough time as his two least favorite teams play for the championship. There's also a Twins fan, a Dodgers fan and yes, a Yankees fan.
As for TigerBlog himself, he grew up rooting for the Mets but gave up on them when he moved to Hamilton Square in 1987 or so and couldn't get SportsChannel, which used to the cable home for the Mets (and no longer exists). That left his choices as the Yankees, Phillies and Braves, all of whom had all of their games on the local cable system.
TB chose the Braves because 1) he couldn't stand the Yankees, 2) he didn't usually root for Philly teams over New York teams and 3) MotherBlog had moved to Atlanta. This was in 1989, two years before the Braves went from being awful to being good. TB went to his first game at Fulton County Stadium in 1990, on a day when Tom Glavine lost to the Dodgers and about 10,000 people were in the stands.
As the Braves got better, TigerBlog got more into them. Looking back at those years, two things stand out. First was the night that TB went to a game in Atlanta while construction of the Olympic Stadium (now Turner Field) was going on, either in 1993 or 1994. During the construction, fans had to park downtown and be bused to the stadium, as there was no parking. After the game, 45,000 people or so had to wait on lines as buses pulled up, loaded and left for the parking areas. TB was shocked to find not a single pushing/shoving/cursing/escalating violence issue during the whole procedure; it was simply a huge line of people patiently waiting their turn.
Second, there was the time TB flew back to Philadelphia after visiting MotherBlog in the hospital, where she was battling what would turn out to be terminal cancer. MB had upgraded TigerBlog to first class (loved the hot towels), and it was pointed out to TB by the person sitting next to him that David Justice was on the same flight, across the aisle. TB told the stranger in the next seat about how he'd been visiting MB in the hospital and how David Justice was her favorite player. It led to this conversation:
Me: "It'd be great if he could send her something; that'd really lift her spirits."
Stranger On Plane: "Ask him to."
Me: "I don't want to be pushy."
Stranger On Plane: "Where can he go?"
So, with that logic, TigerBlog wrote a note about how MotherBlog was in Piedmont Hospital and how she watched all the games and how he was her favorite player and could he drop her a note, for which TB included MB's address. All the usual stuff. Later that night, MotherBlog called to say that David Justice had called her in the hospital and spoken to her for 20 minutes. He later sent her a package of Braves gifts, including a baseball autographed by about 15 members of the team and a tomahawk. TigerBlog has been a huge David Justice fan ever since.
Of course, eventually TBS went away from televising Braves games, and TB's interest in baseball began to wane. These days, his favorite teams are the Padres (Chris Young and Will Venable) and the Pirates (Ross Ohlendorf), neither of which made a run at the postseason.
As for this World Series, who is a Princeton fan to root for? Well, TB started by asking baseball coach Scott Bradley, who once played for the Yankees and is a regular at Yankees' Old-Timers' Day.
Bradley, though, likes everyone, so it's hard to get him to take sides. His basic comments were: "I just want it to go seven games and be close in the last inning and have someone have to get a big hit, like Chase Utley or Derek Jeter."
TigerBlog thinks the Yankees gave up on Ohlendorf too soon and that they'd be a better team right now had he taken Joba Chamberlain's spot in the rotation and had Chamberlain be the eighth-inning man all year. Plus, TB has never liked the Yankees.
As for the Phils, TB used to be a vendor at Veterans' Stadium, though he's never been a huge fan of the team. Still, TB will root for the Phillies for one reason: the team's TV play-by-play man, Tom McCarthy.
For those who don't remember, McCarthy used to call Princeton football and basketball on the radio, and he was the one behind the mic for the 1996 NCAA tournament win over UCLA and for the great 1997-98 season. He is an all-time favorite of basically anyone who's ever met him, and TigerBlog has had few better friends in his life than McCarthy. TB couldn't be happier that his career has skyrocketed, even if McCarthy was going to email TigerBlog a picture of his World Series ring from last year to put up here and forgot to.
As an aside, the only other time TB has ever flown first class was with McCarthy, when Princeton was coming back from Miami after playing Florida International (love the hot towels).
So, combining "Tom McCarthy" with "they gave up on Ohlendorf" and "a lifetime of hating the Yankees," TB is pulling for the Phils. And for a good, entertaining championship round.
After all, the day when the Major League Lacrosse championship wipes out the World Series is coming.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The Play's The Thing
TigerBlog was watching NBC's "Football Night In America" Sunday night when he found Dan Patrick, Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison in a discussion (that included comments from Peyton Manning) about the famous catch that David Tyree of the Giants made in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl against the Patriots two seasons ago.
TB immediately thought of a few points:
* Tyree should have been the MVP of the game on that catch alone, but when you add in that he also had a touchdown reception, how could he not have won it?
* that game was played almost 21 months ago, and yet the player who caught the winning pass in the game has already gone most of the way through another football season, shot himself in the thigh and is in prison
* no matter what happens to Team Good (the Giants) or if Teams Evil (the Eagles and Cowboys) win a championship in the next few years, that Super Bowl win more than makes up for it.
As an aside, if you google "David Tyree" and click on "images," you'll see about nine million different pictures of the same catch.
TigerBlog remembers watching on TV at the house of one of FatherBlog's friends when Franco Harris completed the "Immaculate Reception" for the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Oakland Raiders in the 1972 NFL playoffs. TB was a kid, and all the adults had left the room, leaving TB to watch the end by himself. None of the adults believed TB when he relayed what had happened, and of course, there was no internet or all-sports cable station to confirm what TB was saying.
TigerBlog also covered some of the greatest plays in NCAA basketball tournament history, including the 1992 Duke-Kentucky game, whose end is considered by many to be the great play in college basketball history.
TB has seen some amazing plays at amazing times, some that are helped by having great historical significance attached to them. Others are lost as just footnotes to meaningless games, such as the time Darryl Strawberry hit one off the clock in St. Louis.
Still, for TB's money, Tyree's catch is the greatest single play of all time, because of the catch itself and the job Eli Manning did getting the pass off in the first place. And everytime TB sees it, he becomes more amazed by it.
This leads, of course, to the question of what the single greatest play in Princeton athletic history is. That leads to an awful lot of possibilities, since there are probably tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of plays at Princeton each year.
There are some very famous ones from years ago, such as the 1935 football game against Dartmouth when a local cook jumped from the Palmer Stadium stands to join the Big Green line for one play. Or the fourth-down play near the goal line in 1922, when Princeton's "Team of Destiny" stopped Chicago en route to a perfect season and the national championship.
TB isn't sure if 1981 counts as years ago, but Bob Holly's winning touchdown run on the final play of the game to snap a 14-year losing streak against Yale has to be in the top 20.
Princeton's three greatest athletes of all-time are Hobey Baker, Dick Kazmaier and Bill Bradley, but TB thinks of them for their entire resume, rather for a single play. Talking about Bradley, his career was built on "A Sense of Where You Are," meaning that he always knew where he was on the court and had practiced each shot from each spot so many times that it became second nature. In that respect, picking any one single play would be somewhat insulting.
Besides, when great plays are discussed, they can come from anyone at any time, like Tyree in the Super Bowl. To that end, maybe the greatest play in Princeton history was Ed Persia's full-court heave at the buzzer to beat Monmouth in 2002.
TigerBlog has seen probably all but 10 of the last 315 games the Princeton men's lacrosse team has played. When he thinks of great plays, the first thought normally is of the four game-winning goals in overtime of NCAA championship games. Of those four, the best individual effort was the first one, when Andy Moe took the ball after the face-off to start the second OT and scored.
