If you're going to be bored by the Major League Baseball All-Star game and not watch it - and recent rating trends suggest you won't unless you're older than TigerBlog - then there is a pretty good alternative.
And hey, the same goes if you need some good international competition now that the World Cup has ended.
Tonight at 7 Eastern (TigerBlog is pretty sure it's Eastern time) on ESPNU will be the pool play game between the United States and the Iroquois from the World Lacrosse Championships in Denver.
The U.S. is currently the only unbeaten team in the top division, while the Canadians and Iroquois both have one loss. The game is huge, because a win would give the U.S. the top seed and therefore a much easier route to the championship game.
The goal is to avoid the Canadians or Iroquois in the semifinals. Canada defeated the Iroquois 10-9 the other day in a game that was, uh, spirited, to say the least.
The Iroquois are about as exciting to watch as any team in sports right now. The team is led by the high-scoring Thompsons, as well as a few other big names from Syracuse. Together they run and gun, they score and they hit relentlessly. They will back away from no one ever.
The U.S. team defeated Canada 10-7 earlier in the event. The Australians are probably the fourth-best team, but there is a sizable gap from the top three to the fourth, even if the Aussies only lost 12-10 to the Iroquois.
Should the Iroquois beat the U.S., TB isn't sure what the tiebreaker would be to determine the top seed, since the top three would all have one loss and be 1-1 against each other.
Granted, TigerBlog is probably more into this tournament than the average person.
He was actually just watching Israel-Germany on ESPN3 in an elimination game in which Israel was up 8-0 in the second quarter. TB had to laugh when one of the German players flopped on a loose ball push and stayed down as replay after replay showed that nothing had happened to him.
And TB doubts that losing to Israel in the lacrosse tournament will take away some of the national joy in Germany now from winning the World Cup.
And TB isn't close to as into it as TigerBlog Jr., who has watched basically every game online, beginning with China vs. the Netherlands and Scotland vs. Thailand the other day.
China lost that game 19-4 but did come back to defeat Argentina 9-7 yesterday for China's first-ever win at the World Championships. And what a week Argentina is having, what with going 0-4 at the lacrosse tournament and losing the World Cup final.
Another team that won for the first time was Uganda, who defeated South Korea 10-9 in a thriller. The Ugandans trailed 9-4 at the end of the third quarter before outscoring the Koreans 6-0 in the fourth quarter.
It was 9-8 with less than a minute to go before Uganda scored with 44 seconds left to tie it. Patrick Oriana then won the face-off and scored the game-winner eight seconds later.
TigerBlog is a big fan of the Ugandan team, and not just because it's a great story. Lacrosse is very new to the country, brought there by the people at Fields of Growth. Just getting to Denver in the first place was an uncertainty almost to the end, but now the Ugandans are the first team from Africa to compete at the World Championships.
Then add to the fact that the team's offensive coordinator is Princeton alum Tom Schreiber, the three-time first-team All-America and two-time national midfielder of the year. And the winner of Princeton's Art Lane Award for contribution to sport and society and the national winner of the Senior Class Award, which recognizes the same types of contributions.
Schreiber was first connected to the Ugandan team through Fields of Growth, and he has embraced all aspects of the FOG program - the educational and economic development side, as well as the lacrosse side.
It's not surprising. That's how Schreiber is.
There haven't been too many lacrosse players, or athletes - or any students, for that matter - quite like Schreiber. He is one of the greatest players in Princeton lacrosse history, and he combines that with an almost too-good-to-be-true persona that has seen him give his time to so many different people, especially kids.
And the Ugandans.
The team won't be advancing into the championship bracket. That doesn't matter in the slightest.
Uganda got to Denver. That was Win No. 1.
Win No. 2 was even better.
There are three stories to these World Championships. One is the eventually winner. Two is the Iroquois and the excitement they've brought.
And three is the Ugandans. With Tom Schreiber in the middle of it.
Barring something ridiculous, he'll be at the 2018 championships as a player for the U.S. team. For now, he's there as a coach. A winning coach, for that matter.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Monday, July 14, 2014
Gotze Goal
How'd you like to score the game-winning goal in the World Cup final when you're 22 years old? Barely 22, at that?
TigerBlog's sense is that Mario Gotze is having a pretty good today. Why wouldn't he? Gotze - at the old age of 22 years, one month and 11 days - scored the only goal in Germany's 1-0 win over Argentina in the World Cup final.
Gotze, who plays for Bayern Munich, probably will never have to pay for anything at the Hofbrauhaus - or for a wienerschnitzel anywhere - ever again.
The goal was a beautiful one.
It took until the 113th minute for someone to score, though at least someone finally did, so that the World Cup wasn't decided by PKs. Gotze took a cross and, without ever letting the ball hit the ground, chested it and then left-footed it cleanly into the goal.
The cross came from Andre Schurrle, who will have to be content with winning the World Cup, since he won't get 1/1000th the adulation that Gotze will, but those are the breaks.
The difference between winning and losing in any round of any championship event can be extreme, and it's even more so in the World Cup.
For starters, the final is always going to be close, perhaps out of fear of making the crucial early mistake and digging a big hole.
Yesterday's game as the 19th World Cup final. Of those 19, there have been 11 decided by one goal (or tied and decided on PKs).
In fact, the goal that Gotze scored was nothing compared to the one four years ago, which came when Spain's Andres Iniesta scored in the 116th minute of another 1-0 win.
TigerBlog is seriously invested in some of his teams. He knows that he cannot imagine what it is like to be a German or Argentine soccer fan and watch that game.
Particularly striking to TB has been the pictures of fans weeping in the stands when their team loses. The Brazilians felt it early and often in the 7-1 loss to Germany, and the highlights of the game on the ESPN story are filled with sobbing Argentines.
TigerBlog has been pretty bummed after a few losses in his time here. As he has said, he can tell you easily what the most crushing Princeton loss he has experienced was.
It came in the second round of the 1998 NCAA men's basketball tournament, at what was then the Hartford Civic Center.
Princeton was 27-1 entering the game, having dispatched easily with UNLV in the first round. Awaiting was Michigan State, the fourth seed, while Princeton was seeded fifth, something that no Ivy League team has come close to matching.
Michigan State was two years away from winning the NCAA title, but the Spartans started four of the players who would start against two years later. It was 10-0 Michigan State before the Tigers rallied to tie it late in the second half, only to have Mateen Cleaves break Princeton's - and TB's - heart.
TigerBlog still feels bad that Princeton didn't get to the Sweet 16 that year. When Cornell got there in 2010, TB thought that should have been 1998 Princeton instead.
Still, he didn't weep.
Maybe it's not what American fans do. Maybe it's just that the passion of the World Cup is so intense that an American sports fan can't relate. Maybe, as into sports as Americans are, they just don't have that level of passion.
Anyway, the 2014 World Cup is over. The next one is in 2018, in Russia.
Qualifying begins in 2016.
TigerBlog is ready now.
After all, even if lacrosse is his favorite sport and he is an American, TB knows the best sporting event in the world when he sees it.
And the World Cup is it.
TigerBlog's sense is that Mario Gotze is having a pretty good today. Why wouldn't he? Gotze - at the old age of 22 years, one month and 11 days - scored the only goal in Germany's 1-0 win over Argentina in the World Cup final.
Gotze, who plays for Bayern Munich, probably will never have to pay for anything at the Hofbrauhaus - or for a wienerschnitzel anywhere - ever again.
The goal was a beautiful one.
It took until the 113th minute for someone to score, though at least someone finally did, so that the World Cup wasn't decided by PKs. Gotze took a cross and, without ever letting the ball hit the ground, chested it and then left-footed it cleanly into the goal.
The cross came from Andre Schurrle, who will have to be content with winning the World Cup, since he won't get 1/1000th the adulation that Gotze will, but those are the breaks.
The difference between winning and losing in any round of any championship event can be extreme, and it's even more so in the World Cup.
For starters, the final is always going to be close, perhaps out of fear of making the crucial early mistake and digging a big hole.
Yesterday's game as the 19th World Cup final. Of those 19, there have been 11 decided by one goal (or tied and decided on PKs).
In fact, the goal that Gotze scored was nothing compared to the one four years ago, which came when Spain's Andres Iniesta scored in the 116th minute of another 1-0 win.
TigerBlog is seriously invested in some of his teams. He knows that he cannot imagine what it is like to be a German or Argentine soccer fan and watch that game.
Particularly striking to TB has been the pictures of fans weeping in the stands when their team loses. The Brazilians felt it early and often in the 7-1 loss to Germany, and the highlights of the game on the ESPN story are filled with sobbing Argentines.
TigerBlog has been pretty bummed after a few losses in his time here. As he has said, he can tell you easily what the most crushing Princeton loss he has experienced was.
It came in the second round of the 1998 NCAA men's basketball tournament, at what was then the Hartford Civic Center.
Princeton was 27-1 entering the game, having dispatched easily with UNLV in the first round. Awaiting was Michigan State, the fourth seed, while Princeton was seeded fifth, something that no Ivy League team has come close to matching.
Michigan State was two years away from winning the NCAA title, but the Spartans started four of the players who would start against two years later. It was 10-0 Michigan State before the Tigers rallied to tie it late in the second half, only to have Mateen Cleaves break Princeton's - and TB's - heart.
TigerBlog still feels bad that Princeton didn't get to the Sweet 16 that year. When Cornell got there in 2010, TB thought that should have been 1998 Princeton instead.
Still, he didn't weep.
Maybe it's not what American fans do. Maybe it's just that the passion of the World Cup is so intense that an American sports fan can't relate. Maybe, as into sports as Americans are, they just don't have that level of passion.
Anyway, the 2014 World Cup is over. The next one is in 2018, in Russia.
