If you read yesterday's blog, then the name Arthur Loeb might ring a bell.
Loeb was the leading scorer on the 1921-22 Princeton men's basketball team. In fact, Loeb accounted for 325 of the team's 700 points that season, when the Tigers went 20-5 and won the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League championship.
Loeb became the program's second player to be a two-time All-American. The first was Cyril Haas in 1916 and 1917.
Who was the third?
Also, Loeb set records for foul shots made in a game and season that stood for a long time. In that 1921-22 season, Loeb had 203 made free throws among his 325 points.
The math would indicate that with no three-point for several decades to come, Loeb scored 122 points on field goals, which would mean he made 203 foul shots and 61 field goals that season.
Did they call things really tightly back then? Was he the Michael Jordan of his time, getting the whistle every time he went to the basket? Did they have the "Loeb Rules?"
Whatever the answer, Arthur Loeb held the record for free throws made in a season until Bill Bradley came along. Bradley still has the top three single-season free throw totals, but Loeb to this day still ranks fourth, meaning that no other player has ever made more foul shots in a season other than Bradley than Arthur Loeb did nearly 100 years ago.
Bradley, by the way, would be the program's next two-time (and then three-time) All-American. No other Princeton players other than Haas, Loeb and Bradley have ever been multiple time All-Americans.
The team leader this year was Jaelin Llewellyn, who made 85 foul shots. In fact, the top three players on the team this year - Llewellyn, Richmond Aririguzoh and Ryan Schweiger - had 192 between them.
What was it about the game back then? Or about Arthur Loeb's ability to get the foul line.
It had to be something about Loeb. Guess how many foul shots every other remaining Princeton player had combined in 1921-22?
If you guessed "13," you'd be right.
That's 13 total. Not that the next highest total was 13. The next highest total was five, which both Edgardo Correa and Alexander Brawner both had.
In fact, Arthur Loeb still ranks eighth all-time at Princeton in career free throws made, with 342. In the last 25 years, the only Princeton player with more than Loeb was Ian Hummer, who had 349.
TigerBlog tried to find out more about Arthur Loeb and what happened to him after his Princeton basketball days. He could find absolutely nothing, though he did find an obituary for Henry Alfred Loeb, who presumably was Arthur's brother.
Henry's obituary was from Jan. 2, 1998, and it said that he was 90 when he died. It mentions that he went to Horace Mann in New York City and was the youngest of four children.
Henry was a member of the Princeton Class of 1929.
It doesn't mention the names of his siblings, but it does say his father was named Carl Loeb. There was also a Carl Loeb who played basketball at Princeton, so TB will go with the idea that it was Carl Jr. and that Arthur was another brother.
As for Henry, his obit said he was a financier and philanthropist. This was from his memorial page on the Alumni Weekly:
Henry's remarkable philanthropic career included leadership of the
Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, and he was a life trustee of the
New School (which gave him an honorary law degree), president of the Mt.
Sinai School of Nursing, and a board member of the National Urban
League, the Institute for Research on Deafness, and many other
charitable organizations. At the start of WWII, Henry volunteered in the
Army and became a first lieutenant and tank officer, participating in
the Omaha Beach landing. He received a Bronze Star and five battle
stars.
That's a remarkable life.
TB will try to find out more about Arthur, both his life and why he shot so many foul shots.
His team made 216 foul shots and he made 203 of them? Seriously, that's about as wild a stat as TB has ever seen from a Princeton team.
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Monday, April 13, 2020
Jimmy Darmody ’20
TigerBlog saw a funny Easter-centric meme yesterday.
It was a take-off of the famous "Last Supper" painting by da Vinci, though it had Jesus in a larger portion of the picture and then six disciples in their own boxes across the top. The line was: "We'll give the others another a few minutes to join us."
Clearly, it was a take-off on the Zoom phenomenon.
TB would guess that maybe 90 percent of his readers have been on a Zoom video call at some point in the last four weeks. He'd also guess that maybe 75 percent of them had never been on one prior to that. TB, for one, had not.
As the holidays of Easter and Passover have overlapped again, TB is also guessing that a lot of families who couldn't physically be together used Zoom to connect virtually. It's a great way to keep families close, and in some ways it allows the time that families (or friends) are spending together to be more valued.
The weather for your Easter Sunday was nearly perfect in the Princeton area. In fact, it has not been lost on TigerBlog that the weather has been extremely cooperative this late winter and spring, especially on the weekends.
In fact, going back further, this is one of the most mild winters that has ever happened around here. Best of all, there was almost nothing in the way of snow. As winters go, you can't ask for more.
TB has said a few times that he has been following the simulated men's lacrosse games that a website is doing - and getting annoyed by the fact that he is (and even more annoyed if Princeton isn't doing well). To that you can add that he also has been checking the weather for the locations where games were to have been played as well.
It's all part of the surreal world of the spring of ’20.
That's 2020, by the way.
The spring of 1920 was surreal in its own way, what with prohibition having just become the law of the land.
TigerBlog has been watching "Boardwalk Empire" again, and he forgot just how great a show it is. Perhaps it was overshadowed by "The Sopranos," but the show set in the 1920s in Atlantic City is in the top tier of series that TB has ever seen.
Princeton University features prominently in the show since one of the main characters, Jimmy Darmody, attended the University before dropping out to enlist in World War I. It never really clarifies what his class year was, but the suggestion is made that he was only there for a year.
Since the United States got into the war in 1917, perhaps Darmody would have been a member of the Class of 1920? Also, he dropped out just before he was expelled for punching out the professor who made a pass at his mother, but TB doesn't want to give too much of the plot away.
There is one flashback episode to Darmody's Princeton days, one that includes scenes of a campus that has very few buildings and a train that runs directly through the campus. That train line used to add extra cars on football game days to pack Palmer Stadium, which would have been in its infancy whenever Darmody was there, as it was built in 1914.
Also, in one episode, one of the characters is reading a Philadelphia newspaper that has a headline that says "Penn 5 To Face Lafayette." Because of where the story was at the time, the season had to be the 1920-21 season.
Clearly this referred to basketball. Most people probably didn't notice the headline. TB did. And what did he do?
He went straight to Penn's website to see if there was a 1920-21 game between Penn and Lafayette. The answer?
Yes, the Quakers did. In fact, Penn claimed the 1921 Helms National Championship, something that TB had never heard of before. And en route to a 21-2 record that year, Penn defeated Lafayette 37-12 on Jan. 29.
TB will forgive the fact that he doesn't think the scene was set in January, but hey, close enough. Had there not been a Penn-Lafayette game that year, TB would have really wondered how in the world they picked that for their fictional headline.
Also, in the 1920-21 season, Penn defeated Princeton 33-22 and 27-20, which are more like contemporary football scores. A year earlier, by the way, Penn also claimed the national championship with a 22-1 record that included a 20-0 start. The 20th win came over Princeton 26-23 - in four overtimes.
Penn finished that season with three games against Chicago, the first a loss in Chicago and then wins at home and on a neutral court in Princeton of all places.
Somewhat fascinating is that the Princeton records have the same scores for all of those games. Also, the 1921-22 Tigers played Penn three times, losing the first 20-18. That put Princeton a game back of Penn heading into the last two games of the regular season, both against the Quakers.
Princeton won the second game 34-24 to set up a one-game playoff for the league championship. Back then, the league was the Eastern Intercollegiate League, and there was no co-champion back then, as Ivy League rules today are written.
As a result, the teams played on March 28, 1922, for the championship, and Princeton won that game 28-23. Arthur Loeb had 20 of the 34 in the game to set up the tie and then 12 of the 28 in the playoff game, not to mention 325 of Princeton's 700 points for the season.
So what was TB saying?
Oh yeah. Watch "Boardwalk Empire." It's awesome.
It was a take-off of the famous "Last Supper" painting by da Vinci, though it had Jesus in a larger portion of the picture and then six disciples in their own boxes across the top. The line was: "We'll give the others another a few minutes to join us."
Clearly, it was a take-off on the Zoom phenomenon.
TB would guess that maybe 90 percent of his readers have been on a Zoom video call at some point in the last four weeks. He'd also guess that maybe 75 percent of them had never been on one prior to that. TB, for one, had not.
