Today is not just any summer Friday.
Nope, today is the last summer Friday before the storm. Not the weather, which suggests that it'll be nearly perfect for mid-August in Central Jersey this weekend.
No, the storm will come in the form of returning athletes. Gradually, they will be here, starting with the women's soccer team, which begins practice Monday or so, in advance of the first Princeton athletic event of 2015-16. That would be women's soccer at home against Howard two weeks from today.
That game will be Sean Driscoll's first game as head coach of the Tigers, by the way. That alone makes this women's soccer preseason radically different than those of the last 20 years.
Before long, every other fall sport will be here getting ready for the start of all of the fall seasons.
By one month from today there will already have been 26 Princeton events played across seven sports. Or 27 and eight, if you count sprint football's alumni game.
And, one month from today, it'll be game week for football, who opens at Lafayette on Sept. 19.
But today?
None of that is on the radar. Not yet. At least not here.
Most of the rest of Division I athletics is already in preseason mode. And good for them. There's plenty of time to play for the fall sports. By the time the season ends, the sun will be setting around 5 and the temps will often be half of what they are right now.
So let them all practice in the heat now. Princeton and the Ivy League will be going strong soon enough.
In the meantime, today is just another Friday in the summer.
It's a Friday in which the New York Mets find themselves in first place in the National League East. Actually, the Mets are sort of comfortably in first place, at least for now, 4.5 games up on the Washington Nationals.
The Mets currently rank 30th in team batting average, hitting .237 as a team. Just in case you lost track, there are only 30 teams in Major League Baseball, meaning the Mets are dead last.
So why are they 11 games over .500 and with a great chance of reaching the postseason? And why do people say that the Mets have as good a chance as anyone come the postseason, should they get there?
It's their pitching. The Mets have an army of young arms that have pitched the team to the second-best ERA in Major League Baseball, even if ERA isn't the standard way of measuring pitching anymore.
And of course, there is the whole Wilmer Flores situation. You know, how he went from crying on the field when he thought he had been traded to hitting nearly .400 since.
These are definitely great times for Mets' fans, those at least who haven't been completely turned off by the team's ownership and recent record of frugality and, well, bad teams. Right now it's all like something from the movie "Major League," which, by the way, is the most underrated sports movie ever ("Field of Dreams" is the most overrated).
If you're a Mets' fan, your team is in first. The crosstown rivals, the Yankees, have fallen on hard times, and seven-game lead over the Blue Jays is completely gone.
So if you like the Mets, do you want a chance to beat the Yankees in a Subway Series? Or would you rather see the Yankees completely fade away here and now?
Jim Barlow, Princeton's men's soccer coach, is a Mets' fan.
He's such a big Mets' fan that he DVR'd games the last few years to watch them when he had things that prevented him from doing it live, even though the team was miles out of first.
Barlow was in the Office of Athletic Communications yesterday. He walked back and forth in front of TB's office about six times before he actually came in, and TB has no idea where he was going or anything.
While Barlow was here, the subjects ranged along the usual - the upcoming Princeton season, international soccer, the upcoming World Cup qualifying and of course Major League Lacrosse. Barlow to his credit knew that Rochester was one of the teams in the MLL final last weekend, though he only knew that from Monday's TigerBlog.
And Barlow talked about the Mets. He was downright giddy about the team and especially the young pitching.
He was calm. Relaxed. Well, he's usually both, but he was even more of both at this moment.
Beginning next week, he'll have some other issues to deal with, such as how to replace Cameron Porter, who led Princeton to a share of the Ivy title last fall while leading Division I in goals per game.
But that's for next week.
This week wasn't a time for that. And this weekend isn't either.
This weekend? Go to the beach. Find a pool. Have a barbeque. Go to a baseball game. Do all those summer things, before you can't anymore.
Friday, August 14, 2015
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Goodbye, 5LSM
TigerBlog has no idea what the average person thinks when presented with the letters "LSM."
TB hopes, by the way, that "LSM" isn't some contemporary slang thing that actually means something awful or off-color or something of which he is completely unaware.
To be sure, TigerBlog did a search for "LSM" and found two things - the Living Stream Ministry at lsm.org and the Life Sciences and Management School at, of all places, the University of Pennsylvania. Website: lsm@upenn.edu.
Neither or those appears to be problematic. Nor, by the way, are they what TigerBlog has come to mind when he thinks of the letters.
First, as any men's lacrosse fan knows, "LSM" stands for "longstick midfielder."
It's evolved through the years from being a team's next-best defenseman to being an indispensable part of any good team and, as much as anything, a player counted on for offense.
This past year, Princeton got two goals from longsticks - both from Sam Gravitte, the longstick midfielder.
It's not an easy position at all. You're constantly running on and off the field as possession changes, and you find yourself with a never-ending diet of covering the other teams' best offensive midfielder.
And yet, it's become as big - or bigger - for an LSM to be able to turn defense into offense. Get the ball, get it out in transition, and make things happen.
It's actually one of the most exciting parts of lacrosse, when a really good, really fast pole comes sprinting into the box. Gravitte's second goal last year, against Yale in the Ivy League tournament final, was a thing of beauty.
But hey, TigerBlog isn't here today to talk about lacrosse. As much as you might want him to.
He'll talk about lacrosse again another time. He promises.
For the rest of today, he'd rather talk about the other LSM.
The 5LSM.
And what is the 5LSM?
Well, to be honest, TigerBlog has no idea what the LSM stands for. He does know that for years, the 5LSM was a cherished commodity in Jadwin Gym that only a few select people had.
It was a key. Today, it's an irrelevant key.
Yesterday was a big day in Jadwin, as the entire building was re-keyed. Still, it also marked the end of the era of the 5LSM.
The 5LSM key was a master key for the entire building. It could open almost any door in Jadwin, including almost anyone's office. Anyone who was locked out of his or her office had to find someone with a 5LSM.
TigerBlog was one of the lucky ones who had a 5LSM. The real benefit was that you didn't need a separate key to get into the building and then into your office. The 5LSM was good for both.
It was a status thing really, to have a 5LSM.
When TB first started here, he didn't get a 5LSM. He had two keys. Actually, he had a bunch of others, some of which are still in his desk drawer. He has no idea what these keys are for or every were for, to be exact.
Now everyone in Jadwin has new keys. There is no master key anymore, or at least not one that will be widely distributed. TB isn't sure what will happen when people get locked out of their offices.
The project, which has been under the more-than-capable direction of Greg Paczkowski, kicked into high gear this week. The giveaway that something was up came when the entire building was covered in pink Post-its, which were on every door with a lock, showing what key opened that particular door.
TigerBlog now has two keys. Many people have more than that.
The 5LSM days are over.
And with it, TigerBlog supposes, ends the concern of whatever happened to the other Office of Athletic Communications 5LSM. Legend has it that Jeb Stuart, who used to volunteer in this office after he sold the weekly newspaper Town Topics, had it at some point, and nobody knew what happened to it after Jeb passed away.
Actually, the point of all this is that with the re-keying, TigerBlog thought about the 5LSM and then about his old friend Jeb, who has been gone for seven years now. It was at his funeral - in the chapel here - that one of his friends who was eulogizing him stopped and answered his cell phone and then pretended he was talking to Jeb. It was funny and touching at the same time.
Jeb was a character, that's for sure. His father was in the publishing business and was the longtime PA announcer at Palmer Stadium. His brother is a filmmaker. His mother was murdered in town in 1989 - a murder that remains unsolved.
As for Jeb, he was just a fun guy to have around. When he retired, he asked if he could volunteer here and do all the little tasks that nobody else wanted to do. For years, Jeb would clip newspapers, string credentials, all that kind of stuff.
And talk. And laugh. And make everyone here laugh. He loved Princeton Athletics and being a part of it.
And really, that's what he wanted to say today. It wasn't really about the key at all.
TigerBlog liked Jeb a lot. He misses him.
He's been gone seven years already?
TB hopes, by the way, that "LSM" isn't some contemporary slang thing that actually means something awful or off-color or something of which he is completely unaware.
To be sure, TigerBlog did a search for "LSM" and found two things - the Living Stream Ministry at lsm.org and the Life Sciences and Management School at, of all places, the University of Pennsylvania. Website: lsm@upenn.edu.
Neither or those appears to be problematic. Nor, by the way, are they what TigerBlog has come to mind when he thinks of the letters.
First, as any men's lacrosse fan knows, "LSM" stands for "longstick midfielder."
It's evolved through the years from being a team's next-best defenseman to being an indispensable part of any good team and, as much as anything, a player counted on for offense.
This past year, Princeton got two goals from longsticks - both from Sam Gravitte, the longstick midfielder.
It's not an easy position at all. You're constantly running on and off the field as possession changes, and you find yourself with a never-ending diet of covering the other teams' best offensive midfielder.
And yet, it's become as big - or bigger - for an LSM to be able to turn defense into offense. Get the ball, get it out in transition, and make things happen.