Qualifying begins in 2016.
TigerBlog is ready now.
After all, even if lacrosse is his favorite sport and he is an American, TB knows the best sporting event in the world when he sees it.
And the World Cup is it.
Friday, July 11, 2014
The 11th of July
Well, it's a Friday in the summer, early summer really.
This Friday is a little different. TigerBlog, for the first time, checked to see exactly how many weeks there are between today and the first athletic events of the next academic year, in this case the 2014-15 one.
The answer is eight. It will be exactly eight weeks from today that Princeton has its first games. On that Friday, Princeton will do what it always does on Day 1 of a new year - have games in field hockey, men's soccer, women's soccer and women's volleyball.
Because the athletic year starts that day, that means you can add two more weeks until the first football game, which will be 10 weeks from tomorrow. TigerBlog won't be at that one, since it's in San Diego.
The home opener for the football season is a week later, when Davidson comes to town for a 6 p.m. kickoff.
If you're looking for a game to circle on your September calendar, how about the night before the Davidson football game, when the sprint football team hosts Post.
Why that game? It'll be the first home game for the team under head coach Sean Morey, who played in the NFL for a long time and who spent the last few years in the athletic department here as a general administrator, a position now held by former football and basketball player Isaac Serwanga.
Morey is now 100% invested in the sprint program, and TigerBlog is intrigued by whether or not Morey's abundant enthusiasm can translate into winning a game, something that has eluded the team for years.
The last four weeks before the start of an athletic year always seem to zoom by, at least to TB. July? That's the most leisurely month there is.
On this campus, it's all about summer camps, which roll on, one after the other. And vacations.
There is a vacation calendar in the OAC, and TigerBlog notices that almost nobody will be here next week. The same applies to the rest of the department.
Usually when TB walks down the hall and sees a door closed or a light off, he thinks "at a meeting." This time of year, it's more "on vacation."
People tend to count down to vacation more so than they do birthdays and Christmas. TB has heard a bunch of people say "two more days until vacation" or "out of here in another eight hours." He never hears that about holidays and birthdays.
Everyone who comes back from vacation says one of two things. Either it was great, or it was great - except the kids (little ones) were a challenge. But still great.
If you've never experienced taking little kids to the beach, well, then you should try it sometime. Forget the kids themselves. Just try getting all the stuff you need and then carrying it to the beach, even without the kids.
TigerBlog's kids are both beach people. Miss TigerBlog spent the early part of this week in Sea Isle City with her friend Amy. TigerBlog's role was limited to transport.
Still, when he got out of the car, he did take a minute to go onto the beach, smell the ocean. Ah, it was great.
Right now, TigerBlog's iTunes have reached what always makes him chuckle at this time of year. The song that happens to be in the random cue is "Silent Night," the version by Emmylou Harris. It's a great song for December.
For a Friday in July? TB usually skips over the Christmas songs at this time of year, but for some reason, he let that one play on, even if it's more the time of year for a song like, oh, "4th of July, Asbury Park," which with 207 plays ranks as the seventh most-played song on TB's iTunes.
But it's not the Fourth of July. It's the 11th of July.
And a slow summer Friday.
For some, it's the last day before vacation. For at least one member of the department, it's the last day before a wedding, as assistant football coach Eddy Morrissey will be heading down the aisle tomorow.
TigerBlog wishes him mazel tov.
He'll be back at work soon enough. Opening day will be here soon enough.
For the 11th of July, it's a time to relax and enjoy the summer.
So stop reading and head outside. Go to the beach. Go for a walk. Have a picnic. Tell your boss TB said it's okay.
Besides, he's done for today.
This Friday is a little different. TigerBlog, for the first time, checked to see exactly how many weeks there are between today and the first athletic events of the next academic year, in this case the 2014-15 one.
The answer is eight. It will be exactly eight weeks from today that Princeton has its first games. On that Friday, Princeton will do what it always does on Day 1 of a new year - have games in field hockey, men's soccer, women's soccer and women's volleyball.
Because the athletic year starts that day, that means you can add two more weeks until the first football game, which will be 10 weeks from tomorrow. TigerBlog won't be at that one, since it's in San Diego.
The home opener for the football season is a week later, when Davidson comes to town for a 6 p.m. kickoff.
If you're looking for a game to circle on your September calendar, how about the night before the Davidson football game, when the sprint football team hosts Post.
Why that game? It'll be the first home game for the team under head coach Sean Morey, who played in the NFL for a long time and who spent the last few years in the athletic department here as a general administrator, a position now held by former football and basketball player Isaac Serwanga.
Morey is now 100% invested in the sprint program, and TigerBlog is intrigued by whether or not Morey's abundant enthusiasm can translate into winning a game, something that has eluded the team for years.
The last four weeks before the start of an athletic year always seem to zoom by, at least to TB. July? That's the most leisurely month there is.
On this campus, it's all about summer camps, which roll on, one after the other. And vacations.
There is a vacation calendar in the OAC, and TigerBlog notices that almost nobody will be here next week. The same applies to the rest of the department.
Usually when TB walks down the hall and sees a door closed or a light off, he thinks "at a meeting." This time of year, it's more "on vacation."
People tend to count down to vacation more so than they do birthdays and Christmas. TB has heard a bunch of people say "two more days until vacation" or "out of here in another eight hours." He never hears that about holidays and birthdays.
Everyone who comes back from vacation says one of two things. Either it was great, or it was great - except the kids (little ones) were a challenge. But still great.
If you've never experienced taking little kids to the beach, well, then you should try it sometime. Forget the kids themselves. Just try getting all the stuff you need and then carrying it to the beach, even without the kids.
TigerBlog's kids are both beach people. Miss TigerBlog spent the early part of this week in Sea Isle City with her friend Amy. TigerBlog's role was limited to transport.
Still, when he got out of the car, he did take a minute to go onto the beach, smell the ocean. Ah, it was great.
Right now, TigerBlog's iTunes have reached what always makes him chuckle at this time of year. The song that happens to be in the random cue is "Silent Night," the version by Emmylou Harris. It's a great song for December.
For a Friday in July? TB usually skips over the Christmas songs at this time of year, but for some reason, he let that one play on, even if it's more the time of year for a song like, oh, "4th of July, Asbury Park," which with 207 plays ranks as the seventh most-played song on TB's iTunes.
But it's not the Fourth of July. It's the 11th of July.
And a slow summer Friday.
For some, it's the last day before vacation. For at least one member of the department, it's the last day before a wedding, as assistant football coach Eddy Morrissey will be heading down the aisle tomorow.
TigerBlog wishes him mazel tov.
He'll be back at work soon enough. Opening day will be here soon enough.
For the 11th of July, it's a time to relax and enjoy the summer.
So stop reading and head outside. Go to the beach. Go for a walk. Have a picnic. Tell your boss TB said it's okay.
Besides, he's done for today.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
The Real World Championships Begin
The World Cup has found itself in a situation similar to where the NCAA men's basketball tournament often gets.
The opening rounds were better than the late rounds.
The group stage was filled with great game after great game, epic goal after epic goal. The knockout round? Not quite.
There have been 14 games played in the knockout round to date. Which of those 14 games was great? The Netherlands vs. Mexico? Costa Rica- Greece? Perhaps. The U.S.-Belgium game featured a great performance by Tim Howard and a dramatic ending.
The game that will be remembered the longest, barring a spectacular final, will be Germany's 7-1 thrashing of Brazil in the semifinals, though not because it was a great game.
The Netherlands came within a a few missed PKs of reaching the final without scoring a goal in the quarterfinal or semifinal. That would have been terrible.
Oh, and why go to PKs? It's an awful way to decide a game, for two reasons. First, there is the arbitrary nature of PKs. It would be like having a tied basketball game decided by a foul shooting contest. It has nothing to do with which team more deserves to win.
Second, and way bigger to TigerBlog, is the fact that teams can play to get to PKs and hope for the best. As much as TB was rooting for Costa Rica, it's hard to watch a team that is making almost no attempt to play offense, for fear of giving up the easy counter the other way.
If teams knew that they could not win and advance without actually scoring a goal, tactics would change radically, no? A team couldn't simply defend, which tilts the balance of a game, if it knew it eventually needed at least one to move on.
TB says that if a game is tied after 90 minutes (plus stoppage time; again, can time simply be kept on the scoreboard like in every other sporting event in the world?), then play sudden death overtime - and keep playing until someone scores. Eventually someone will.
Anyway, now that the opening act of a worldwide tournament is winding down, the real World Championship can begin.
TigerBlog is talking, of course, about the World Championships in men's lacrosse, an event way bigger than the soccer World Cup, obviously. The lacrosse tournament begins tonight in Denver.
Okay, TB doesn't really think it's bigger than the soccer version. Still, it should be a great tournament.
TB will go out on a limb and predict a final of the United States vs. Canada.
This is the 12th World Championship for men's lacrosse, which was first held in 1967 and then became a quadrennial event beginning in 1974. No country other than the U.S. (nine times) and Canada (twice) has ever won, and only twice (1982, 1994) has the final not been between those two (it was the U.S. vs. Australia both of those times).
There are nine divisions at the World Championships, and only the six teams in the top division are playing for the championship: the U.S., Canada, Australia, England, Japan and the Iroquois. If you want to keep an eye out for a sleeper, it's the Iroquois.
There is no Princeton representation on the U.S. team, for the first time since TigerBlog has been following the event. This figures to be a rarity, as the Ryan Boyle/Matt Striebel years have ended and the Tom Schreiber years (and possibly others, like Chad Wiedmaier) figure to begin in four years.
Schreiber will be in Denver for the tournament, working as an assistant coach with the Ugandan team. Uganda plays in a division with Ireland, France and Bermuda.