As the holidays of Easter and Passover have overlapped again, TB is also guessing that a lot of families who couldn't physically be together used Zoom to connect virtually. It's a great way to keep families close, and in some ways it allows the time that families (or friends) are spending together to be more valued.
The weather for your Easter Sunday was nearly perfect in the Princeton area. In fact, it has not been lost on TigerBlog that the weather has been extremely cooperative this late winter and spring, especially on the weekends.
In fact, going back further, this is one of the most mild winters that has ever happened around here. Best of all, there was almost nothing in the way of snow. As winters go, you can't ask for more.
TB has said a few times that he has been following the simulated men's lacrosse games that a website is doing - and getting annoyed by the fact that he is (and even more annoyed if Princeton isn't doing well). To that you can add that he also has been checking the weather for the locations where games were to have been played as well.
It's all part of the surreal world of the spring of ’20.
That's 2020, by the way.
The spring of 1920 was surreal in its own way, what with prohibition having just become the law of the land.
TigerBlog has been watching "Boardwalk Empire" again, and he forgot just how great a show it is. Perhaps it was overshadowed by "The Sopranos," but the show set in the 1920s in Atlantic City is in the top tier of series that TB has ever seen.
Princeton University features prominently in the show since one of the main characters, Jimmy Darmody, attended the University before dropping out to enlist in World War I. It never really clarifies what his class year was, but the suggestion is made that he was only there for a year.
Since the United States got into the war in 1917, perhaps Darmody would have been a member of the Class of 1920? Also, he dropped out just before he was expelled for punching out the professor who made a pass at his mother, but TB doesn't want to give too much of the plot away.
There is one flashback episode to Darmody's Princeton days, one that includes scenes of a campus that has very few buildings and a train that runs directly through the campus. That train line used to add extra cars on football game days to pack Palmer Stadium, which would have been in its infancy whenever Darmody was there, as it was built in 1914.
Also, in one episode, one of the characters is reading a Philadelphia newspaper that has a headline that says "Penn 5 To Face Lafayette." Because of where the story was at the time, the season had to be the 1920-21 season.
Clearly this referred to basketball. Most people probably didn't notice the headline. TB did. And what did he do?
He went straight to Penn's website to see if there was a 1920-21 game between Penn and Lafayette. The answer?
Yes, the Quakers did. In fact, Penn claimed the 1921 Helms National Championship, something that TB had never heard of before. And en route to a 21-2 record that year, Penn defeated Lafayette 37-12 on Jan. 29.
TB will forgive the fact that he doesn't think the scene was set in January, but hey, close enough. Had there not been a Penn-Lafayette game that year, TB would have really wondered how in the world they picked that for their fictional headline.
Also, in the 1920-21 season, Penn defeated Princeton 33-22 and 27-20, which are more like contemporary football scores. A year earlier, by the way, Penn also claimed the national championship with a 22-1 record that included a 20-0 start. The 20th win came over Princeton 26-23 - in four overtimes.
Penn finished that season with three games against Chicago, the first a loss in Chicago and then wins at home and on a neutral court in Princeton of all places.
Somewhat fascinating is that the Princeton records have the same scores for all of those games. Also, the 1921-22 Tigers played Penn three times, losing the first 20-18. That put Princeton a game back of Penn heading into the last two games of the regular season, both against the Quakers.
Princeton won the second game 34-24 to set up a one-game playoff for the league championship. Back then, the league was the Eastern Intercollegiate League, and there was no co-champion back then, as Ivy League rules today are written.
As a result, the teams played on March 28, 1922, for the championship, and Princeton won that game 28-23. Arthur Loeb had 20 of the 34 in the game to set up the tie and then 12 of the 28 in the playoff game, not to mention 325 of Princeton's 700 points for the season.
So what was TB saying?
Oh yeah. Watch "Boardwalk Empire." It's awesome.
Friday, April 10, 2020
The Big Picture
FatherBlog has a best friend from when he was a little kid named George.
The two grew up together in Brooklyn, rising from having very little to having very successful careers. In George's case, he is a lawyer.
Yesterday was George's 59th wedding anniversary with his bride Bunny. The two have always been very nice to TigerBlog in his lifetime, and they are both warm, caring, wonderful people.
Unfortunately, the nearest they got to each other on their anniversary was a hospital lobby. Both are battling medical issues, and though neither has the coronavirus, they were not permitted to be any closer to each other than across a lobby.
The world these days is filled with stories like that, ones that are either heartwarming or heartbreaking or both at the same time. Everyone has heard a few just like that, and most people have their own stories like that they could share.
There are so many people who are giving so much to try to fight this pandemic. Evan Garfein, the former Princeton men's lacrosse player and now plastic surgeon in New York City who put himself in danger by working 12-hour ER shifts and contracted the virus himself, appears to be doing much better, TB is happy to report.
The world needs people like him to end this situation. And they're out there, doing everything they can in every way they can.
They're heroes.
TB had one thought yesterday though. Where does that leave everyone else?
Not everyone can do something to specifically fight against the coronavirus. For most of the world, it means simply staying home, isolating, social distancing at all times.
It got TB to thinking about what he should be thinking about things like the cancelling of spring sports in the face of everything else that is going on. How upset can he be about it in the face of all of the suffering and sacrifice going on in the world?
The answer, he believes, is that it's okay to miss it.
TB speaks for all of his colleagues when he says everyone misses it. The whole point of working in college athletics is to do what you can to help the coaches succeed and the athletes have the best possible experience.
That's always first and foremost. And the best part of that is seeing how it all plays out on the public stage of the games.
No matter what, TB has always loved the games. He finds the competition to be revealing in so many ways, and he's always loved his view of it, from the perspective of knowing the principals involved, seeing what goes into putting teams together, understanding how much preparation has gone into a gameday.
Plus they're just fun.
So can he miss that, in the face of everything going on in the world?
Yes. He can.
And so can the athletes. It doesn't matter if you're a professional athlete whose season may not be played to conclusion or a college athlete whose spring has been turned upside down or a high school or even youth player who won't get on the field this year.
It's okay to feel badly about that and not have to feel like you're missing the big picture.
There will be a next year for most, but not all, of the athletes whose 2020 seasons would not be finished. They can be upset about it, and rightfully are.
This experience will also give them a chance to learn some things, about themselves and about life in general. To borrow a letter from the "Be A Tiger" performance model, this can be a very growth-minded moment for them.
Like all of them, TB would love to be spending his weekend watching spring sports compete. That is not possible in these surreal times.
The big picture suggests that there are more important things in the world to worry about right now. It also suggests it's okay to feel badly about what might have been.
The two grew up together in Brooklyn, rising from having very little to having very successful careers. In George's case, he is a lawyer.
Yesterday was George's 59th wedding anniversary with his bride Bunny. The two have always been very nice to TigerBlog in his lifetime, and they are both warm, caring, wonderful people.
Unfortunately, the nearest they got to each other on their anniversary was a hospital lobby. Both are battling medical issues, and though neither has the coronavirus, they were not permitted to be any closer to each other than across a lobby.
The world these days is filled with stories like that, ones that are either heartwarming or heartbreaking or both at the same time. Everyone has heard a few just like that, and most people have their own stories like that they could share.
There are so many people who are giving so much to try to fight this pandemic. Evan Garfein, the former Princeton men's lacrosse player and now plastic surgeon in New York City who put himself in danger by working 12-hour ER shifts and contracted the virus himself, appears to be doing much better, TB is happy to report.
The world needs people like him to end this situation. And they're out there, doing everything they can in every way they can.
They're heroes.
TB had one thought yesterday though. Where does that leave everyone else?
Not everyone can do something to specifically fight against the coronavirus. For most of the world, it means simply staying home, isolating, social distancing at all times.
It got TB to thinking about what he should be thinking about things like the cancelling of spring sports in the face of everything else that is going on. How upset can he be about it in the face of all of the suffering and sacrifice going on in the world?
The answer, he believes, is that it's okay to miss it.
TB speaks for all of his colleagues when he says everyone misses it. The whole point of working in college athletics is to do what you can to help the coaches succeed and the athletes have the best possible experience.
That's always first and foremost. And the best part of that is seeing how it all plays out on the public stage of the games.