It's actually one of the most exciting parts of lacrosse, when a really good, really fast pole comes sprinting into the box. Gravitte's second goal last year, against Yale in the Ivy League tournament final, was a thing of beauty.
But hey, TigerBlog isn't here today to talk about lacrosse. As much as you might want him to.
He'll talk about lacrosse again another time. He promises.
For the rest of today, he'd rather talk about the other LSM.
The 5LSM.
And what is the 5LSM?
Well, to be honest, TigerBlog has no idea what the LSM stands for. He does know that for years, the 5LSM was a cherished commodity in Jadwin Gym that only a few select people had.
It was a key. Today, it's an irrelevant key.
Yesterday was a big day in Jadwin, as the entire building was re-keyed. Still, it also marked the end of the era of the 5LSM.
The 5LSM key was a master key for the entire building. It could open almost any door in Jadwin, including almost anyone's office. Anyone who was locked out of his or her office had to find someone with a 5LSM.
TigerBlog was one of the lucky ones who had a 5LSM. The real benefit was that you didn't need a separate key to get into the building and then into your office. The 5LSM was good for both.
It was a status thing really, to have a 5LSM.
When TB first started here, he didn't get a 5LSM. He had two keys. Actually, he had a bunch of others, some of which are still in his desk drawer. He has no idea what these keys are for or every were for, to be exact.
Now everyone in Jadwin has new keys. There is no master key anymore, or at least not one that will be widely distributed. TB isn't sure what will happen when people get locked out of their offices.
The project, which has been under the more-than-capable direction of Greg Paczkowski, kicked into high gear this week. The giveaway that something was up came when the entire building was covered in pink Post-its, which were on every door with a lock, showing what key opened that particular door.
TigerBlog now has two keys. Many people have more than that.
The 5LSM days are over.
And with it, TigerBlog supposes, ends the concern of whatever happened to the other Office of Athletic Communications 5LSM. Legend has it that Jeb Stuart, who used to volunteer in this office after he sold the weekly newspaper Town Topics, had it at some point, and nobody knew what happened to it after Jeb passed away.
Actually, the point of all this is that with the re-keying, TigerBlog thought about the 5LSM and then about his old friend Jeb, who has been gone for seven years now. It was at his funeral - in the chapel here - that one of his friends who was eulogizing him stopped and answered his cell phone and then pretended he was talking to Jeb. It was funny and touching at the same time.
Jeb was a character, that's for sure. His father was in the publishing business and was the longtime PA announcer at Palmer Stadium. His brother is a filmmaker. His mother was murdered in town in 1989 - a murder that remains unsolved.
As for Jeb, he was just a fun guy to have around. When he retired, he asked if he could volunteer here and do all the little tasks that nobody else wanted to do. For years, Jeb would clip newspapers, string credentials, all that kind of stuff.
And talk. And laugh. And make everyone here laugh. He loved Princeton Athletics and being a part of it.
And really, that's what he wanted to say today. It wasn't really about the key at all.
TigerBlog liked Jeb a lot. He misses him.
He's been gone seven years already?
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Meanwhile, In The Present
Way back when TigerBlog first started doing this in the summer, he figured he'd never be able to fill five days a week with something new when school wasn't in session and there were no events.
At one point, he thought about a "Best of TigerBlog" type series. You know, take some of the best ones and just copy and paste them.
As it's turned out, he hasn't had to do that yet. Today, though, he wants to.
Not because he can't think of anything to say. Far from it. He knows exactly what he wants to say.
It's just that he's said it before.
In fairness, if he copied and pasted the first two-thirds of the entry from Aug. 7, 2013, who would ever know? It's not like someone would remember it.
Or maybe someone would. After all, it can't be that much different than when someone is watching a movie on TV and then realizes "hey, I've already seen this one."
Nah. Nobody would ever remember that this was a two-year-old blog.
Oh well. Just read it HERE.
Finished?
Hey, those were the days. Of the more than a quarter-century that TigerBlog has been around Princeton Athletics, there haven't been too many that were more fun than the old days of Ivy League sports information meetings and football media day.
TigerBlog has said this a bunch of times, but it's a completely different world these days. It's an electronic one, and while that has so many great benefits, one of the down sides is the loss of interpersonal contact.
There are no Ivy SID meetings anymore. There is no more Ivy football media day, at least not in person.
And as a result, there is no Ivy League sports information dinner on the night between the two. And no golf after media day.
TigerBlog isn't a very good golfer, but he always played at Ivy media day, as much for the camaraderie as anything else. Most years, that was the only time he'd ever played.
Ah, but what's the point of living in the past, right? Even back to all those years when Dartmouth's legendary SID Kathy Slattery always started and ended the meetings with a reminder that no matter what was said, everyone should remember that it was all "for the good of the clan."
Fast forwarding to the present, Ivy League football media day isn't a media day at all. Instead it's a conference call, one that took place yesterday.
TigerBlog tuned in just before Princeton head coach Bob Surace was supposed to speak, but the call was running behind, so instead he heard the last minute or so of Dartmouth's Buddy Teevins. Then it was Harvard's Tim Murphy - who interestingly is not in favor of having the Ivy champ go to the FCS playoffs - and then Penn's first-year head coach Ray Priore before Surace.
Princeton was picked to finish fourth in the league this year. Princeton's last two Ivy titles came after the Tigers were picked to finish sixth and fifth, so fourth isn't too bad. On the other hand, Princeton was the preseason No. 1 last year and then finished fourth.
Harvard is this year's preseason No. 1. Consensus - in August, at least - is that it'll be between Harvard and Dartmouth, with Yale and Princeton the next two best teams. That's just fine with anyone associated with Princeton football at this point, since none of it matters once the teams start to play.
When it was his turn, Surace talked about the balance of the league and how there are no gimmies. He mentioned that graduation took some players who "rewrote the record book," particularly quarterback Quinn Epperly and co-quarterback Connor Michelsen. And Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Mike Zeuli.
Then again, Princeton does have a healthy Chad Kanoff and Kedric Bostic leading the quarterback charge this year, where there will again be many times with both - and more - quarterbacks on the field.
Who is playing quarterback, Surace was asked? Who? Or how many? That was his answer.
He also said he doesn't like having his best athletes standing next to him on the sidelines.
Beyond that, he said all the usual football coach stuff, except with one major exception, one that TigerBlog loves about Surace. He never used the actual word "football." That's makes him unique in his profession.
TigerBlog's least favorite hip colloquialism is actually from basketball, as in "score the basketball." What does that even mean?
Maybe, though, he can get Surace to bring "score the football" into the lexicon?
Anyway, TigerBlog used to think of Ivy football media day as a sign that summer was winding down, though it still had a long way to go until all of these coaches would be seeing each other again, under much more formal circumstances.
And that it wouldn't be long until TB and his Ivy SID buddies would again be seeing each other each weekend.
Yesterday's conference call was a distant cousin to those days. You know, days that are long gone and show no sign of coming back.
They were great days.
At one point, he thought about a "Best of TigerBlog" type series. You know, take some of the best ones and just copy and paste them.
As it's turned out, he hasn't had to do that yet. Today, though, he wants to.
Not because he can't think of anything to say. Far from it. He knows exactly what he wants to say.
It's just that he's said it before.
In fairness, if he copied and pasted the first two-thirds of the entry from Aug. 7, 2013, who would ever know? It's not like someone would remember it.
Or maybe someone would. After all, it can't be that much different than when someone is watching a movie on TV and then realizes "hey, I've already seen this one."
Nah. Nobody would ever remember that this was a two-year-old blog.
Oh well. Just read it HERE.
Finished?
Hey, those were the days. Of the more than a quarter-century that TigerBlog has been around Princeton Athletics, there haven't been too many that were more fun than the old days of Ivy League sports information meetings and football media day.
TigerBlog has said this a bunch of times, but it's a completely different world these days. It's an electronic one, and while that has so many great benefits, one of the down sides is the loss of interpersonal contact.
There are no Ivy SID meetings anymore. There is no more Ivy football media day, at least not in person.
And as a result, there is no Ivy League sports information dinner on the night between the two. And no golf after media day.
TigerBlog isn't a very good golfer, but he always played at Ivy media day, as much for the camaraderie as anything else. Most years, that was the only time he'd ever played.
Ah, but what's the point of living in the past, right? Even back to all those years when Dartmouth's legendary SID Kathy Slattery always started and ended the meetings with a reminder that no matter what was said, everyone should remember that it was all "for the good of the clan."
Fast forwarding to the present, Ivy League football media day isn't a media day at all. Instead it's a conference call, one that took place yesterday.
TigerBlog tuned in just before Princeton head coach Bob Surace was supposed to speak, but the call was running behind, so instead he heard the last minute or so of Dartmouth's Buddy Teevins. Then it was Harvard's Tim Murphy - who interestingly is not in favor of having the Ivy champ go to the FCS playoffs - and then Penn's first-year head coach Ray Priore before Surace.
Princeton was picked to finish fourth in the league this year. Princeton's last two Ivy titles came after the Tigers were picked to finish sixth and fifth, so fourth isn't too bad. On the other hand, Princeton was the preseason No. 1 last year and then finished fourth.
