The Fifth Of July

Did you have a good Fourth of July? 

Hopefully you did. Are you a fan of fireworks? TigerBlog is "eh" on the subject.

They're fine and all for the first minute, especially the first five seconds, when the anticipation builds and you hear the first "woosh," followed by the first explosion of color. They're also fine for the final 30 seconds, when the fireworks people basically say "well, what do we have left" and toss it out there.

In the middle? It gets a bit monotonous. 

You know what is the best thing to see on the Fourth of July? It's "Yankee Doodle Dandy." That'll make you stand up and cheer every time. 

*

Princeton has two boats remaining at the Henley Royal Regatta, and both compete today. In fact, depending on when you read this, they might have already competed, since it's five hours earlier in England than in the Eastern Time Zone.

Princeton's second varsity 8 boat, racing as "Princeton A" in the Temple Challenge Cup, has won two races already, leaving it as a quarterfinalist after 32 boats began in the division Monday. Princeton A rows (or, more likely, rowed, since the race started at 5 am Eastern) against ASR Nereus, who knocked off fellow Dutch crew GSR Aegir by four lengths in its second race.

TB originally didn't realize that there was a day off in between the second and third races, so he thought the race between Princeton and ASR Nereus was going to be yesterday. It would have been a great day for an American boat to race in England. 

The Princeton 1V, in the six-team Ladies' Challenge Cup, races for the first time today, at 7:20 am Eastern against Thames R.C.

*

The list of Princeton's 2024 Olympians continues to grow. Simen Guttormsen added his name to the group of Tigers headed to Paris when he officially was named to the Norwegian Olympic team as a pole vaulter. 

Simen will join his brother Sondre, another Princeton alum, who is returning to his second Olympics, also as a pole vaulter for Norway. Simen's presence brings to a startling 25 the number of current or former Princeton athletes who will be competing in Paris. 

Look for a ton of Olympic coverage from Princeton Athletics on social media and on the website in the next few weeks and then once the Games actually begin.

*

Bella Alarie, Princeton's all-time leading scorer in women's basketball with 1,703 points, was the No. 5 pick in the WNBA draft after she graduated in 2020. Her pro career, both here and in Europe, was cut short by problem knees, but her work in basketball is hardly over.

Earlier this week, Alarie was named Georgetown's Director of Player Development and Experience, after spending last year as a grad assistant coach. You can see the entire release HERE, but this quote from head coach Darnell Haney caught TB's eye:

"Bella is an amazing addition to our staff. She brings a dynamic to us as a former pro and high-level collegiate player that helps us in a variety of ways. I wanted to create a development position that not only helped our young women grow on the court, but off the floor as well. Bella is a future superstar in the business and is the perfect fit for us and what we need."

A future superstar in the business. That's quite a quote. 

There have been many, many Tiger alums who have gone into coaching, across pretty much every sport. It's not always easy to pick out the ones who will make great coaches, though sometimes — like in the case of Mitch Henderson or Jim Barlow — it was impossible to miss when they were undergrads. Others, like Bob Surace, seemed like they were already coaches when they played. 

Right now Princeton has one female alum who is a current head coach in the department, and that's women's volleyball head coach Sabrina King. Who was the last Princeton female alum to be a head coach at Princeton other than King? 

That would be Maureen Barron, who coached the softball team through 2007.

*

TB can't believe he is posting this, but hey, here goes. He got quite a few emails on his entry the other day about his shorts, so here is what they look like:

*

Enjoy the rest of your Fourth of July weekend.

Shorts Story

TigerBlog is in his 60s.

Other than Princeton Athletics apparel, he can count on his two hands and feet the number of times that people have asked him where he got whatever it was he happened to be wearing at the time, and probably 90 percent or so of those times involved his Kane recovery shoes.

With that as background, TigerBlog met up with a friend for lunch the other day. What did he wear? One of the two new pairs of shorts he bought a little over a week ago. This was the first time he'd worn them.

The overwhelming majority of TB's wardrobe, by the way, falls into two categories: things that say "Princeton Something" on them and things that are solid colors. He hasn't quite given up on his dream of being on the cover of GQ, but he will acknowledge that it's getting more and more unlikely.

So there he was, on his way for lunch, wearing his new shorts. They are a little more colorful than his normal selections. They're also really, really comfortable.

And, to top it all off, they're reversible. How great is that? He paid for two pairs of shorts, and in reality got four. And for 70 percent off to boot.

There was a short wait for a table, and so TB waited outside on the nice day. A woman left the restaurant, walked past him, stopped, turned around and said "I love your shorts. Where did you get them?"