No matter what, TB has always loved the games. He finds the competition to be revealing in so many ways, and he's always loved his view of it, from the perspective of knowing the principals involved, seeing what goes into putting teams together, understanding how much preparation has gone into a gameday.
Plus they're just fun.
So can he miss that, in the face of everything going on in the world?
Yes. He can.
And so can the athletes. It doesn't matter if you're a professional athlete whose season may not be played to conclusion or a college athlete whose spring has been turned upside down or a high school or even youth player who won't get on the field this year.
It's okay to feel badly about that and not have to feel like you're missing the big picture.
There will be a next year for most, but not all, of the athletes whose 2020 seasons would not be finished. They can be upset about it, and rightfully are.
This experience will also give them a chance to learn some things, about themselves and about life in general. To borrow a letter from the "Be A Tiger" performance model, this can be a very growth-minded moment for them.
Like all of them, TB would love to be spending his weekend watching spring sports compete. That is not possible in these surreal times.
The big picture suggests that there are more important things in the world to worry about right now. It also suggests it's okay to feel badly about what might have been.
Thursday, April 9, 2020
"Game Ball"
"The football peeks out from a crowded corner of my cluttered desk."
Those words were written by Joe Masi, Princeton Class of 1952. They're part of a poem entitled "Game Ball."
TigerBlog has never been a huge fan of poetry. If you asked him what his favorite things written in verse form (and not set to music) have been, he'd probably say "The Cat In The Hat" and "Casey At The Bat."
If you wanted him to say that in verse, he'd say:
His favorite poem is
The Cat In The Hat
His second favorite would be
Casey At The Bat
He's pretty sure that he's still scarred by having to read "Beowulf" and "The Canterbury Tales" in Ms. Nastaj's high school English class. As he thinks back to it, though, he was pretty lucky to have the English teachers in high school that he had. In fact, he'd put his high school English teachers up there with any teachers he had in his educational career, which, of course, includes that college in West Philadelphia.
Pete Carril always talked about the immeasurable value of great high school teachers and coaches. He himself started out as one, and he always had the greatest respect for those who excelled on that level. He's also not the only Princeton coach TB has heard talk about how much better prepared to excel in college the athletes who had the better high school teachers and coaches were.
And that's all he'll say about that now.
For today, he'd like to talk about "Game Ball."
TigerBlog was introduced to the poem from an email that was forwarded to him by Joe's son Brad. Joe, it turns out, passed away on Jan. 11 of this year one week shy of his 90th birthday.
From the obituary that TB read in the Denver Post, he learned that Joe Masi was a cum laude graduate of Princeton who then went into the Navy as an officer before embarking on a long and successful career in management.
You can read the entire obit HERE.
Brad's email says that his father was diagnosed with cancer in June of 2019 and that from then on, he worked with his dad to put together an anthology of his poems, which they entitled "Depression Baby."
HERE is the link for more information.
Masi was a three-time letterwinner in track and field at Princeton, but the poem "Game Ball" refers to his time with the Tiger football team.
He happened to come along at a time when Princeton was in what was probably its most glorious era. The 1950 and 1951 Tigers both went 9-0, and the team was led by the only player in program history to win the Heisman Trophy, Dick Kazmaier.
Princeton was coached by Hall-of-Famer Charlie Caldwell. The 1950 team is the most recent of Princeton's 28 national championship teams.
It was a great time to be a Tiger.
It was also a tough time to be trying to get playing time.
And that's what the poem is about.
Masi talks about his experience with the football team, including three parts that really stand out. One, he was the subject of a five-page story in Life Magazine in 1950 about what it was like to go against a championship football team as the quarterback of what today would be known as the scout team.
Back then, it was the B team, or the scrubs. And so he talks about how he had hoped to open his locker and see a black jersey, symbolizing that he was no longer to be a scrub and instead was to be Kazmaier's backup, only to see a white jersey, relegating him to another season as the scrub quarterback instead.
And of course, there was the whole reason the poem ended up being called what it was.
TigerBlog never actually read the poem. He didn't have to. He got to see Joe Masi read it.
You can too. THIS IS THE LINK.
Maybe it's because so many of the themes from what he's speaking about still resonate today. Maybe it's because his storytelling is so well done. Maybe it's because TB has read so much about the 1951 football season.
For whatever reason, the video is extraordinary.
And if you're going to watch "Game Ball" at the 13:00 mark, go back about two minutes and check out the one before it. That one reminds you of what it was like for the guys on that 1951 team to be growing up with the events of a decade before.
TB is sorry he never got to meet Joe Masi. He's glad he got a chance to hear him read his poems.
Those words were written by Joe Masi, Princeton Class of 1952. They're part of a poem entitled "Game Ball."
TigerBlog has never been a huge fan of poetry. If you asked him what his favorite things written in verse form (and not set to music) have been, he'd probably say "The Cat In The Hat" and "Casey At The Bat."
If you wanted him to say that in verse, he'd say:
His favorite poem is
The Cat In The Hat
His second favorite would be
Casey At The Bat
He's pretty sure that he's still scarred by having to read "Beowulf" and "The Canterbury Tales" in Ms. Nastaj's high school English class. As he thinks back to it, though, he was pretty lucky to have the English teachers in high school that he had. In fact, he'd put his high school English teachers up there with any teachers he had in his educational career, which, of course, includes that college in West Philadelphia.
Pete Carril always talked about the immeasurable value of great high school teachers and coaches. He himself started out as one, and he always had the greatest respect for those who excelled on that level. He's also not the only Princeton coach TB has heard talk about how much better prepared to excel in college the athletes who had the better high school teachers and coaches were.
And that's all he'll say about that now.
For today, he'd like to talk about "Game Ball."
TigerBlog was introduced to the poem from an email that was forwarded to him by Joe's son Brad. Joe, it turns out, passed away on Jan. 11 of this year one week shy of his 90th birthday.
From the obituary that TB read in the Denver Post, he learned that Joe Masi was a cum laude graduate of Princeton who then went into the Navy as an officer before embarking on a long and successful career in management.
You can read the entire obit HERE.
Brad's email says that his father was diagnosed with cancer in June of 2019 and that from then on, he worked with his dad to put together an anthology of his poems, which they entitled "Depression Baby."
HERE is the link for more information.
Masi was a three-time letterwinner in track and field at Princeton, but the poem "Game Ball" refers to his time with the Tiger football team.
He happened to come along at a time when Princeton was in what was probably its most glorious era. The 1950 and 1951 Tigers both went 9-0, and the team was led by the only player in program history to win the Heisman Trophy, Dick Kazmaier.
Princeton was coached by Hall-of-Famer Charlie Caldwell. The 1950 team is the most recent of Princeton's 28 national championship teams.
It was a great time to be a Tiger.
It was also a tough time to be trying to get playing time.
And that's what the poem is about.
Masi talks about his experience with the football team, including three parts that really stand out. One, he was the subject of a five-page story in Life Magazine in 1950 about what it was like to go against a championship football team as the quarterback of what today would be known as the scout team.
Back then, it was the B team, or the scrubs. And so he talks about how he had hoped to open his locker and see a black jersey, symbolizing that he was no longer to be a scrub and instead was to be Kazmaier's backup, only to see a white jersey, relegating him to another season as the scrub quarterback instead.
And of course, there was the whole reason the poem ended up being called what it was.
TigerBlog never actually read the poem. He didn't have to. He got to see Joe Masi read it.
You can too. THIS IS THE LINK.
Maybe it's because so many of the themes from what he's speaking about still resonate today. Maybe it's because his storytelling is so well done. Maybe it's because TB has read so much about the 1951 football season.
For whatever reason, the video is extraordinary.
And if you're going to watch "Game Ball" at the 13:00 mark, go back about two minutes and check out the one before it. That one reminds you of what it was like for the guys on that 1951 team to be growing up with the events of a decade before.
TB is sorry he never got to meet Joe Masi. He's glad he got a chance to hear him read his poems.
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
Happy 70th
TigerBlog was still a college student the first time he interviewed Pete Carril.
It was for the Penn student radio station. He remembers it well. It was at the Palestra, at the bottom of an entryway outside Princeton's locker room.
