With apologies to everyone else who has ever recorded music and to everyone else's musical taste, it will be impossible to prove to TigerBlog that anyone has ever done it better than Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
Sorry, Sinatra. And Elvis. And the Beatles and the Stones. And Train.
TB's favorite songs by the Boss are "Born to Run" and "Thunder Road," though there are about 25 others that can be found near the top of the all-time leaderboard. One of those is "The Land Of Hope Of Dreams."
So imagine TB's surprise to learn that a song called "The Land Of Hope And Glory" is a section of the March No. 1 in D, by an Englishman named Edward Elgar. March No. 1 in D, at least according to Wikipedia, is the actual name of "Pomp And Circumstance," the graduation march that is currently near the top of the charts at high schools and colleges all over the country.
Also according to that Wikipedia story, it was first used to honor Elger during Yale's 1905 graduation. Who knew?
Yesterday was graduation day here at Princeton. As always, the ceremony was held outside on the green in front of Nassau Hall.
TigerBlog isn't a huge fan of "goodbyes," since those are never what stand out. Anytime TB thinks about a person, he never thinks about the "goodbye;" it's always the stuff that preceded the goodbye that stands out.
It's the same with graduation. The ceremony itself is nice, but it's probably not going to be the first thing any 2010 grad is going to think of when he/she looks back on the road that took them there.
Princeton graduated 1,166 undergrads and 804 graduate students during yesterday's ceremony. Of the 1,166 undergrads, 204 (if TB has counted correctly) were varsity athletes at the end of their senior years.
A year ago, when TB wrote about graduation, he went back to the releases on goprincetontigers.com announcing the incoming recruits who had just received diplomas to see what was said about them.
He thought about doing that again this year, and he saw that Alicia Aemisegger was supposed to be good and that Cam MacIntyre was going to be a physical presence. Some of the other words were more basic, such as calling Liz Costello a strong addition to the program.
Instead of going through all of those releases, though, TB found himself instead looking through the year-by-year archives of a bunch of different sports.
It was an interesting exercise for TB, and it must be a wild experience to any of the athletes who lived it. Think about it. Every single competition that every Princeton athlete of the Class of 2010 (and classes dating back to the 2002 or so) went through is up there on the site, ready to be relived at any moment.
Imagine being able to trace your experience like that. The great wins. The tough losses. The day you got hurt. The one game that will stay with you forever. The best performance you ever had.
It's all up there for the whole world to see. It's the nature of athletics, to study (practice) in private and take exams (competitions) in public.
Ultimately, of course, all of those experiences add together and become a part of the learning process, the maturation of those who went through it.
And that's what Princeton athletics is really all about. Education.
Graduation day serves as a crystal clear reminder of that. So does a stroll through the archives on the website.
All of the 204 graduation athletes, as well as the ones who left their teams before the end of their senior years, came here somewhat uncertain and wide-eyed to begin their college life. The graduates who leave here now head off in different directions, to be reunited at Reunions and at weddings and whatever other events are calling them down the road.
Each has been shaped by their time here, athletically and otherwise.
Good luck to them all.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Ernie, Are You There?
The Duke lockerroom and the Notre Dame lockerroom underneath M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore yesterday evening were separated by about 10 yards in distance and about 10 light-years in emotion.
The Notre Dame players came out of their room, dressed in suits and ties, holding bags and sticks, with glassy eyes, saying nothing. To get to their bus, they had to go to the left, a path that took them past where Duke was celebrating its first NCAA men's lacrosse championship.
The Duke players, in 180 degree contrast to the Irish, were all smiles, all laughs, all hugs, all screams. They wore hats and t-shirts that said "2010 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Champion" on them.
At the end of a steamy day in Baltimore, it was all so simple: Duke won, Notre Dame lost. For those keeping score, it was 6-5 Blue Devils in the lowest scoring Division I men's lacrosse final ever.
Princeton coach Chris Bates said after the Irish defeated Princeton 8-5 in the opening round that "the finality of it was hard to stomach." It's even more final at the final, especially one that went the way that yesterday's did.
Notre Dame was led by its horse, goalie Scott Rodgers, who made 15 saves and became the first player from the team that did not win the championship to earn Most Outstanding Player honors since Michael Watson of Virginia won in 1996 after scoring five goals in the Cavs' 13-12 loss to Princeton in the championship game.
Still, there was nothing Rodgers could do to change the ending, not when Duke longstick C.J. Costabile won the overtime face-off clean, got a step to the inside and then ripped one into the top of the goal just five seconds into the overtime.
TigerBlog stood in the hallway between the two lockerrooms for about 15 minutes after the game ended and just marveled at the contrast. It's hard enough to get all the way to the final and lose; it's even more crushing to do so in overtime.
Princeton has won four of its six NCAA men's lacrosse titles in overtime, and the euphoria is unmatched. So is the drama that builds to it.
In the case of the Notre Dame-Duke final, the overtime - and Notre Dame's chances at the title - were gone in a blink.