At first, TB assumed she was talking to someone else. It was like one of those situations where someone waves at you and you're not sure if that person is waving at you or someone behind you, and you don't want to awkwardly wave back if you're weren't the intended recipient of the initial wave.

Once TB realized she meant his shorts, he immediately explained where he got them and that they were reversible.

About two minutes later, an older man walked out carrying a bag that clearly was a takeout order. And what did he say to TB? 

"Love your shorts. Where did you get them?"

This time, TB's first thought was that he was on candid camera. He wanted to say to the guy "okay, who put you up to this?" Instead, he simply said "thanks" and told him where he got them.

His friend then showed up, and their table was ready. They sat and ate and talked for about an hour, and then, suddenly, a woman at the next table said "I love your shorts. Where did you get them?"

TB, now beaming, told her where. In addition, he not only told her they were reversible but also folded them over so she could see. She called it "dinner and a show."

As she was saying that, her father came back from the men's room. His comment? "They're nice. You could make a dress out of them." TB attributed that to jealousy. 

Of course, nobody even noticed TB's shirt, which was the Henley Royal Regatta shirt he bought a year ago when he was at the oldest regatta in the world. He's not there this year, but he was up early yesterday to watch the first two Princeton boats that were competing there this year. 

One of the commentators, in fact, personally welcomed TB, sort of. Yeah, no. What she actually said was "If you're watching in New Jersey, good morning to you."

As he watched, TB was immediately taken back to last year's experience, as he watched from the banks of the Thames as race after race came down the stretch. He could see the people who were where he stood last year, and he thought about the ones behind the grandstands, in their colorful suits and ties or dresses, all with hats that ran the entire gamut, as they ate, sipped champagne and enjoyed the environment.

As for the races themselves, the course is 2,112 meters, which meant that the two Princeton crews rowed 4,224 combined meters — and never trailed.

There are 27 different trophies on the line at Henley. Princeton's first two competitors are vying for the same one, the Temple Challenge Cup. The Princeton A boat — the 2V — raced first and was never really challenged by Durham University B. 

The Princeton B boat — the 3V — was really, really never challenged by the Exeter University boat, which came through the qualifying ranks over the weekend. 

Having relatively — hmmm, what's the word; certainly not "easy," since nothing at Henley is easy — starts is a major plus, since both boats are right back at it today, and hopefully tomorrow and beyond. It's a single elimination format, and it'll take five wins to earn the Temple Cup. 

Racing continues tomorrow, which is the Fourth of July here and Thursday over there. As a local said to TB last year on America's Independence Day, it was "an unfortunate day for the Empire."

Enjoy your Fourth of July. And if you need great shorts for your picnic, TB got his at Tommy Bahama.

Oh Canada

TigerBlog watched Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals a week ago. 

It was a great game, one of the best Game 7s of any sport TB has ever seen. Florida had won the first three games. Edmonton won the next three. 

There was no way at all to predict what might happen when the puck dropped. As it turned out, Florida scored early, Edmonton tied it, Florida jumped back out 2-1 late in the second period and then held on for dear life in the third as the Oilers threw everything they had to try to get the tying goal. By the end, Edmonton's stars were exhausted. 

Would you have given the playoff MVP award to Connor McDavid, by the way? Yes, he had a record-setting playoff run, and it's for the whole playoffs. Then again, he was held without a goal or assist in Game 7. Then again, he was everywhere in Game 7. Then again, his team lost.

TB watched the series and never really figured out which team he wanted to see win. That was before he knew that Princeton men's hockey was represented in the series.

As it turned out, Princeton's own Paul Krepelka, Class of 1991, is Florida's Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations. 

Krepelka's bio includes this:

After graduating from Princeton in 1991, Krepelka played for Hampton Roads in the ECHL during the 1991-92 and 1992-93 seasons before earning his law degree from Suffolk University after retirement. He then went on to a 20-year career as an agent -- including a period where he co-founded Orr Hockey Group -- before joining the Carolina Hurricanes where he served as Vice President of Hockey Operations from 2018-20.

There's also this tidbit:

Krepelka is now the sixth former Princeton men's hockey player to be part of a Stanley Cup championship as a player, coach, or executive -- each coming since 2007. He is joined by George Parros '03 (Anaheim, 2007 as a player), Kevin Westgarth '07 (Los Angeles, 2012 as a player), Jeff Halpern '99 (Tampa Bay, 2020 and 2021 as assistant coach), Brent Flahr '96 (Anaheim, 2007 as an executive) and Chris Patrick '98 (Washington, 2018 as an executive) as Tigers to lift Lord Stanley.