It was a bit intimidating. It's been awhile since TB has felt intimidated by interviewing anyone, but he can remember being intimidated by Carril. Perhaps when it was over, Carril thought to himself: "nice kid; can't wait until he's on our side?"
It's too bad he can't go back to that moment to remember what he was thinking. It certainly couldn't have been "four years with these guys, and then it'll be a lifetime with the other guys."
Beyond anything else, he does remember thinking that Carril was, well, sort of old. At the same time, it dawns on TB that he is now older than Carril was on that day when he first interviewed him. And TB does not consider himself old at all.
Perspective, right?
TB has co-workers in their 20s and early 30s. Do they think TB is old?
When it comes to feeling old, TB thinks that working on a college campus all these years has actually helped him stay young.
So when is someone considered old these days? Again, it's all relative.
When TB was a kid, he probably thought anyone who was 50 was old. That's ridiculous now. Hey, he knows a guy who is 89 who can ride his bike more than 11 miles like it's nothing.
Maybe what would be considered old has changed through the years. Or maybe TB has just gotten older and sees it differently?
Not everyone who is the same age is the same age, as it were. In other words, not all 70 year olds are created equal.
In fairness, when TB saw that Fred Samara had turned 70, he thought he was actually 47. You can take that two ways.
First, Samara has won 47 Ivy League Heptagonal championships as Princeton's head coach of men's track and field. If you factor in all of the Ivy League titles Princeton track and field has won since he arrived as a coach (including his time as an assistant), TB believes that number is 64.
Second, he has the energy of what you would consider to be the average 47 year old.
Ah, but he's 70 now. TB knows this by the video that some of his many, many alums made and then posted to the Princeton track and field Instagram.
That's pretty good, right?
Actually, that's better than good. That's a lot of heartfelt emotion for a coach who has meant a lot more than just championships to his athletes.
TigerBlog has written a lot through the years about the dynamic that exists between athletes and coaches the life lessons that are learned through participating in intercollegiate athletics. A lot of these lessons come directly from the coaches.
The video doesn't begin to capture the quantity of people who have been touched by Fred Samara here. As TB said, what sticks with those who competed for him - and still do - aren't the championships.
The video where they wish their coach a happy birthday reflects all of that.
But wait. There was more than just that post from the track and field team. There was this one too:
Yup. Mike Tyson.
And so that leads to this sentence, one that TB never really imagined he would ever write:
"Fred Samara, TB joins Mike Tyson in wishing you happy 70th birthday."
He'd also add "stay young," but he doesn't actually need to do that.
It was for the Penn student radio station. He remembers it well. It was at the Palestra, at the bottom of an entryway outside Princeton's locker room.
It was a bit intimidating. It's been awhile since TB has felt intimidated by interviewing anyone, but he can remember being intimidated by Carril. Perhaps when it was over, Carril thought to himself: "nice kid; can't wait until he's on our side?"
It's too bad he can't go back to that moment to remember what he was thinking. It certainly couldn't have been "four years with these guys, and then it'll be a lifetime with the other guys."
Beyond anything else, he does remember thinking that Carril was, well, sort of old. At the same time, it dawns on TB that he is now older than Carril was on that day when he first interviewed him. And TB does not consider himself old at all.
Perspective, right?
TB has co-workers in their 20s and early 30s. Do they think TB is old?
When it comes to feeling old, TB thinks that working on a college campus all these years has actually helped him stay young.
So when is someone considered old these days? Again, it's all relative.
When TB was a kid, he probably thought anyone who was 50 was old. That's ridiculous now. Hey, he knows a guy who is 89 who can ride his bike more than 11 miles like it's nothing.
Maybe what would be considered old has changed through the years. Or maybe TB has just gotten older and sees it differently?
Not everyone who is the same age is the same age, as it were. In other words, not all 70 year olds are created equal.
In fairness, when TB saw that Fred Samara had turned 70, he thought he was actually 47. You can take that two ways.
First, Samara has won 47 Ivy League Heptagonal championships as Princeton's head coach of men's track and field. If you factor in all of the Ivy League titles Princeton track and field has won since he arrived as a coach (including his time as an assistant), TB believes that number is 64.
Second, he has the energy of what you would consider to be the average 47 year old.
Ah, but he's 70 now. TB knows this by the video that some of his many, many alums made and then posted to the Princeton track and field Instagram.
That's pretty good, right?
Actually, that's better than good. That's a lot of heartfelt emotion for a coach who has meant a lot more than just championships to his athletes.
TigerBlog has written a lot through the years about the dynamic that exists between athletes and coaches the life lessons that are learned through participating in intercollegiate athletics. A lot of these lessons come directly from the coaches.
The video doesn't begin to capture the quantity of people who have been touched by Fred Samara here. As TB said, what sticks with those who competed for him - and still do - aren't the championships.
The video where they wish their coach a happy birthday reflects all of that.
But wait. There was more than just that post from the track and field team. There was this one too:
Yup. Mike Tyson.
And so that leads to this sentence, one that TB never really imagined he would ever write:
"Fred Samara, TB joins Mike Tyson in wishing you happy 70th birthday."
He'd also add "stay young," but he doesn't actually need to do that.
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Simulated Games, Real Emotions
TigerBlog saw a story yesterday about a NASCAR racer named Bubba Wallace and how he lost one of his sponsors after he quit on a virtual race.
The point of the story was that this is something that was supposed to be for fun and it ended up having some actual implications. Also, a professional race car driver who finished second at the Daytona 500 two years ago could get so annoyed about a virtual race that he quit in the middle.
How annoying can it be?
Well, if you ever saw "Rocky Balboa" you could understand a bit. Or you could be doing what TB was doing two days earlier.
There is a website that is doing computer simulations of every men's lacrosse game during this season. Each week since the season was postponed, TB has gone through the following pattern: 1) forget that the computer simulations are happening, 2) remember that they're happening, 3) check the score of Princeton's game, 4) follow it the rest of the way as it were real, 5) get annoyed when things don't go the Tigers' way and then finally 6) be mad at himself for doing it.
Yes, he's smart enough to know that the stats don't really match up with the kinds of stats you could expect from a regular Princeton game and that the scores don't necessarily reflect what would have actually happened. Oh, and mostly, you know - they're not real games.
Still, there he was Saturday afternoon, hitting refresh to get updates on Princeton-Stony Brook. Princeton was ahead big in the first half and then, when he came back to see what was going on, saw the Tigers were down 15-14 with a little more than a minute left.
Ah, but there was hope. The last stat was a successful clear for Princeton.
Refresh. Refresh. Seven seconds left. Refresh. Still seven seconds left.
Refresh again. Goal. Tie game. Michael Sowers as time expired. And then overtime.
Stony Brook then won the face-off. Oh no. What next? But then Princeton got it back. And cleared it. And then it was Chris Brown from Alex Slusher. Goal. Princeton wins 16-15.
Oh wait. None of it was real.
TB knew that the whole time. He was angry at himself each time he hit refresh. But still, he did it.
Worse than that, he even considered what stories he would have written had Princeton lost 15-14 or won 16-15.
He's not sure if it makes him feel any better, but he's spoken to several Division I coaches and athletic communications people who are doing the same thing and are just as annoyed at themselves for doing it.
The question is why does a simulated game or a simulated car race bring out real emotions?
He hasn't really been able to figure out why. Is it that he misses the season and is happy that there is anything at all that passes for lacrosse news these days? Is it because of all of the sports movies that he's watched that have blurred the line a bit between what's real and what isn't?
Is it that he - and the others he's spoken to - are so invested in their teams that any loss, even a fictional one, is bothersome?
It's not just simulated games.
The good people at US Lacrosse have a virtual NCAA tournament bracket and competition that is starting. You can vote today for the Princeton men and the Princeton women, in fact, by going HERE.
When TB first saw the link, he clicked on it hoping to see the Tigers in both fields. Again, why?
And why was he happy to see the men seeded fifth (taking on UMass, with a possible game against Penn State after that). In fact, he wondered where the quarterfinal round would have been.
Seriously. That was his first thought.
As for the women, they would have been in Syracuse to play Penn State, with the winner to face the Orange. Both Princeton teams were at-large selections, meaning neither "won" the league tournament.