Costa Rica, whom Princeton played on its trip there in 2012, is in a division with the Czech Republic, Turkey and Poland.
Princeton also played the English team in Spain in 2008. TigerBlog was very impressed with the English and how they played, especially their knowledge of a game that none of them grew up playing. They were all just athletes, great ones, who hadn't quite made it professionally in soccer.
Anyway, epending on placings in these divisions, there are crossover games at the end that lead to placings of 1-38. Some of the stories, like the Ugandan one, are already successes, just for what it took to get the novice program to Denver.
It starts tonight at 9 with the preliminary round game between the U.S. and Canada, a game that can be seen on ESPN2. There will be great coverage of the tournament on ESPNU and ESPN3.
The championship game will be at 9 Eastern time on Saturday, July 19.
And, in all likelihood, it'll be the U.S. and Canada.
TigerBlog will take the U.S. 16-13 in that game.
And he'll take Germany 2, Argentina 0, in that other championship game.
The opening rounds were better than the late rounds.
The group stage was filled with great game after great game, epic goal after epic goal. The knockout round? Not quite.
There have been 14 games played in the knockout round to date. Which of those 14 games was great? The Netherlands vs. Mexico? Costa Rica- Greece? Perhaps. The U.S.-Belgium game featured a great performance by Tim Howard and a dramatic ending.
The game that will be remembered the longest, barring a spectacular final, will be Germany's 7-1 thrashing of Brazil in the semifinals, though not because it was a great game.
The Netherlands came within a a few missed PKs of reaching the final without scoring a goal in the quarterfinal or semifinal. That would have been terrible.
Oh, and why go to PKs? It's an awful way to decide a game, for two reasons. First, there is the arbitrary nature of PKs. It would be like having a tied basketball game decided by a foul shooting contest. It has nothing to do with which team more deserves to win.
Second, and way bigger to TigerBlog, is the fact that teams can play to get to PKs and hope for the best. As much as TB was rooting for Costa Rica, it's hard to watch a team that is making almost no attempt to play offense, for fear of giving up the easy counter the other way.
If teams knew that they could not win and advance without actually scoring a goal, tactics would change radically, no? A team couldn't simply defend, which tilts the balance of a game, if it knew it eventually needed at least one to move on.
TB says that if a game is tied after 90 minutes (plus stoppage time; again, can time simply be kept on the scoreboard like in every other sporting event in the world?), then play sudden death overtime - and keep playing until someone scores. Eventually someone will.
Anyway, now that the opening act of a worldwide tournament is winding down, the real World Championship can begin.
TigerBlog is talking, of course, about the World Championships in men's lacrosse, an event way bigger than the soccer World Cup, obviously. The lacrosse tournament begins tonight in Denver.
Okay, TB doesn't really think it's bigger than the soccer version. Still, it should be a great tournament.
TB will go out on a limb and predict a final of the United States vs. Canada.
This is the 12th World Championship for men's lacrosse, which was first held in 1967 and then became a quadrennial event beginning in 1974. No country other than the U.S. (nine times) and Canada (twice) has ever won, and only twice (1982, 1994) has the final not been between those two (it was the U.S. vs. Australia both of those times).
There are nine divisions at the World Championships, and only the six teams in the top division are playing for the championship: the U.S., Canada, Australia, England, Japan and the Iroquois. If you want to keep an eye out for a sleeper, it's the Iroquois.
There is no Princeton representation on the U.S. team, for the first time since TigerBlog has been following the event. This figures to be a rarity, as the Ryan Boyle/Matt Striebel years have ended and the Tom Schreiber years (and possibly others, like Chad Wiedmaier) figure to begin in four years.
Schreiber will be in Denver for the tournament, working as an assistant coach with the Ugandan team. Uganda plays in a division with Ireland, France and Bermuda.
Costa Rica, whom Princeton played on its trip there in 2012, is in a division with the Czech Republic, Turkey and Poland.
Princeton also played the English team in Spain in 2008. TigerBlog was very impressed with the English and how they played, especially their knowledge of a game that none of them grew up playing. They were all just athletes, great ones, who hadn't quite made it professionally in soccer.
Anyway, epending on placings in these divisions, there are crossover games at the end that lead to placings of 1-38. Some of the stories, like the Ugandan one, are already successes, just for what it took to get the novice program to Denver.
It starts tonight at 9 with the preliminary round game between the U.S. and Canada, a game that can be seen on ESPN2. There will be great coverage of the tournament on ESPNU and ESPN3.
The championship game will be at 9 Eastern time on Saturday, July 19.
And, in all likelihood, it'll be the U.S. and Canada.
TigerBlog will take the U.S. 16-13 in that game.
And he'll take Germany 2, Argentina 0, in that other championship game.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Blowout
If you watched the Germany-Brazil World Cup semifinal game yesterday, you were probably expecting a tight, dramatic, one-goal-either-way struggle.
What you got was perhaps the most shocking sporting event played on a stage that big. Not shocking like a major upset, Miracle on Ice style.
No, shocking as in a total blowout of epic, never-to-be-seen-again proportions. It's impossible to fathom a World Cup semifinal game could be so one-sided, and yet there it was. Germany 7, Brazil 1.
It was shocking, and the world noticed. A record 35.7 million tweets about the game were sent, the most ever for any single sporting event.
Soccer games aren't supposed to end up 7-1. Certainly World Cup games aren't.
Hey, NCAA men's soccer championship games aren't even blowouts like that. The last 12 NCAA finals have all been one-goal games (or tie games that were decided by penalty kicks), and the largest margin of victory in the 55-year history of the event is three goals, something that has happened three times.
So why would anyone expect the World Cup to have a semifinal game with a margin of victory twice that?
And why would anyone think it would be Brazil who would be on the humiliating end of the score, on its home field? It made no sense.
Certainly TigerBlog didn't get it. As he watched the carnage unfold in the first 29 minutes, when Germany scored five times. Five times? How does that happen in the World Cup?
And it's not just that Germany scored five goals in less than 30 minutes, including four of them in six minutes. It's how effortless it was. It was like the Germans were doing a warmup skeleton drill with no defense on the field.
That's how the ESPN announcers saw it. While play-by-play man Ian Darke (he's the best, by the way; TB would love to see him do NFL football) was trying to be polite about it, color man Steve McManaman cut right to the chase, using words like "amateur hour" and "embarrassing."
McManaman's best comment came when Brazilian sub Willian went into the game with the score 6-0 Germany, when the former English national team player said: "He looks thrilled to be going in. What did they tell him? 'Willian, it's 6-0, go score seven?'"
The most stunning part was that this was Brazil at home in the World Cup semifinals. TigerBlog has seen blowouts before; he just can't remember one of this magnitude at this significant an event with a team that might actually have been the favorite the one that got blown out. Yes, Brazil was missing Neymar, its best player.
But 7-1? Wow.
The average blowout gets out of control early. Perhaps the team getting blown out makes a little noise, but then another spurt puts the game way out of reach.
After that comes lots of garbage time. The team losing plays with a sense of frustration. The team winning has everything going its way. The refs just hope nobody does anything dumb.
Most times, a blowout falls under one of three circumstances - a total mismatch of talent, a nearly perfect performance by the winning team or a losing team that barely shows up. TB would put the Germany-Brazil game more on the last one than the second one.
When he thinks about Princeton and blowouts, most would fall into the first category. And usually they're easy to anticipate.
As for the ones that weren't necessarily obvious beforehand, TB was trying to think during the game yesterday as to which the most unexpected ones he's seen at Princeton were, on both ends of the coin. Luckily, by the way, he's seen way more blowout wins than losses.
Anyway, he came up with two.
First, on the losing end, he'll go with the last game of the 1999 men's basketball regular season. Princeton (11-2) trailed Penn (12-1) by a game when the teams met at Jadwin Gym, and in fact Penn's only loss in the league to that point was the 50-49 Princeton win at the Palestra after the Tigers had trailed 40-13 with 15 minutes left.
TB thought this game would be close, but he also figured on a Princeton win and a playoff for the NCAA tournament bid. Instead, Penn turned a three-point halftime lead into a 25-point win, 73-48.
It worked out okay for Princeton, though. That was the year the Tigers knocked off Georgetown (five guys played the whole game) and North Carolina State in the NIT before falling in the quarterfinals to Xavier.
As for a win? How about the 1997 NCAA men's lacrosse final?
Princeton had won three NCAA titles before that, and all three had come in overtime. This time, Princeton was unbeaten and the top seed, and the Tigers were playing Maryland, the No. 7 seed, who had beaten No. 2 UVa in the quarterfinals and No. 3 Syracuse 18-17 in the semifinal.
Princeton and Maryland were scoreless after seven minutes. It was 8-0 Princeton at the end of the first quarter.
That was somewhat stunning. It was eight perfect minutes for the Tigers, and it came in the NCAA final.
By the end it was 19-7, and Princeton spent the last five minutes passing the ball around rather than shooting. And again, this was the NCAA final.
Anyway, like he said, TigerBlog has seen plenty of blowouts involving Princeton teams, and he's seen the Tigers on both sides of them.
What has he concluded?
It's way better to be on the winning end than the losing end.
Just ask Brazil and Germany.
What you got was perhaps the most shocking sporting event played on a stage that big. Not shocking like a major upset, Miracle on Ice style.
No, shocking as in a total blowout of epic, never-to-be-seen-again proportions. It's impossible to fathom a World Cup semifinal game could be so one-sided, and yet there it was. Germany 7, Brazil 1.
It was shocking, and the world noticed. A record 35.7 million tweets about the game were sent, the most ever for any single sporting event.
Soccer games aren't supposed to end up 7-1. Certainly World Cup games aren't.