Harvard is this year's preseason No. 1. Consensus - in August, at least - is that it'll be between Harvard and Dartmouth, with Yale and Princeton the next two best teams. That's just fine with anyone associated with Princeton football at this point, since none of it matters once the teams start to play.
When it was his turn, Surace talked about the balance of the league and how there are no gimmies. He mentioned that graduation took some players who "rewrote the record book," particularly quarterback Quinn Epperly and co-quarterback Connor Michelsen. And Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Mike Zeuli.
Then again, Princeton does have a healthy Chad Kanoff and Kedric Bostic leading the quarterback charge this year, where there will again be many times with both - and more - quarterbacks on the field.
Who is playing quarterback, Surace was asked? Who? Or how many? That was his answer.
He also said he doesn't like having his best athletes standing next to him on the sidelines.
Beyond that, he said all the usual football coach stuff, except with one major exception, one that TigerBlog loves about Surace. He never used the actual word "football." That's makes him unique in his profession.
TigerBlog's least favorite hip colloquialism is actually from basketball, as in "score the basketball." What does that even mean?
Maybe, though, he can get Surace to bring "score the football" into the lexicon?
Anyway, TigerBlog used to think of Ivy football media day as a sign that summer was winding down, though it still had a long way to go until all of these coaches would be seeing each other again, under much more formal circumstances.
And that it wouldn't be long until TB and his Ivy SID buddies would again be seeing each other each weekend.
Yesterday's conference call was a distant cousin to those days. You know, days that are long gone and show no sign of coming back.
They were great days.
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Just Kidding
Just kidding. Or, just joking.
When applied correctly, those two little phrases can be sort of the "apple-Z" of real life. You know, like when you say something over-the-top, you can follow it with a chuckle and a "just kidding," and it can be like it never happened.
It has to be in the right setting. Like in a very small group, for starters.
And what's "apple-Z?" On a Mac, it's the command that undoes whatever the most recent entry on the computer, whatever it was. Again, like it never happened.
You want to know when "just kidding" or "just joking" won't work? On social media.
Once it's out there, it's out there for good. Even if you delete it, somebody probably already took a screen shot of it.
TigerBlog likes to stumble on stories on Twitter that have a practical application in his world, and he did so yesterday, when he read about the Twitter feud between two Major League Soccer teams, the Portland Timbers and the Seattle Sounders.
The crux of the story is that one team made a joke about the other and the other responded. It's about a joke. About, well, poop.
Read it for yourself.
Seattle backed down, deleting its tweet. Portland did not.
The story also refers to a story from the NBA playoffs, when the Houston Rockets tweeted emojis of a gun pointed at a horse in the closing minutes as the Rockets were about to eliminate the Dallas Mavericks. Included was this text: "Shhhh. Just close your eyes. It will all be over soon."
The tweet got the team's social media director fired, even though the story says that 1) he was told to be edgy when he was hired and that 2) the team won an award a year ago for having the best Twitter feed.
So what does all this mean for Princeton?
Well, first, maybe a nice Twitter feud with Harvard or Yale or someone else would be fun. As far as TigerBlog knows or can remember, there hasn't been one yet in the Ivy League.
Is that because the league's coaches and athletic communications types are too in tune with the possible downfall to go down that path? TB can't imagine anyone in the league who would get into something like that, for about a hundred reasons.
But hey, it might be fun - at least until everyone got fired, like in the Rockets' example.
It didn't matter that his marching orders were to be edgy. And it didn't matter that he won that award. He was gone.
No offense to the San Francisco startup company for whom he is now marketing director, but he'd probably still rather be working in the NBA. And as he says in the story, he's not even sure what was considered the most offensive part, the unforgivable part. That it was about an animal? That it was mocking a rival?
To date at Princeton, nobody has been fired for something tweeted. No athlete has lost eligibility for the same reason.
Fortunately, around here, most of the tweets will always by nature be about Princeton athletes and their on- and off-field accomplishments, almost all of which are off-the-charts positive.
Like the last few days.
There was a tweet about how Austin Sims of the men's lacrosse team is now one of 30 players remaining - from an original field of almost 500 applicants and 108 who were chosen to tryout - for the United States U-19 team for next summer's World Championships. Hard to go wrong with that one.
And there was one about Ashleigh Johnson's latest victory, this time at the FINA World Championships of water polo in Russia, where she helped the U.S. team to the gold medal.
Johnson's had quite a summer, with gold medals in the Pan Am Games in Toronto and now in Russia, where she was named the MVP. And why not? She made 12 saves, including a stop on a penalty shot in the fourth quarter, as the Americans defeated the Netherlands 5-4 in the championship match.
And about the perfor
So those are the kinds of tweets that are usually sent out around here. They're the kind you want to be sending.
On the other hand, TB cringes at the thought of what could happen. All it takes is hitting the "tweet" button, and it could all be gone for someone. Even for TigerBlog.
He knows that if he tweets the wrong thing, more than a quarter-century of goodwill would be gone in a flash. Without any chance to hit the "just kidding" button.
When applied correctly, those two little phrases can be sort of the "apple-Z" of real life. You know, like when you say something over-the-top, you can follow it with a chuckle and a "just kidding," and it can be like it never happened.
It has to be in the right setting. Like in a very small group, for starters.
And what's "apple-Z?" On a Mac, it's the command that undoes whatever the most recent entry on the computer, whatever it was. Again, like it never happened.
You want to know when "just kidding" or "just joking" won't work? On social media.
Once it's out there, it's out there for good. Even if you delete it, somebody probably already took a screen shot of it.
TigerBlog likes to stumble on stories on Twitter that have a practical application in his world, and he did so yesterday, when he read about the Twitter feud between two Major League Soccer teams, the Portland Timbers and the Seattle Sounders.
The crux of the story is that one team made a joke about the other and the other responded. It's about a joke. About, well, poop.
Read it for yourself.
Seattle backed down, deleting its tweet. Portland did not.
The story also refers to a story from the NBA playoffs, when the Houston Rockets tweeted emojis of a gun pointed at a horse in the closing minutes as the Rockets were about to eliminate the Dallas Mavericks. Included was this text: "Shhhh. Just close your eyes. It will all be over soon."
The tweet got the team's social media director fired, even though the story says that 1) he was told to be edgy when he was hired and that 2) the team won an award a year ago for having the best Twitter feed.
So what does all this mean for Princeton?
Well, first, maybe a nice Twitter feud with Harvard or Yale or someone else would be fun. As far as TigerBlog knows or can remember, there hasn't been one yet in the Ivy League.
Is that because the league's coaches and athletic communications types are too in tune with the possible downfall to go down that path? TB can't imagine anyone in the league who would get into something like that, for about a hundred reasons.
But hey, it might be fun - at least until everyone got fired, like in the Rockets' example.
It didn't matter that his marching orders were to be edgy. And it didn't matter that he won that award. He was gone.
No offense to the San Francisco startup company for whom he is now marketing director, but he'd probably still rather be working in the NBA. And as he says in the story, he's not even sure what was considered the most offensive part, the unforgivable part. That it was about an animal? That it was mocking a rival?
To date at Princeton, nobody has been fired for something tweeted. No athlete has lost eligibility for the same reason.
Fortunately, around here, most of the tweets will always by nature be about Princeton athletes and their on- and off-field accomplishments, almost all of which are off-the-charts positive.
Like the last few days.
There was a tweet about how Austin Sims of the men's lacrosse team is now one of 30 players remaining - from an original field of almost 500 applicants and 108 who were chosen to tryout - for the United States U-19 team for next summer's World Championships. Hard to go wrong with that one.
And there was one about Ashleigh Johnson's latest victory, this time at the FINA World Championships of water polo in Russia, where she helped the U.S. team to the gold medal.
Johnson's had quite a summer, with gold medals in the Pan Am Games in Toronto and now in Russia, where she was named the MVP. And why not? She made 12 saves, including a stop on a penalty shot in the fourth quarter, as the Americans defeated the Netherlands 5-4 in the championship match.
And about the perfor
So those are the kinds of tweets that are usually sent out around here. They're the kind you want to be sending.
On the other hand, TB cringes at the thought of what could happen. All it takes is hitting the "tweet" button, and it could all be gone for someone. Even for TigerBlog.
He knows that if he tweets the wrong thing, more than a quarter-century of goodwill would be gone in a flash. Without any chance to hit the "just kidding" button.
Monday, August 10, 2015
Summer Lax
As father-son moments go, there's really not much that can beat sitting together in front of the television to watch a major sporting event.
And so that's what TigerBlog and TigerBlog Jr. did with their Saturday night. TB speaks of course of the Major League Lacrosse championship game, which was on this weekend.
The two teams that TigerBlog was rooting for lost in the semifinals, which left the championship game of less interest to TB, or, in other words, without a Princeton alum in the game. Instead, it was the New York Lizards who came from behind and then pulled away in the fourth quarter to defeat the Rochester Rattlers 15-12.