The Panthers' win in Game 7 meant that a Canadian team was once again denied the Stanley Cup. In fact, you have to go back to the 1993 Montreal Canadiens to find a Canadian champ (Canadian teams 11 of the 17 before that). 

That has to be galling to your average Canadian hockey fan, no? 

Perhaps Canada can get revenge next month (hey, it's July 2nd) at the U20 women's lacrosse World Championships in Hong Kong. 

The Canadian team is ranked No. 2 in the world, behind the United States. Australia is ranked third.

There will be 20 teams who travel to Hong Kong for the event. There are four groups of five teams each, and then there will be a knockout round that is, like every other event that has "lacrosse" and "world championship" in it, figures to come down to the U.S. and Canada.

Among the athletes who will be competing there is Princeton's Jami MacDonald. Perhaps TB will ask her if the lack of a Canadian Stanley Cup champion since long before she was born bothers her when she comes to get the refrigerator that TB has been storing for her this summer.

TB and the MacDonald family — including parents Linda and Steve — go way back, to when Mikey MacDonald was a star for the Princeton men's lacrosse team. Mikey, in fact, won the Roper Trophy in 2015 after a career that saw him plaster his name all over the record book.

His senior year saw him put up 48 goals and 30 assists, which was the school single season record until Michael Sowers obliterated it in each of his three full seasons (and which Coulter Mackesy has since tied). MacDonald still ranks sixth in points in Princeton history with 208 and third in goals with 132 (though Mackesy will enter his senior year with 123).

Ah, but now here comes Jami. With two seasons down, Jami MacDonald has 97 career points, including 58 goals. That's not quite halfway to where her brother was, but he was at 89 points on 65 goals and 24 assists through two seasons.

Can she catch him? It'll be a fun race to follow for the next two years.

In the meantime, she has her trip to Hong Kong first. 

After the way the Stanley Cup playoffs ended, Canada really needs this one. 

English Stuff

Lizzie Bird is going back to the Olympic Games.

And she's doing it in TigerBlog's favorite track and field event. 

Bird is a 2017 graduate of Princeton, where she was a Heptagonal cross country champion and a two-time Heps champion in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. A native of England, Bird finished ninth in the steeplechase in Tokyo three years ago, setting the United Kingdom national record of 9:19.68 in the final.

The qualifying standard for the upcoming Summer Games in Paris is 9:23, meaning that to be eligible to compete, a runner has to meet that time in this calendar year. Earlier in June, Bird ran a 9:18.39 to finish third at the European Championships. 

She cemented her spot for Paris over the weekend when she won the U.K. championship, winning by four seconds over the second place finisher and 16 seconds over the third place finisher. 

This, by the way, will be the fourth straight Olympic Games in which Princeton has at least one of its own compete in the steeplechase. Also, this will only be the fifth time that women have run the steeplechase in the Olympics, something that seems a bit hard to believe.

Bird's performance was impressive, though it probably wasn't the most-noticed in the country this weekend. Did you see how the UEFA Euro 24 Round of 16 knockout game between England and Slovakia yesterday? 

The English team trailed 1-0 well into the final minutes. In fact, it was past the final minutes, into the 95th minute to be exact, before Jude Bellingham's fabulous bicycle kick tied it. Then, just seconds into extra time, Harry Kane's header made it 2-1, and it stood up from there.

Shockingly, England advanced to the quarterfinals, where it will take on Switzerland. That's a tough way to go out if you're Slovakia. 

The Euro 24 tournament is not quite the World Cup, though it is a great event. It gets even better when it gets to the knockout round.

TB has had the opportunity to see a game at Barcelona and a game at Tottenham, as well as a World Cup qualifier in Costa Rica. Those are some of the very best sporting events he's ever seen.

It would be hard for him to rank all of the events he's attended. It's clear that those soccer games would be way up there.

At the same time, so would his experience a year ago at the Henley Royal Regatta. 

This was more than just a sporting event. TigerBlog likened it to a combination of sports and Reunions, and that's a pretty good way of putting it. 

It might be more accurate to call it sports and Reunions from, say, the 1920s or so. It was definitely like stepping back in time, with its traditions and rules that have not changed in forever.

They're pretty easy to get into when you're there, by the way. TigerBlog loved the "gentlemen must wear suits, ties and hats at all times in the Stewards Enclosure," for instance.

Henley dates all the way back to 1839, making it the oldest rowing event in the world and one of the oldest in any sport. Somewhere around 300,000 fans will make their way to watch before it ends Sunday.

The course on the River Thames is 2,112 meters, and the format is a single-elimination tournament. Depending on how many boats are a particular event, a crew could row fie days in a row. 