Hey, NCAA men's soccer championship games aren't even blowouts like that. The last 12 NCAA finals have all been one-goal games (or tie games that were decided by penalty kicks), and the largest margin of victory in the 55-year history of the event is three goals, something that has happened three times.
So why would anyone expect the World Cup to have a semifinal game with a margin of victory twice that?
And why would anyone think it would be Brazil who would be on the humiliating end of the score, on its home field? It made no sense.
Certainly TigerBlog didn't get it. As he watched the carnage unfold in the first 29 minutes, when Germany scored five times. Five times? How does that happen in the World Cup?
And it's not just that Germany scored five goals in less than 30 minutes, including four of them in six minutes. It's how effortless it was. It was like the Germans were doing a warmup skeleton drill with no defense on the field.
That's how the ESPN announcers saw it. While play-by-play man Ian Darke (he's the best, by the way; TB would love to see him do NFL football) was trying to be polite about it, color man Steve McManaman cut right to the chase, using words like "amateur hour" and "embarrassing."
McManaman's best comment came when Brazilian sub Willian went into the game with the score 6-0 Germany, when the former English national team player said: "He looks thrilled to be going in. What did they tell him? 'Willian, it's 6-0, go score seven?'"
The most stunning part was that this was Brazil at home in the World Cup semifinals. TigerBlog has seen blowouts before; he just can't remember one of this magnitude at this significant an event with a team that might actually have been the favorite the one that got blown out. Yes, Brazil was missing Neymar, its best player.
But 7-1? Wow.
The average blowout gets out of control early. Perhaps the team getting blown out makes a little noise, but then another spurt puts the game way out of reach.
After that comes lots of garbage time. The team losing plays with a sense of frustration. The team winning has everything going its way. The refs just hope nobody does anything dumb.
Most times, a blowout falls under one of three circumstances - a total mismatch of talent, a nearly perfect performance by the winning team or a losing team that barely shows up. TB would put the Germany-Brazil game more on the last one than the second one.
When he thinks about Princeton and blowouts, most would fall into the first category. And usually they're easy to anticipate.
As for the ones that weren't necessarily obvious beforehand, TB was trying to think during the game yesterday as to which the most unexpected ones he's seen at Princeton were, on both ends of the coin. Luckily, by the way, he's seen way more blowout wins than losses.
Anyway, he came up with two.
First, on the losing end, he'll go with the last game of the 1999 men's basketball regular season. Princeton (11-2) trailed Penn (12-1) by a game when the teams met at Jadwin Gym, and in fact Penn's only loss in the league to that point was the 50-49 Princeton win at the Palestra after the Tigers had trailed 40-13 with 15 minutes left.
TB thought this game would be close, but he also figured on a Princeton win and a playoff for the NCAA tournament bid. Instead, Penn turned a three-point halftime lead into a 25-point win, 73-48.
It worked out okay for Princeton, though. That was the year the Tigers knocked off Georgetown (five guys played the whole game) and North Carolina State in the NIT before falling in the quarterfinals to Xavier.
As for a win? How about the 1997 NCAA men's lacrosse final?
Princeton had won three NCAA titles before that, and all three had come in overtime. This time, Princeton was unbeaten and the top seed, and the Tigers were playing Maryland, the No. 7 seed, who had beaten No. 2 UVa in the quarterfinals and No. 3 Syracuse 18-17 in the semifinal.
Princeton and Maryland were scoreless after seven minutes. It was 8-0 Princeton at the end of the first quarter.
That was somewhat stunning. It was eight perfect minutes for the Tigers, and it came in the NCAA final.
By the end it was 19-7, and Princeton spent the last five minutes passing the ball around rather than shooting. And again, this was the NCAA final.
Anyway, like he said, TigerBlog has seen plenty of blowouts involving Princeton teams, and he's seen the Tigers on both sides of them.
What has he concluded?
It's way better to be on the winning end than the losing end.
Just ask Brazil and Germany.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Fun In The Pool
Again, for the four millionth time, TigerBlog will begin by prefacing that no money is involved or changing hands and that nothing of tangible value was at stake in the Office of Athletic Communications World Cup pool.
That, of course, would be a major problem in the world of college athletics. Nothing resembling gambling is permitted, and with good reason - almost nothing can destroy the integrity of the intercollegiate sports like the hint of games being fixed. As a result, any sort of gambling on any sport has to be strictly against the rules - even if it's the World Cup.
This rule is reinforced at its most strongest in the buildup to the Super Bowl and NCAA men's basketball tournament, for obvious reasons.
Could having a $5 pool on the World Cup in the OAC somehow equate to betting on - and fixing - Princeton games? No, obviously. Still, as is the case with most NCAA rules, it's there because if it wasn't, someone would push it and push it and push it and then someone else would figure that it needs to be pushed a little more and so on until there is nothing but lawlessness.
Keep that in mind the next time someone wants to talk to you about how ineffectual the NCAA is and how bulky the rulebook is. Yes, some of the rules are on their face ridiculous.
Still, they were put there - by the membership, not by the NCAA itself - because someone figured out how to get around the spirit of the rule and use every loophole as an advantage.
Anyway, TB is fine with having just-for-fun pools here in the OAC.
A World Cup pool isn't as easy as having one in which a single-elimination format is already set from the start, because it's possible to pick teams in the final that will end up coming out of the group stage on the same side of a bracket.
TigerBlog has continued his series of awful predictions with his World Cup selections.
His pre-tournament predicted champion? That would be Spain.
He's not sure why he thought the Spanish would roll again and become only the third repeat champion. Maybe it's because he was rooting for them. Maybe it's because they were ranked No. 1 in the world prior to this World Cup.
Whatever it was, he completely underestimated how much soccer players age in four years. The Spanish certainly did.
So he wasn't quite right about that pick. Spain went out meekly, losing its first two games, ending up with a minus-3 goal differential and never being a factor in the tournament.
TigerBlog's runner-up pick was Brazil, who is still alive. Thinking back, he's not sure why he chose Brazil to lose in its own country in the final. What ref would allow that?
His other two semifinalists were Switzerland (at least made it out of the group stage before losing in the round of 16) and Portugal (did not).
Oh, and TB's format was to award one point for each team that reaches the semifinals, another point if a team wins in the semis and then two points for winning the final. A perfect score would be eight.
TigerBlog got a one.
John Bullis, the video guy, has either one point or two points, because he had five teams in the semifinals, something TB didn't notice until he started going through the picks this morning. Like TB, John has Brazil as the runner-up. Like TB, John's pick to win it all didn't get to the semifinals; unlike Spain (TB's choice), the U.S. (John's choice) at least made the knockout round.
Yariv Amir has two points as well and can get another, since has Brazil losing in the final (to Portugal).
Kristy McNeil has Brazil to beat Germany in the final. She enters the semis with two points.
Ben Badua has three points but doesn't have the winner (he picked Spain too). His runner-up is Brazil, bringing to four out of six people who participated who had Brazil to lose in the final at home.
Ben can get a max of four points, which he would get with a Brazil win over Germany today. At worst, he will have three.
That leaves Craig Sachson, who has three points and Brazil over Argentina in the final. Should Brazil win today, then Craig and Ben would have four each and Kristy would have three. Kristy can get to five, but to do so, Brazil would have to win, which would give Craig six.
So basically, it goes like this.
Should Brazil win it all, then Craig would win with either six or seven points (depending on whether Argentina was the opponent in the final). Should Brazil win today and lose the final, then Craig and Ben would be tied with four points each, but Craig would get another point if Argentina defeats the Netherlands and be the winner. If not, they would tie.
And if Brazil loses today, then Kristy would get another point for having Germany in the final, giving her three. Craig would also have three, as would Ben. Craig would win if Argentina also won, of else it would be a three-way tie.
TigerBlog? Nope. He's not winning this one.
And again, NO MONEY IS CHANGING HANDS AND THERE IS NO PRIZE FOR THE WINNER.
And hey, if there is a tie, TigerBlog's proposed tiebreaker will be penalty kicks.
It works better in a for-fun pool than it does in the real matches. TB hates that, but more on that another time.
For now, let's just say TB hopes it doesn't come to that.
He's predicting it will, though, which given how it's been going in his predictions of late means that there's almost chance it will come true.
Spain. What a bad pick that turned out to be.
That, of course, would be a major problem in the world of college athletics. Nothing resembling gambling is permitted, and with good reason - almost nothing can destroy the integrity of the intercollegiate sports like the hint of games being fixed. As a result, any sort of gambling on any sport has to be strictly against the rules - even if it's the World Cup.
This rule is reinforced at its most strongest in the buildup to the Super Bowl and NCAA men's basketball tournament, for obvious reasons.
Could having a $5 pool on the World Cup in the OAC somehow equate to betting on - and fixing - Princeton games? No, obviously. Still, as is the case with most NCAA rules, it's there because if it wasn't, someone would push it and push it and push it and then someone else would figure that it needs to be pushed a little more and so on until there is nothing but lawlessness.
Keep that in mind the next time someone wants to talk to you about how ineffectual the NCAA is and how bulky the rulebook is. Yes, some of the rules are on their face ridiculous.
Still, they were put there - by the membership, not by the NCAA itself - because someone figured out how to get around the spirit of the rule and use every loophole as an advantage.
Anyway, TB is fine with having just-for-fun pools here in the OAC.
A World Cup pool isn't as easy as having one in which a single-elimination format is already set from the start, because it's possible to pick teams in the final that will end up coming out of the group stage on the same side of a bracket.
TigerBlog has continued his series of awful predictions with his World Cup selections.
His pre-tournament predicted champion? That would be Spain.