The two teams who lost in the semifinals each had a Princeton alum, Chad Wiedmaier on the Boston Cannons and Tom Schreiber on the Ohio Machine.
Okay, TigerBlog is going out on a wild limb and saying that you're probably not as into Major League Lacrosse as he is, and he knows he's not nearly as into MLL as TBJ is. And so, it's likely that you didn't see how the semifinal game between the Lizards and Cannons ended.
Boston trailed by four late in the game but rallied to tie it with 36 seconds left to force overtime. Then, in the OT, Boston goalie Adam Ghitelman found himself across midfield, inside the two-point arc and then with the ball. He dodged once and ripped what would have been the game-winner - except Lizards' goalie Drew Adams made a great save.
Adams then started a fast break the other way, one that became infinitely easier with Ghitelman 70 yards or so out of the play. Yale grad Matt Gibson was the beneficiary, scoring into the goalie-less goal for the win.
In truth, Ghitelman made a great play and took a great shot. It took a great save from Adams to keep the game going. You can see for yourself HERE.
Adams was the MLL Goalie of the Year, an award that was close between him and Chesapeake's Tyler Fiorito. Perhaps you remember Fiorito as Princeton's goalie and the 2012 Ivy League Player of the Year.
Fiorito led MLL in saves (255) and save percentage (.606). In fact, his save total was the third-best in MLL history, and he became the first goalie since 2011 to have at least a .600 save percentage for the summer.
Tom Schreiber finished his second season in Major League Lacrosse with 60 points.
Sort of.
It depends if you count his three points in the playoffs, when his Machine lost to Rochester. And it depends if you want to count two-point goals as two points or as one goal.
Schreiber finished the regular season with 29 goals and 30 assists. His assist total tied him for the league lead, and he was named first-team All-MLL. In fact, Schreiber was the highest vote-getter among MLL middies for the all-league team.
Schreiber had a goal and an assist in the playoff loss, and his goal was a two-pointer. He also had one two-pointer during the regular season, so, adding the playoff game and regular season he actually scored a goal 29 times and had 31 assists, which would be 60 points going by the way stats are done in college.
The only two Princeton players who have ever had a season with at least 30 goals and 30 assists are David Tickner (34G, 32A in 1976) and Mike MacDonald (48G, 30A this past season). Schreiber came excruciatingly close twice, with one season of 28 goals and 32 assists and another with 32 goals and 28 assists.
And this year, his MLL totals were 29 goals and 31 assists. Sort of. If you count the two-pointers as two, then it was 31 and 31.
Either way, Schreiber, two years out of Princeton, has established himself as one of the best midfielders in the game, anywhere. And when it comes to passing from the midfield spot, nobody currently does it better.
As for TigerBlog and TBJ and watching the game Saturday night, yeah, there was nobody from Princeton to root for, and so it wasn't as good as it could have been.
And yes, it wasn't the World Series or the Super Bowl, or more traditional father/son viewing through the years.
But for TB and TBJ, this was better. TigerBlog took his son to the 2003 MLL championship game at Villanova Stadium, where Prineton's Kevin Lowe scored the game-winner in OT for, of all teams, the Lizards. Lowe, by the way, remains the only player ever to score an overtime goal in an NCAA championship game and MLL championship game.
And TB and TBJ have watched basically every MLL final together on TV.
TBJ's first college class is three weeks from today, a fact that has made TigerBlog fairly nostalgic these days.
So forgive him, but Major League Lacrosse championship games are part of that nostalgia.
And so that's what TigerBlog and TigerBlog Jr. did with their Saturday night. TB speaks of course of the Major League Lacrosse championship game, which was on this weekend.
The two teams that TigerBlog was rooting for lost in the semifinals, which left the championship game of less interest to TB, or, in other words, without a Princeton alum in the game. Instead, it was the New York Lizards who came from behind and then pulled away in the fourth quarter to defeat the Rochester Rattlers 15-12.
The two teams who lost in the semifinals each had a Princeton alum, Chad Wiedmaier on the Boston Cannons and Tom Schreiber on the Ohio Machine.
Okay, TigerBlog is going out on a wild limb and saying that you're probably not as into Major League Lacrosse as he is, and he knows he's not nearly as into MLL as TBJ is. And so, it's likely that you didn't see how the semifinal game between the Lizards and Cannons ended.
Boston trailed by four late in the game but rallied to tie it with 36 seconds left to force overtime. Then, in the OT, Boston goalie Adam Ghitelman found himself across midfield, inside the two-point arc and then with the ball. He dodged once and ripped what would have been the game-winner - except Lizards' goalie Drew Adams made a great save.
Adams then started a fast break the other way, one that became infinitely easier with Ghitelman 70 yards or so out of the play. Yale grad Matt Gibson was the beneficiary, scoring into the goalie-less goal for the win.
In truth, Ghitelman made a great play and took a great shot. It took a great save from Adams to keep the game going. You can see for yourself HERE.
Adams was the MLL Goalie of the Year, an award that was close between him and Chesapeake's Tyler Fiorito. Perhaps you remember Fiorito as Princeton's goalie and the 2012 Ivy League Player of the Year.
Fiorito led MLL in saves (255) and save percentage (.606). In fact, his save total was the third-best in MLL history, and he became the first goalie since 2011 to have at least a .600 save percentage for the summer.
Tom Schreiber finished his second season in Major League Lacrosse with 60 points.
Sort of.
It depends if you count his three points in the playoffs, when his Machine lost to Rochester. And it depends if you want to count two-point goals as two points or as one goal.
Schreiber finished the regular season with 29 goals and 30 assists. His assist total tied him for the league lead, and he was named first-team All-MLL. In fact, Schreiber was the highest vote-getter among MLL middies for the all-league team.
Schreiber had a goal and an assist in the playoff loss, and his goal was a two-pointer. He also had one two-pointer during the regular season, so, adding the playoff game and regular season he actually scored a goal 29 times and had 31 assists, which would be 60 points going by the way stats are done in college.
The only two Princeton players who have ever had a season with at least 30 goals and 30 assists are David Tickner (34G, 32A in 1976) and Mike MacDonald (48G, 30A this past season). Schreiber came excruciatingly close twice, with one season of 28 goals and 32 assists and another with 32 goals and 28 assists.
And this year, his MLL totals were 29 goals and 31 assists. Sort of. If you count the two-pointers as two, then it was 31 and 31.
Either way, Schreiber, two years out of Princeton, has established himself as one of the best midfielders in the game, anywhere. And when it comes to passing from the midfield spot, nobody currently does it better.
As for TigerBlog and TBJ and watching the game Saturday night, yeah, there was nobody from Princeton to root for, and so it wasn't as good as it could have been.
And yes, it wasn't the World Series or the Super Bowl, or more traditional father/son viewing through the years.
But for TB and TBJ, this was better. TigerBlog took his son to the 2003 MLL championship game at Villanova Stadium, where Prineton's Kevin Lowe scored the game-winner in OT for, of all teams, the Lizards. Lowe, by the way, remains the only player ever to score an overtime goal in an NCAA championship game and MLL championship game.
And TB and TBJ have watched basically every MLL final together on TV.
TBJ's first college class is three weeks from today, a fact that has made TigerBlog fairly nostalgic these days.
So forgive him, but Major League Lacrosse championship games are part of that nostalgia.
Friday, August 7, 2015
370-249-12
TigerBlog read a story the other day about how the Chicago Bears are trying to limit what the media is able to say about the team during preseason.
Is there nobody there who can tell the people in charge what a mistake they're making? Is nobody on the Bears' payroll able to say "hey, we might as well make the policy be 'let's have all of our media hate us and rip us every chance they get?' "
You can read about it HERE.
TigerBlog's favorite part is the no tweeting of basically anything.
For one thing, TigerBlog finds tweet-by-tweet updates of what happens at a football training camp to be only somewhat more interesting than tweet-by-tweet updates of how high lengths of the blades of grass they're practicing on would be. So it's no big loss to TB.
On the other hand, a lot of people love that stuff. And anyone sitting in the stands watching practice can tweet whatever comes to mind.
The whole purpose, of course, is for the Bears' opponents to have no idea at all what the team is working on during training camp. Football is by far the most paranoid sport out there, and it's .
That's one of the reasons why TigerBlog likes Princeton head football coach Bob Surace so much. He's not nuts about stuff like that.
He also doesn't have to use the word "football" in every sentence, like most football coaches do. You've heard it. We have to run the football, stop them from running the football, on and on.
TigerBlog was working out yesterday morning in the Princeton Varsity Club weight room. At this time of year and at the time that TB works out (morning), there is usually nobody there, so TigerBlog can listen to his music. When it's during the school year, he's stuck with whatever music the athletes like, which rarely overlaps with TB's tastes.
Yesterday morning, he heard noise from the weight room as he walked down the hall, but it wasn't music. It was ESPN radio's "Mike and Mike" show, which new men's assistant basketball coach Donovan Williams was listening to while he worked out.