This year's Henley event is underway, about 40 miles west of London. Princeton, a regular competitor in the event, has sent three heavyweight men's 8s to row. 

The first varsity will be in the Ladies' Challenge Plate division, which is slightly below the division for the national team boats. There are only eight crews in the Ladies' Plate, which means that Princeton will not row until Friday.

The 2V and 3V will both be in the water tomorrow in the Temple Challenge Cup, as the 2V will race against Durham University "B" at 11:40 local time (6:40 am Eastern Time) and the 3V rows against Exeter University Tuesday at 2:15 UK time/9:15 Eastern Time.

Win or lose, it's an incredible experience to be there, whether as a rower or a spectator. 

And that's today's episode of "English Stuff."

Tomorrow TigerBlog will be talking about Canada. 

Who Loves Ya Baby

TigerBlog stumbled onto a great marathon on TV the other day. 

Of course, you have to be around TB's age to appreciate it. First, there were about four or five episodes of "The Rockford Files," followed by a similar number of episodes of "Kojak." 

Ah, TV in the 1970s. It's never been equaled. If you were born too late, then you missed out. But hey, who loves ya, baby?

One interesting thing that TB noticed was during a commercial that played over and over and over, though it faded into the background for the most part. It was for a medication, though TB isn't sure which one. 

He does know at the end, when the announcer listed the side effects, among them were diarrhea and constipation. What? How could it be both? That was risk management at its finest, no? 

*

The Olympic track and field trials are being held in Eugene, Ore., this weekend. Princeton has two women who qualified: Alexandra Kelly, who competed last night in the long jump, and Shea Greene, who goes in the javelin tonight (7 Eastern). 

Greene finished in 16th place at the NCAA championships earlier this month, earning second-team All-American honors. 

One Princetonian who is not there who otherwise almost certainly would have been is Kate Joyce, the two-time All-American javelin thrower who underwent Tommy John surgery that shut her down for essentially two years. 

The Olympic Games are filled with stories of athletes who missed out four years earlier because of any number of reasons, mostly injury. What you don't see on TV during the Games are the stories of those who missed out on their chance for the current Olympiad and who have to rededicate themselves for another four year cycle. 

Hopefully Joyce will get that chance. 

*

The Premier Lacrosse League has four games this weekend in Minneapolis. If you don't know how the league works, it has eight teams, and for the first time, the teams now have home cities.

That does not mean that they play half their games at home and half on the road. Nope. They each get one home weekend, in which they will play two games while one other team has the weekend off. The weekends like this one that are at a "neutral" site will have all eight teams play one game each.

Princeton has more alums in the PLL than any other Ivy League school, with seven this year. 

You can see the games this weekend on ESPN+, including a matchup tonight at 8:30 between the Boston Cannons and the Utah Archers. It's a game that will feature a pair of rookies — Boston offensive midfielder Alexander Vardaro and Utah shortstick defensive middie Beau Pederson — who battled each other every day in practice as Tigers. 

The Philadelphia Waterdogs play tomorrow night (8:30) against the Carolina Chaos. The 'Dogs are 0-3, all by one goal, two in overtime. Their head coach is Bill Tierney, who is in his first season with the team and the league. 

Tierney first coached the Princeton men in 1988, going 8-21 in his first two seasons. In the 20 seasons that followed, he had only two losing streaks of at least three games: in 1999, when the team started 0-3 and then won nine straight, and in 2005, when the team started 0-5 and before winning five of the next seven.

Yes, it's not college lacrosse. Still, TigerBlog has a sense that Tierney is not thrilled with being winless, especially the way it's happened.

Here's an interesting stat: The PLL keeps touches, which is the number of times a player has the ball in his stick. Michael Sowers and Tom Schreiber have combined for 225 touches and only four turnovers. Vardaro, for his part, has no turnovers in 20 touches. 

*

What are you doing Nov. 2? 

Circle that date on your calendar now. On that Saturday, Princeton will host the Ivy League Heptagonal cross country championships. 

Given that there has been a massive construction project where the old cross country course was, it'll be interesting to see the dynamics at play in the new one. No matter where it's run, of course, Heps cross country is always one of the best events in any sport in the league all year. 

Plus, once the races is over, you can head over to Powers Field at Princeton Stadium for the Princeton-Cornell football game.

*

Nov. 2? It seems so far away, but it isn't.

June is ending. July begins Monday, which means that starting Monday, you'll be able to say Princeton has sporting events next month. 

In the meantime, have a great summer weekend.

Updating Olympians

How's this for the bio of a Princeton grad? 

A United States Olympic sailor. An architect. A spy during World War II. The person who rejuvenated the silk business in Thailand, where he also turned a forgotten hotel into one of the best in the Far East — all while possibly still being a spy.