But when TB thinks of simply great plays, he doesn't think of those four. Maybe Moe's, but not he other three. They were great moments in big pressure situations, but not great plays on their own merits. If TB thinks of men's lacrosse, he goes back to either Jesse Hubbard's behind-the-back goal in the mud at Hobart in 1996 and the Chad Wiedmaier-to-John Cunningham longstick-t0-longstick goal against Hopkins a year ago.
Can TigerBlog go sport-by-sport and pick out great plays? No, because he hasn't seen them all. Each sport has its own, though.
So TigerBlog will end with three choices, two of which are quite possibly the most famous plays in Princeton history and the third that isn't something many remember.
First, there was obviously Gabe Lewullis' layup in the 1996 NCAA tournament to beat UCLA. For the combination of high profile, great play, history and everything else, this is without question the No. 1 play in the history of Princeton athletics.
Jeff Terrell's touchdown on a pitch from Rob Toresco in the second overtime against Penn in 2006 is also up there. TigerBlog was the PA announcer for the game, and he was on the phone with TB-Baltimore (who was at the soccer field) giving an update as Terrell took the pitch. TB doesn't remember word-for-word what he said, but it was something like "that's the most amazing play I've ever seen."
Lastly, there was Emily Behncke's goal against Harvard in women's soccer in 2004. Behncke scored with 41 seconds to go in regulation to tie that game; Princeton won on Esmeralda Negron's overtime goal. Behncke's goal was an amazing individual shot, but beyond that, it also ended a huge curse against the Crimson and propelled the Tigers to a run that would end in the NCAA Final Four.
Don't like TB's choices? He's pretty sure he left out some great ones that he should have remembered.
Don't like any that have happened yet at Princeton? Don't worry. There are thousands more on the way.
TB immediately thought of a few points:
* Tyree should have been the MVP of the game on that catch alone, but when you add in that he also had a touchdown reception, how could he not have won it?
* that game was played almost 21 months ago, and yet the player who caught the winning pass in the game has already gone most of the way through another football season, shot himself in the thigh and is in prison
* no matter what happens to Team Good (the Giants) or if Teams Evil (the Eagles and Cowboys) win a championship in the next few years, that Super Bowl win more than makes up for it.
As an aside, if you google "David Tyree" and click on "images," you'll see about nine million different pictures of the same catch.
TigerBlog remembers watching on TV at the house of one of FatherBlog's friends when Franco Harris completed the "Immaculate Reception" for the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Oakland Raiders in the 1972 NFL playoffs. TB was a kid, and all the adults had left the room, leaving TB to watch the end by himself. None of the adults believed TB when he relayed what had happened, and of course, there was no internet or all-sports cable station to confirm what TB was saying.
TigerBlog also covered some of the greatest plays in NCAA basketball tournament history, including the 1992 Duke-Kentucky game, whose end is considered by many to be the great play in college basketball history.
TB has seen some amazing plays at amazing times, some that are helped by having great historical significance attached to them. Others are lost as just footnotes to meaningless games, such as the time Darryl Strawberry hit one off the clock in St. Louis.
Still, for TB's money, Tyree's catch is the greatest single play of all time, because of the catch itself and the job Eli Manning did getting the pass off in the first place. And everytime TB sees it, he becomes more amazed by it.
This leads, of course, to the question of what the single greatest play in Princeton athletic history is. That leads to an awful lot of possibilities, since there are probably tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of plays at Princeton each year.
There are some very famous ones from years ago, such as the 1935 football game against Dartmouth when a local cook jumped from the Palmer Stadium stands to join the Big Green line for one play. Or the fourth-down play near the goal line in 1922, when Princeton's "Team of Destiny" stopped Chicago en route to a perfect season and the national championship.
TB isn't sure if 1981 counts as years ago, but Bob Holly's winning touchdown run on the final play of the game to snap a 14-year losing streak against Yale has to be in the top 20.
Princeton's three greatest athletes of all-time are Hobey Baker, Dick Kazmaier and Bill Bradley, but TB thinks of them for their entire resume, rather for a single play. Talking about Bradley, his career was built on "A Sense of Where You Are," meaning that he always knew where he was on the court and had practiced each shot from each spot so many times that it became second nature. In that respect, picking any one single play would be somewhat insulting.
Besides, when great plays are discussed, they can come from anyone at any time, like Tyree in the Super Bowl. To that end, maybe the greatest play in Princeton history was Ed Persia's full-court heave at the buzzer to beat Monmouth in 2002.
TigerBlog has seen probably all but 10 of the last 315 games the Princeton men's lacrosse team has played. When he thinks of great plays, the first thought normally is of the four game-winning goals in overtime of NCAA championship games. Of those four, the best individual effort was the first one, when Andy Moe took the ball after the face-off to start the second OT and scored.
But when TB thinks of simply great plays, he doesn't think of those four. Maybe Moe's, but not he other three. They were great moments in big pressure situations, but not great plays on their own merits. If TB thinks of men's lacrosse, he goes back to either Jesse Hubbard's behind-the-back goal in the mud at Hobart in 1996 and the Chad Wiedmaier-to-John Cunningham longstick-t0-longstick goal against Hopkins a year ago.
Can TigerBlog go sport-by-sport and pick out great plays? No, because he hasn't seen them all. Each sport has its own, though.
So TigerBlog will end with three choices, two of which are quite possibly the most famous plays in Princeton history and the third that isn't something many remember.
First, there was obviously Gabe Lewullis' layup in the 1996 NCAA tournament to beat UCLA. For the combination of high profile, great play, history and everything else, this is without question the No. 1 play in the history of Princeton athletics.
Jeff Terrell's touchdown on a pitch from Rob Toresco in the second overtime against Penn in 2006 is also up there. TigerBlog was the PA announcer for the game, and he was on the phone with TB-Baltimore (who was at the soccer field) giving an update as Terrell took the pitch. TB doesn't remember word-for-word what he said, but it was something like "that's the most amazing play I've ever seen."
Lastly, there was Emily Behncke's goal against Harvard in women's soccer in 2004. Behncke scored with 41 seconds to go in regulation to tie that game; Princeton won on Esmeralda Negron's overtime goal. Behncke's goal was an amazing individual shot, but beyond that, it also ended a huge curse against the Crimson and propelled the Tigers to a run that would end in the NCAA Final Four.
Don't like TB's choices? He's pretty sure he left out some great ones that he should have remembered.
Don't like any that have happened yet at Princeton? Don't worry. There are thousands more on the way.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Stat Lines And Sprint Football
There's a guy who works in the business office named Ryan Yurko who looks 1) about 15 years old and 2) exactly like Chuck Yrigoyen, who used to work here at TigerBlog HQ back in the 1980s before moving on to the Ivy League office and finally on to the become the commissioner of the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
As an aside, TigerBlog misses Chuck, who was about as universally liked as anyone TB has ever met. Not sure how he pulled it off; maybe it was just a lot of smiling.
Anyway, Ryan Yurko sent TigerBlog a link this morning to the box score for the game between his alma mater Ball State and Eastern Michigan this past Saturday. The stat line for this game is ridiculous, particularly:
* two players Ball State who rushed for at least 200 yards, including one who had 301 yards
* the winning points coming on a fourth quarter safety
* the fact that both teams were winless prior to the game
* the winning quarterback was 2 for 10 for one yard and one interception
Also, the AP recap is supposed to be pretty straight-forward, but hey, can there be some acknowledgement that it was a wild game? And maybe the mention of the fact that two players on the same team reached at least 200 rushing yards in the same game for the fourth time in Division I history and that a team had one 300-yard rusher and one 20o-yard rusher in the same game for the first time ever?