Jon Gruden was on. Chris Carter was a guest host. Anytime they talked about any coach or any player, they followed it by saying "in the National Football League." Never just the NFL. Never just "he's one of the top young quarterbacks." Always "in the National Football League."
Everyone gets it. Football. Yes.
The first preseason game "in the National Football League" is two days away, when the Steelers and Vikings play Sunday night. Next weekend everyone will be playing.
Princeton is still a few weeks away from starting practice in football, and no Princeton team has yet to start for that matter. It's just a matter of days though. In fact, Princeton's first athletic event is three weeks from today, when the women's soccer team hosts Howard.
TigerBlog usually gets to this long before August starts to reach its midpoint, though this year he has been a tad delinquent.
And what is this particular "this?"
Princeton's overall record from last academic year.
Princeton teams combined to play 631 games in 2014-15. This doesn't count things like cross country invitationals, track meets, large swim meets and such. Just an event where there were two teams, one of whom won and one of whom lost. Or, in the case of 12 games, there was a tie.
Princeton's record for those 631 games was 370-249-12. That's basically a .600 winning percentage. That's not too bad, right?
The men were 166-151-6. The women were 204-98-6.
In Ivy League-only games, Princeton was 144-83-6. That's a .631 percentage in Ivy-only games.
So now that TigerBlog has that out of the way, it's time to get ready for 2015-16. But not exactly time. There's still a few weeks of summer left.
So enjoy the day. And the weekend.
Three weeks til the first Princeton game.
And you can watch a game this weekend, even if it's a preseason game.
You know, "in the National Football League."
Is there nobody there who can tell the people in charge what a mistake they're making? Is nobody on the Bears' payroll able to say "hey, we might as well make the policy be 'let's have all of our media hate us and rip us every chance they get?' "
You can read about it HERE.
TigerBlog's favorite part is the no tweeting of basically anything.
For one thing, TigerBlog finds tweet-by-tweet updates of what happens at a football training camp to be only somewhat more interesting than tweet-by-tweet updates of how high lengths of the blades of grass they're practicing on would be. So it's no big loss to TB.
On the other hand, a lot of people love that stuff. And anyone sitting in the stands watching practice can tweet whatever comes to mind.
The whole purpose, of course, is for the Bears' opponents to have no idea at all what the team is working on during training camp. Football is by far the most paranoid sport out there, and it's .
That's one of the reasons why TigerBlog likes Princeton head football coach Bob Surace so much. He's not nuts about stuff like that.
He also doesn't have to use the word "football" in every sentence, like most football coaches do. You've heard it. We have to run the football, stop them from running the football, on and on.
TigerBlog was working out yesterday morning in the Princeton Varsity Club weight room. At this time of year and at the time that TB works out (morning), there is usually nobody there, so TigerBlog can listen to his music. When it's during the school year, he's stuck with whatever music the athletes like, which rarely overlaps with TB's tastes.
Yesterday morning, he heard noise from the weight room as he walked down the hall, but it wasn't music. It was ESPN radio's "Mike and Mike" show, which new men's assistant basketball coach Donovan Williams was listening to while he worked out.
Jon Gruden was on. Chris Carter was a guest host. Anytime they talked about any coach or any player, they followed it by saying "in the National Football League." Never just the NFL. Never just "he's one of the top young quarterbacks." Always "in the National Football League."
Everyone gets it. Football. Yes.
The first preseason game "in the National Football League" is two days away, when the Steelers and Vikings play Sunday night. Next weekend everyone will be playing.
Princeton is still a few weeks away from starting practice in football, and no Princeton team has yet to start for that matter. It's just a matter of days though. In fact, Princeton's first athletic event is three weeks from today, when the women's soccer team hosts Howard.
TigerBlog usually gets to this long before August starts to reach its midpoint, though this year he has been a tad delinquent.
And what is this particular "this?"
Princeton's overall record from last academic year.
Princeton teams combined to play 631 games in 2014-15. This doesn't count things like cross country invitationals, track meets, large swim meets and such. Just an event where there were two teams, one of whom won and one of whom lost. Or, in the case of 12 games, there was a tie.
Princeton's record for those 631 games was 370-249-12. That's basically a .600 winning percentage. That's not too bad, right?
The men were 166-151-6. The women were 204-98-6.
In Ivy League-only games, Princeton was 144-83-6. That's a .631 percentage in Ivy-only games.
So now that TigerBlog has that out of the way, it's time to get ready for 2015-16. But not exactly time. There's still a few weeks of summer left.
So enjoy the day. And the weekend.
Three weeks til the first Princeton game.
And you can watch a game this weekend, even if it's a preseason game.
You know, "in the National Football League."
Thursday, August 6, 2015
The Top 29?
The high temperature yesterday in Princeton was 88 degrees.
At least according to TigerBlog's iPhone anyway. The day topped out two degrees short of 90, ending a streak of nine consecutive days of temps in the 90s here in the tropics.
It didn't seem like it was anywhere near 90 yesterday, perhaps because of the lower humidity. In fact, this week hasn't seemed nearly as oppressive as last week.
And what did the end of the 90 degree streak call to TigerBlog's mind? Of course, it was the second game of the 2015 men's lacrosse season, the one where Princeton and Hofstra played in a driving snowstorm that left the field covered in several inches of snow by game's end.
Hey, it's been almost six months now since that game.
Actually, when TigerBlog released the Princeton Class of 2019 for men's lacrosse the other day, he used a picture of the No. 20 Princeton jersey (belonging to Braedon Gait) and the No. 19 Princeton jersey (belonging to Bobby Weaver). Pretty clever, no?
When TB went through the pictures of the Manhattan game, one week earlier than the Hofstra game, he remembered that it had snowed on that day as well. At least in the second half, which is when the picture of Gait was taken.
The snow that day, though, was nothing like it was for the Hofstra game. In fact, TB has never seen lacrosse played in weather like that before.
Mike MacDonald and Zach Currier, both from Canada, had huge days. TigerBlog went back and reread his story about the game, which started with this rather flowery sentence: The only thing more beautiful than the peacefully falling snow on Sherrerd Field Saturday afternoon was the way the Princeton men's lacrosse team clicked on offense in the third quarter.
Not bad, right? TB did mention that MacDonald and Currier were big in the game and that they were from Canada, with the implication that because they were Canadian that they wouldn't mind the snow. TB never actually asked either. Maybe they hate the snow.
It reminds him of an old joke - two camels were walking in the desert when one said to the other "I don't care what anybody says. I'm thirsty."
Anyway, TigerBlog tweeted a picture from that Hofstra game yesterday, just for fun. This picture, to be exact:
TigerBlog saw that the picture had been retweeted by Austin Sims, a rising sophomore on the team. He also saw that Sims had tweeted a link to a story in Business Insider, entitled "The 29 Most Successful Princeton Alumni of All-Time."
The world of online media is built around things like this. Lists of this. Lists of that. You read one story, and all along the side you can click on one list or another, like the most horribly scary pictures ever or the best looking athletes ever or pictures of celebrities at their proms or something.
It's all designed to get as many clicks as possible, which in turn can translate into ad revenue. It's the 2015 version of circulation.
The list of Princeton alums wasn't designed to turn one story into 29 clicks. TigerBlog was able to read the entire list as one story, which is a rarity these days.
Anyway, as far as this list goes, TB couldn't help but notice one thing right away. And it was sort of shocking.
Of the nine current Supreme Court Justices, three of them are Princeton alums - Samuel Alito, Elene Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. There have been other Surpreme Court Justices through the years. None made the list.
But David Duchovny did? And Ellie Kemper, who went from the field hockey team to a reasonably successful acting career. And they got picked over the three Justices?
So did Brooke Shields and Dean Cain. Perhaps you remember Cain as a record-setting defensive back, who set Division I-AA records for interceptions in a season and career, both of which have since been broken. Of course, his little write-up says he played on the basketball team, as opposed to football and volleyball, which he also played.
Speaking of basketball, Bill Bradley made it of course.
So did Michelle Obama, the current First Lady of the United States. Woodrow Wilson and James Madison, the two Princeton alums who became Presidents of the United States. Ted Cruz, who wants to be the next one, is also there. Cruz graduated in 1992.
Donald Rumsfeld, who served as Secretary of Defense for two different Presidents, was honored. He also wrestled and played lightweight football at Princeton.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was there. So were a bunch of others. You can see for yourself. And why 29? That's a weird number. What about, as former Princeton broadcaster John Nolan said, America's obsession with round numbers?
Princeton has had so many successful alums through the years that it's hard to pick just 29. TigerBlog's list would have been wildly different.
So other than the Supreme Court Justices, who else should have been there?
John McPhee, obviously.
At least according to TigerBlog's iPhone anyway. The day topped out two degrees short of 90, ending a streak of nine consecutive days of temps in the 90s here in the tropics.
It didn't seem like it was anywhere near 90 yesterday, perhaps because of the lower humidity. In fact, this week hasn't seemed nearly as oppressive as last week.