That's pretty fascinating stuff. 

It belongs to James Thompson, Princeton Class of 1928. Shortly after graduation, Thompson sailed in the Olympic Games in Amsterdam, finishing sixth. 

He then studied architecture at Penn. When World War II broke out, he joined the Army as part of the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA. Fluent in French, he worked covertly with the French Resistance, and more overtly fighting in North Africa. 

Just before the war ended, he was sent to Bangkok, for his first time in Thailand. He came back to the U.S. briefly after the war, and then returned to Thailand to start his life there — even getting divorced from his wife, who did not want to follow him there.

He'd stay in the Far East from that point on. What happened to him? Nobody knows. He went off for a walk one day in 1967 and was never seen again. Ultimately, he was declared dead in 1974, though his body was never found.

Here's a quote from an Australian journalist who knew him:

I still insist, like others who know far more about the affair than I do, that he disappeared by his own choice and will, and not by force.

Now that's how you want to go out if you're a spy.

Why did James Thompson come onto TigerBlog's radar yesterday? 

It all started with an email that was forwarded to TB from the Daily Princetonian. It appeared that there were some issues with the all-time list of Olympians on goprincetontigers.com.

Not the recent ones, mind you. No. The ones from way back. 

A history question? About Princetonians in the Olympics? 

This was right in TigerBlog's wheelhouse. And so he dove right in. 

Of course, there is the question of the archives. The list of Princeton Olympians, like so many other records, goes back a long, long way.  TB isn't even sure who first put this list together. 

He relies on it, as he relies on all other records, to be accurate, since he has no reason to doubt them. And, for the most part, it's spot on.

On the other hand, he does realize that there have to be some discrepancies. As an example, there is an inaccuracy somewhere about the first season of women's lacrosse at Princeton. The official record book and the Prince archives disagree about the schedule and results from the 1972 season.

Meanwhile, back at the Olympic records, there were a few small corrections, such as the case of rower Tina Clark, who was listed with United States and not Canada. That was easy to check.

There were some others that required a cross-reference between the year they graduated Princeton and their Olympic competition. There were a few names on the email who weren't on the Princeton webpage, with some who turned out not be Olympians or Princetonians. 

There were others who belonged or needed to be removed. Tragically, one of the ones who need to be removed was Gerrit Schoonmaker, or "G.L. Schoonmaker" as he was listed on the webpage of Olympians.

As it turned out, Gerrit did not compete in the Olympics. He graduated in 1953, joined the Marines and passed away after a short battle with ALS.

There was an "L.M. Schoonmaker," Class of 1904, who fenced in Paris at the 1920 Olympics and then was an Olympic referee after that. Gerrit was his son. 

There was also an Olympic sailer named James (Bing) Schoonmaker. Ol' Bing was an alternate on the 1952 and 1964 teams, which is how Gerrit had been listed on goprincetontigers.com. As far as TigerBlog can tell, Bing never attended Princeton.

The bigger point isn't that there were a few errors on the page. It's that Princeton Athletics has produced so many Olympians throughout the years. 

The list of Princetonians who have competed in the Olympics will be growing significantly in the next few weeks, when the 2024 Games in Paris begin next month. 

There will be a record number of Tigers in Paris. TB will make sure they're all properly mentioned on the long, long list of Princeton Olympians.

Bones Is A Finalist

Back when TigerBlog was just starting out covering college sports back at the newspaper, he had the great good fortune of working for a legendary local sportswriter named Harvey Yavener. 

Yav, who lived into his 90s before he passed away two years ago, might have seem like just another grizzled old-time newspaper man. And yes, there were certainly elements to that — he was gruff and surly and a stickler for the journalistic rules that pretty much no longer exist.

What did you expect from someone who was born in 1929? He grew up and lived much of his life in a world that also no longer exists. 

Knowing all that, TigerBlog was never sure why Yav became one of the earliest proponents of giving valuable column inches in the newspaper every day to covering women's sports. If you think the discrepancy today between men's and women's coverage is still drastic, you should have been around in the 1970s and 1980s.

When TB first started to work with Yav in the 1980s, one of the first lessons Yav taught him was that the women deserve to be written about as well. As such, much like Yav, TB spent many, many nights as the only writer — male or female — to be at the women's game of a basketball doubleheader or to be at a field hockey or women's lacrosse or softball game.

If anything is Yav's greatest legacy, it's not his interview style (ask anyone he ever interviewed; when they were done, there was no possible question left to ask), the massively long stories he'd write or his tendency to call pretty much every game "the greatest ever played" and any player who happened to have a good night when he was there "the greatest player ever."