TigerBlog then forwarded that to TB-Baltimore, a big fan of stat lines, and he sent back the Navy-Wake Forest box. Navy, TB's favorite FBS team, won the game 13-10. The Mids ran 64 plays, all rushes, for 338 rushing yards. Navy did not attempt a pass.
The two box scores got TB thinking about great stat lines in Princeton history, of which there are so many. Perhaps TB's favorite was the men's basketball game against Niagara in 1997-98 when Princeton had 21 assists on 21 baskets. Or Nate Walton's line against Penn in the 2001 Ivy clincher: nine points, eight rebounds, seven assists, six steals. Or Mason Rocca against Georgetown in the 1999 NIT: six points, 18 rebounds.
In football, there was Michael Lerch's game against Brown in 1991, where he caught nine passes for 370 yards, with touchdowns of 64, 79, 90 and 45 yards.
TigerBlog also thought back to a sprint football game against Army a few years ago, and after a quick search on goprincetontigers.com, he found the recap from that night, complete with the headline "Army Tops Sprint Football 35-0 In Bizarre Game."
Bizarre? How about these numbers?:
* Princeton had a 42:17-17:43 edge in time of possession
* Princeton ran 94 plays; Army ran 37
* Army scored five touchdowns, all on plays of at least 66 yards
TigerBlog was at Princeton Stadium Friday night for the sprint football game against Mansfield. That game itself offered an amazing statistical background: After Mansfield had defeated Princeton 33-0 in the opener for both, the teams were a combined 0-8 against the other four teams in the league, having been outscored 352-7 during that time.
Princeton led the game Friday night 7-0 in the second quarter and 14-7 in the third. Had two plays gone differently (a fumbled punt and a third down conversion that went against Princeton), the game might have marked the end of Princeton's now-54 game CSFL losing streak.
It can't be easy to be a sprint football player, knowing that the odds are stacked against you off the bat by the presence of two service academies and the two Ivy schools with the largest enrollments, not to mention that addition of Mansfield, which appears to have a strong institutional commitment to fielding a competitive sprint football program.
Still, TB was impressed by how hard Princeton played Friday night, or indeed how hard Princeton plays every time he sees the sprint team. In all the years that TigerBlog has gone to sprint games, he's never seen a team going through the motions or a team that has given up, or even a team that isn't playing to win.
Sadly for the Tigers, they fell short 26-14 Friday night. TigerBlog would say that in the wake of a season in which Princeton has lost games by scores of 33-0, 57-0, 57-7, 44-0 and 42-0, the game Friday night offered the team a chance to walk off the field with its collective head held high.
But the sprint team does that after every game. Somewhere in what those guys go through is a lesson on character and the importance of sports. TB hopes that along with those two things, the sprint team can also get a win one of these days. They certainly deserve one.
As an aside, TigerBlog misses Chuck, who was about as universally liked as anyone TB has ever met. Not sure how he pulled it off; maybe it was just a lot of smiling.
Anyway, Ryan Yurko sent TigerBlog a link this morning to the box score for the game between his alma mater Ball State and Eastern Michigan this past Saturday. The stat line for this game is ridiculous, particularly:
* two players Ball State who rushed for at least 200 yards, including one who had 301 yards
* the winning points coming on a fourth quarter safety
* the fact that both teams were winless prior to the game
* the winning quarterback was 2 for 10 for one yard and one interception
Also, the AP recap is supposed to be pretty straight-forward, but hey, can there be some acknowledgement that it was a wild game? And maybe the mention of the fact that two players on the same team reached at least 200 rushing yards in the same game for the fourth time in Division I history and that a team had one 300-yard rusher and one 20o-yard rusher in the same game for the first time ever?
TigerBlog then forwarded that to TB-Baltimore, a big fan of stat lines, and he sent back the Navy-Wake Forest box. Navy, TB's favorite FBS team, won the game 13-10. The Mids ran 64 plays, all rushes, for 338 rushing yards. Navy did not attempt a pass.
The two box scores got TB thinking about great stat lines in Princeton history, of which there are so many. Perhaps TB's favorite was the men's basketball game against Niagara in 1997-98 when Princeton had 21 assists on 21 baskets. Or Nate Walton's line against Penn in the 2001 Ivy clincher: nine points, eight rebounds, seven assists, six steals. Or Mason Rocca against Georgetown in the 1999 NIT: six points, 18 rebounds.
In football, there was Michael Lerch's game against Brown in 1991, where he caught nine passes for 370 yards, with touchdowns of 64, 79, 90 and 45 yards.
TigerBlog also thought back to a sprint football game against Army a few years ago, and after a quick search on goprincetontigers.com, he found the recap from that night, complete with the headline "Army Tops Sprint Football 35-0 In Bizarre Game."
Bizarre? How about these numbers?:
* Princeton had a 42:17-17:43 edge in time of possession
* Princeton ran 94 plays; Army ran 37
* Army scored five touchdowns, all on plays of at least 66 yards
TigerBlog was at Princeton Stadium Friday night for the sprint football game against Mansfield. That game itself offered an amazing statistical background: After Mansfield had defeated Princeton 33-0 in the opener for both, the teams were a combined 0-8 against the other four teams in the league, having been outscored 352-7 during that time.
Princeton led the game Friday night 7-0 in the second quarter and 14-7 in the third. Had two plays gone differently (a fumbled punt and a third down conversion that went against Princeton), the game might have marked the end of Princeton's now-54 game CSFL losing streak.
It can't be easy to be a sprint football player, knowing that the odds are stacked against you off the bat by the presence of two service academies and the two Ivy schools with the largest enrollments, not to mention that addition of Mansfield, which appears to have a strong institutional commitment to fielding a competitive sprint football program.
Still, TB was impressed by how hard Princeton played Friday night, or indeed how hard Princeton plays every time he sees the sprint team. In all the years that TigerBlog has gone to sprint games, he's never seen a team going through the motions or a team that has given up, or even a team that isn't playing to win.
Sadly for the Tigers, they fell short 26-14 Friday night. TigerBlog would say that in the wake of a season in which Princeton has lost games by scores of 33-0, 57-0, 57-7, 44-0 and 42-0, the game Friday night offered the team a chance to walk off the field with its collective head held high.
But the sprint team does that after every game. Somewhere in what those guys go through is a lesson on character and the importance of sports. TB hopes that along with those two things, the sprint team can also get a win one of these days. They certainly deserve one.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Love Your Body
The email came earlier this week with a subject line of "love your body day." It had been sent to the entire athletic department and quite possibly the entire University, and it was inviting people to be aware of the fact that this past Wednesday was to be "Love Your Body Day," an awareness event promoted by the NOW Foundation, part of the National Organization for Women.
TigerBlog has high self-esteem, so he's fine with his own body. Still, TB clicked on the link in the email, and he was a big fan of what he saw.