He's not sure why he thought the Spanish would roll again and become only the third repeat champion. Maybe it's because he was rooting for them. Maybe it's because they were ranked No. 1 in the world prior to this World Cup.
Whatever it was, he completely underestimated how much soccer players age in four years. The Spanish certainly did.
So he wasn't quite right about that pick. Spain went out meekly, losing its first two games, ending up with a minus-3 goal differential and never being a factor in the tournament.
TigerBlog's runner-up pick was Brazil, who is still alive. Thinking back, he's not sure why he chose Brazil to lose in its own country in the final. What ref would allow that?
His other two semifinalists were Switzerland (at least made it out of the group stage before losing in the round of 16) and Portugal (did not).
Oh, and TB's format was to award one point for each team that reaches the semifinals, another point if a team wins in the semis and then two points for winning the final. A perfect score would be eight.
TigerBlog got a one.
John Bullis, the video guy, has either one point or two points, because he had five teams in the semifinals, something TB didn't notice until he started going through the picks this morning. Like TB, John has Brazil as the runner-up. Like TB, John's pick to win it all didn't get to the semifinals; unlike Spain (TB's choice), the U.S. (John's choice) at least made the knockout round.
Yariv Amir has two points as well and can get another, since has Brazil losing in the final (to Portugal).
Kristy McNeil has Brazil to beat Germany in the final. She enters the semis with two points.
Ben Badua has three points but doesn't have the winner (he picked Spain too). His runner-up is Brazil, bringing to four out of six people who participated who had Brazil to lose in the final at home.
Ben can get a max of four points, which he would get with a Brazil win over Germany today. At worst, he will have three.
That leaves Craig Sachson, who has three points and Brazil over Argentina in the final. Should Brazil win today, then Craig and Ben would have four each and Kristy would have three. Kristy can get to five, but to do so, Brazil would have to win, which would give Craig six.
So basically, it goes like this.
Should Brazil win it all, then Craig would win with either six or seven points (depending on whether Argentina was the opponent in the final). Should Brazil win today and lose the final, then Craig and Ben would be tied with four points each, but Craig would get another point if Argentina defeats the Netherlands and be the winner. If not, they would tie.
And if Brazil loses today, then Kristy would get another point for having Germany in the final, giving her three. Craig would also have three, as would Ben. Craig would win if Argentina also won, of else it would be a three-way tie.
TigerBlog? Nope. He's not winning this one.
And again, NO MONEY IS CHANGING HANDS AND THERE IS NO PRIZE FOR THE WINNER.
And hey, if there is a tie, TigerBlog's proposed tiebreaker will be penalty kicks.
It works better in a for-fun pool than it does in the real matches. TB hates that, but more on that another time.
For now, let's just say TB hopes it doesn't come to that.
He's predicting it will, though, which given how it's been going in his predictions of late means that there's almost chance it will come true.
Spain. What a bad pick that turned out to be.
Monday, July 7, 2014
Hot Dogging
TigerBlog and TigerBlog Jr. were watching soccer over the weekend, and when one game ended, the coverage immediately switched to the hot dog eating contest that was coming up.
TB thinks he'd rather binge-watch every episode of the Kardashians than listen to the fawning coverage of the hot dog eating contest, which takes place on the Fourth of July at Nathan's. To TB, it's pretty much everything that's awful about contemporary American society - the hot dog eating contest, that is, though the Kardashians are also.
The point of the hot dog eating contest is to see how many hot dogs a person can eat in 10 minutes, bun included. In other words, it's a celebration of gluttony.
Here is the United States, a country blessed with riches that most of the globe can't even fathom. And with so many people on Earth who have nothing to eat at all, here is a contest in which the goal is to eat as much as possible.
How in the world does that look to the, uh, world? Well, TB will tell you. It looks awful.
And it's not just that there's a contest like this. It's that it's on national TV, generating big ratings, presumably. It's a celebration of gluttony, as TB said.
Beyond that, there's the whole glorification of the people who are good at this.
TigerBlog could eat two, maybe three, hot dogs in 10 minutes without starting to feel a bit queasy. The winners of the contest could get into the 60s, which would be six hot dogs per minute or one hot dogs every 10 seconds.
Puke.
TB would have laughed, had he not been so appalled, when the ESPN announcer interviewed one of the contestants and called him "one of the world's greatest eaters." Actually, he's one of the world's worst eaters, since a great eater wouldn't abuse his system that way and would presumably make much healthier food choices.
Anyway, when it came time for the contest itself, TB told TBJ that if he wanted to watch it, he had to go in another room. Instead, TBJ switched to the Indiana Jones marathon that was on and started watching the second one, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," which features some odd food choices of its own, including giant bugs, soup with eyeballs and of course for dessert, chilled monkey brains.
The hot dog eating contest is sort of like the Kardashians in that it is about celebrity for the sake of celebrity, regardless of what it takes to achieve it. In the case of the Kardashians, it's about shamelessness. In the case of the hot dog eaters, it's about the same thing, only in a different way.
What it's not about is athletics. It's not a sport to eat hot dogs. The people who were featured in the contest weren't athletes.
Princeton has 38 varsity teams, and none of them are hot dog eating.
One of them is women's soccer. Among the summer news that has gone scrolling through goprincetontigers.com was the announcement that Alex Valerio was named the head women's soccer coach at St. Thomas University in Canada.
Valerio, an Ottawa native, is a 2011 Princeton grad who started 20 games in her career with the Tigers.
TigerBlog didn't realize that there was college soccer in Canada. He knew there was college basketball.
Back on the day after Thanksgiving in 1999, Princeton played Ohio University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was the nightcap of a day that included four other games - a high school girls game, a high school boys game, a college women's game and a college men's game prior to Princeton-Ohio. All of the other teams were Canadian.
TB isn't quite sure how Princeton ended up in that game, which was played in the Atlantic time zone, one hour earlier than Eastern. It's one of seven time zones in which TB has seen Princeton play a game that counted, with two others for games that didn't count.
Work in college athletics? See the world.
TB remembers that Chris Young blocked a ton of shots - nine, a school single-game record - and came within two rebounds and one blocked shot of the only triple-double in school history. TB also remembers having great salmon before the game and how clean Halifax was, as well as how nice the arena was.
Anyway, that game was TB's only Princeton game in Canada. But still, if there's Canadian college basketball, which not Canadian college soccer?
St. Thomas is in New Brunswick, and the team plays in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association, a nine-team league. Valerio's team finished third in the league last year, behind the University of King's College and Mount Saint Vincent's, which are both in Halifax.
TigerBlog has no idea how the quality of Canadian women's college soccer is. He wonders if Valerio's goal is to coach in the United States or stay in Canada.
Either way, she has her first head coaching job three years after graduation from Princeton.
It's a great start to a career.
Alex Valerio is a friendly, respectful, engaging young woman with a very sharp sense of humor, qualities that certainly help in coaching. TB wishes her luck.
TB thinks he'd rather binge-watch every episode of the Kardashians than listen to the fawning coverage of the hot dog eating contest, which takes place on the Fourth of July at Nathan's. To TB, it's pretty much everything that's awful about contemporary American society - the hot dog eating contest, that is, though the Kardashians are also.
The point of the hot dog eating contest is to see how many hot dogs a person can eat in 10 minutes, bun included. In other words, it's a celebration of gluttony.
Here is the United States, a country blessed with riches that most of the globe can't even fathom. And with so many people on Earth who have nothing to eat at all, here is a contest in which the goal is to eat as much as possible.
How in the world does that look to the, uh, world? Well, TB will tell you. It looks awful.
And it's not just that there's a contest like this. It's that it's on national TV, generating big ratings, presumably. It's a celebration of gluttony, as TB said.
Beyond that, there's the whole glorification of the people who are good at this.
TigerBlog could eat two, maybe three, hot dogs in 10 minutes without starting to feel a bit queasy. The winners of the contest could get into the 60s, which would be six hot dogs per minute or one hot dogs every 10 seconds.
Puke.
TB would have laughed, had he not been so appalled, when the ESPN announcer interviewed one of the contestants and called him "one of the world's greatest eaters." Actually, he's one of the world's worst eaters, since a great eater wouldn't abuse his system that way and would presumably make much healthier food choices.
Anyway, when it came time for the contest itself, TB told TBJ that if he wanted to watch it, he had to go in another room. Instead, TBJ switched to the Indiana Jones marathon that was on and started watching the second one, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," which features some odd food choices of its own, including giant bugs, soup with eyeballs and of course for dessert, chilled monkey brains.
The hot dog eating contest is sort of like the Kardashians in that it is about celebrity for the sake of celebrity, regardless of what it takes to achieve it. In the case of the Kardashians, it's about shamelessness. In the case of the hot dog eaters, it's about the same thing, only in a different way.
What it's not about is athletics. It's not a sport to eat hot dogs. The people who were featured in the contest weren't athletes.
Princeton has 38 varsity teams, and none of them are hot dog eating.
One of them is women's soccer. Among the summer news that has gone scrolling through goprincetontigers.com was the announcement that Alex Valerio was named the head women's soccer coach at St. Thomas University in Canada.
Valerio, an Ottawa native, is a 2011 Princeton grad who started 20 games in her career with the Tigers.
TigerBlog didn't realize that there was college soccer in Canada. He knew there was college basketball.
Back on the day after Thanksgiving in 1999, Princeton played Ohio University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was the nightcap of a day that included four other games - a high school girls game, a high school boys game, a college women's game and a college men's game prior to Princeton-Ohio. All of the other teams were Canadian.
TB isn't quite sure how Princeton ended up in that game, which was played in the Atlantic time zone, one hour earlier than Eastern. It's one of seven time zones in which TB has seen Princeton play a game that counted, with two others for games that didn't count.