No. It's how he elevated women's athletics.

Perhaps it was working for Yav that pointed TB in the same direction. Or maybe it was just how great women's athletics have been since pretty much Day 1 at Princeton.

As you probably know, TigerBlog has written a 500-page book on the first 50 years of women's athletics at Princeton. What? You didn't know? 

You can get yours HERE.

TigerBlog is extremely proud of the book. He's also proud that he, as a man, was able to tell the stories of so many great women athletes. 

All of this brings him to Sean Gregory, one of the most beloved Princeton athletes TB has ever met. Gregory, whose nickname has always been "Bones," was a member of the great Princeton men's basketball Class of 1998.

The summer before the epic 27-2 season in 1997-98, the men's basketball team took a summer trip to Spain. Gregory asked TB (or maybe it was the other way around) to keep a journal of the trip, and the subsequent product appeared in the 1997-98 media guide (those were printed things that used to be standard, but that's not important right now).

That piece was all it took to convince TB that Gregory was a great writer. Nothing that has happened since has changed TB's mind.

Gregory has spent his career writing sports for Time Magazine. He writes long, well-crafted feature stories, and he's written about some of the biggest names in sports history. 

TigerBlog saw the other day that Gregory has been named a finalist for the first Billie Jean King Award. This is from the announcement: 

Journalists entered a portfolio of four stories, published in 2023, that include reporting about girls and women’s sports. Entries included live coverage, feature reporting and commentary about high school, college, amateur and professional sports across North America. The contest was administered by APSE through first vice president and contest chair Dan Spears.

There are seven finalists.

• Katie Barnes, ESPN.com
• Candace Buckner, The Washington Post
• Marisa Ingemi, The San Francisco Chronicle
• Sally Jenkins, The Washington Post
• Chantel Jennings, The Athletic
• Meg Linehan, The Athletic
• Sean Gergory, Time Magazine
  

Bones, as you might have noticed, is the only male in the group. It makes it a bit more special, TB thinks.

TB congratulates Gregory on being a finalist. He's certainly earned it. 

And for TB, it also conjures up images of Yav, someone Gregory knew well. It reminds TB of his earliest days covering college sports, when he wondered why he was the only one at so many women's games. 

Looking back on it, he knows the answer. It's because it was the right thing to do.

$25,411.76 Per Hour

TigerBlog has some math problems for you today that have been giving him trouble. 

First, if you make $120 for 17 seconds of work, much do you make an hour? Well, there are 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour, so that's 3,600 seconds per hour. 

If you divide 120 by 17, then that comes to 7.06, and multiplied by 3,600, that comes to $25,411.76 per hour. Seems like a good job.

Why are these numbers significant? Well, that would be because TB locked himself out of his house Sunday afternoon. He has no idea how he did this, by the way. 

As it turned out, it cost $120 for a locksmith to come out and let him back in. TigerBlog timed him when he arrived, and from start to finish, it took him 17 seconds to unlock the door. 

Seventeen seconds? What the heck? 

So that's one math problem out of the way. 

The other is this: If you're starting college in September 2024, what year are you graduating? 

For some reason, TB got that one wrong.

When he wrote the story about the incoming field hockey class, he referred to it as the "Class of 2027." Yeah, no. That's not right. 

It's actually the Class of 2028.

How in the world did TB get that wrong? That was so easy. And he did better on his math SATs than he did on his verbal, though that was a long time ago.

There are seven incoming field hockey players. Of that group, there are four Americans — all four of whom were selected to the USA Field Hockey Senior Nexus, a launching pad to the national team program. 

The other three are all from England. Their presence will bring to 24 the number of players on the team this coming season, and the group will be split evenly between American players and international players. That was pretty much the first thing that TB looked up.

It's the kind of balance that Carla Tagliente and Dina Rizzo love to see in their program. It's also the kind of balance that leads to an even more well-rounded experience among the players themselves, since they're exposed to teammates who have come from wildly different backgrounds and pre-Princeton experiences.

One of the interesting things about writing about an incoming class, at least as far as TB is concerned, is that you have to learn quickly how to spell everyone's name correctly. TigerBlog is the field hockey contact, so he'll have to make sure he's not messing things up from the start.

In the case of these seven newbies, TB now knows that there are two "Ls" in Lilly Wojcik. Actually, that's three "Ls;" there's that math thing again.

Clemmie Houlden wants to be "Clem." It's "Faulstich," for Anna Faulstich, without a second "T" near the end of her last name. It's "Molly" Nye, which is different than the way TB reflexively types that first name, from all the times he's written "Mollie Marcoux Samaan."