And what did the end of the 90 degree streak call to TigerBlog's mind? Of course, it was the second game of the 2015 men's lacrosse season, the one where Princeton and Hofstra played in a driving snowstorm that left the field covered in several inches of snow by game's end.
Hey, it's been almost six months now since that game.
Actually, when TigerBlog released the Princeton Class of 2019 for men's lacrosse the other day, he used a picture of the No. 20 Princeton jersey (belonging to Braedon Gait) and the No. 19 Princeton jersey (belonging to Bobby Weaver). Pretty clever, no?
When TB went through the pictures of the Manhattan game, one week earlier than the Hofstra game, he remembered that it had snowed on that day as well. At least in the second half, which is when the picture of Gait was taken.
The snow that day, though, was nothing like it was for the Hofstra game. In fact, TB has never seen lacrosse played in weather like that before.
Mike MacDonald and Zach Currier, both from Canada, had huge days. TigerBlog went back and reread his story about the game, which started with this rather flowery sentence: The only thing more beautiful than the peacefully falling snow on Sherrerd Field Saturday afternoon was the way the Princeton men's lacrosse team clicked on offense in the third quarter.
Not bad, right? TB did mention that MacDonald and Currier were big in the game and that they were from Canada, with the implication that because they were Canadian that they wouldn't mind the snow. TB never actually asked either. Maybe they hate the snow.
It reminds him of an old joke - two camels were walking in the desert when one said to the other "I don't care what anybody says. I'm thirsty."
Anyway, TigerBlog tweeted a picture from that Hofstra game yesterday, just for fun. This picture, to be exact:
TigerBlog saw that the picture had been retweeted by Austin Sims, a rising sophomore on the team. He also saw that Sims had tweeted a link to a story in Business Insider, entitled "The 29 Most Successful Princeton Alumni of All-Time."
The world of online media is built around things like this. Lists of this. Lists of that. You read one story, and all along the side you can click on one list or another, like the most horribly scary pictures ever or the best looking athletes ever or pictures of celebrities at their proms or something.
It's all designed to get as many clicks as possible, which in turn can translate into ad revenue. It's the 2015 version of circulation.
The list of Princeton alums wasn't designed to turn one story into 29 clicks. TigerBlog was able to read the entire list as one story, which is a rarity these days.
Anyway, as far as this list goes, TB couldn't help but notice one thing right away. And it was sort of shocking.
Of the nine current Supreme Court Justices, three of them are Princeton alums - Samuel Alito, Elene Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. There have been other Surpreme Court Justices through the years. None made the list.
But David Duchovny did? And Ellie Kemper, who went from the field hockey team to a reasonably successful acting career. And they got picked over the three Justices?
So did Brooke Shields and Dean Cain. Perhaps you remember Cain as a record-setting defensive back, who set Division I-AA records for interceptions in a season and career, both of which have since been broken. Of course, his little write-up says he played on the basketball team, as opposed to football and volleyball, which he also played.
Speaking of basketball, Bill Bradley made it of course.
So did Michelle Obama, the current First Lady of the United States. Woodrow Wilson and James Madison, the two Princeton alums who became Presidents of the United States. Ted Cruz, who wants to be the next one, is also there. Cruz graduated in 1992.
Donald Rumsfeld, who served as Secretary of Defense for two different Presidents, was honored. He also wrestled and played lightweight football at Princeton.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was there. So were a bunch of others. You can see for yourself. And why 29? That's a weird number. What about, as former Princeton broadcaster John Nolan said, America's obsession with round numbers?
Princeton has had so many successful alums through the years that it's hard to pick just 29. TigerBlog's list would have been wildly different.
So other than the Supreme Court Justices, who else should have been there?
John McPhee, obviously.
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Running Into Mark
TigerBlog ran into Mark Eckel last night.
If you don't know who Mark Eckel is, then you're probably a relatively recent Princeton fan, or one who never read the Trenton Times. You know, back when the Trenton Times was in its glory years.
There aren't too many sportswriters who have covered more Princeton sports than Mark Eckel has. Or, at least, have covered more Princeton men's basketball. And men's lacrosse.
Mark was there during some of the most glorious days the Tigers have known, writing about them for the local paper. He was at Lehigh the night Princeton beat Penn in OT in the 1996 Ivy League playoff - and was there five days later in Indianapolis when the Tigers beat UCLA.
That playoff game was the night when Pete Carril announced he was retiring as head coach of the Tigers. He did this by writing it on the blackboard in the locker room, when he and TigerBlog were the only two people in the room, while everyone else with the program celebrated on the court.
As each player came into the room, TigerBlog saw the responses when they saw the words on the board. And he knew what was coming when Carril came into the postgame press conference.
In fact, TigerBlog was staring at Mark when Carril began to speak, because TB knew that whatever Mark was going to write was now going out the window, because of Carril's bombshell.
Oh, and seven years earlier, when Princeton lost in Providence to No. 1 Georgetown 50-49 in the most famous first-round NCAA game ever? Mark covered that game.
Why? Because Harvey Yavener was in Ohio that night, covering Trenton State College (now the College of New Jersey) in the Division III Final Four.
Mark also covered the game where Carril earned his 500th win, which TB thinks was at home against Brown. Carril was asked about his biggest wins, and he started out by saying "well, you have to start with the Georgetown game." Mark, standing next to Carril, immediately said "hey, Coach, you lost that one."
Mark also asked Carril once "What's bones?" A little context? Carril said that he was going to have to shuffle things around after a player had left the team and said he might use different guys in different spots, saying "I might even use Bones." That's what led to Mark's question.
"Bones" wasn't a "what," though. It was a "who," as in Sean Gregory, a player on the team then who earned that nickname because he was "Skin and Bones." Today? He's a great writer, for Time magazine.
When TigerBlog first started working in the newspaper business, Mark and Harvey Yavener were already veterans at the paper. They were there for TB's first day, back in 1983, when TB first covered a high school football game, Pennington at Academy of the New Church.
They were both there 11 years later, when TB left to come to Princeton. Yav wrote even more about Princeton than Mark, or, TigerBlog would guess, anyone else who has ever covered the Tigers for a newspaper.
Actually, the more TB thinks about it, the more he's willing to say that is fact. Yav did it for so many years, so many decades, covering so many different sports. And Yav was a pioneer, one of the first male sportswriters to give serious coverage to women's sports.
Anyway, where was TB? Oh yeah. Pennington at Academy of the New Church.
Wow. That first game was 32 years ago. TigerBlog can't help but shake his head at that.
TB told Mark of that first story that he wrote, how he sat around while another veteran, copy editor Harry Chaykun, read the story. When he was done, TB asked him what he thought.
Harry's response? "I'm still awake."
Mark and TB talked about how great it was to work in the newspaper business back then. There are a million stories, and they're all still funny.
Mark actually reminded TB of one of his favorite Carril stories, one he could have used at the "Night With Coaches" event a few weeks ago.
Princeton was playing in one of those in-season tournaments that it always used to, but this was after the tournament, in the bar in the hotel. Pete and his assistant coaches were reflecting on the tournament, when TigerBlog came by and mentioned that one of the Princeton players had made the all-tournament team.
Was Carril impressed? You can judge for yourself, since his response was "the guy he was guarding was the MVP."
TB and Mark go way back. In fact, Mark is TigerBlog Jr.'s godfather. Mark was with his daughter Erica, who is leaving today for her junior year at James Madison.
These days, Mark is still writing, now for nj.com, where he mostly covers the Philadelphia Eagles. It's a different world now. It's about clicks and page views, about lists like "Five Reasons Why The Eagles Offensive Line Will Be Better This Year" rather than building a newspaper.
He's doing well in the new world of sportswriting.
It's just that it's not the same as it once was, back when the home base was on Perry Street in Trenton, back when the paper came out every day and there was far more laughter than anything else while putting it together.
If you don't know who Mark Eckel is, then you're probably a relatively recent Princeton fan, or one who never read the Trenton Times. You know, back when the Trenton Times was in its glory years.
There aren't too many sportswriters who have covered more Princeton sports than Mark Eckel has. Or, at least, have covered more Princeton men's basketball. And men's lacrosse.
Mark was there during some of the most glorious days the Tigers have known, writing about them for the local paper. He was at Lehigh the night Princeton beat Penn in OT in the 1996 Ivy League playoff - and was there five days later in Indianapolis when the Tigers beat UCLA.
That playoff game was the night when Pete Carril announced he was retiring as head coach of the Tigers. He did this by writing it on the blackboard in the locker room, when he and TigerBlog were the only two people in the room, while everyone else with the program celebrated on the court.
As each player came into the room, TigerBlog saw the responses when they saw the words on the board. And he knew what was coming when Carril came into the postgame press conference.
In fact, TigerBlog was staring at Mark when Carril began to speak, because TB knew that whatever Mark was going to write was now going out the window, because of Carril's bombshell.
Oh, and seven years earlier, when Princeton lost in Providence to No. 1 Georgetown 50-49 in the most famous first-round NCAA game ever? Mark covered that game.