The regular season? No way to know.
Then again, a reminder - none of this is real.
But it still gets the emotions going in everyone who sees it, and nobody seems to be able to look away.
Why? Does it matter?
Whatever it is, he will be just as annoyed this afternoon, when he checks on the simulated Princeton-Siena game that he otherwise would have been at today in Loudonville. Face-off would have been at 4.
The point of the story was that this is something that was supposed to be for fun and it ended up having some actual implications. Also, a professional race car driver who finished second at the Daytona 500 two years ago could get so annoyed about a virtual race that he quit in the middle.
How annoying can it be?
Well, if you ever saw "Rocky Balboa" you could understand a bit. Or you could be doing what TB was doing two days earlier.
There is a website that is doing computer simulations of every men's lacrosse game during this season. Each week since the season was postponed, TB has gone through the following pattern: 1) forget that the computer simulations are happening, 2) remember that they're happening, 3) check the score of Princeton's game, 4) follow it the rest of the way as it were real, 5) get annoyed when things don't go the Tigers' way and then finally 6) be mad at himself for doing it.
Yes, he's smart enough to know that the stats don't really match up with the kinds of stats you could expect from a regular Princeton game and that the scores don't necessarily reflect what would have actually happened. Oh, and mostly, you know - they're not real games.
Still, there he was Saturday afternoon, hitting refresh to get updates on Princeton-Stony Brook. Princeton was ahead big in the first half and then, when he came back to see what was going on, saw the Tigers were down 15-14 with a little more than a minute left.
Ah, but there was hope. The last stat was a successful clear for Princeton.
Refresh. Refresh. Seven seconds left. Refresh. Still seven seconds left.
Refresh again. Goal. Tie game. Michael Sowers as time expired. And then overtime.
Stony Brook then won the face-off. Oh no. What next? But then Princeton got it back. And cleared it. And then it was Chris Brown from Alex Slusher. Goal. Princeton wins 16-15.
Oh wait. None of it was real.
TB knew that the whole time. He was angry at himself each time he hit refresh. But still, he did it.
Worse than that, he even considered what stories he would have written had Princeton lost 15-14 or won 16-15.
He's not sure if it makes him feel any better, but he's spoken to several Division I coaches and athletic communications people who are doing the same thing and are just as annoyed at themselves for doing it.
The question is why does a simulated game or a simulated car race bring out real emotions?
He hasn't really been able to figure out why. Is it that he misses the season and is happy that there is anything at all that passes for lacrosse news these days? Is it because of all of the sports movies that he's watched that have blurred the line a bit between what's real and what isn't?
Is it that he - and the others he's spoken to - are so invested in their teams that any loss, even a fictional one, is bothersome?
It's not just simulated games.
The good people at US Lacrosse have a virtual NCAA tournament bracket and competition that is starting. You can vote today for the Princeton men and the Princeton women, in fact, by going HERE.
When TB first saw the link, he clicked on it hoping to see the Tigers in both fields. Again, why?
And why was he happy to see the men seeded fifth (taking on UMass, with a possible game against Penn State after that). In fact, he wondered where the quarterfinal round would have been.
Seriously. That was his first thought.
As for the women, they would have been in Syracuse to play Penn State, with the winner to face the Orange. Both Princeton teams were at-large selections, meaning neither "won" the league tournament.
The regular season? No way to know.
Then again, a reminder - none of this is real.
But it still gets the emotions going in everyone who sees it, and nobody seems to be able to look away.
Why? Does it matter?
Whatever it is, he will be just as annoyed this afternoon, when he checks on the simulated Princeton-Siena game that he otherwise would have been at today in Loudonville. Face-off would have been at 4.
Monday, April 6, 2020
Hey Russell, Need Any New Stuff?
TigerBlog awoke yesterday to an email calling his attention to a tweet from Russell Crowe, of all people.
Russell played John Nash in the Academy Award-winning movie "A Beautiful Mind," which was filmed on the Princeton campus. Here's the tweet:
That's great stuff.
As TB remembers it, Joe Rosenbaum was an extra in that movie. Rosenbaum was also a standout longstick midfielder in Princeton's men's lacrosse Class of 2003.
He won an NCAA championship with the Tigers in 2001 and played in the 2000 and 2002 NCAA championship games as well. Now it's 17 years later.
Really?
TigerBlog remembers when that class arrived on the campus as the top class in the country that year. Rosenbaum came to Princeton as one of three players from McDonogh School in Baltimore, along with Owen Daly (who would go on to marry one of TB's former co-workers in the Office of Athletic Communications, Kim Milardo) and Brad Dumont.
Their class also included, among others, another Baltimore player, Damien Davis, who 1) played at Gilman and 2) is one half of the answer of an upcoming trivia question that TB will offer you in a few paragraphs.
Who else was in that class?
Sean Hartofilis, for one, whom TB has long considered the most underrated men's lacrosse player he's seen at Princeton in all his time with the team. A lefty attackman from St. Anthony's on Long Island, Hartofilis, now a filmmaker, scored 126 goals at Princeton, still ranking him fourth all-time. Of those 126 goals, he scored 27 in NCAA tournament games.
Last week Joe emailed TigerBlog looking to see if he had a copy of the 2002 roster that he could forward. When TB went to send it to him, he looked through to see if he could match the players from the 2003 season to the high schools they attended.
He got about 50 percent of them correct. And a few others that he got wrong he remembered essentially what their hometowns were.
TB wasn't surprised he could do that. What surprises him is where his memory is strongest.
For instance, he can remember high schools and hometowns, and he can remember scores and game details from years ago. He's really good with remembering uniform numbers players wore decades ago.
What he's not good at is remembering what someone's class year was.
For some reason, he always struggles with this. Were they Class of 2008 or 2009? He's not great with that. He can remember groups of teammates, but he can't always remember which group of teammates came when.
Meanwhile, back at the trivia question TB promised ...
Inside Lacrosse released its women's and men's All-American teams as voted by the media last week. Again, this was supposed the middle of the season, rather than All-American time, but 2020 is unlike any other year.
The Ivy League has already decided it will not be doing all-league teams for the spring season. The USILA and the IWLCA won't be doing their All-American teams either.
When was the last time the USILA did not have men's All-Americans? How about 1921.
TB understands both sides of the coin on this one. There's the side that says that less than 50 percent of the season was played. The other says that the historical record is important, and not doing something for the first time since 1921 is quite unfortunate.
There have been All-Ivy League men's lacrosse teams every year since 1957 and All-Ivy League women's lacrosse teams every year since 1980. In fact, those first two All-Ivy League women's teams featured a first-team selection from Harvard named Chris Sailer.
As for the Inside Lacrosse teams, Princeton had six selections. Marge Donovan and Kyla Sears were second-team selections for the women. Connor McCarthy and Jake Stevens were honorable mention selections for the men.
Michael Sowers was a first-team selection. So too was George Baughan, the junior who is as good an on-ball defender as TB has seen at Princeton since David Morrow back in the early 1990s, up there with anyone else, including first-team All-Americans like Davis and Chad Wiedmaier (he was Class of 2012; TB can remember that one easily enough).
He would have loved to see the unbeaten and third-ranked Tigers have additional selections, especially longstick midfielder Andrew Song and attackman Chris Brown, both of whom play at an All-American level game after game.
Oh, and the trivia question.
With Sowers and Baughan on first-team, when was the last time Princeton had a first-team All-American attackman and defenseman in the same year? It was Davis and Ryan Boyle in 2003.
Before that, you go back to 1998, with Jon Hess and Jesse Hubbard on attack and Christian Cook on defense.
If you want to go back further, there was the duo of Kevin Lowe on attack and Todd Higgins on defense in 1994. The one before that was in 1953 (Bo Willis attack, Dave Tait defense).
In other words, it doesn't happen very often.
And Russell, reach out. Princeton lacrosse will hook you up.
Russell played John Nash in the Academy Award-winning movie "A Beautiful Mind," which was filmed on the Princeton campus. Here's the tweet:
Hope you’re all staying safe @russellcrowe and let us know if you need any new stuff. https://t.co/T3tSRcMEWG— Princeton Lacrosse (@TigerLacrosse) April 5, 2020
That's great stuff.