TigerBlog saw all four Notre Dame playoff games (and three of Duke's), and he can't remember seeing a goalie who carried his team through a tournament the way Rodgers did. The end was almost unfair for him, as it was an unstoppable shot that came whistling at him off the draw. TB was pretty sure before the OT that Notre Dame was going to win, because he thought that Rodgers and his defense would stifle any 6-on-6 situation. Turns out that it never came to that.
For lacrosse, the weekend in Baltimore was a pretty good one, with 44,389 for the semifinals Saturday, 20,734 for the Division III and Division II finals Sunday and 37,126 for the final Monday.
For TB, this Final Four was the 16th in the last 19 years that he has been to, including each of the last seven. The only years in that stretch he's missed are 1995, 1999 and 2003, the only ones between 1992 and 2004 that Princeton was not in.
In those 19 years, the final has been decided by one goal 11 times, or nearly 60% of the time. Of those 19, six have gone to overtime.
Can any other championship event match that level of closeness and drama year-in, year-out?
Another beautiful part of the tournament is that, unlike maybe any other major sporting event (defined as drawing huge crowds to a major venue and being shown on ESPN or another major network), there is so little of the excess that destroys so many others.
There are not endless TV timeouts. There isn't a 9 p.m. start with an end that goes well past 11. There is hardly a sense of over-commercialization. The games are the show; they're not turned into a sidebar in favor of the production itself.
Even instant replay wasn't overused. In fact, there was one time in the five games that replay was used, and it was to confirm the fact that a goal came after the halftime horn for the D-II title game. There was no delay in the game, no destroying the flow of the play, no obvious attempt by the refs to make themselves bigger than the event.
Since 2005, TB has worked doing stats at the Final Four along with other members of the Princeton staff. It's a great way to spend Memorial Day weekend, and he's had a perfect view of some of the greatest games the sport has had.
The stat booth featured one person who did the entering on the computer, one person who called out the stats, one person on the headset to the TV truck, one person doing player participation and another on the headset to the field to confirm goals, assists and penalties and to give the person who entered the stats the updated season goal and assist totals. That last person was TigerBlog Jr., who was working his fifth Final Four.
TBJ had his headset on, and he in four of five games he was talking to Johns Hopkins Association Athletic Director Ernie Larossa, who was on the field. TBJ, ever diligent, spent much of the weekend making sure that Larossa was at his post, with a constant confirmation of "Ernie, are you there? Ernie, are you there?"
TB will remember the 2010 Final Four mostly for two things. The first is "Ernie, are you there," which will come to be a symbol of how much TB, TBJ and the rest of the people who work there enjoy the event.
The other is going to the silent ND players and the jubilant Duke ones, in their parallel universes separated by a short distance.
It's the way it works at the NCAA men's lacrosse championships, TigerBlog's favorite annual sporting event.
Of course, having Princeton in it next year would be okay as well.
The Notre Dame players came out of their room, dressed in suits and ties, holding bags and sticks, with glassy eyes, saying nothing. To get to their bus, they had to go to the left, a path that took them past where Duke was celebrating its first NCAA men's lacrosse championship.
The Duke players, in 180 degree contrast to the Irish, were all smiles, all laughs, all hugs, all screams. They wore hats and t-shirts that said "2010 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Champion" on them.
At the end of a steamy day in Baltimore, it was all so simple: Duke won, Notre Dame lost. For those keeping score, it was 6-5 Blue Devils in the lowest scoring Division I men's lacrosse final ever.
Princeton coach Chris Bates said after the Irish defeated Princeton 8-5 in the opening round that "the finality of it was hard to stomach." It's even more final at the final, especially one that went the way that yesterday's did.
Notre Dame was led by its horse, goalie Scott Rodgers, who made 15 saves and became the first player from the team that did not win the championship to earn Most Outstanding Player honors since Michael Watson of Virginia won in 1996 after scoring five goals in the Cavs' 13-12 loss to Princeton in the championship game.
Still, there was nothing Rodgers could do to change the ending, not when Duke longstick C.J. Costabile won the overtime face-off clean, got a step to the inside and then ripped one into the top of the goal just five seconds into the overtime.
TigerBlog stood in the hallway between the two lockerrooms for about 15 minutes after the game ended and just marveled at the contrast. It's hard enough to get all the way to the final and lose; it's even more crushing to do so in overtime.
Princeton has won four of its six NCAA men's lacrosse titles in overtime, and the euphoria is unmatched. So is the drama that builds to it.
In the case of the Notre Dame-Duke final, the overtime - and Notre Dame's chances at the title - were gone in a blink.
TigerBlog saw all four Notre Dame playoff games (and three of Duke's), and he can't remember seeing a goalie who carried his team through a tournament the way Rodgers did. The end was almost unfair for him, as it was an unstoppable shot that came whistling at him off the draw. TB was pretty sure before the OT that Notre Dame was going to win, because he thought that Rodgers and his defense would stifle any 6-on-6 situation. Turns out that it never came to that.
For lacrosse, the weekend in Baltimore was a pretty good one, with 44,389 for the semifinals Saturday, 20,734 for the Division III and Division II finals Sunday and 37,126 for the final Monday.
For TB, this Final Four was the 16th in the last 19 years that he has been to, including each of the last seven. The only years in that stretch he's missed are 1995, 1999 and 2003, the only ones between 1992 and 2004 that Princeton was not in.