Why? Because Harvey Yavener was in Ohio that night, covering Trenton State College (now the College of New Jersey) in the Division III Final Four.
Mark also covered the game where Carril earned his 500th win, which TB thinks was at home against Brown. Carril was asked about his biggest wins, and he started out by saying "well, you have to start with the Georgetown game." Mark, standing next to Carril, immediately said "hey, Coach, you lost that one."
Mark also asked Carril once "What's bones?" A little context? Carril said that he was going to have to shuffle things around after a player had left the team and said he might use different guys in different spots, saying "I might even use Bones." That's what led to Mark's question.
"Bones" wasn't a "what," though. It was a "who," as in Sean Gregory, a player on the team then who earned that nickname because he was "Skin and Bones." Today? He's a great writer, for Time magazine.
When TigerBlog first started working in the newspaper business, Mark and Harvey Yavener were already veterans at the paper. They were there for TB's first day, back in 1983, when TB first covered a high school football game, Pennington at Academy of the New Church.
They were both there 11 years later, when TB left to come to Princeton. Yav wrote even more about Princeton than Mark, or, TigerBlog would guess, anyone else who has ever covered the Tigers for a newspaper.
Actually, the more TB thinks about it, the more he's willing to say that is fact. Yav did it for so many years, so many decades, covering so many different sports. And Yav was a pioneer, one of the first male sportswriters to give serious coverage to women's sports.
Anyway, where was TB? Oh yeah. Pennington at Academy of the New Church.
Wow. That first game was 32 years ago. TigerBlog can't help but shake his head at that.
TB told Mark of that first story that he wrote, how he sat around while another veteran, copy editor Harry Chaykun, read the story. When he was done, TB asked him what he thought.
Harry's response? "I'm still awake."
Mark and TB talked about how great it was to work in the newspaper business back then. There are a million stories, and they're all still funny.
Mark actually reminded TB of one of his favorite Carril stories, one he could have used at the "Night With Coaches" event a few weeks ago.
Princeton was playing in one of those in-season tournaments that it always used to, but this was after the tournament, in the bar in the hotel. Pete and his assistant coaches were reflecting on the tournament, when TigerBlog came by and mentioned that one of the Princeton players had made the all-tournament team.
Was Carril impressed? You can judge for yourself, since his response was "the guy he was guarding was the MVP."
TB and Mark go way back. In fact, Mark is TigerBlog Jr.'s godfather. Mark was with his daughter Erica, who is leaving today for her junior year at James Madison.
These days, Mark is still writing, now for nj.com, where he mostly covers the Philadelphia Eagles. It's a different world now. It's about clicks and page views, about lists like "Five Reasons Why The Eagles Offensive Line Will Be Better This Year" rather than building a newspaper.
He's doing well in the new world of sportswriting.
It's just that it's not the same as it once was, back when the home base was on Perry Street in Trenton, back when the paper came out every day and there was far more laughter than anything else while putting it together.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
The Summer Journalism Kids
TigerBlog spent parts of two summers in college in West Philadelphia.
The Penn campus wasn't all that much different than during the regular school year, with a fairly good number of students who took summer classes. They lived in some of the dorms, and there was a smaller - but still significant - student life to the campus.
TigerBlog did not take any summer classes. Nope. When he was there, it was because he was working as a vendor at Veterans' Stadium, which, if you don't know, used to be the home of the Philadelphia Phillies and the Philadelphia Eagles.
It was one of the cookie-cutter stadiums that sprung up in the early 1970s, in places like Pittsburgh (Three Rivers Stadium), Cincinnati (Riverfront Stadium) and Philadelphia. It was almost universally loathed - though TigerBlog thinks it was a great place.
So that was his sophomore summer. Hanging out at Penn and working at games at night when the Phillies were home. He did this a bit his junior summer, though by then he'd already started working at the newspaper.
That was summer life on Penn's campus. Here at Princeton, there are no summer classes and very few students are actually around. It's a much different environment.
Instead, the landscape is dominated by younger students, who attend the many summer camps. TigerBlog saw an army of campers on their way to the pool yesterday, and he asked one if this was swimming or water polo. He got a terse "water polo" in return.
Yesterday in the later afternoon, though, TigerBlog got a reminder that not all of the campers at Princeton are there to play sports. TB spent about an hour late yesterday afternoon with four students and two counselors from the Princeton Summer Journalism Program.
TigerBlog didn't really know much about the program until he looked into it yesterday. And until he asked the participants about it.
Basically, Princeton brings in 20 or so students from around the country who have demonstrated strong academic success and an interest in journalism, from a group of more than 10 times as many applicants. All of the students are rising high school seniors.
The program is also intended for, as its website says, low-income students. It is, according to the site, "... to our knowledge, the country's only high school program that seeks to propel low-income students into professional newsrooms by combining journalism education with intensive college admissions preparation—and pays all the expenses of students who attend."
It's a great idea, and a great program. This summer is the 14th straight for the program, which was founded by four members of Princeton's Class of 2001 - Richard Just, Michael Koike, Gregory Mancini and Rich Tucker.
TigerBlog is getting all this information from the site, which also says that "Ten of our alumni have attended Princeton. Others have gone on to Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, the University of Pennsylvania, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Middlebury, Georgetown, Bowdoin, Johns Hopkins, the University of Virginia, New York University and many other selective schools."
So that's what he got from the website.
From the kids themselves he got a barrage of questions, about his background, about Princeton Athletics, about Ivy League athletics, about how it's different here than at other places, about a ton of other things.
It was obvious from the beginning that the students had done their homework, about him and about Princeton. It was also clear that these kids were sharp.
Whatever TigerBlog said was scrutinized, and astute follow-up questions were asked. It was fun, actually.
They were blank slates when it came to basically anything about how Princeton and its athletic program works, other than what they had learned from goprincetontigers.com. They asked about men's basketball and why its record last year was so much better at home than away. They asked about the men's hockey team's record. They compared success of men's teams against women's teams in certain sports.
They had questions about fundraising. Admissions. Money. Basically everything about the program.
And what did TigerBlog tell them?
More than anything else, he told them about the value of writing. Someone who can write well has a unique, uncommon skill, a vanishing skill, TB thinks, in this day of writing in texts or 140-character tweets.
TigerBlog hasn't seen the finished product for these students yet. They're early in their 10-day stay here, and it culminates with the making of an actual newspaper. TB is looking forward to seeing it.
In the meantime, they're off to a pretty full week of activities, including covering a Trenton Thunder game. And an exposure to basically every area of journalism, with professors and professionals of all sorts.
There's also a trip into New York City later in the week, one that will include person-on-the-street interviews.
In what will be a pretty intense week for them, TigerBlog assumes his contribution will be one of the highlights.
For him, that is.
The Summer Journalism Program is a special piece of the campus in the summer.
The kids who make up the program are rising stars. The people who bring them here are helping them reach their highest heights.
That's a pretty good combination, no?
The Penn campus wasn't all that much different than during the regular school year, with a fairly good number of students who took summer classes. They lived in some of the dorms, and there was a smaller - but still significant - student life to the campus.
TigerBlog did not take any summer classes. Nope. When he was there, it was because he was working as a vendor at Veterans' Stadium, which, if you don't know, used to be the home of the Philadelphia Phillies and the Philadelphia Eagles.
It was one of the cookie-cutter stadiums that sprung up in the early 1970s, in places like Pittsburgh (Three Rivers Stadium), Cincinnati (Riverfront Stadium) and Philadelphia. It was almost universally loathed - though TigerBlog thinks it was a great place.
So that was his sophomore summer. Hanging out at Penn and working at games at night when the Phillies were home. He did this a bit his junior summer, though by then he'd already started working at the newspaper.
That was summer life on Penn's campus. Here at Princeton, there are no summer classes and very few students are actually around. It's a much different environment.
Instead, the landscape is dominated by younger students, who attend the many summer camps. TigerBlog saw an army of campers on their way to the pool yesterday, and he asked one if this was swimming or water polo. He got a terse "water polo" in return.
Yesterday in the later afternoon, though, TigerBlog got a reminder that not all of the campers at Princeton are there to play sports. TB spent about an hour late yesterday afternoon with four students and two counselors from the Princeton Summer Journalism Program.
TigerBlog didn't really know much about the program until he looked into it yesterday. And until he asked the participants about it.
Basically, Princeton brings in 20 or so students from around the country who have demonstrated strong academic success and an interest in journalism, from a group of more than 10 times as many applicants. All of the students are rising high school seniors.
The program is also intended for, as its website says, low-income students. It is, according to the site, "... to our knowledge, the country's only high school program that seeks to propel low-income students into professional newsrooms by combining journalism education with intensive college admissions preparation—and pays all the expenses of students who attend."
It's a great idea, and a great program. This summer is the 14th straight for the program, which was founded by four members of Princeton's Class of 2001 - Richard Just, Michael Koike, Gregory Mancini and Rich Tucker.
TigerBlog is getting all this information from the site, which also says that "Ten of our alumni have attended Princeton. Others have gone on to Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, the University of Pennsylvania, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Middlebury, Georgetown, Bowdoin, Johns Hopkins, the University of Virginia, New York University and many other selective schools."