As TB remembers it, Joe Rosenbaum was an extra in that movie. Rosenbaum was also a standout longstick midfielder in Princeton's men's lacrosse Class of 2003.
He won an NCAA championship with the Tigers in 2001 and played in the 2000 and 2002 NCAA championship games as well. Now it's 17 years later.
Really?
TigerBlog remembers when that class arrived on the campus as the top class in the country that year. Rosenbaum came to Princeton as one of three players from McDonogh School in Baltimore, along with Owen Daly (who would go on to marry one of TB's former co-workers in the Office of Athletic Communications, Kim Milardo) and Brad Dumont.
Their class also included, among others, another Baltimore player, Damien Davis, who 1) played at Gilman and 2) is one half of the answer of an upcoming trivia question that TB will offer you in a few paragraphs.
Who else was in that class?
Sean Hartofilis, for one, whom TB has long considered the most underrated men's lacrosse player he's seen at Princeton in all his time with the team. A lefty attackman from St. Anthony's on Long Island, Hartofilis, now a filmmaker, scored 126 goals at Princeton, still ranking him fourth all-time. Of those 126 goals, he scored 27 in NCAA tournament games.
Last week Joe emailed TigerBlog looking to see if he had a copy of the 2002 roster that he could forward. When TB went to send it to him, he looked through to see if he could match the players from the 2003 season to the high schools they attended.
He got about 50 percent of them correct. And a few others that he got wrong he remembered essentially what their hometowns were.
TB wasn't surprised he could do that. What surprises him is where his memory is strongest.
For instance, he can remember high schools and hometowns, and he can remember scores and game details from years ago. He's really good with remembering uniform numbers players wore decades ago.
What he's not good at is remembering what someone's class year was.
For some reason, he always struggles with this. Were they Class of 2008 or 2009? He's not great with that. He can remember groups of teammates, but he can't always remember which group of teammates came when.
Meanwhile, back at the trivia question TB promised ...
Inside Lacrosse released its women's and men's All-American teams as voted by the media last week. Again, this was supposed the middle of the season, rather than All-American time, but 2020 is unlike any other year.
The Ivy League has already decided it will not be doing all-league teams for the spring season. The USILA and the IWLCA won't be doing their All-American teams either.
When was the last time the USILA did not have men's All-Americans? How about 1921.
TB understands both sides of the coin on this one. There's the side that says that less than 50 percent of the season was played. The other says that the historical record is important, and not doing something for the first time since 1921 is quite unfortunate.
There have been All-Ivy League men's lacrosse teams every year since 1957 and All-Ivy League women's lacrosse teams every year since 1980. In fact, those first two All-Ivy League women's teams featured a first-team selection from Harvard named Chris Sailer.
As for the Inside Lacrosse teams, Princeton had six selections. Marge Donovan and Kyla Sears were second-team selections for the women. Connor McCarthy and Jake Stevens were honorable mention selections for the men.
Michael Sowers was a first-team selection. So too was George Baughan, the junior who is as good an on-ball defender as TB has seen at Princeton since David Morrow back in the early 1990s, up there with anyone else, including first-team All-Americans like Davis and Chad Wiedmaier (he was Class of 2012; TB can remember that one easily enough).
He would have loved to see the unbeaten and third-ranked Tigers have additional selections, especially longstick midfielder Andrew Song and attackman Chris Brown, both of whom play at an All-American level game after game.
Oh, and the trivia question.
With Sowers and Baughan on first-team, when was the last time Princeton had a first-team All-American attackman and defenseman in the same year? It was Davis and Ryan Boyle in 2003.
Before that, you go back to 1998, with Jon Hess and Jesse Hubbard on attack and Christian Cook on defense.
If you want to go back further, there was the duo of Kevin Lowe on attack and Todd Higgins on defense in 1994. The one before that was in 1953 (Bo Willis attack, Dave Tait defense).
In other words, it doesn't happen very often.
And Russell, reach out. Princeton lacrosse will hook you up.
Friday, April 3, 2020
Blog 3K
TigerBlog had several Zoom meetings yesterday, including an all-staff one in which there were thumbnails of all of his colleagues whom he hasn't seen in, what's it been?, months, years?
Actually, if you can believe it, TigerBlog was thinking about how four weeks ago this evening was the night he sat on his couch and watched Princeton women's basketball (Bella Alarie broke the school career points record), men's basketball (Princeton big over Columbia) and men's hockey (first-round ECAC win at Dartmouth).
Does it seem like only four weeks? No. It seems like another time from another world.
Another of TB's calls yesterday, by the way, involved head football coach Bob Surace, and a few others. TB asked them all the same trivia question:
"Only two switch-hitters in Major League history reached 3,000 hits. Can you name them?"
Only Coach Surace got them both: Pete Rose and Eddie Murray. Impressive.
Murray, by the way, is the only player ever to have at least 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. That's even more impressive for a switch-hitter.
In case you're wondering, Murray hit 504 career home runs, with 362 lefthanded and 142 righthanded.
Stats are fascinating things. In Princeton Athletic history, there are just some that leap out of the record books - Bill Bradley had 2,503 career points, Keith Elias ran for 4,208 yards, Leslie Robinson had the first triple-double in Princeton basketball history. TB could go on for awhile.
As you probably figured out a long time ago, TigerBlog loves statistics, something that stems from an even greater passion for numbers, patterns and algorithms.
Where this came from he's not sure, but it likely has something to do with the fact that numbers are finite for the most part. They offer clarity and certainty and in an ever spinning world they can offer comfort.
With that as a backdrop, you might be interested to know that this is the 3,000th entry in TigerBlog history.
He doesn't tell you this for recognition, but rather to demonstrate how important this is to him and how appreciative he is of all of you out there who read it every day. Without your feedback and readership TB isn't sure he'd be so dogged in his consistency, but aside from his own personal sense of accomplishment, he loves your comments and support.
The blog was born on Aug. 28, 2008, with no actual purpose other than to say Princeton Athletics had a blog. At the time, who knew what it might become?
At first, it was used for in-game blogging and some small messages. As TB has said before, nobody was reading it then, and it almost simply went by the wayside until TB hit on the idea of using it as a story-telling venture.
From that point, things started to take off a bit. It was a few months until it became a daily venture, and that's where it stays now, without having missed a business day in more than 11 years.
The 1,000th entry was on May 17, 2012. The 2,000th was on May 2, 2016. Now it's 3,000.
If he had to guess, TB would say that he's written 2,800 of them. There were the early ones, that were most the short blurbs and in-game ones. There have been some guest spots through the years, for which he thanks everyone who has ever submitted one, especially Jim Barlow, Tad La Fountain, David Rosenfeld, Craig Sachson and Howard Levy. He also would like to thank the two Princeton Ford Family Directors of Athletics who have allowed it and seen its value, Gary Walters and Mollie Marcoux Samaan.
Every blog is archived here. They're not all worth going back and reading, but some are.
The best have always been the personal ones, the emotional ones, whoever the subjects have been. They have been the ones that have been the best-received, and they've been the ones that have really helped TB explain why Princeton Athletics - and what it has always represented - has been so special to him for more than 30 years now.
When TB first saw what day the 3,000th blog would fall on, he thought he'd be writing it in advance of a really busy spring athletic weekend. Now he's writing it in the middle of a pandemic that has brought athletics to a halt.
And while that may be true, what is even more obvious is that the connections that athletics foster are strong than ever. In these times, there have been all kinds of stories and all kinds of social media that prove that is the case.
As TB has been saying, staying connected now is more important than ever.
So again, he thanks everyone for staying connected with him all these years and through to the present. He's ready to start on the next 1,000 come Monday.
In the meantime, stay safe. And thanks for reading.
Actually, if you can believe it, TigerBlog was thinking about how four weeks ago this evening was the night he sat on his couch and watched Princeton women's basketball (Bella Alarie broke the school career points record), men's basketball (Princeton big over Columbia) and men's hockey (first-round ECAC win at Dartmouth).
Does it seem like only four weeks? No. It seems like another time from another world.
Another of TB's calls yesterday, by the way, involved head football coach Bob Surace, and a few others. TB asked them all the same trivia question:
"Only two switch-hitters in Major League history reached 3,000 hits. Can you name them?"