Work in college athletics? See the world.
TB remembers that Chris Young blocked a ton of shots - nine, a school single-game record - and came within two rebounds and one blocked shot of the only triple-double in school history. TB also remembers having great salmon before the game and how clean Halifax was, as well as how nice the arena was.
Anyway, that game was TB's only Princeton game in Canada. But still, if there's Canadian college basketball, which not Canadian college soccer?
St. Thomas is in New Brunswick, and the team plays in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association, a nine-team league. Valerio's team finished third in the league last year, behind the University of King's College and Mount Saint Vincent's, which are both in Halifax.
TigerBlog has no idea how the quality of Canadian women's college soccer is. He wonders if Valerio's goal is to coach in the United States or stay in Canada.
Either way, she has her first head coaching job three years after graduation from Princeton.
It's a great start to a career.
Alex Valerio is a friendly, respectful, engaging young woman with a very sharp sense of humor, qualities that certainly help in coaching. TB wishes her luck.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Fish Tales
TigerBlog came so close yesterday to do something he'd never done before.
Inches away. Maybe less than a second away.
And then the fish wriggled free of the hook and, boom, was back in the water and gone forever.
TigerBlog's friend Rich and Rich's friend Mike took the novice fisherman out on Mike's boat, out into an inlet that was apparently loaded with trout, redfish, flounder and others. For TigerBlog, it was probably his fourth or fifth time in his life that he'd been fishing, and he had a perfect record prior to yesterday. He'd never caught one.
Fishing isn't quite TigerBlog's thing. He loves fish, specifically those on the menu at a nice restaurant. Actually catching them? Not easy.
Or maybe it is easy, except TB has never pulled it off.
He seems to be doing everything right. He can cast. He reels it in. There's just never anything on the end of the line.
When he went out yesterday, he threw his line in the water his first time and nothing happened. Then he threw it in again, only this time he felt the unmistakable tug of a fish.
He started to reel it in. Mike acted like it was no big deal. He catches fish all the time. Then Rich pointed out to Mike that TigerBlog had never caught one before, which left Mike more unimpressed with TB's fishing ability than he seemed to be before, if that was in any way possible.
The fish was putting up a reasonable fight, but TB thought he had it under control. Closer and closer he came to the boat, and TB was ready. First fish ever.
He even got him out of the water, nearly into the boat. And then? Splash. And he was gone. Or she.
The big question then became whether or not it counted as an actual caught fish. Rich was ready to give TB the benefit of the doubt. Mike just smirked a little more disgustedly.
As for TigerBlog, to his credit, he said the first one has to be clean. All the way into the boat. If he doesn't have a picture of himself with the first fish he ever catches, well, then he still hasn't caught one.
TigerBlog's new theory is that the fish - a trout, Rich said - told the other fish that he was going to mess around with the guy who never caught one before and was going to get almost into the boat before he bailed out. When he got back to the water, all the other fish probably gave him a high-five, or at least a high-fin.
Anyway, TB was bummed, but not terribly. He figured he had plenty of time to get another one. Except he didn't. He cast his line another 100 or so times, and came back empty every time.
Why is TB sharing this?
Well, it's the week of the Fourth of July, that's why.
Of every week of the year, this is the week that year after year seems to have the lowest readership. If you're reading this, that makes you a diehard, and TB is therefore grateful.
Still, it's not a day to go into some deep topic on Princeton Athletics. TB can save that for next week.
The Fourth of July is not a time for college athletics. When you think Fourth of July, you think hotdogs and hamburgers and cookouts and beaches and pool parties and of course fireworks.
FatherBlog lives on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, and fireworks are visible from his window every year. There are always fireworks at Princeton for the Fourth of July. TB has gone a few times, and they're pretty good ones.
TigerBlog once saw the Beach Boys on the mall in Washington, D.C., one Fourth of July. That was pretty high up on the Americana scale.
This year, the Fourth of July comes on a Friday. That makes for a long weekend for pretty much everyone, one made longer if you take off today or even all week.
It's the right time for it.
It's just that it cuts into readership. Almost nobody is reading this week.
Coming attractions for the blog include more World Cup stuff, even if the U.S. is already out of it. And hey, one more thing, why is everyone saying the U.S. did so well this time or established itself as a player on the world stage when four years ago - when Bob Bradley was the coach - the U.S. won its group and made it to the same round before being eliminated? Just wondering.
What else will there be? TB isn't quite sure yet actually. Some Princeton 2013-14 year in review stuff. Some looks ahead to the new year, with new Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux.
And the usual other stuff. Some knocking of the Little League World Series. Probably some questions about marketing and videostreaming and what the future is.
And definitely football, especially the excitement of Princeton football as it heads into 2014.
And hey, maybe even a caught fish for TigerBlog one day.
But that's all a little ways away.
Today? Not much. Just a trout that got away.
And a wish for a happy, safe, fun Fourth of July weekend for everyone reading.
TigerBlog appreciates the diehards.
Inches away. Maybe less than a second away.
And then the fish wriggled free of the hook and, boom, was back in the water and gone forever.
TigerBlog's friend Rich and Rich's friend Mike took the novice fisherman out on Mike's boat, out into an inlet that was apparently loaded with trout, redfish, flounder and others. For TigerBlog, it was probably his fourth or fifth time in his life that he'd been fishing, and he had a perfect record prior to yesterday. He'd never caught one.
Fishing isn't quite TigerBlog's thing. He loves fish, specifically those on the menu at a nice restaurant. Actually catching them? Not easy.
Or maybe it is easy, except TB has never pulled it off.
He seems to be doing everything right. He can cast. He reels it in. There's just never anything on the end of the line.
When he went out yesterday, he threw his line in the water his first time and nothing happened. Then he threw it in again, only this time he felt the unmistakable tug of a fish.
He started to reel it in. Mike acted like it was no big deal. He catches fish all the time. Then Rich pointed out to Mike that TigerBlog had never caught one before, which left Mike more unimpressed with TB's fishing ability than he seemed to be before, if that was in any way possible.
The fish was putting up a reasonable fight, but TB thought he had it under control. Closer and closer he came to the boat, and TB was ready. First fish ever.
He even got him out of the water, nearly into the boat. And then? Splash. And he was gone. Or she.
The big question then became whether or not it counted as an actual caught fish. Rich was ready to give TB the benefit of the doubt. Mike just smirked a little more disgustedly.
As for TigerBlog, to his credit, he said the first one has to be clean. All the way into the boat. If he doesn't have a picture of himself with the first fish he ever catches, well, then he still hasn't caught one.
TigerBlog's new theory is that the fish - a trout, Rich said - told the other fish that he was going to mess around with the guy who never caught one before and was going to get almost into the boat before he bailed out. When he got back to the water, all the other fish probably gave him a high-five, or at least a high-fin.
Anyway, TB was bummed, but not terribly. He figured he had plenty of time to get another one. Except he didn't. He cast his line another 100 or so times, and came back empty every time.
Why is TB sharing this?
Well, it's the week of the Fourth of July, that's why.
Of every week of the year, this is the week that year after year seems to have the lowest readership. If you're reading this, that makes you a diehard, and TB is therefore grateful.
Still, it's not a day to go into some deep topic on Princeton Athletics. TB can save that for next week.
The Fourth of July is not a time for college athletics. When you think Fourth of July, you think hotdogs and hamburgers and cookouts and beaches and pool parties and of course fireworks.
FatherBlog lives on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, and fireworks are visible from his window every year. There are always fireworks at Princeton for the Fourth of July. TB has gone a few times, and they're pretty good ones.
TigerBlog once saw the Beach Boys on the mall in Washington, D.C., one Fourth of July. That was pretty high up on the Americana scale.
This year, the Fourth of July comes on a Friday. That makes for a long weekend for pretty much everyone, one made longer if you take off today or even all week.
It's the right time for it.
It's just that it cuts into readership. Almost nobody is reading this week.
Coming attractions for the blog include more World Cup stuff, even if the U.S. is already out of it. And hey, one more thing, why is everyone saying the U.S. did so well this time or established itself as a player on the world stage when four years ago - when Bob Bradley was the coach - the U.S. won its group and made it to the same round before being eliminated? Just wondering.
What else will there be? TB isn't quite sure yet actually. Some Princeton 2013-14 year in review stuff. Some looks ahead to the new year, with new Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux.
And the usual other stuff. Some knocking of the Little League World Series. Probably some questions about marketing and videostreaming and what the future is.
And definitely football, especially the excitement of Princeton football as it heads into 2014.
And hey, maybe even a caught fish for TigerBlog one day.
But that's all a little ways away.
Today? Not much. Just a trout that got away.
And a wish for a happy, safe, fun Fourth of July weekend for everyone reading.
TigerBlog appreciates the diehards.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
The Drama, Made For TV
It's 5 in the afternoon Tuesday, and it appears the entire country has stopped to watch a soccer game.
And who ever thought they'd see that?
A few hours ago, TigerBlog saw the end of the Argentina-Switzerland game. The Argentines scored in the final seconds of stoppage time to win 1-0 in what was part of a five-minute stretch of what might have been the very best live television he's ever seen.
Well, other than when the Giants won the Super Bowl against the Patriots when they were undefeated. And the Miracle on Ice game against the Soviet Union wasn't televised live.
Argentina-Switzerland was. And the end was insane enough. What the TV production did was even more astonishing.
The goal came on a nice breakout, and the replays of the shot itself showed how agonizingly close the Swiss goalkeeper came to getting his hand on it. Those were great pictures themselves, though they were eclipsed completely by what happened next.
First, there was the closeup of No. 2 from Switzerland, who had closed from far off the play only to come up just short of stopping it. And, as the goal came in the 119th minute, it was clear that it was going to take a lot of the Swiss to have a chance to tie.