NOW Foundation's website had information about the event, which tackles an issue that TigerBlog strongly believes; namely, that mass media and pop culture send awful messages to young girls and women about body types and that these messages result in all kinds of terrible physical and mental health issues. The foundation site began with this text:
"Hollywood and the fashion, cosmetics and diet industries work hard to make each of us believe that our bodies are unacceptable and need constant improvement. Print ads and television commercials reduce us to body parts -- lips, legs, breasts -- airbrushed and touched up to meet impossible standards. TV shows tell women and teenage girls that cosmetic surgery is good for self-esteem. Is it any wonder that 80% of U.S. women are dissatisfied with their appearance?"
It's an important issue on college campuses and especially in collegiate athletic departments. It's something that is taken extraordinarily seriously here at Princeton.
The athletic department has a strong commitment to what is generally known as "wellness," which obviously puts its emphasis on preventing problems before they happen. The University has a full-time staff of professionals under University Health who can deal with any number of issues, and the athletic department has direct access to among others a full-time dietitian.
There are also any number of people who come in and speak to Princeton athletes about issues such as drinking, drugs, depression and anything else that might become a serious issue.
The public face of Princeton athletics, or any college's athletics, is the games the teams play. To many, that's all they ever see of what goes on here, healthy young men and women wearing orange and black and competing for Princeton. Way more often than not, that's the case.
Still, TB has been in many meetings or spoken with many coaches and athletes about issues that have come up, and many of the stories are heartbreaking. And TigerBlog can't help but think that many of these problems begin by looking in magazines or on TV or at movies.
The messages that bombard little girls from an early age are astonishing. Maybe TB never paid really close attention to it before Little Miss TigerBlog came along, but he can see the effect that pop culture has on kids in elementary school. Or, if you don't think it's that big a deal, go to the next middle school football game that TigerBlog Jr. plays in and look at the 12- to 14-year-old girls walking around after school.
To be honest, it's frightening. Little Miss TigerBlog went for her annual checkup, found out that she weighed 74 pounds and got upset because most of the other girls in her school still weigh in the 60s. Forget that LMTB is off-the-charts tall and doesn't have an ounce of fat on her skinny frame. She was still upset about what she was told she weighed.
Why? Because that's what society is already telling her. Sadly, too many girls grow up and have these thoughts escalate until real problems exist.
The athletes at Princeton, especially the women, are lucky that they have the access to help that they have.
Love Your Body Day was this past Wednesday? It should be every day.
As for young girls, they should forget the "famous" women shown all over, the Kardashians and Magan Foxes and Real Housewives of Wherever.
Look here instead. And here. And here. And any number of other athletes here at Princeton. They are role models for the right reasons.
TigerBlog has high self-esteem, so he's fine with his own body. Still, TB clicked on the link in the email, and he was a big fan of what he saw.
NOW Foundation's website had information about the event, which tackles an issue that TigerBlog strongly believes; namely, that mass media and pop culture send awful messages to young girls and women about body types and that these messages result in all kinds of terrible physical and mental health issues. The foundation site began with this text:
"Hollywood and the fashion, cosmetics and diet industries work hard to make each of us believe that our bodies are unacceptable and need constant improvement. Print ads and television commercials reduce us to body parts -- lips, legs, breasts -- airbrushed and touched up to meet impossible standards. TV shows tell women and teenage girls that cosmetic surgery is good for self-esteem. Is it any wonder that 80% of U.S. women are dissatisfied with their appearance?"
It's an important issue on college campuses and especially in collegiate athletic departments. It's something that is taken extraordinarily seriously here at Princeton.
The athletic department has a strong commitment to what is generally known as "wellness," which obviously puts its emphasis on preventing problems before they happen. The University has a full-time staff of professionals under University Health who can deal with any number of issues, and the athletic department has direct access to among others a full-time dietitian.
There are also any number of people who come in and speak to Princeton athletes about issues such as drinking, drugs, depression and anything else that might become a serious issue.
The public face of Princeton athletics, or any college's athletics, is the games the teams play. To many, that's all they ever see of what goes on here, healthy young men and women wearing orange and black and competing for Princeton. Way more often than not, that's the case.
Still, TB has been in many meetings or spoken with many coaches and athletes about issues that have come up, and many of the stories are heartbreaking. And TigerBlog can't help but think that many of these problems begin by looking in magazines or on TV or at movies.
The messages that bombard little girls from an early age are astonishing. Maybe TB never paid really close attention to it before Little Miss TigerBlog came along, but he can see the effect that pop culture has on kids in elementary school. Or, if you don't think it's that big a deal, go to the next middle school football game that TigerBlog Jr. plays in and look at the 12- to 14-year-old girls walking around after school.
To be honest, it's frightening. Little Miss TigerBlog went for her annual checkup, found out that she weighed 74 pounds and got upset because most of the other girls in her school still weigh in the 60s. Forget that LMTB is off-the-charts tall and doesn't have an ounce of fat on her skinny frame. She was still upset about what she was told she weighed.
Why? Because that's what society is already telling her. Sadly, too many girls grow up and have these thoughts escalate until real problems exist.
The athletes at Princeton, especially the women, are lucky that they have the access to help that they have.
Love Your Body Day was this past Wednesday? It should be every day.
As for young girls, they should forget the "famous" women shown all over, the Kardashians and Magan Foxes and Real Housewives of Wherever.
Look here instead. And here. And here. And any number of other athletes here at Princeton. They are role models for the right reasons.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Happy 263rd Birthday
It doesn't take as long to read the morning paper anymore, not like it used to anyway. Still, there is something about opening the newspaper each day, and it's something that TigerBlog hears from any number of people whenever he talks about how upwards of 95% of reading of newspapers is now done online.
TB's own trip through the paper involves certain stops along the way: the front page, quick glance through sports, check on the local high school results, maybe a look at transactions, Rick Freeman's "Diamond Reflections," news columns, Dilbert and Doonesbury, the daily jumbles and this day in history. By that point, the day's Corn Flakes have been consumed, and that's that.
Every now and then, TigerBlog is struck by some fact in the "this day in history" section that stands out, and there was another one there today: 1746 - Princeton University is chartered as the College of New Jersey.
TigerBlog then began to wonder why some of the schools that were formulated around the same time became the education superpowers that they are today, while others went in other directions. To figure it out, he checked with two of his favorite authorities: Wikipedia, and University archivist Dan Linke.
According to Wikipedia, Princeton is one of nine "colonial" colleges in the United States, a definition given to colleges who were chartered before the Declaration of Independence. The list (in order of charter):
Harvard
William & Mary
Yale
University of West Philadelphia
Princeton
Columbia
Brown
Rutgers
Dartmouth
Of that group, only two - William & Mary and Dartmouth - were chartered under the same name they now use.
There is also another group that follows of colonial era charters:
St. John's College (Maryland)
Moravian
Delaware
Washington & Lee
College of Charleston
Salem College (chartered as "the Little Girls' School; try that today)
Dickinson
Hampton-Sydney
Union
Transylvania
Washington College
In other words, the first nine colleges chartered in the U.S. include seven schools that are currently in the Ivy League and two major public universities. The next 11 chartered include some high quality schools, but none that are on the level of the first nine.
For the answer to why, TB then turned to Linke, with an email that started out with "WARNING - DON'T SPEND ANY TIME ON THIS." Linke, and his predecessor Ben Primer, work in a fascinating place with a fascinating job: They are essentially giant fountains of information on anything to do with Princeton.
Linke's response included this: "I surmise one of the reasons would be money--as the oldest schools near centers of industry and finance, they had many students who went on to be captains of business and who then gave money to build the institution, which allows you to build labs and libraries and the like."
Ah, follow the money. As always.