Only Coach Surace got them both: Pete Rose and Eddie Murray. Impressive.
Murray, by the way, is the only player ever to have at least 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. That's even more impressive for a switch-hitter.
In case you're wondering, Murray hit 504 career home runs, with 362 lefthanded and 142 righthanded.
Stats are fascinating things. In Princeton Athletic history, there are just some that leap out of the record books - Bill Bradley had 2,503 career points, Keith Elias ran for 4,208 yards, Leslie Robinson had the first triple-double in Princeton basketball history. TB could go on for awhile.
As you probably figured out a long time ago, TigerBlog loves statistics, something that stems from an even greater passion for numbers, patterns and algorithms.
Where this came from he's not sure, but it likely has something to do with the fact that numbers are finite for the most part. They offer clarity and certainty and in an ever spinning world they can offer comfort.
With that as a backdrop, you might be interested to know that this is the 3,000th entry in TigerBlog history.
He doesn't tell you this for recognition, but rather to demonstrate how important this is to him and how appreciative he is of all of you out there who read it every day. Without your feedback and readership TB isn't sure he'd be so dogged in his consistency, but aside from his own personal sense of accomplishment, he loves your comments and support.
The blog was born on Aug. 28, 2008, with no actual purpose other than to say Princeton Athletics had a blog. At the time, who knew what it might become?
At first, it was used for in-game blogging and some small messages. As TB has said before, nobody was reading it then, and it almost simply went by the wayside until TB hit on the idea of using it as a story-telling venture.
From that point, things started to take off a bit. It was a few months until it became a daily venture, and that's where it stays now, without having missed a business day in more than 11 years.
The 1,000th entry was on May 17, 2012. The 2,000th was on May 2, 2016. Now it's 3,000.
If he had to guess, TB would say that he's written 2,800 of them. There were the early ones, that were most the short blurbs and in-game ones. There have been some guest spots through the years, for which he thanks everyone who has ever submitted one, especially Jim Barlow, Tad La Fountain, David Rosenfeld, Craig Sachson and Howard Levy. He also would like to thank the two Princeton Ford Family Directors of Athletics who have allowed it and seen its value, Gary Walters and Mollie Marcoux Samaan.
Every blog is archived here. They're not all worth going back and reading, but some are.
The best have always been the personal ones, the emotional ones, whoever the subjects have been. They have been the ones that have been the best-received, and they've been the ones that have really helped TB explain why Princeton Athletics - and what it has always represented - has been so special to him for more than 30 years now.
When TB first saw what day the 3,000th blog would fall on, he thought he'd be writing it in advance of a really busy spring athletic weekend. Now he's writing it in the middle of a pandemic that has brought athletics to a halt.
And while that may be true, what is even more obvious is that the connections that athletics foster are strong than ever. In these times, there have been all kinds of stories and all kinds of social media that prove that is the case.
As TB has been saying, staying connected now is more important than ever.
So again, he thanks everyone for staying connected with him all these years and through to the present. He's ready to start on the next 1,000 come Monday.
In the meantime, stay safe. And thanks for reading.
Thursday, April 2, 2020
The Real Heroes
A quick search of his archives here reveals that TigerBlog has been judicious in his use of the word "heroic" through the years.
He's glad to be able to say that.
It probably comes from his mother, who was pretty clear with him - and with her own work with paralyzed veterans - that it's not a word to be thrown around lightly.
The last person that TigerBlog referred to as a hero before today was back in November, when he mentioned Hobey Baker and the "heroic" status he achieved mostly through his post-Princeton military career.
Before that, it was a month earlier, in a reference to Tyler Campbell, Class of 1943, who was killed during World War II. Before that, it was talking about his friend Steve DiGregorio and his wife Nadia in their fight against the rare disease that their son Derek, another hero, has had to face for most of his 22 years. Then it was the people who rescued those stranded in Houston during Hurricane Harvey.
TigerBlog was thinking about heroes yesterday, after he heard the news that Evan Garfein had tested positive for the Coronavirus. It came by a post from his sister, herself a doctor, and then several others alerted TB.
It was just a week ago that TB wrote about Garfein, a plastic surgeon in New York City who had been pressed into emergency duty treating COVID-19 patients for 12 hour shifts.
Garfein is a 1992 Princeton graduate and an NCAA champion with the men's lacrosse team his senior year. He spoke with TB about the lessons he learned as a lacrosse player, one who worked hard to maximize every ounce of his ability and go from a walk-on for a team that was 2-13 the year before he got there to someone who was on the field in the 10-9 double overtime win over Syracuse on Memorial Day 1992.
His Princeton coach, Bill Tierney, spoke glowingly of Garfein's character and his impact on the team when TB spoke to him last week. Even now, 28 years later, Garfein's role on that first NCAA championship team resonated with the Hall-of-Fame coach.
You can read the story HERE.
If you don't want to read the story, here's how it ended:
Heroes. They're not always the ones who score the winning goals. They are the ones who are there when you need them most. These days, Evan Garfein is one of the heroes in a place and time that desperately needs them.
This was that time.
And so he became the hero that New York needed. And now he's sick.
He knew that there was a pretty good possibility that would happen. He mentioned it when he and TigerBlog spoke last week.
He went into those emergency room shifts anyway.
Who knows how many people he helped, even saved, during his time there. They certainly appreciate that he was there.
The country, in fact the world, is filled now with people who are walking into hospitals to do their parts. They're not all doctors and nurses either. They're hospital staff, researchers, cleaning people, anyone who is vital to the effort to end this madness.
TigerBlog knows some of them. He has a friend named Lisa who is a nurse near Albany who also got sick. He has another friend named Tabitha in Chicago who is also a nurse. She keeps heading in to take care of the ones who need it, doing whatever she can.
Everyone has these stories. Everyone knows someone, or knows someone who knows someone.
They deserve your highest level of respect. They deserve everyone's highest level of respect.
TigerBlog had another entry all written and ready to go before he heard the news about Dr. Garfein. He wondered for a minute if it was appropriate to swap that out and write this.
He decided, obviously, to write this. Why? Because of the same reason that he wrote the original story.
These are times unlike any other that have come along, maybe ever. Most of the world is locked down at home, trying to get work done, watching kids, trying to exercise, trying to have a little fun. watching a lot of TV and spending a lot of time on Zoom.
There are others, though, who are walking straight into the fire. In many ways, they're like the firefighters on 9/11, doing what needs to be done and great personal risk.
When this is over, there will be a lot of people alive who literally will owe their lives to the medical personnel who are currently working those 12-hour shifts. Evan Garfein is one of them.
TB wishes him the best. Get well soon.
After all, there are a shortage of real heroes out there.
He's glad to be able to say that.
It probably comes from his mother, who was pretty clear with him - and with her own work with paralyzed veterans - that it's not a word to be thrown around lightly.
The last person that TigerBlog referred to as a hero before today was back in November, when he mentioned Hobey Baker and the "heroic" status he achieved mostly through his post-Princeton military career.
Before that, it was a month earlier, in a reference to Tyler Campbell, Class of 1943, who was killed during World War II. Before that, it was talking about his friend Steve DiGregorio and his wife Nadia in their fight against the rare disease that their son Derek, another hero, has had to face for most of his 22 years. Then it was the people who rescued those stranded in Houston during Hurricane Harvey.
TigerBlog was thinking about heroes yesterday, after he heard the news that Evan Garfein had tested positive for the Coronavirus. It came by a post from his sister, herself a doctor, and then several others alerted TB.
It was just a week ago that TB wrote about Garfein, a plastic surgeon in New York City who had been pressed into emergency duty treating COVID-19 patients for 12 hour shifts.
Garfein is a 1992 Princeton graduate and an NCAA champion with the men's lacrosse team his senior year. He spoke with TB about the lessons he learned as a lacrosse player, one who worked hard to maximize every ounce of his ability and go from a walk-on for a team that was 2-13 the year before he got there to someone who was on the field in the 10-9 double overtime win over Syracuse on Memorial Day 1992.