In those 19 years, the final has been decided by one goal 11 times, or nearly 60% of the time. Of those 19, six have gone to overtime.
Can any other championship event match that level of closeness and drama year-in, year-out?
Another beautiful part of the tournament is that, unlike maybe any other major sporting event (defined as drawing huge crowds to a major venue and being shown on ESPN or another major network), there is so little of the excess that destroys so many others.
There are not endless TV timeouts. There isn't a 9 p.m. start with an end that goes well past 11. There is hardly a sense of over-commercialization. The games are the show; they're not turned into a sidebar in favor of the production itself.
Even instant replay wasn't overused. In fact, there was one time in the five games that replay was used, and it was to confirm the fact that a goal came after the halftime horn for the D-II title game. There was no delay in the game, no destroying the flow of the play, no obvious attempt by the refs to make themselves bigger than the event.
Since 2005, TB has worked doing stats at the Final Four along with other members of the Princeton staff. It's a great way to spend Memorial Day weekend, and he's had a perfect view of some of the greatest games the sport has had.
The stat booth featured one person who did the entering on the computer, one person who called out the stats, one person on the headset to the TV truck, one person doing player participation and another on the headset to the field to confirm goals, assists and penalties and to give the person who entered the stats the updated season goal and assist totals. That last person was TigerBlog Jr., who was working his fifth Final Four.
TBJ had his headset on, and he in four of five games he was talking to Johns Hopkins Association Athletic Director Ernie Larossa, who was on the field. TBJ, ever diligent, spent much of the weekend making sure that Larossa was at his post, with a constant confirmation of "Ernie, are you there? Ernie, are you there?"
TB will remember the 2010 Final Four mostly for two things. The first is "Ernie, are you there," which will come to be a symbol of how much TB, TBJ and the rest of the people who work there enjoy the event.
The other is going to the silent ND players and the jubilant Duke ones, in their parallel universes separated by a short distance.
It's the way it works at the NCAA men's lacrosse championships, TigerBlog's favorite annual sporting event.
Of course, having Princeton in it next year would be okay as well.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Oh Brother
BrotherBlog isn't a bad guy, even if he is a lawyer. He does something with the Washington State Legislature's House Democratic Caucus. It's not a political appointment, and he's busiest when the legislature is in session.
Unlike his more moderate brother, BB leans a little to the left.
TigerBlog is proud of his brother, who made a big career change in his 30s, going from his work with terminally ill children and their parents into the law, where he felt he could better serve as their advocate.
And, okay, he got a little bit away from that when he started working for a giant law firm defending a major corporation against law suits. Still, his new legal path seems a bit more in line with his original intent. Plus, he also teaches at the University of Washington Law School.
So, what's not to be proud of, right?
Of course, there aren't websites out there ripping his decisions (at least TB isn't aware of them), questioning his workplace strategies, wondering if he should have his current job and on and on.
And he's not out there teaching his classes or writing his legal briefs in front of, quite literally, the entire world.
And so TB can't really relate to what Scott Bradley is going through these days.
Scott Bradley is Princeton's ultra-successful baseball coach. Himself a former college star at North Carolina, Bradley played nearly 10 years in the Major Leagues, and he caught Randy Johnson's no-hitter while with the Seattle Mariners.
Hey, he even has his own page on Wikipedia.
These days, though, his level of fame pales in comparison to two, and possibly three, members of his immediate family.
Bradley has two brothers, both of whom will be spending the next few weeks far away from the family's home state of New Jersey. On the other side of the world, for that matter. All the way to South Africa and the 2010 World Cup.
Jeff Bradley is a senior writer for ESPN the Magazine who formerly wrote for Sports Illustrated; he will be covering the World Cup games there for ESPN and his blog.
And then there is Scott's other brother, and nephew. Bob Bradley is the head coach of the U.S. men's national team; Bob's son Michael is a midfielder on the team.
By now, the story of the U.S. team and its connections to Princeton is well known. Bob Bradley, of course, played at Princeton and then coached the team here to great success, including a run to the 1993 NCAA Final Four. Bradley also coached Jim Barlow, the current Princeton men's coach. Barlow coaches the U.S. U-15 national team, and he coached several members of the team that will play in South Africa.
None of that is what this is about.
This is about the Princeton baseball coach and how he wandered into HQ yesterday and talked about how his brother was about to coach the U.S. team in the world's biggest sporting event. And how his nephew is one of the team's keys to having a successful run.
After Scott Bradley left, TB started thinking about what that must be like. Here is your brother, whose every move is being scrutinized by the media, by fans posting comments under that scrutinization, even by TB, who asked Scott Bradley why Brian Ching didn't make the team.
Scott Bradley won't be making the trip to South Africa. Too far. Too expensive.
So he'll sit in front of his television and watch, like the rest of the world, to see what kind of performance the U.S. team puts forward. As TB said a week ago, the stakes are enormous for Bob Bradley. The reward can be immense.
Imagine watching your brother go through something like that.
Unlike his more moderate brother, BB leans a little to the left.
TigerBlog is proud of his brother, who made a big career change in his 30s, going from his work with terminally ill children and their parents into the law, where he felt he could better serve as their advocate.