And so there was No. 2, inside the goal where the ball had just been, with his face sticking through the mesh in the back, with a look on his face that was a combination of total exhaustion and total resignation that it was likely over for his team. And smartly, the TV truck stayed with him. It was as poignant a shot as TB can remember.
Except it wasn't quite over.
The Swiss came back the other way, and - with the goalkeeper in the box - had another player knock a header off the side goalpost, and then just miss the put-back after that. The replays were great, and the reactions of the announcers conveyed the sheer astonishment of the miracle that was oh-so-close but would not be achieved.
As for the U.S., now it's the second half. The Americans are playing Belgium, and it's scoreless in the second half. Tim Howard appears to be the reason why.
The knockout round can turn into a hold-on-and-pray-to-get-to-penalty-kicks situation, something that the Costa Ricans did to perfection Sunday. Los Ticos, whom TB and TigerBlog Jr. are both on board 100% with after seeing a World Cup qualifier in the country two years ago against El Salvador during the men's lacrosse team's trip there, were a man down for most of the second half and both overtimes.
Costa Rica tried desperately to hold onto its 1-0 lead, only to have Greece tie it in stoppage time. But the Costa Ricans managed to hold on through 30 additional minutes and then went an impressive 5 for 5 in PKs to get the win.
TBJ was texting back-and-forth with Diego Quesada, who was one of Princeton's three tour guides on the trip, during the game. It's hard to really comprehend what it means to such a small country to get to the World Cup quarterfinals, but perhaps this exchange will give some insight:
Diego: We did it!!!!!!
TBJ: Yes, I saw. It was fantastic.
Diego: Bro, how I cried!!!!!!
That sums it up.
TigerBlog has written this before, but he was late coming to the World Cup party. It wasn't until 2006 that he was really interested; he hardly missed a game in 2010.
He is fascinated by how much the World Cup has been embraced now in this country. TB never thought he'd see that.
Princeton's ESPNU contract will feature two soccer games this fall, the men against Georgetown and the women against Villanova. The men have been on several times before during Princeton's time with ESPN; this will be the first time for the women.
TB wonders if the choice that ESPNU made to do two soccer games, including one women's game, has something to do with the World Cup and its ratings. Yes, ESPNU will like it because it loves events that fit into tidy time slots, and soccer is one of those.
TB thinks this is more a soccer-related thing than a time-slot related thing though. And hey, it's great for Princeton.
Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium is a great venue, one of the best for college soccer in the U.S. anywhere. Having two games on ESPNU will be a great way to showcase the facility and for the two Princeton teams.
Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to play a scoreless game against Belgium, and the drama builds. The best part of all of this could possibly be the commentators, especially Ian Darke, who is as absolutely good as it gets. He's like Mike Emrick.
Hey, maybe he can do one of the games at Princeton this fall.
Now that would be tremendous.
And now it's an hour later, and the U.S. has lost 2-1. It was 0-0 at the end of regulation, 2-0 Belgium at the end of the first 15-minute extra session - and then the last 15 minutes was again amazing drama.
The U.S. scored- Michael Bradley to 19-year-old Julian Green - and then almost tied it on a ridiculous play off a free kick. It just wasn't to be - despite an epic performance by Howard.
The World Cup marches on now, without the U.S. team. The Americans did better four years ago under Bob Bradley than they did this year with Jurgen Klinsmann, since the U.S. won its group last time and finished second this time before losing both times in the first game of the knockout round.
Perhaps if the U.S. had shown up against Germany instead of being contest to lose, then it might still be playing, since it would have been Algeria instead of Belgium.
Not that it matters now. TigerBlog will still be into it.
With drama like this, who could shut off the TV?
And who ever thought they'd see that?
A few hours ago, TigerBlog saw the end of the Argentina-Switzerland game. The Argentines scored in the final seconds of stoppage time to win 1-0 in what was part of a five-minute stretch of what might have been the very best live television he's ever seen.
Well, other than when the Giants won the Super Bowl against the Patriots when they were undefeated. And the Miracle on Ice game against the Soviet Union wasn't televised live.
Argentina-Switzerland was. And the end was insane enough. What the TV production did was even more astonishing.
The goal came on a nice breakout, and the replays of the shot itself showed how agonizingly close the Swiss goalkeeper came to getting his hand on it. Those were great pictures themselves, though they were eclipsed completely by what happened next.
First, there was the closeup of No. 2 from Switzerland, who had closed from far off the play only to come up just short of stopping it. And, as the goal came in the 119th minute, it was clear that it was going to take a lot of the Swiss to have a chance to tie.
And so there was No. 2, inside the goal where the ball had just been, with his face sticking through the mesh in the back, with a look on his face that was a combination of total exhaustion and total resignation that it was likely over for his team. And smartly, the TV truck stayed with him. It was as poignant a shot as TB can remember.
Except it wasn't quite over.
The Swiss came back the other way, and - with the goalkeeper in the box - had another player knock a header off the side goalpost, and then just miss the put-back after that. The replays were great, and the reactions of the announcers conveyed the sheer astonishment of the miracle that was oh-so-close but would not be achieved.
As for the U.S., now it's the second half. The Americans are playing Belgium, and it's scoreless in the second half. Tim Howard appears to be the reason why.
The knockout round can turn into a hold-on-and-pray-to-get-to-penalty-kicks situation, something that the Costa Ricans did to perfection Sunday. Los Ticos, whom TB and TigerBlog Jr. are both on board 100% with after seeing a World Cup qualifier in the country two years ago against El Salvador during the men's lacrosse team's trip there, were a man down for most of the second half and both overtimes.
Costa Rica tried desperately to hold onto its 1-0 lead, only to have Greece tie it in stoppage time. But the Costa Ricans managed to hold on through 30 additional minutes and then went an impressive 5 for 5 in PKs to get the win.
TBJ was texting back-and-forth with Diego Quesada, who was one of Princeton's three tour guides on the trip, during the game. It's hard to really comprehend what it means to such a small country to get to the World Cup quarterfinals, but perhaps this exchange will give some insight:
Diego: We did it!!!!!!
TBJ: Yes, I saw. It was fantastic.
Diego: Bro, how I cried!!!!!!
That sums it up.
TigerBlog has written this before, but he was late coming to the World Cup party. It wasn't until 2006 that he was really interested; he hardly missed a game in 2010.
He is fascinated by how much the World Cup has been embraced now in this country. TB never thought he'd see that.
Princeton's ESPNU contract will feature two soccer games this fall, the men against Georgetown and the women against Villanova. The men have been on several times before during Princeton's time with ESPN; this will be the first time for the women.
TB wonders if the choice that ESPNU made to do two soccer games, including one women's game, has something to do with the World Cup and its ratings. Yes, ESPNU will like it because it loves events that fit into tidy time slots, and soccer is one of those.
TB thinks this is more a soccer-related thing than a time-slot related thing though. And hey, it's great for Princeton.
Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium is a great venue, one of the best for college soccer in the U.S. anywhere. Having two games on ESPNU will be a great way to showcase the facility and for the two Princeton teams.
Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to play a scoreless game against Belgium, and the drama builds. The best part of all of this could possibly be the commentators, especially Ian Darke, who is as absolutely good as it gets. He's like Mike Emrick.
Hey, maybe he can do one of the games at Princeton this fall.
Now that would be tremendous.
And now it's an hour later, and the U.S. has lost 2-1. It was 0-0 at the end of regulation, 2-0 Belgium at the end of the first 15-minute extra session - and then the last 15 minutes was again amazing drama.
The U.S. scored- Michael Bradley to 19-year-old Julian Green - and then almost tied it on a ridiculous play off a free kick. It just wasn't to be - despite an epic performance by Howard.
The World Cup marches on now, without the U.S. team. The Americans did better four years ago under Bob Bradley than they did this year with Jurgen Klinsmann, since the U.S. won its group last time and finished second this time before losing both times in the first game of the knockout round.
Perhaps if the U.S. had shown up against Germany instead of being contest to lose, then it might still be playing, since it would have been Algeria instead of Belgium.
Not that it matters now. TigerBlog will still be into it.
With drama like this, who could shut off the TV?
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
It Was 20 Years Ago Today ...
TigerBlog can tell you exactly what he was doing 20 years ago today.
What he can't tell you is what he was thinking. He wishes he could.
TigerBlog's first day on the Princeton payroll was July 1, 1994 - 20 years ago today.
It's always been a difficult question for TigerBlog to answer. How long has he worked at Princeton?
Technically his start date was July 1, 1994. Of course, he had already been there for five years prior to that covering Princeton sports for the Trenton Times, so he's actually completed 25 academic years with Princeton Athletics.
So has he been there 25 years or 20? In terms of working there, it's 20.
For the last 20 years, he's had an office in Room 9, Jadwin Gym. For the last 20 years, he's had an office in a Division I basketball arena, something that makes people who work in skyscrapers in big cities somewhat envious when TB explains it to them.
In some ways, it's been a blink of an eye, these last 20 years.
In others, it seems like forever ago that Mark Panus, then Princeton's manager of sports media relations, told TigerBlog he was leaving his job. Panus was the football, men's basketball and men's lacrosse contact at Princeton, while TB was covering those teams at the newspaper.
When Panus said he was leaving, TigerBlog's first thought was that this would be a perfect place for him to work and the right job for him to have. He couldn't have been more right on either count.
Princeton did not have a Director of Athletics back then. Bob Mylsik had left the position, and Gary Walters had not yet been hired. In fact, one of TigerBlog's last-ever assignments at the newspaper was to cover Gary's introductory press conference.