As for Princeton, it was 118 years after its charter that the first intercollegiate athletic event in school history occured, a baseball game against Williams in 1864. It was 123 years after the charter that Princeton and Rutgers (two of the original nine) played the first college football game. It was 225 years before the first women's sporting event in school history, a field hockey game against Temple.
Princeton was at the forefront of pretty much every major advancement in intercollegiate athletics: the first football game, the establishment of the rules governing football, the formation of the NCAA itself. Princeton drew crowds that neared 100,000 for games against Yale and Harvard in various points around the Northeast more than a quarter-century before the National Football League came into existence.
TigerBlog can't help but think that Princeton's role in athletics helped it grow into the institution it is today. And again, seven of those first nine colleges are now equated with the academic greatness that goes along with being considered an Ivy League school, yet Ivy League is first and foremost an athletic distinction.
Today, as it turns 263, Princeton is recognized as one of the world's greatest universities. It has grown from those earliest days to become what it is today, a place that strives for excellence in everything it does, from eduction within its classrooms to the many areas outside of its classrooms, including the performing arts, alumni relations, public service and yes athletics.
TigerBlog often says that when you come to work every day here at HQ, it's easy to forget that we work in a place that many people pay to get into, in a place that was built primarily as a basketball arena.
That thought can be expanded to include the University as a whole. Those who work here come here every day, park their car, head into their office and maybe lose track of the fact that they are at a place that is so special.
So happy birthday Princeton. You look pretty good for 263.
TB's own trip through the paper involves certain stops along the way: the front page, quick glance through sports, check on the local high school results, maybe a look at transactions, Rick Freeman's "Diamond Reflections," news columns, Dilbert and Doonesbury, the daily jumbles and this day in history. By that point, the day's Corn Flakes have been consumed, and that's that.
Every now and then, TigerBlog is struck by some fact in the "this day in history" section that stands out, and there was another one there today: 1746 - Princeton University is chartered as the College of New Jersey.
TigerBlog then began to wonder why some of the schools that were formulated around the same time became the education superpowers that they are today, while others went in other directions. To figure it out, he checked with two of his favorite authorities: Wikipedia, and University archivist Dan Linke.
According to Wikipedia, Princeton is one of nine "colonial" colleges in the United States, a definition given to colleges who were chartered before the Declaration of Independence. The list (in order of charter):
Harvard
William & Mary
Yale
University of West Philadelphia
Princeton
Columbia
Brown
Rutgers
Dartmouth
Of that group, only two - William & Mary and Dartmouth - were chartered under the same name they now use.
There is also another group that follows of colonial era charters:
St. John's College (Maryland)
Moravian
Delaware
Washington & Lee
College of Charleston
Salem College (chartered as "the Little Girls' School; try that today)
Dickinson
Hampton-Sydney
Union
Transylvania
Washington College
In other words, the first nine colleges chartered in the U.S. include seven schools that are currently in the Ivy League and two major public universities. The next 11 chartered include some high quality schools, but none that are on the level of the first nine.
For the answer to why, TB then turned to Linke, with an email that started out with "WARNING - DON'T SPEND ANY TIME ON THIS." Linke, and his predecessor Ben Primer, work in a fascinating place with a fascinating job: They are essentially giant fountains of information on anything to do with Princeton.
Linke's response included this: "I surmise one of the reasons would be money--as the oldest schools near centers of industry and finance, they had many students who went on to be captains of business and who then gave money to build the institution, which allows you to build labs and libraries and the like."
Ah, follow the money. As always.
As for Princeton, it was 118 years after its charter that the first intercollegiate athletic event in school history occured, a baseball game against Williams in 1864. It was 123 years after the charter that Princeton and Rutgers (two of the original nine) played the first college football game. It was 225 years before the first women's sporting event in school history, a field hockey game against Temple.
Princeton was at the forefront of pretty much every major advancement in intercollegiate athletics: the first football game, the establishment of the rules governing football, the formation of the NCAA itself. Princeton drew crowds that neared 100,000 for games against Yale and Harvard in various points around the Northeast more than a quarter-century before the National Football League came into existence.
TigerBlog can't help but think that Princeton's role in athletics helped it grow into the institution it is today. And again, seven of those first nine colleges are now equated with the academic greatness that goes along with being considered an Ivy League school, yet Ivy League is first and foremost an athletic distinction.
Today, as it turns 263, Princeton is recognized as one of the world's greatest universities. It has grown from those earliest days to become what it is today, a place that strives for excellence in everything it does, from eduction within its classrooms to the many areas outside of its classrooms, including the performing arts, alumni relations, public service and yes athletics.
TigerBlog often says that when you come to work every day here at HQ, it's easy to forget that we work in a place that many people pay to get into, in a place that was built primarily as a basketball arena.
That thought can be expanded to include the University as a whole. Those who work here come here every day, park their car, head into their office and maybe lose track of the fact that they are at a place that is so special.
So happy birthday Princeton. You look pretty good for 263.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
12th Precinct, Sgt. Yemana Speaking
One of TigerBlog's all-time favorite TV shows is "Barney Miller." For those who didn't watch primetime television from 1974-82, Barney himself was a New York City police captain who ran the 12th precinct. The show followed the day-to-day lives of Miller and a squad of detectives, whose members – Fish, Harris, Yemana, Chano, Wojo – are among the best characters in TV sitcom history.
As an aside, it is TigerBlog's contention that "Barney Miller" presented the most accurate view of police life of any cop show ever. The detectives left on calls with great uncertainty only to find it was usually nothing serious. They rarely drew their weapons, let alone used them. They didn't find themselves in life-and-death situations every show.
WGN, the channel from Chicago, has been showing reruns of some great old shows as its Sunday night lineup. Among the TB favorites that have been playing are "The Honeymooners," "WKRP in Cincinnati," "The Cosby Show," and "Newhart." As another aside, the last five minutes of the last episode of "Newhart" are as clever as anything TB has ever seen.
Anyway, TigerBlog watched the two episodes on the other night, both of which were from the mid-’70s. They were extraordinarily funny, of course, but there were two other things that stood out to TB as well.
First was watching a ’70s sitcom through modern-day eyes, which is always fascinating. No internet. No cell phones. No texting. No email. No computers. Rotary phones. There was a point in one of the episodes where evil "computer" declares Fish to be dead, so he can't get paid. The extent to which computers were looked upon as faceless, foreign machines was interesting and went along with how people thought back then, when humans were afraid of what computers were going to do every life rather than excited about what the possibilities were.
The second thing that jumped out at TB was the total political incorrectness of the show, which was considered to be a fairly progressive show at the time. There were jokes about pretty much every group imaginable, including gays, blacks, women and Asians that would never come close to flying today.
So what happened in the 30 years or so since Barney Miller was on TV? Societal evolution, that's what.
The advancement of college athletics, and specifically Princeton athletics, in that same time frame is remarkably similar, with one major exception. Much has been made of Title IX and the impact it's had on college athletics and opportunities for women, and there is no doubting that it has.
Still, TigerBlog wonders what Princeton athletics would look like today had Title IX never existed. And, nobody should misinterpret this in any way: TigerBlog is not criticizing Title IX or taking sides on the debate or any of that. TB is simply wondering how the landscape would look had the legislation not happened.
Princeton was new to having women on its campus, let alone women's athletic teams, when "Barney Miller" first aired. As TigerBlog has said before, those early women athletes were true pioneers who had to put up with all kinds of discrimination, just because they were women. It is because of the way that they persevered and showed how athletics could be just as important to women as to men that the ball toward real equality of opportunity began rolling.