And, okay, he got a little bit away from that when he started working for a giant law firm defending a major corporation against law suits. Still, his new legal path seems a bit more in line with his original intent. Plus, he also teaches at the University of Washington Law School.
So, what's not to be proud of, right?
Of course, there aren't websites out there ripping his decisions (at least TB isn't aware of them), questioning his workplace strategies, wondering if he should have his current job and on and on.
And he's not out there teaching his classes or writing his legal briefs in front of, quite literally, the entire world.
And so TB can't really relate to what Scott Bradley is going through these days.
Scott Bradley is Princeton's ultra-successful baseball coach. Himself a former college star at North Carolina, Bradley played nearly 10 years in the Major Leagues, and he caught Randy Johnson's no-hitter while with the Seattle Mariners.
Hey, he even has his own page on Wikipedia.
These days, though, his level of fame pales in comparison to two, and possibly three, members of his immediate family.
Bradley has two brothers, both of whom will be spending the next few weeks far away from the family's home state of New Jersey. On the other side of the world, for that matter. All the way to South Africa and the 2010 World Cup.
Jeff Bradley is a senior writer for ESPN the Magazine who formerly wrote for Sports Illustrated; he will be covering the World Cup games there for ESPN and his blog.
And then there is Scott's other brother, and nephew. Bob Bradley is the head coach of the U.S. men's national team; Bob's son Michael is a midfielder on the team.
By now, the story of the U.S. team and its connections to Princeton is well known. Bob Bradley, of course, played at Princeton and then coached the team here to great success, including a run to the 1993 NCAA Final Four. Bradley also coached Jim Barlow, the current Princeton men's coach. Barlow coaches the U.S. U-15 national team, and he coached several members of the team that will play in South Africa.
None of that is what this is about.
This is about the Princeton baseball coach and how he wandered into HQ yesterday and talked about how his brother was about to coach the U.S. team in the world's biggest sporting event. And how his nephew is one of the team's keys to having a successful run.
After Scott Bradley left, TB started thinking about what that must be like. Here is your brother, whose every move is being scrutinized by the media, by fans posting comments under that scrutinization, even by TB, who asked Scott Bradley why Brian Ching didn't make the team.
Scott Bradley won't be making the trip to South Africa. Too far. Too expensive.
So he'll sit in front of his television and watch, like the rest of the world, to see what kind of performance the U.S. team puts forward. As TB said a week ago, the stakes are enormous for Bob Bradley. The reward can be immense.
Imagine watching your brother go through something like that.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Senior Citizens
Tonight Princeton Athletics will host its 13th annual senior awards gathering, officially titled the Princeton Varsity Club Banquet.
TigerBlog will be making his 12th straight appearance after missing out on the first one. TB didn't get invited to that one.
To those who go every year, time can be measured from banquet to banquet. As in, "How is it possible that a whole year has gone by and we're at another banquet?"
The majority of the people there are the senior athletes and their parents, and they only go once. Since TB and the others who work here go every year, it's hard to think of the banquet in terms of only going one time and what it's like to the majority of the audience.
The night begins with a cocktail hour (or hour and 15 minutes, before everyone is finally under the tent to begin the formal part). There is dinner, and then the department hands out its major awards.
There is the Citizen Athlete Award, which goes to an alum who has had a distinguished career professionally and in service to society. This year's winner is John Rogers, the head of Ariel Investments and a former men's basketball captain.
There is the Marvin Bressler Award, named for the former sociology professor whose mentoring of a young Gary Walters during his time as Princeton's point guard in the 1960s led to the formation of the Academic Athletic Fellows program when Walters became AD here. The award, for a member of the University community who has followed Bressler's example and done a great deal for the current athletes, is given this year to Hal Feiveson of the Woodrow Wilson School.
If warranted, the PVC also presents special recognition awards.
There are also four awards for the seniors. The first is the Class of 1916 Cup, given to the senior athlete with the highest GPA. The second is the undergrad version of the Citizen Athlete Award, known as the Art Lane Award.
The final two are for the top male and female athletes in the class, the Roper Trophy and the von Kienbusch Award.
One of the highlights, at least TigerBlog hopes, is the video at the end. The video, which this year runs for nearly 18 minutes, has two parts.
It begins with live action shots of Princeton teams and athletes, mostly artistic looks from practice or "behind the scenes" rather than simply highlights. This is followed by an action shot of every senior athlete.
All of this, of course, is set to music.
The video was originally done by the OAC's first publications person, a man named Mike Zulla, who married former von Kienbusch Award-winning fencer Caitlin Rich.
Back in the dark ages, Zulla had to take an actual photograph of as many senior athletes as he could find and then scan them all. Once he had the scans, he had to put them on some sort of storage device (probably a zip disc) and then take them to a video store, where someone there would create the video and then give it back to Zulla on, of all things, a VHS tape.
Once Zulla left (a long time ago), TigerBlog and his then-video partner Greg Busch would put it together in I-Movie, probably version 1.0.
To say that it was an arduous, frustrating process would be an understatement. I-Movie was ridiculously slow back then, especially as the file got bigger and bigger. It would freeze every other time it would save, and it would take weeks to put the final version together.