So that's what he got from the website.
From the kids themselves he got a barrage of questions, about his background, about Princeton Athletics, about Ivy League athletics, about how it's different here than at other places, about a ton of other things.
It was obvious from the beginning that the students had done their homework, about him and about Princeton. It was also clear that these kids were sharp.
Whatever TigerBlog said was scrutinized, and astute follow-up questions were asked. It was fun, actually.
They were blank slates when it came to basically anything about how Princeton and its athletic program works, other than what they had learned from goprincetontigers.com. They asked about men's basketball and why its record last year was so much better at home than away. They asked about the men's hockey team's record. They compared success of men's teams against women's teams in certain sports.
They had questions about fundraising. Admissions. Money. Basically everything about the program.
And what did TigerBlog tell them?
More than anything else, he told them about the value of writing. Someone who can write well has a unique, uncommon skill, a vanishing skill, TB thinks, in this day of writing in texts or 140-character tweets.
TigerBlog hasn't seen the finished product for these students yet. They're early in their 10-day stay here, and it culminates with the making of an actual newspaper. TB is looking forward to seeing it.
In the meantime, they're off to a pretty full week of activities, including covering a Trenton Thunder game. And an exposure to basically every area of journalism, with professors and professionals of all sorts.
There's also a trip into New York City later in the week, one that will include person-on-the-street interviews.
In what will be a pretty intense week for them, TigerBlog assumes his contribution will be one of the highlights.
For him, that is.
The Summer Journalism Program is a special piece of the campus in the summer.
The kids who make up the program are rising stars. The people who bring them here are helping them reach their highest heights.
That's a pretty good combination, no?
Monday, August 3, 2015
College Boy
TigerBlog Jr. is recovering from his shoulder surgery of nearly four weeks ago.
Since his arm is still in a sling, he can't really drive himself anywhere, and so that burden has fallen back to TigerBlog.
It's a real pain. As any parent who has ever had a child - especially an oldest child - get a license knows, there are stages that you go through along this, well, road.
First, there's the complete fear of having "your baby" behind the wheel. Then, there's the realization that this is the most convenient thing that has ever happened.
Parenting from ages 3 to 16 or so is mostly about being a driver. Here, there, everywhere. It's like 15% teaching them life lessons and 85% having to get them somewhere - sports, school events, religious education, camps, doctor's appointments, the list is endless.
And then? They can drive themselves.
It's heaven. At least, once you get past the terror part.
After that, though, it's great. And then there's the whole "drive the younger one [or ones] around."
Ah, now that's convenient.
And then it was gone for TigerBlog. It would have ended soon enough anyway, when TBJ went to college. But TB figured he'd be driving all summer at least.
And now he can't. So TigerBlog has been back to his career as a driver.
TBJ recently went to the movies. If you need to pick someone up at the movies and the movie starts at 7:40, what time do you need to get them? Even if you know how long the movie is, you don't really have a sense of how many previews there are, how long they'll last and all.
That was always a tough one.
Sling or no sling, college will be starting for TBJ in a few weeks. It's a pretty nostalgic time for TigerBlog, who remembers his son's first days in Kindergarten, middle school, high school and all.
Actually, his first day of high school was a "snow day," or a more accurately a hurricane day, as school was closed back in late August of 2011 because of Hurricane Irene.
As college draws nearer for TBJ and all of his friends, TigerBlog is seeing the preparation for such a huge life step from a much different perspective.
TigerBlog really has a pretty narrow view of the college world. To him, it almost all is about athletics and it almost all is about the Ivy League.
TBJ is headed to Sacred Heart, in Fairfield, Conn. His best friend Matthew is going to Chestnut Hill College. He has lacrosse teammates going throughout Division I, II and III. They'll all have varying experiences, with some who will excel in school and sports - and some who probably won't.
Forgetting the athletic piece, though, all TigerBlog really knows about the nuts and bolts of a college education is what he had at Penn and what he knows from what he's observed at Princeton for the last few decades.
At Penn, there was a big course catalog, and each student had to make a schedule from that. TB could even know when his finals would be before the semester ever started.
He's not even sure how students at Princeton choose their classes. He's learning how it works at Sacred Heart. It's all very fascinating.
He's also learning about the rest of sending a child to college - even the fun of paying tuition. It's all stuff he's never really had to think about all these years.
Anyway, what's the point of all this?
Well, it's that wherever you're going to school, you have to make your way in the world. A few friends of TBJ's have already gone off for the freshman years. Most have not.
Goprincetontigers.com has been filled of late with stories about incoming freshman classes. TigerBlog will be putting up the one about the incoming freshman men's lacrosse players in the next day or so.
All of these incoming Princeton freshmen are a few weeks from coming to school. It's such a huge jump, going from the comforts of high school to a completely foreign world of a new college.
It's a big culture shock.
And TigerBlog is sure that pretty much all of the parents of those athletes are thinking the same basic things that he is.
They all want them to do well. They all worry about the possible pitfalls. They all can't believe they have kids going to college.
They all remember when they were just little babies.
Ah, but they've grown up, and pretty soon they're heading off on their own.
Also, if they're like TigerBlog, they're also trying to cram any last vestiges of parental advice into the last few weeks before they leave all the nests. It's like a big review for a big exam- the exam of life.
Eventually, they have to take that test on their own. Sooner rather than later, it would seem.
It's scary. And exciting.
Since his arm is still in a sling, he can't really drive himself anywhere, and so that burden has fallen back to TigerBlog.
It's a real pain. As any parent who has ever had a child - especially an oldest child - get a license knows, there are stages that you go through along this, well, road.
First, there's the complete fear of having "your baby" behind the wheel. Then, there's the realization that this is the most convenient thing that has ever happened.
Parenting from ages 3 to 16 or so is mostly about being a driver. Here, there, everywhere. It's like 15% teaching them life lessons and 85% having to get them somewhere - sports, school events, religious education, camps, doctor's appointments, the list is endless.
And then? They can drive themselves.
It's heaven. At least, once you get past the terror part.
After that, though, it's great. And then there's the whole "drive the younger one [or ones] around."
Ah, now that's convenient.
And then it was gone for TigerBlog. It would have ended soon enough anyway, when TBJ went to college. But TB figured he'd be driving all summer at least.
And now he can't. So TigerBlog has been back to his career as a driver.
TBJ recently went to the movies. If you need to pick someone up at the movies and the movie starts at 7:40, what time do you need to get them? Even if you know how long the movie is, you don't really have a sense of how many previews there are, how long they'll last and all.
That was always a tough one.
Sling or no sling, college will be starting for TBJ in a few weeks. It's a pretty nostalgic time for TigerBlog, who remembers his son's first days in Kindergarten, middle school, high school and all.
Actually, his first day of high school was a "snow day," or a more accurately a hurricane day, as school was closed back in late August of 2011 because of Hurricane Irene.
As college draws nearer for TBJ and all of his friends, TigerBlog is seeing the preparation for such a huge life step from a much different perspective.
TigerBlog really has a pretty narrow view of the college world. To him, it almost all is about athletics and it almost all is about the Ivy League.
TBJ is headed to Sacred Heart, in Fairfield, Conn. His best friend Matthew is going to Chestnut Hill College. He has lacrosse teammates going throughout Division I, II and III. They'll all have varying experiences, with some who will excel in school and sports - and some who probably won't.
Forgetting the athletic piece, though, all TigerBlog really knows about the nuts and bolts of a college education is what he had at Penn and what he knows from what he's observed at Princeton for the last few decades.
At Penn, there was a big course catalog, and each student had to make a schedule from that. TB could even know when his finals would be before the semester ever started.
He's not even sure how students at Princeton choose their classes. He's learning how it works at Sacred Heart. It's all very fascinating.
He's also learning about the rest of sending a child to college - even the fun of paying tuition. It's all stuff he's never really had to think about all these years.
Anyway, what's the point of all this?
Well, it's that wherever you're going to school, you have to make your way in the world. A few friends of TBJ's have already gone off for the freshman years. Most have not.
Goprincetontigers.com has been filled of late with stories about incoming freshman classes. TigerBlog will be putting up the one about the incoming freshman men's lacrosse players in the next day or so.
All of these incoming Princeton freshmen are a few weeks from coming to school. It's such a huge jump, going from the comforts of high school to a completely foreign world of a new college.
It's a big culture shock.
And TigerBlog is sure that pretty much all of the parents of those athletes are thinking the same basic things that he is.
They all want them to do well. They all worry about the possible pitfalls. They all can't believe they have kids going to college.
They all remember when they were just little babies.
Ah, but they've grown up, and pretty soon they're heading off on their own.
Also, if they're like TigerBlog, they're also trying to cram any last vestiges of parental advice into the last few weeks before they leave all the nests. It's like a big review for a big exam- the exam of life.
Eventually, they have to take that test on their own. Sooner rather than later, it would seem.
It's scary. And exciting.
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