At least TigerBlog suspects that's the case. Maybe it isn't. Maybe if it wasn't for Title IX, women's teams here would get the short end of practice times, facilities, schedules, communications, uniforms, everything.
It's probably true that the process would have been slower than it was without Title IX, but TigerBlog can't imagine that it's only because we're required by law to provide equal opportunity to men's and women's teams that we actually do so. TB would hope that those of us here at HQ are motivated by something a little better than "we have to" when it comes to these issues.
Back in the newspaper days, TigerBlog covered nearly as many women's events as men's events and wrote as many features on women as men. Why? Because it seemed like the right course of action.
If you go to goprincetontigers.com or goprincetontigers.tv, you'll see Websites that never once consider whether a sport is a men's sport or a women's sport. If you attended the weekly event meetings, you'd see that gender never enters the discussion.
So, again, would we have gotten here were it not for Title IX?
TigerBlog loved watching "Barney Miller" the other night, partly because of how funny it was and partly because it took TB back to another time. It was also obviously a long time ago, in a world that's changed considerably.
TB hopes we here at HQ and throughout college athletics would have changed along with it. But hey, who really knows?
As an aside, it is TigerBlog's contention that "Barney Miller" presented the most accurate view of police life of any cop show ever. The detectives left on calls with great uncertainty only to find it was usually nothing serious. They rarely drew their weapons, let alone used them. They didn't find themselves in life-and-death situations every show.
WGN, the channel from Chicago, has been showing reruns of some great old shows as its Sunday night lineup. Among the TB favorites that have been playing are "The Honeymooners," "WKRP in Cincinnati," "The Cosby Show," and "Newhart." As another aside, the last five minutes of the last episode of "Newhart" are as clever as anything TB has ever seen.
Anyway, TigerBlog watched the two episodes on the other night, both of which were from the mid-’70s. They were extraordinarily funny, of course, but there were two other things that stood out to TB as well.
First was watching a ’70s sitcom through modern-day eyes, which is always fascinating. No internet. No cell phones. No texting. No email. No computers. Rotary phones. There was a point in one of the episodes where evil "computer" declares Fish to be dead, so he can't get paid. The extent to which computers were looked upon as faceless, foreign machines was interesting and went along with how people thought back then, when humans were afraid of what computers were going to do every life rather than excited about what the possibilities were.
The second thing that jumped out at TB was the total political incorrectness of the show, which was considered to be a fairly progressive show at the time. There were jokes about pretty much every group imaginable, including gays, blacks, women and Asians that would never come close to flying today.
So what happened in the 30 years or so since Barney Miller was on TV? Societal evolution, that's what.
The advancement of college athletics, and specifically Princeton athletics, in that same time frame is remarkably similar, with one major exception. Much has been made of Title IX and the impact it's had on college athletics and opportunities for women, and there is no doubting that it has.
Still, TigerBlog wonders what Princeton athletics would look like today had Title IX never existed. And, nobody should misinterpret this in any way: TigerBlog is not criticizing Title IX or taking sides on the debate or any of that. TB is simply wondering how the landscape would look had the legislation not happened.
Princeton was new to having women on its campus, let alone women's athletic teams, when "Barney Miller" first aired. As TigerBlog has said before, those early women athletes were true pioneers who had to put up with all kinds of discrimination, just because they were women. It is because of the way that they persevered and showed how athletics could be just as important to women as to men that the ball toward real equality of opportunity began rolling.
At least TigerBlog suspects that's the case. Maybe it isn't. Maybe if it wasn't for Title IX, women's teams here would get the short end of practice times, facilities, schedules, communications, uniforms, everything.
It's probably true that the process would have been slower than it was without Title IX, but TigerBlog can't imagine that it's only because we're required by law to provide equal opportunity to men's and women's teams that we actually do so. TB would hope that those of us here at HQ are motivated by something a little better than "we have to" when it comes to these issues.
Back in the newspaper days, TigerBlog covered nearly as many women's events as men's events and wrote as many features on women as men. Why? Because it seemed like the right course of action.
If you go to goprincetontigers.com or goprincetontigers.tv, you'll see Websites that never once consider whether a sport is a men's sport or a women's sport. If you attended the weekly event meetings, you'd see that gender never enters the discussion.
So, again, would we have gotten here were it not for Title IX?
TigerBlog loved watching "Barney Miller" the other night, partly because of how funny it was and partly because it took TB back to another time. It was also obviously a long time ago, in a world that's changed considerably.
TB hopes we here at HQ and throughout college athletics would have changed along with it. But hey, who really knows?
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Surprise
TigerBlog attended a surprise 80th birthday party for Harvey Yavener this past Sunday. As an aside, why surprise an 80-year-old?
Yav, for those who don't know, was a longtime sportswriter in Mercer County, first at the Trentonian and later for about 40 years at the Trenton Times. It is TigerBlog's contention that nobody ever has written more about Princeton athletics in a newspaper - and maybe anywhere - than Yav.
His actual 80th birthday is today. It comes less than a year since he formally retired.
TigerBlog wrote about Yav a year ago, when he turned 79, and TB won't repeat much of what was said then, other than giving another nod to Polly, with whom Yav has lived since 1959. There is, of course, a special place in heaven all picked out for Polly.
Yav's party was a mini-Trenton Times reunion of sorts. Jim Gauger, the sports editor at the paper from 1982 or so until his retirement last year, was there, as was Jed Weisberger, an assistant sports editor. Jim and Jed sat opposite Rick Freeman and his wife, Mary Ann Tarr, both longtime veterans at the paper who are still there. In many ways, it was like any number of nights in the newsroom, with the back-and-forth across the table.
TigerBlog sat next to Rider athletic director Don Harnum (whose brother Mike played basketball at Princeton under Pete Carril); TB and Don go back to his days as an assistant coach first at Trenton State and then at Rider.
Don was texting with Greg Busch, a Rider associate athletic director and former assistant compliance director (and soccer player) at Princeton.
It was a nice party, with a huge turnout of family members. The highlight, though, was when Yav began to speak.
"I always thought about 80 as just a number," he started. "Barring something unforeseen in the next 48 hours, I'll reach that number."
Then he talked about his grandfather and how he hadn't visited him much when he was a kid, but he did remember one time when his grandfather told him "never live to be 80." Yav went on to talk about how wrong his grandfather was and what it gift it is for him to be 80.
He poignantly talked about an old tradition in his days at the Trentonian of having the sports staff appear in a holiday card on Christmas Day in the paper. It was a small staff, he said, maybe five or six writers in most years. When Joe Logue, long the Trentonian sports editor, passed away a few years ago, it left Yav as the last remaining person from those pictures.
Why, Yav asked, did he get to be the last one? Then he said that it didn't matter why, that this is how it turned out, and it was his responsibility to treat each day as a "joy." And then, he went on to say that each day is a joy for him. He also said that there's no way he'd ever want to know how much more time he has, whether it be one more day or "30 more years; you're all invited to my 110th party," because each day itself is a joy.
It was an incredibly moving thing to say, one of the most genuine moments TigerBlog has ever heard from anywhere. TB has known Yav for 26 years and seen that side of him a few times, but for the most part it's been the gruffer side of Yav that has shown through.
Before Yav spoke, Polly's niece asked if there was anyone who had anything to say. The newspaper types all spoke, as did TigerBlog, who could have told about a thousand Yav stories. TB chose the one about the time when Yav had recently had surgery and he called TB up, which led to this exchange:
Yav: "Are you eating??"