Now, TB works off I-Movie version version 8.0.4, which makes doing the video about a million times easier.
Jeff Taylor, an amiable 20-something, does the first part; TB does the part with all the senior pictures. One day, TB is pretty sure, there will be a "Jeff Taylor Mode" of I-Movie, in which all video instantly shifts to being shown from the ground up, focusing on feet, shoes, anything like that and then panning out to see the bigger picture. Also, in Jeff Taylor Mode, all videos end with a panoramic view of a crew rowing through the picture, leaving only its wake in the water as the piece fades to black.
The hardest parts these days are making sure there's a picture of every athlete and that everyone's name is spelled correctly. Once that's done, the rest is fairly simple.
Of course, there is the chore of picking the music. TigerBlog operates under the theory of: "TB's video, TB's music." With the banquet tonight, TB still has to add two more songs and output the whole thing, which will take awhile. Still, it's nothing like the old days.
TB has no doubt the video will be ready, and he has no doubt that this banquet, like the others that have preceded it, will be a good celebration for the graduating athletes.
There is the part of the banquet that nobody can control.
There is a pretty good chance of thunderstorms.
TigerBlog will be making his 12th straight appearance after missing out on the first one. TB didn't get invited to that one.
To those who go every year, time can be measured from banquet to banquet. As in, "How is it possible that a whole year has gone by and we're at another banquet?"
The majority of the people there are the senior athletes and their parents, and they only go once. Since TB and the others who work here go every year, it's hard to think of the banquet in terms of only going one time and what it's like to the majority of the audience.
The night begins with a cocktail hour (or hour and 15 minutes, before everyone is finally under the tent to begin the formal part). There is dinner, and then the department hands out its major awards.
There is the Citizen Athlete Award, which goes to an alum who has had a distinguished career professionally and in service to society. This year's winner is John Rogers, the head of Ariel Investments and a former men's basketball captain.
There is the Marvin Bressler Award, named for the former sociology professor whose mentoring of a young Gary Walters during his time as Princeton's point guard in the 1960s led to the formation of the Academic Athletic Fellows program when Walters became AD here. The award, for a member of the University community who has followed Bressler's example and done a great deal for the current athletes, is given this year to Hal Feiveson of the Woodrow Wilson School.
If warranted, the PVC also presents special recognition awards.
There are also four awards for the seniors. The first is the Class of 1916 Cup, given to the senior athlete with the highest GPA. The second is the undergrad version of the Citizen Athlete Award, known as the Art Lane Award.
The final two are for the top male and female athletes in the class, the Roper Trophy and the von Kienbusch Award.
One of the highlights, at least TigerBlog hopes, is the video at the end. The video, which this year runs for nearly 18 minutes, has two parts.
It begins with live action shots of Princeton teams and athletes, mostly artistic looks from practice or "behind the scenes" rather than simply highlights. This is followed by an action shot of every senior athlete.
All of this, of course, is set to music.
The video was originally done by the OAC's first publications person, a man named Mike Zulla, who married former von Kienbusch Award-winning fencer Caitlin Rich.
Back in the dark ages, Zulla had to take an actual photograph of as many senior athletes as he could find and then scan them all. Once he had the scans, he had to put them on some sort of storage device (probably a zip disc) and then take them to a video store, where someone there would create the video and then give it back to Zulla on, of all things, a VHS tape.
Once Zulla left (a long time ago), TigerBlog and his then-video partner Greg Busch would put it together in I-Movie, probably version 1.0.
To say that it was an arduous, frustrating process would be an understatement. I-Movie was ridiculously slow back then, especially as the file got bigger and bigger. It would freeze every other time it would save, and it would take weeks to put the final version together.
Now, TB works off I-Movie version version 8.0.4, which makes doing the video about a million times easier.
Jeff Taylor, an amiable 20-something, does the first part; TB does the part with all the senior pictures. One day, TB is pretty sure, there will be a "Jeff Taylor Mode" of I-Movie, in which all video instantly shifts to being shown from the ground up, focusing on feet, shoes, anything like that and then panning out to see the bigger picture. Also, in Jeff Taylor Mode, all videos end with a panoramic view of a crew rowing through the picture, leaving only its wake in the water as the piece fades to black.
The hardest parts these days are making sure there's a picture of every athlete and that everyone's name is spelled correctly. Once that's done, the rest is fairly simple.
Of course, there is the chore of picking the music. TigerBlog operates under the theory of: "TB's video, TB's music." With the banquet tonight, TB still has to add two more songs and output the whole thing, which will take awhile. Still, it's nothing like the old days.
TB has no doubt the video will be ready, and he has no doubt that this banquet, like the others that have preceded it, will be a good celebration for the graduating athletes.
There is the part of the banquet that nobody can control.
There is a pretty good chance of thunderstorms.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Scott Bacigalupo, Hall-of-Famer
TigerBlog flipped on the TV at about 5:40 yesterday afternoon hoping to catch a few minutes of PTI.
Instead, he found a commercial, which of course means changing the channel to see what else is out there. He made it one channel over, to ESPN Classic, which was showing of all games the 1989 Princeton-Georgetown NCAA tournament game.