His Princeton coach, Bill Tierney, spoke glowingly of Garfein's character and his impact on the team when TB spoke to him last week. Even now, 28 years later, Garfein's role on that first NCAA championship team resonated with the Hall-of-Fame coach.
You can read the story HERE.
If you don't want to read the story, here's how it ended:
Heroes. They're not always the ones who score the winning goals. They are the ones who are there when you need them most. These days, Evan Garfein is one of the heroes in a place and time that desperately needs them.
This was that time.
And so he became the hero that New York needed. And now he's sick.
He knew that there was a pretty good possibility that would happen. He mentioned it when he and TigerBlog spoke last week.
He went into those emergency room shifts anyway.
Who knows how many people he helped, even saved, during his time there. They certainly appreciate that he was there.
The country, in fact the world, is filled now with people who are walking into hospitals to do their parts. They're not all doctors and nurses either. They're hospital staff, researchers, cleaning people, anyone who is vital to the effort to end this madness.
TigerBlog knows some of them. He has a friend named Lisa who is a nurse near Albany who also got sick. He has another friend named Tabitha in Chicago who is also a nurse. She keeps heading in to take care of the ones who need it, doing whatever she can.
Everyone has these stories. Everyone knows someone, or knows someone who knows someone.
They deserve your highest level of respect. They deserve everyone's highest level of respect.
TigerBlog had another entry all written and ready to go before he heard the news about Dr. Garfein. He wondered for a minute if it was appropriate to swap that out and write this.
He decided, obviously, to write this. Why? Because of the same reason that he wrote the original story.
These are times unlike any other that have come along, maybe ever. Most of the world is locked down at home, trying to get work done, watching kids, trying to exercise, trying to have a little fun. watching a lot of TV and spending a lot of time on Zoom.
There are others, though, who are walking straight into the fire. In many ways, they're like the firefighters on 9/11, doing what needs to be done and great personal risk.
When this is over, there will be a lot of people alive who literally will owe their lives to the medical personnel who are currently working those 12-hour shifts. Evan Garfein is one of them.
TB wishes him the best. Get well soon.
After all, there are a shortage of real heroes out there.
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Fact Checking
TigerBlog gets some very random inquiries requesting all kinds of random information.
He's gotten a bunch of emails and calls from hiring managers fact-checking resumes. Let that be a lesson to everyone out there applying for jobs; they are checking out what you're saying.
And speaking of fact-checking, TB has a great story from a long time ago about a different sort of inquiry.
Back in the 1990s or so, he received a call from a seemingly young woman who wanted to know if a certain person had been an All-American fencer. It seemed innocuous enough, so TB looked up the information.
That was before these things were on a webpage, which has certainly cut down on the phone calls.
When TB went to check the record book, he learned in fact that the person was not a fencing All-American. For that matter, he was not a men's fencing letterwinner.
When TB mentioned that to the young woman, she asked if he had a way to check to see if the person had gone to Princeton. It turned out that he hadn't.
By now, TB's curiosity was peeked, so he asked what the purpose was.
To paraphrase, the woman said that she and her friends had been out the night before in a bar in New York City and a young man told her that he had been an All-American fencer at Princeton in the course of their, um, conversation. She was calling his bluff - and presumably not calling him ever again after that.
At the time, and now for that matter, TB thinks it was a pretty sharp move by the prospective suitor.
If he said that he was the captain of the football team, she wouldn't have bought that too easily. Princeton. Fencer. Sure, why not.
Even if he flopped.
TB has no way of knowing if this next story is true, but he did hear it once and it does seem plausible. An old friend of his was in a bar listening to another young man trying to impress another young woman, and he told her that he was a former Major League Baseball player. Not believing it for a second, TB's friend asked him who he got his first Major League hit off of, and when the guy stumbled and didn't immediately have the answer, TB's friend called him out and said he was full of it, causing the young woman to flee.
Of course, it's easy to assume that everyone who ever played in the Major Leagues can recall who his first hit was against, or, for pitchers, who the first batter he struck out was. To test this, TB asked a former Major Leaguer, Scott Bradley, if he could remember whom his first hit was against.
This was the response:
"First hit was against the Blue Jays in old Exhibition Stadium. Pitcher was Louis Leal! Ground ball between first and second. Was my third major league at bat!! Remember it like it was yesterday!!"
Bradley, of course, is Princeton's long-time baseball coach.
Bradley was a lefthanded hitting catcher, which is a rare and valuable commodity. He was a career .257 hitter in nine Major League seasons, and he played in more than 100 games in four straight years with the Mariners from 1987-90.
The highlight of that time was June 2, 1990, when he caught a no-hitter thrown by Randy Johnson. He would go on to coach Ross Ohlendorf at Princeton, and Ohlendorf was once part of a trade for Johnson.
Bradley has won 413 games in 22 seasons as Princeton head coach, trailing only the 564 that Bill Clarke won in 36 years as Tiger head coach. He has taken Princeton to seven NCAA tournaments, most recently in 2016 at Louisiana-Lafayette, and he has turned out an army of professional players, including several Major Leaguers and a World Series champion in Chris Young.
You don't have to email anyone. All of those facts are correct.
And there it for today, which is Wednesday, right? If you're like TB, you're having trouble remembering which day is which in these surreal times.
Stay safe.
He's gotten a bunch of emails and calls from hiring managers fact-checking resumes. Let that be a lesson to everyone out there applying for jobs; they are checking out what you're saying.
And speaking of fact-checking, TB has a great story from a long time ago about a different sort of inquiry.
Back in the 1990s or so, he received a call from a seemingly young woman who wanted to know if a certain person had been an All-American fencer. It seemed innocuous enough, so TB looked up the information.
That was before these things were on a webpage, which has certainly cut down on the phone calls.
When TB went to check the record book, he learned in fact that the person was not a fencing All-American. For that matter, he was not a men's fencing letterwinner.
When TB mentioned that to the young woman, she asked if he had a way to check to see if the person had gone to Princeton. It turned out that he hadn't.
By now, TB's curiosity was peeked, so he asked what the purpose was.
To paraphrase, the woman said that she and her friends had been out the night before in a bar in New York City and a young man told her that he had been an All-American fencer at Princeton in the course of their, um, conversation. She was calling his bluff - and presumably not calling him ever again after that.
At the time, and now for that matter, TB thinks it was a pretty sharp move by the prospective suitor.
If he said that he was the captain of the football team, she wouldn't have bought that too easily. Princeton. Fencer. Sure, why not.
Even if he flopped.
TB has no way of knowing if this next story is true, but he did hear it once and it does seem plausible. An old friend of his was in a bar listening to another young man trying to impress another young woman, and he told her that he was a former Major League Baseball player. Not believing it for a second, TB's friend asked him who he got his first Major League hit off of, and when the guy stumbled and didn't immediately have the answer, TB's friend called him out and said he was full of it, causing the young woman to flee.
Of course, it's easy to assume that everyone who ever played in the Major Leagues can recall who his first hit was against, or, for pitchers, who the first batter he struck out was. To test this, TB asked a former Major Leaguer, Scott Bradley, if he could remember whom his first hit was against.
This was the response:
"First hit was against the Blue Jays in old Exhibition Stadium. Pitcher was Louis Leal! Ground ball between first and second. Was my third major league at bat!! Remember it like it was yesterday!!"
Bradley, of course, is Princeton's long-time baseball coach.
Bradley was a lefthanded hitting catcher, which is a rare and valuable commodity. He was a career .257 hitter in nine Major League seasons, and he played in more than 100 games in four straight years with the Mariners from 1987-90.
The highlight of that time was June 2, 1990, when he caught a no-hitter thrown by Randy Johnson. He would go on to coach Ross Ohlendorf at Princeton, and Ohlendorf was once part of a trade for Johnson.
Bradley has won 413 games in 22 seasons as Princeton head coach, trailing only the 564 that Bill Clarke won in 36 years as Tiger head coach. He has taken Princeton to seven NCAA tournaments, most recently in 2016 at Louisiana-Lafayette, and he has turned out an army of professional players, including several Major Leaguers and a World Series champion in Chris Young.
You don't have to email anyone. All of those facts are correct.
And there it for today, which is Wednesday, right? If you're like TB, you're having trouble remembering which day is which in these surreal times.
Stay safe.
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