TigerBlog: "No."
Yav: "Good. I need you to get over here and take Polly to the supermarket."
TB went on to talk about a day when he and Yav were setting the schedule for the next two weeks, as we always did. Yav suggested going to this game on this day and be in the office on this day and then "if you want, not a big deal, you can go to Rider women's basketball at Lehigh Wednesday night." TB replied that he'd pass, because he'd worked about 25 days in a row at that point.
"You're about 2,000 off the record," was his reply.
TB finished his talk by saying that here at TigerBlog HQ, our philosophies are a mix of those of the Princeton athletic department coupled with Yav's. Work hard. Have a sense of humor. Remember that what you're doing is first and foremost for the athletes and coaches (for a newspaper person, that wasn't always the standard line to take).
It was Yav who always believed that all sports should be treated equally, with no favoritism to "larger" sports. It was Yav who taught TB that the biggest squash match or crew race is just as big as the biggest football game.
It was Yav who always stressed the importance of telling the story of the athlete, of individualizing the athlete. Yav was so far ahead of the curve in terms of publicizing women's athletics that it often drew him chuckles from other writers who scoffed at him for those beliefs.
And yet in many ways, his beliefs are what goprincetontigers.com and goprincetontigers.tv are today. Yav liked to get to know the athletes (and coaches) and then tell their stories. TigerBlog has seen dozens of Princeton athletes spend 20, 30, 40 minutes talking to Yav and come away from the experience with an understanding that this hadn't been anything like a normal interview with an average sportswriter.
And Yav? He loved talking to Princeton athletes probably more than any other. He'd always come back to TB when he was done, shaking his head, marveling at what the athletes here were doing, how they carried themselves, how special they were. From the very first Princeton athletes TB saw Yav talk to (basketball players in the ’80s, probably, or possibly lacrosse player Justin Tortolani) all the way through the last one he would interview here, swimmer Alicia Aemisegger.
Yav mixed all of this in with an incredible work ethic, one that saw him work seven days a week for decades (always followed by a huge meal at one of his favorite restaurants; TB's birthday gift for Yav was a gift certificate to one them).
TigerBlog concluded by thanking Yav for being as important a professional influence and inspiration as anyone else has been. TB should have added "and friend" to that.
Happy 80th, Yav. Thanks for everything, and hopefully you have many days of joy in front of you.
Yav, for those who don't know, was a longtime sportswriter in Mercer County, first at the Trentonian and later for about 40 years at the Trenton Times. It is TigerBlog's contention that nobody ever has written more about Princeton athletics in a newspaper - and maybe anywhere - than Yav.
His actual 80th birthday is today. It comes less than a year since he formally retired.
TigerBlog wrote about Yav a year ago, when he turned 79, and TB won't repeat much of what was said then, other than giving another nod to Polly, with whom Yav has lived since 1959. There is, of course, a special place in heaven all picked out for Polly.
Yav's party was a mini-Trenton Times reunion of sorts. Jim Gauger, the sports editor at the paper from 1982 or so until his retirement last year, was there, as was Jed Weisberger, an assistant sports editor. Jim and Jed sat opposite Rick Freeman and his wife, Mary Ann Tarr, both longtime veterans at the paper who are still there. In many ways, it was like any number of nights in the newsroom, with the back-and-forth across the table.
TigerBlog sat next to Rider athletic director Don Harnum (whose brother Mike played basketball at Princeton under Pete Carril); TB and Don go back to his days as an assistant coach first at Trenton State and then at Rider.
Don was texting with Greg Busch, a Rider associate athletic director and former assistant compliance director (and soccer player) at Princeton.
It was a nice party, with a huge turnout of family members. The highlight, though, was when Yav began to speak.
"I always thought about 80 as just a number," he started. "Barring something unforeseen in the next 48 hours, I'll reach that number."
Then he talked about his grandfather and how he hadn't visited him much when he was a kid, but he did remember one time when his grandfather told him "never live to be 80." Yav went on to talk about how wrong his grandfather was and what it gift it is for him to be 80.
He poignantly talked about an old tradition in his days at the Trentonian of having the sports staff appear in a holiday card on Christmas Day in the paper. It was a small staff, he said, maybe five or six writers in most years. When Joe Logue, long the Trentonian sports editor, passed away a few years ago, it left Yav as the last remaining person from those pictures.
Why, Yav asked, did he get to be the last one? Then he said that it didn't matter why, that this is how it turned out, and it was his responsibility to treat each day as a "joy." And then, he went on to say that each day is a joy for him. He also said that there's no way he'd ever want to know how much more time he has, whether it be one more day or "30 more years; you're all invited to my 110th party," because each day itself is a joy.
It was an incredibly moving thing to say, one of the most genuine moments TigerBlog has ever heard from anywhere. TB has known Yav for 26 years and seen that side of him a few times, but for the most part it's been the gruffer side of Yav that has shown through.
Before Yav spoke, Polly's niece asked if there was anyone who had anything to say. The newspaper types all spoke, as did TigerBlog, who could have told about a thousand Yav stories. TB chose the one about the time when Yav had recently had surgery and he called TB up, which led to this exchange:
Yav: "Are you eating??"
TigerBlog: "No."
Yav: "Good. I need you to get over here and take Polly to the supermarket."
TB went on to talk about a day when he and Yav were setting the schedule for the next two weeks, as we always did. Yav suggested going to this game on this day and be in the office on this day and then "if you want, not a big deal, you can go to Rider women's basketball at Lehigh Wednesday night." TB replied that he'd pass, because he'd worked about 25 days in a row at that point.
"You're about 2,000 off the record," was his reply.
TB finished his talk by saying that here at TigerBlog HQ, our philosophies are a mix of those of the Princeton athletic department coupled with Yav's. Work hard. Have a sense of humor. Remember that what you're doing is first and foremost for the athletes and coaches (for a newspaper person, that wasn't always the standard line to take).
It was Yav who always believed that all sports should be treated equally, with no favoritism to "larger" sports. It was Yav who taught TB that the biggest squash match or crew race is just as big as the biggest football game.
It was Yav who always stressed the importance of telling the story of the athlete, of individualizing the athlete. Yav was so far ahead of the curve in terms of publicizing women's athletics that it often drew him chuckles from other writers who scoffed at him for those beliefs.
And yet in many ways, his beliefs are what goprincetontigers.com and goprincetontigers.tv are today. Yav liked to get to know the athletes (and coaches) and then tell their stories. TigerBlog has seen dozens of Princeton athletes spend 20, 30, 40 minutes talking to Yav and come away from the experience with an understanding that this hadn't been anything like a normal interview with an average sportswriter.
And Yav? He loved talking to Princeton athletes probably more than any other. He'd always come back to TB when he was done, shaking his head, marveling at what the athletes here were doing, how they carried themselves, how special they were. From the very first Princeton athletes TB saw Yav talk to (basketball players in the ’80s, probably, or possibly lacrosse player Justin Tortolani) all the way through the last one he would interview here, swimmer Alicia Aemisegger.
Yav mixed all of this in with an incredible work ethic, one that saw him work seven days a week for decades (always followed by a huge meal at one of his favorite restaurants; TB's birthday gift for Yav was a gift certificate to one them).
TigerBlog concluded by thanking Yav for being as important a professional influence and inspiration as anyone else has been. TB should have added "and friend" to that.