Every time TB watches that game, he's left with the same thoughts: 1) Princeton had the game won, 2) the offense that now has been copied and spread through all levels of basketball was still unique to Princeton back then, 3) Pete Carril was wearing the blue sweater he always wore back then, a sweater with a little hole from a cigar that happened to be in the exact spot that the orange basketball was on the white Princeton shirt he wore underneath it, giving off the impression that the basketball was on the sweater, 4) Kit Mueller was a great player, 5) those uniforms remain TB's favorite that Princeton has had and 6) that group of players was the first that TB got to know here.
Watching that game had already taken TB back to 1989 and the years that followed shortly afterwards, and so the email he received around the same time announcing Scott Bacigalupo's selection to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame fit right into the moment.
If Kit and the rest of that group had been the first Princeton basketball players TB had gotten to know, then Bacigalupo was part of the first group of lacrosse players.
TB's association with Princeton lacrosse dates back to Bacigalupo's senior year at St. Paul's in Baltimore. The 1990 season was the first one in which Princeton played in the NCAA tournament, and it was clear that the program was on the rise.
And, for that entire spring, all anyone could talk about was the incoming class, led by two can't miss prospects.
The first was Kevin Lowe, an attackman who would go on to become the all-time leading scorer in Princeton history with 247 career points. Lowe, one of the greatest feeders of all-time, was part of the 2009 class at the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
The other was Bacigalupo, whose Hall-of-Fame selection was probably inevitable ever since he walked on campus, or at the very latest when he made 15 saves in a 15-10 win over Johns Hopkins at Homewood Field on March 2, 1991, in his first appearance as a Princeton player.
He would go on to start all 60 games Princeton played in his career, the only goalie in school history to do so (current goalie Tyler Fiorito has started every game his first two years). Princeton would go 52-8 in those 60 games while winning the 1992 and 1994 NCAA championships, both of which saw Bacigalupo earn Most Outstanding Player honors.
When Cornell's Max Siebald (Class of 2009) became the first four-time first-team All-Ivy League men's lacrosse selection, TigerBlog thought there should have been a giant asterisk next to his name. Not to take anything away from Siebald, who clearly deserved all four honors, but it was Bacigalupo who should have been the first four-time first-teamer.
Bacigalupo was a first-team selection three times - as a freshman, sophomore and junior. His senior year? Second team. Why? Because one coach, in an effort to get his player to be first-team, did not vote for Bacigalupo as first- or second-team.
And what ended up happening a few weeks later? Bacigalupo, the second-team All-Ivy League goalie, was named the Division I National Player of the Year.
Bacigalupo probably got over that a long time ago. TigerBlog? No.
Lacrosse was a new sport to TigerBlog when he first watched those Bacigalupo-Lowe teams play. TB's first "favorite player" was attackman Justin Tortolani, who predated the other two by two seasons at Princeton and who today is one of the top pediatric surgeons in the country.
It was obvious from the start that Bacigalupo and Lowe were something special, even to TB's untrained eye. TB was impressed with Lowe's ability to see the field and make ridiculous passes and the calm demeanor he carried with him at all times.
As for Bacigalupo, TB always thought of him as having a big dog guarding the front door of a house. He could bite, but his bark was usually enough to scare away the average shooter.
Bacigalupo could make saves, he could carry the ball, he could trigger fast breaks. More than any of that, though, and with apologies to everyone else in that group, it was clearly his team. He played with charisma. He was in charge at all times, and everyone knew it.
Princeton has had a goalie make 15 or more saves in an NCAA tournament game 11 times, and five of those 11 were from Bacigalupo. He made 19 saves against North Carolina in the 1992 semifinals on a 100-degree day in Philadelphia, and he made 15 more in the final against Syracuse two days later, when the temperature had dropped about 50 degrees.
Princeton went 7-2 in NCAA games during his career and he was spectacular in all of them, even the two he lost. He made 17 saves against Syracuse in the 1993 semifinals, and that was nothing compared to his 20 saves against Towson in the 1991 quarterfinals at Palmer Stadium.
Towson would win that game 14-13 in three overtimes, scoring off the face-off to start the third OT. After that game, Bacigalupo vowed that he would never lose another overtime game - and he didn't, going 5-0 in OT after that, including the 1992 and 1994 finals.
As TB wrote when it was Lowe's turn last year, TB was still at the newspaper for the 1992 and 1994 championships. In his preview for the 1994 final, TB wrote that Princeton would win and that Lowe and Bacigalupo would both be in the Hall of Fame.
Certainly there are others on the way in the near future. Jesse Hubbard, Jon Hess and Ryan Boyle are total locks to get there. Some others, such as Chris Massey, Matt Striebel and Trevor Tierney, have a shot.
For Lowe and Bacigalupo, there was never any doubt.
These two are among the greatest of the greatest, and it was obvious from Day 1.
Instead, he found a commercial, which of course means changing the channel to see what else is out there. He made it one channel over, to ESPN Classic, which was showing of all games the 1989 Princeton-Georgetown NCAA tournament game.