This is something only people in athletic communications think about. You can also multiply this out by Princeton's 38 teams, which means learning to spell all kinds of names.

Of course, the math on this particular equation is easy. If you have 12 American players and 12 international players, then you have a 50-50 balance.

What other math is there for today? This one is always a tricky one.

The last event of the 2023-24 athletic year was the NCAA track and field championships, which ended on June 8. The first event of the 2024-25 is on Aug. 23, when the women's soccer team hosts Miami.

So what does that make the midway point between last season and this coming season?

Well, that's 22 days of June, 31 of July and 23 of August. That's 76. Half of 76 is 38 — and 38 days after June 8 would be July 16. 

TB was in a meeting yesterday which ended with these words: "August 23rd will be here soon enough."

Yes it will. It always is.

Lastly, if you make $25,411.76 per hour for a 35-hour work week for a full year, then you've made $46,249,411.80 for the year.

According to a Forbes article, that would put you 47th among current professional athletes in annual salary, just ahead of Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers and just behind Rashan Gary of the Green Bay Packers. 

A Classic

TigerBlog had the Indiana Fever-Atlanta Dream game on his computer and Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals on his TV Friday night.

He's a lot of fun. He knows.

As has been the case with every Fever game this year, home and away, this one was a sellout. In fact, like Indiana's game at Washington earlier this season, it had to be moved to a larger venue to accommodate a crowd of nearly 18,000, which eclipsed the Dream's previous all time high of 11,000, which was in its first-ever home game.

Guess why? 

Then there is the Stanley Cup Finals. If you've been following along, then you know that tonight is Game 7, where Edmonton will look to become the fifth team to go down 3-0 in the NHL playoffs and come back to win the series. 

TigerBlog remembers one of them. It was in 1975, when the Islanders rallied from 3-0 down to beat the Penguins. If you watched back then like TB did, then you know what happened next: New York went down 3-0 to the Flyers, rallied to 3-3, had to win in Philadelphia, watched as Kate Smith came out onto the ice to sing Gold Bless America and then lost. 

TB is humored by the comparisons that are being made on TV between two Edmonton players: Wayne Gretzky and current Oiler Connor McDavid. Here's the only comparison you need for these two: there isn't any. 

Keep in mind, Wayne Gretzky has more career assists than any other player has points. Yes. Jaromir Jagr had 1,921 career points, while Gretzky had 1,963 career assists — along with 894 goals, giving him 2,857 career points. That's ridiculous.

Yes, McDavid is incredible. Just leave it at that. TB will root for him tonight. 

The historian in TigerBlog loves to see domination in the Princeton record books, and there is no shortage of it there. Look at men's lacrosse. 

Michael Sowers finished his Princeton career with 302 points. The old record was 247, set by Kevin Lowe, and it lasted 25 years. Coulter Mackesy enters his senior year 40 goals away from Jesse Hubbard's career record, which has lasted since 1998, but he is 128 points away from tying Sowers.

That's a little less than Sandi Bittler's record for points in women's basketball lasted. She scored 1,683, which stood from 1990 until 2020, when Bella Alarie beat her by 20 (1,703 if you don't want to do the math). Given how long it was before someone broke Bittler's record, and given the "spread it around" scoring that exists on great teams like Princeton's current ones, it might be a while until someone matches Alarie.

And that's nothing when compared to Bill Bradley in men's basketball. Bradley scored 2,503 career points, and that was without a three-point line and when freshmen were ineligible. 

TigerBlog could recite for you most of Bradley's statistics from memory, but there is something he's never considered. How many points did Bradley average for the 1961-62 Princeton freshman team? 

To find out, he headed to the best source there is, the Daily Princetonian archives.

The first mention of Bill Bradley came in a preview of that freshman season, which included this:

With the season's opener against Rutgers only a week away, freshman basketball coach Eddie Donovan still faces the double-barreled problem of "getting the team to play together," and finding "ten good men." With 6'5" high school All-American Bill Bradley, and all-staters George Fambach (Arizona) and Don Roth (All-Catholic, California) leading a squad that includes 16 former captains or all-conference players, Donovan is encouraged by the players' ability to adopt to the Princeton style of play. 

Yes. Had TB been Bradley's freshman coach, he, too, would have been encouraged. 

Bradley, not surprisingly, set the Princeton record for points in a season by a freshman with 398. If you add that to his varsity total, you get 2,901 — still without the three-point line.

Bradley's total came in 13 games, for an average of 30.6, to go with 17.1 rebounds per game. Princeton went 10-4 that freshman season (Bradley missed a game against Rutgers due to an injury).