Happy 80th, Yav. Thanks for everything, and hopefully you have many days of joy in front of you.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Opening Act
TigerBlog was a kid when the current Giants Stadium opened back in 1976 with a game between good (the Giants) and evil (the Cowboys), won by evil. The stadium was of course sold out for every game, and as TB watched the Giants on TV week after week, he wondered if he'd ever get to actually go to the new place.
Over the years, he's been there plenty of times, for football, soccer and concerts. And, last year, for lacrosse.
TigerBlog, and lacrosse fans, will not have to wait long to get a good, up-close look at the new stadium in the Meadowlands (which as an aside is apparently known as "Meadowlands Stadium" until someone pays for the naming rights), as the first event ever held there will be the Konica Minolta Big City Classic lacrosse tripleheader this coming April 10
Princeton will play Syracuse (who is trying to become the first team to win three straight NCAA titles since Princeton from 1996-98) in the third game that day, after Hofstra-Delaware actually becomes the first game ever played in the stadium and then Virginia and North Carolina meet up.
The 2010 season will be an extraordinarily interesting one for the Tigers, beginning with the opener on Feb. 27 against Hofstra. For those who have forgotten, Bill Tierney and David Metzbower have left the Princeton men's lacrosse program, Tierney to become the head coach at Denver. As another aside, Denver opens its season Feb. 19 at, of all places, Syracuse.
The transition of Princeton lacrosse from Tierney to Bates has been fairly smooth this fall, helped out by the return with Bates to Princeton of assistant coach Greg Raymond, who was on Tierney's staff for three years. The Tigers played for the first time under Bates last Thursday night against the English national team at Class of 1952 Stadium on a cold, rainy night, and Princeton then played against Delaware and Loyola at Delaware Saturday, again in cold and rain.
In many years, the schedule for lacrosse (and football) is basically the one from the year before, only with the home fields reversed. This won't be the case for men's lacrosse in 2010.
Gone is Canisius as the opening game. Gone from the schedule is Albany, whom Princeton played the last two years (scoring two goals in 2008 and 18 in 2009). Gone is a Tuesday night game against Penn. Gone is opening the league season against Yale. Gone is finishing the league season at Brown.
New to the schedule? Well, how about a March 16 trip to North Carolina and its potential national championship team, led by All-America attackman Billy Bitter, maybe the best player in the country. How about six Ivy regular-season games, all on Saturday?
And the biggest addition? The Ivy League tournament, which ironically had Bill Tierney as its primary driving force, debuts next spring for the men and the women. The teams (men and women) who win the regular season championship will be considered the Ivy League champion (or co-champion, if that's the case), but that title will not bring an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Instead, the team that wins the league tournament will get the automatic bid (but won't be considered Ivy champ unless it also won the regular season). The tournaments will be held at the site of the regular-season champ, meaning that it will probably be until the Saturday before that the location is known. The semifinals will be Friday, with the final Sunday. The women's tournament will be April 30/May 2; the men's a week later.
Princeton has a chance to be pretty good, even with the loss of eight seniors from last year's 13-3 team that shared the league title and made it to the NCAA quarterfinals but had bigger dreams in both areas squashed by Cornell.
The Tigers should have a very strong defense, led by captain Jeremy Hirsch and sophomores Chad Wiedmaier and Tyler Fiorito, and a solid offense, led by the McBride cousins, Jack and Chris.
TigerBlog stood under the tent at midfield for the scrimmage against the English team, at least for the first half. Much like football, it's a great spot to watch lacrosse from, though TB doesn't get to be there during the season.
Anyway, TB expected to find out somewhat shocking to see Princeton lacrosse without Bill Tierney and David Metzbower. Instead, much like the new orange practice pinnies, the new coach seemed to fit in perfectly, like nothing's changed.
And so, in no uncertain terms, Princeton lacrosse now belongs to Chris Bates. It starts for real next Feb. 27, with a pretty good schedule waiting for him and his first team.
Over the years, he's been there plenty of times, for football, soccer and concerts. And, last year, for lacrosse.
TigerBlog, and lacrosse fans, will not have to wait long to get a good, up-close look at the new stadium in the Meadowlands (which as an aside is apparently known as "Meadowlands Stadium" until someone pays for the naming rights), as the first event ever held there will be the Konica Minolta Big City Classic lacrosse tripleheader this coming April 10
Princeton will play Syracuse (who is trying to become the first team to win three straight NCAA titles since Princeton from 1996-98) in the third game that day, after Hofstra-Delaware actually becomes the first game ever played in the stadium and then Virginia and North Carolina meet up.
The 2010 season will be an extraordinarily interesting one for the Tigers, beginning with the opener on Feb. 27 against Hofstra. For those who have forgotten, Bill Tierney and David Metzbower have left the Princeton men's lacrosse program, Tierney to become the head coach at Denver. As another aside, Denver opens its season Feb. 19 at, of all places, Syracuse.
The transition of Princeton lacrosse from Tierney to Bates has been fairly smooth this fall, helped out by the return with Bates to Princeton of assistant coach Greg Raymond, who was on Tierney's staff for three years. The Tigers played for the first time under Bates last Thursday night against the English national team at Class of 1952 Stadium on a cold, rainy night, and Princeton then played against Delaware and Loyola at Delaware Saturday, again in cold and rain.
In many years, the schedule for lacrosse (and football) is basically the one from the year before, only with the home fields reversed. This won't be the case for men's lacrosse in 2010.
Gone is Canisius as the opening game. Gone from the schedule is Albany, whom Princeton played the last two years (scoring two goals in 2008 and 18 in 2009). Gone is a Tuesday night game against Penn. Gone is opening the league season against Yale. Gone is finishing the league season at Brown.
New to the schedule? Well, how about a March 16 trip to North Carolina and its potential national championship team, led by All-America attackman Billy Bitter, maybe the best player in the country. How about six Ivy regular-season games, all on Saturday?
And the biggest addition? The Ivy League tournament, which ironically had Bill Tierney as its primary driving force, debuts next spring for the men and the women. The teams (men and women) who win the regular season championship will be considered the Ivy League champion (or co-champion, if that's the case), but that title will not bring an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Instead, the team that wins the league tournament will get the automatic bid (but won't be considered Ivy champ unless it also won the regular season). The tournaments will be held at the site of the regular-season champ, meaning that it will probably be until the Saturday before that the location is known. The semifinals will be Friday, with the final Sunday. The women's tournament will be April 30/May 2; the men's a week later.
Princeton has a chance to be pretty good, even with the loss of eight seniors from last year's 13-3 team that shared the league title and made it to the NCAA quarterfinals but had bigger dreams in both areas squashed by Cornell.
The Tigers should have a very strong defense, led by captain Jeremy Hirsch and sophomores Chad Wiedmaier and Tyler Fiorito, and a solid offense, led by the McBride cousins, Jack and Chris.
TigerBlog stood under the tent at midfield for the scrimmage against the English team, at least for the first half. Much like football, it's a great spot to watch lacrosse from, though TB doesn't get to be there during the season.
Anyway, TB expected to find out somewhat shocking to see Princeton lacrosse without Bill Tierney and David Metzbower. Instead, much like the new orange practice pinnies, the new coach seemed to fit in perfectly, like nothing's changed.
And so, in no uncertain terms, Princeton lacrosse now belongs to Chris Bates. It starts for real next Feb. 27, with a pretty good schedule waiting for him and his first team.
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