Every time TB watches that game, he's left with the same thoughts: 1) Princeton had the game won, 2) the offense that now has been copied and spread through all levels of basketball was still unique to Princeton back then, 3) Pete Carril was wearing the blue sweater he always wore back then, a sweater with a little hole from a cigar that happened to be in the exact spot that the orange basketball was on the white Princeton shirt he wore underneath it, giving off the impression that the basketball was on the sweater, 4) Kit Mueller was a great player, 5) those uniforms remain TB's favorite that Princeton has had and 6) that group of players was the first that TB got to know here.
Watching that game had already taken TB back to 1989 and the years that followed shortly afterwards, and so the email he received around the same time announcing Scott Bacigalupo's selection to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame fit right into the moment.
If Kit and the rest of that group had been the first Princeton basketball players TB had gotten to know, then Bacigalupo was part of the first group of lacrosse players.
TB's association with Princeton lacrosse dates back to Bacigalupo's senior year at St. Paul's in Baltimore. The 1990 season was the first one in which Princeton played in the NCAA tournament, and it was clear that the program was on the rise.
And, for that entire spring, all anyone could talk about was the incoming class, led by two can't miss prospects.
The first was Kevin Lowe, an attackman who would go on to become the all-time leading scorer in Princeton history with 247 career points. Lowe, one of the greatest feeders of all-time, was part of the 2009 class at the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
The other was Bacigalupo, whose Hall-of-Fame selection was probably inevitable ever since he walked on campus, or at the very latest when he made 15 saves in a 15-10 win over Johns Hopkins at Homewood Field on March 2, 1991, in his first appearance as a Princeton player.
He would go on to start all 60 games Princeton played in his career, the only goalie in school history to do so (current goalie Tyler Fiorito has started every game his first two years). Princeton would go 52-8 in those 60 games while winning the 1992 and 1994 NCAA championships, both of which saw Bacigalupo earn Most Outstanding Player honors.
When Cornell's Max Siebald (Class of 2009) became the first four-time first-team All-Ivy League men's lacrosse selection, TigerBlog thought there should have been a giant asterisk next to his name. Not to take anything away from Siebald, who clearly deserved all four honors, but it was Bacigalupo who should have been the first four-time first-teamer.
Bacigalupo was a first-team selection three times - as a freshman, sophomore and junior. His senior year? Second team. Why? Because one coach, in an effort to get his player to be first-team, did not vote for Bacigalupo as first- or second-team.
And what ended up happening a few weeks later? Bacigalupo, the second-team All-Ivy League goalie, was named the Division I National Player of the Year.
Bacigalupo probably got over that a long time ago. TigerBlog? No.
Lacrosse was a new sport to TigerBlog when he first watched those Bacigalupo-Lowe teams play. TB's first "favorite player" was attackman Justin Tortolani, who predated the other two by two seasons at Princeton and who today is one of the top pediatric surgeons in the country.
It was obvious from the start that Bacigalupo and Lowe were something special, even to TB's untrained eye. TB was impressed with Lowe's ability to see the field and make ridiculous passes and the calm demeanor he carried with him at all times.
As for Bacigalupo, TB always thought of him as having a big dog guarding the front door of a house. He could bite, but his bark was usually enough to scare away the average shooter.
Bacigalupo could make saves, he could carry the ball, he could trigger fast breaks. More than any of that, though, and with apologies to everyone else in that group, it was clearly his team. He played with charisma. He was in charge at all times, and everyone knew it.
Princeton has had a goalie make 15 or more saves in an NCAA tournament game 11 times, and five of those 11 were from Bacigalupo. He made 19 saves against North Carolina in the 1992 semifinals on a 100-degree day in Philadelphia, and he made 15 more in the final against Syracuse two days later, when the temperature had dropped about 50 degrees.
Princeton went 7-2 in NCAA games during his career and he was spectacular in all of them, even the two he lost. He made 17 saves against Syracuse in the 1993 semifinals, and that was nothing compared to his 20 saves against Towson in the 1991 quarterfinals at Palmer Stadium.
Towson would win that game 14-13 in three overtimes, scoring off the face-off to start the third OT. After that game, Bacigalupo vowed that he would never lose another overtime game - and he didn't, going 5-0 in OT after that, including the 1992 and 1994 finals.
As TB wrote when it was Lowe's turn last year, TB was still at the newspaper for the 1992 and 1994 championships. In his preview for the 1994 final, TB wrote that Princeton would win and that Lowe and Bacigalupo would both be in the Hall of Fame.
Certainly there are others on the way in the near future. Jesse Hubbard, Jon Hess and Ryan Boyle are total locks to get there. Some others, such as Chris Massey, Matt Striebel and Trevor Tierney, have a shot.
For Lowe and Bacigalupo, there was never any doubt.
These two are among the greatest of the greatest, and it was obvious from Day 1.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
The Write Stuff
The first time TigerBlog tried his hand at speechwriting was back in the mid-1990s or so. It was just before the department Christmas party, and Gary Walters asked TB to come up with some joke gifts for coaches he could read.
The goal was to be funny; somewhere between the way it was written and the way it was spoken, that didn't quite happen. About halfway through, as the jokes were falling all over the place, Gary paused and threw TigerBlog under the bus, saying that it was TB who wrote them.