It was Kurt Kehl who hired TigerBlog. Kurt back then held the title of Director of Athletic Communications, TB thinks. He knows that it is at Kurt's old desk that TB has sat for the last 12 years, after he took over for Kurt when he left to work for the Washington Capitals.
Most of the people who work in athletic communications started out in athletic communications. TigerBlog never did sports information at any other school before he came to Princeton. Instead, his background was strictly in writing obviously.
As a result, he's always had a bit of a different perspective on the field. Also, when Kurt first hired him, he chose him over a group of finalists that included only sports information people.
When TigerBlog first started at Princeton, he barely knew how to turn a computer on, let alone use a Mac the way it went to be used - even an early one. Chuck Sullivan, then a Princeton intern and now with the American Athletic Conference, showed him how, something that puts Chuck up there with TB's ninth-grade typing teacher (Mrs. Jacobson) and 10th-grade English teacher (Mr. Ridley, who taught him grammar) as the people who taught TB the three subjects he's used the most in his life.
TigerBlog wishes he could remember what he was thinking when he first started at Princeton. He's pretty sure he thought he'd be there for awhile, and 1994 TB probably wouldn't have been shocked to learn that it was the start of something that would still be going strong 20 years later.
What he wishes he knew was what he thought he was getting himself into, if he had any idea that Princeton would challenge him, mold him, educate him, make him better in so many ways. As Gary Walters has often said to him, TB has "a Penn diploma and a Princeton education."
The world of Princeton athletic communications has changed in every way since TB first got there. Honestly, if the profession had stayed the same as it was when he first got there, TB isn't sure he would still be here.
He couldn't have imagined what technology had in store for his chosen business 20 years ago today, when he was amazed by this brand-new mesmerizing tool that had just started to make it big - email. From that starting point, everything has changed, in so many new and exciting ways. Hey, in 1994, who ever heard of the word "blog" for that matter.
When TB thinks about his first 20 years here, he thinks about all of the great games he was at, all of the great travels he's had, all of the great experiences he has had.
If you pinned him down and made him say what the best games from all that time were, he'd come up with the 1996 NCAA win over UCLA in men's basketball, the 1996 playoff win over Penn in men's basketball, the 1999 comeback win over Penn in the same sport and the 2001 NCAA championship game win over Syracuse in men's lacrosse. Those would be the top four.
The next spot in his top five? That would be among 20 or 30 other great games, all of which he had a front-row seat for and saw from the inside, which made them way better.
TigerBlog has also worked with some great people, some of the best people he's met in his entire life. Some have come and gone and are now spread out around the country, and TigerBlog doesn't stay in touch with them the way he might have wanted to, though that doesn't mean that he doesn't think about them and remember the good times.
And some have stayed. Some have worked here for as long as he has and longer, and some have been here for much shorter tenures. It's a special, special group of people who do an incredible job.
If you think Princeton Athletics just happens, you're wrong. It's the people who work here - coaches, administration, staff, everyone - who make it happen, and it's been an hour to be a part of it.
And you want to know another honor for TigerBlog? The chance to be around the athletes here? That's been an honor that TB has never taken for granted and will never forget.
His list of favorite Princeton athletes is a long one, with those he loved to watch play and loved to see develop from the time they were freshmen until they graduated and in so many cases beyond, now for years and years later. And those athletes who weren't superstars but who were great people to be around, who did so many great things during their time at Princeton, who inspired TigerBlog to want to do everything he could to help them have a better experience while they were here.
All of them - superstar to those who hardly got on the field - showed TigerBlog all of the very best that intercollegiate athletics could be, and to them he is grateful for having had the opportunity to be around them.
Names? TigerBlog could give you a thousand of them he supposes, and so he'd rather not give any, for fear of leaving anyone out. He'll just say it started with the very first Princeton athletes he met - including a hockey/soccer player named Mollie Marcoux - and continues through this day, even as the athletes have gone from being a few years younger than he is to just a few short years older than his own children.
As he says that, TB can't help but smile.
When he first started to write bios for athletes, their dates of birth were not that far removed from his own. Then they started to be born when he was in high school. Then when he graduated. Then when he graduated college.
Now many of the current athletes were born after TB started working here.
Twenty years have passed. Twenty years ago today.
TB wouldn't trade a minute of it.
What he can't tell you is what he was thinking. He wishes he could.
TigerBlog's first day on the Princeton payroll was July 1, 1994 - 20 years ago today.
It's always been a difficult question for TigerBlog to answer. How long has he worked at Princeton?
Technically his start date was July 1, 1994. Of course, he had already been there for five years prior to that covering Princeton sports for the Trenton Times, so he's actually completed 25 academic years with Princeton Athletics.
So has he been there 25 years or 20? In terms of working there, it's 20.
For the last 20 years, he's had an office in Room 9, Jadwin Gym. For the last 20 years, he's had an office in a Division I basketball arena, something that makes people who work in skyscrapers in big cities somewhat envious when TB explains it to them.
In some ways, it's been a blink of an eye, these last 20 years.
In others, it seems like forever ago that Mark Panus, then Princeton's manager of sports media relations, told TigerBlog he was leaving his job. Panus was the football, men's basketball and men's lacrosse contact at Princeton, while TB was covering those teams at the newspaper.
When Panus said he was leaving, TigerBlog's first thought was that this would be a perfect place for him to work and the right job for him to have. He couldn't have been more right on either count.
Princeton did not have a Director of Athletics back then. Bob Mylsik had left the position, and Gary Walters had not yet been hired. In fact, one of TigerBlog's last-ever assignments at the newspaper was to cover Gary's introductory press conference.
It was Kurt Kehl who hired TigerBlog. Kurt back then held the title of Director of Athletic Communications, TB thinks. He knows that it is at Kurt's old desk that TB has sat for the last 12 years, after he took over for Kurt when he left to work for the Washington Capitals.
Most of the people who work in athletic communications started out in athletic communications. TigerBlog never did sports information at any other school before he came to Princeton. Instead, his background was strictly in writing obviously.
As a result, he's always had a bit of a different perspective on the field. Also, when Kurt first hired him, he chose him over a group of finalists that included only sports information people.
When TigerBlog first started at Princeton, he barely knew how to turn a computer on, let alone use a Mac the way it went to be used - even an early one. Chuck Sullivan, then a Princeton intern and now with the American Athletic Conference, showed him how, something that puts Chuck up there with TB's ninth-grade typing teacher (Mrs. Jacobson) and 10th-grade English teacher (Mr. Ridley, who taught him grammar) as the people who taught TB the three subjects he's used the most in his life.
TigerBlog wishes he could remember what he was thinking when he first started at Princeton. He's pretty sure he thought he'd be there for awhile, and 1994 TB probably wouldn't have been shocked to learn that it was the start of something that would still be going strong 20 years later.
What he wishes he knew was what he thought he was getting himself into, if he had any idea that Princeton would challenge him, mold him, educate him, make him better in so many ways. As Gary Walters has often said to him, TB has "a Penn diploma and a Princeton education."
The world of Princeton athletic communications has changed in every way since TB first got there. Honestly, if the profession had stayed the same as it was when he first got there, TB isn't sure he would still be here.
He couldn't have imagined what technology had in store for his chosen business 20 years ago today, when he was amazed by this brand-new mesmerizing tool that had just started to make it big - email. From that starting point, everything has changed, in so many new and exciting ways. Hey, in 1994, who ever heard of the word "blog" for that matter.
When TB thinks about his first 20 years here, he thinks about all of the great games he was at, all of the great travels he's had, all of the great experiences he has had.
If you pinned him down and made him say what the best games from all that time were, he'd come up with the 1996 NCAA win over UCLA in men's basketball, the 1996 playoff win over Penn in men's basketball, the 1999 comeback win over Penn in the same sport and the 2001 NCAA championship game win over Syracuse in men's lacrosse. Those would be the top four.
The next spot in his top five? That would be among 20 or 30 other great games, all of which he had a front-row seat for and saw from the inside, which made them way better.
TigerBlog has also worked with some great people, some of the best people he's met in his entire life. Some have come and gone and are now spread out around the country, and TigerBlog doesn't stay in touch with them the way he might have wanted to, though that doesn't mean that he doesn't think about them and remember the good times.
And some have stayed. Some have worked here for as long as he has and longer, and some have been here for much shorter tenures. It's a special, special group of people who do an incredible job.
If you think Princeton Athletics just happens, you're wrong. It's the people who work here - coaches, administration, staff, everyone - who make it happen, and it's been an hour to be a part of it.
And you want to know another honor for TigerBlog? The chance to be around the athletes here? That's been an honor that TB has never taken for granted and will never forget.
His list of favorite Princeton athletes is a long one, with those he loved to watch play and loved to see develop from the time they were freshmen until they graduated and in so many cases beyond, now for years and years later. And those athletes who weren't superstars but who were great people to be around, who did so many great things during their time at Princeton, who inspired TigerBlog to want to do everything he could to help them have a better experience while they were here.
All of them - superstar to those who hardly got on the field - showed TigerBlog all of the very best that intercollegiate athletics could be, and to them he is grateful for having had the opportunity to be around them.
Names? TigerBlog could give you a thousand of them he supposes, and so he'd rather not give any, for fear of leaving anyone out. He'll just say it started with the very first Princeton athletes he met - including a hockey/soccer player named Mollie Marcoux - and continues through this day, even as the athletes have gone from being a few years younger than he is to just a few short years older than his own children.
As he says that, TB can't help but smile.
When he first started to write bios for athletes, their dates of birth were not that far removed from his own. Then they started to be born when he was in high school. Then when he graduated. Then when he graduated college.
Now many of the current athletes were born after TB started working here.
Twenty years have passed. Twenty years ago today.
TB wouldn't trade a minute of it.
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