Oh, and one of the four losses was to a Manhattan team that was led by Larry Lembo, who graduated as the Jaspers all-time leading varsity scorer. Larry Lembo. Larry Lembo. TB knew that name sounded familiar. 

Oh yeah. He was a longtime college basketball ref. TB knew if he dug enough, he'd find a good Pete Carril/Larry Lembo reference, and it ended up having the extra bonus of Joe Scott too:

To all of the 1,150 in attendance last night, junior guard Joe Scott appeared to have been fouled in the waning seconds of last night's game against Seton Hall. But the man with the best seat in the house — referee Larry Lembo — saw no evil and called no evil, sending Princeton to a 44-43 defeat at the hands of the Pirates in Jadwin Gym. "Joey got fouled three times on the play," a livid Coach Pete Carril barked afterward. "He got fouled going in, he got fouled the first time (he got the ball back), and he got fouled the second time." 

Classic.

Welcome To Summer

Yesterday, TigerBlog let Zack DiGregorio take the lead.

Today, he offers another great American writer: F. Scott Fitzgerald: 

Before I could reply that he was my neighbor dinner was announced; wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine, Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.

Slenderly, languidly, their hands set lightly on their hips, the two young women preceded us out onto a rosy­-colored porch, open toward the sunset, where four candles flickered on the table in the diminished wind.

“Why candles?” objected Daisy, frowning. She snapped them out with her fingers. “In two weeks it’ll be the longest day in the year.” She looked at us all radiantly. “Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it.”

As it turned out, that was yesterday. Grrrr. Does TB regret not mentioning it? 

Do you? If so, do you regret it like Daisy did, though Daisy wasn't really one for regrets. When it came to regrets, Tom and Daisy were more carriers than victims.

This, of course, is from "The Great Gatsby."

So what does TB have planned for the day after the summer solstice? 

*

There are the wins and the losses. There are the lessons learned from both. There are the practices and bus rides. There's the time management required to excel athletically and as a student.

Beyond all of that, there's also the community spirit that comes out of Princeton Athletics. Tiger coaches and athletes spend hours and hours volunteering their time to open up themselves and their teams for any number of great reasons.

What better way is there to make a real difference for fans, especially young ones, than to be present and accessible. 

Perhaps the ones who benefit the most are the ones from Team IMPACT. Princeton's efforts for the organization have not gone unnoticed. 

In fact, earlier this week, Princeton was named the 2024 Team IMPACT Fellowship Division I Campus of the Year. From the release on goprincetontigers.com:

Princeton has a long history of supporting Team IMPACT, a nonprofit organization that matches children facing serious illness and disability with college sports teams. Since 2011, the Team IMPACT program has matched more than 3,000 children with 750 colleges and universities in all 50 states. Princeton first teamed up with Team IMPACT in 2013 and has since welcomed a total of 14 children to team rosters for multi-year partnerships. The 2023-24 academic year saw children matched with six Tiger teams, including softball, men's golf, men's lacrosse, women's swimming & diving, men's swimming & diving and men's basketball.

You can read the entire story — and see some great pictures — HERE.

*

The day before Zack had the floor, TB mentioned Princeton photographer Shelley Szwast. As it turns out, it seems like a lot of people love Shelley. 

At least that's what all of the emails and texts that TB received seem to suggest. It reminded TB of when he was still at the newspaper and wrote two stories about sports movies, including one in which he ranked the best and worst he'd ever seen.

So what happened? In the days before email and texting, there was something called the "mail." In all his time at the paper, he got more letters about that one story than about every other story he ever wrote combined.

*

TigerBlog missed more than the Summer Solstice yesterday. It was also the fifth anniversary of the hiring of Carla Berube as the head coach of women's basketball at Princeton.

When TB saw that it was the anniversary, it made him wonder if it seems like it's been a long time or not a long time since Berube joined the Princeton staff. As he's said before, it's one of those situations where it's both.

TigerBlog wrote this about Berube after he first met her in Jadwin Gym that day five years ago:

First, she's extremely nice, friendly, engaging. Second, she has a very easy-going manner, and yeah, that's a great way to describe her. She moves with ease, speaks with ease, carries herself with ease. It gives her a real presence, whether she's at the front of a room filled with media or on the Jadwin court. The third thing that you can't miss is that she loves basketball. She lights up when she talks about it, and you can see her competitive nature come though. You can see how much it means to her, how proud she is what she built in her 17 years at Tufts and how she's looking forward to coaching the Tigers.

That's one of the most prescient things that TB has ever written. If the last five years have proven anything, it's that those words are 100 percent spot on.

*

It's the first weekend of summer 2024. Enjoy it.