Looking back on that now makes TB laugh, even though he has no idea what he wrote and whether or not it was funny at all.
Since then, TB has written a bunch of speeches for other people, mostly for Walters. It's something TB spent much of yesterday working on, Gary's speech for the upcoming Princeton Varsity Club banquet.
Writing words that are to be read by someone else is different than basically any other kind of writing.
TB's favorite thing to write is, of course, TigerBlog, followed closely by 3,000-word features on either Pete Carril or the Princeton men's lacrosse program.
TigerBlog isn't sure when he first started to learn to write. His high school English teacher his sophomore year, Mr. Ridley, taught TB all about grammar, which would be along with the typing he learned from Mrs. Jacobson his freshman year the two best skills TB learned in school.
His English teacher senior year, Mrs. Danielson, was pretty good about teaching things like structure and having an intro paragraph and a conclusion. Prior to that, TB is pretty sure his stuff was a bunch of unorganized thoughts, though grammatically correct.
TigerBlog was hired in the newspaper business with no background in writing, and he remembers the first story he ever wrote, back in Sept. 1983. He was sent to cover a high school football game between Pennington and Academy of the New Church, a game Pennington won 22-0 after leading 6-0 at the half. It was Pennington's 18th straight win, a school record.
TB remembers going back from the school in Bryn Athyn, Pa., to the Trenton Times building on Perry Street, sitting down in front of a word processor and thinking "now what?"
Newspaper stories are not measured in words or pages or anything. They're measured in inches, as in the number of column inches they'll take up. TB became an expert at the 15-inch game story, something that he could write in his sleep after doing it so often.
And really, what could be duller? A few sentences of an intro. The score. A quote from a player on the winning team. Some play-by-play. Quote from the losing team. More play-by-play. Quote from the winning coach. Last sentence that takes you back to the first thought.
And there you have basically every story TB wrote about a high school game from 1983-1988.
Eventually, TB figured out that there were other ways to write, ways that might be of more interest. One of the best parts of writing for the web is that space isn't an issue. You don't have to cut your feature down to fit the space in the paper or the program or wherever. You write until you're done.
Maybe that's why he likes the blog and the features so much. You can develop thoughts at your own pace, and you're done when you're done.
He still writes a lot of game stories, and he hopefully has figured out how to make them more interesting than back when it was, say, Ewing-Hamilton boys' basketball.
But speechwriting? That's a whole different animal.
Much of what TB writes for others to read are the PA announcements for games here. The number one thing to remember is that the announcer will be reading the words and not necessarily concentrating on what they say, so the result is that it has to be written exactly how it is to come out over the mic.
Then there's the writing of an actual speech.
The PVC banquet is Thursday night. Gary has traditionally written his own closing remarks, and TB writes the intro and basically everything else - with some help from the PVC for some things specific to what they want said. Gary will take the original version of the script and make any changes to it that he wants.
It's not an easy thing to do. Gary has his own style and way of saying things, and it varies from the way TB would do it.
And then there's the delivery. TB might write a sentence or paragraph a certain way and hear it in his mind as he does; Gary might be the emphasis on different spots.
At the banquet itself, TB finds himself anticipating what comes next, and he can obviously tell when Gary goes off-script and starts to ad lib. It's a fascinating experience, to hear what you've written come out of someone else's mouth.
In some ways, it must be like songwriting. The Princeton Varsity Club banquet - music by Gary Walters, lyrics by TigerBlog.
The goal was to be funny; somewhere between the way it was written and the way it was spoken, that didn't quite happen. About halfway through, as the jokes were falling all over the place, Gary paused and threw TigerBlog under the bus, saying that it was TB who wrote them.
Looking back on that now makes TB laugh, even though he has no idea what he wrote and whether or not it was funny at all.
Since then, TB has written a bunch of speeches for other people, mostly for Walters. It's something TB spent much of yesterday working on, Gary's speech for the upcoming Princeton Varsity Club banquet.
Writing words that are to be read by someone else is different than basically any other kind of writing.
TB's favorite thing to write is, of course, TigerBlog, followed closely by 3,000-word features on either Pete Carril or the Princeton men's lacrosse program.
TigerBlog isn't sure when he first started to learn to write. His high school English teacher his sophomore year, Mr. Ridley, taught TB all about grammar, which would be along with the typing he learned from Mrs. Jacobson his freshman year the two best skills TB learned in school.
His English teacher senior year, Mrs. Danielson, was pretty good about teaching things like structure and having an intro paragraph and a conclusion. Prior to that, TB is pretty sure his stuff was a bunch of unorganized thoughts, though grammatically correct.
TigerBlog was hired in the newspaper business with no background in writing, and he remembers the first story he ever wrote, back in Sept. 1983. He was sent to cover a high school football game between Pennington and Academy of the New Church, a game Pennington won 22-0 after leading 6-0 at the half. It was Pennington's 18th straight win, a school record.
TB remembers going back from the school in Bryn Athyn, Pa., to the Trenton Times building on Perry Street, sitting down in front of a word processor and thinking "now what?"
Newspaper stories are not measured in words or pages or anything. They're measured in inches, as in the number of column inches they'll take up. TB became an expert at the 15-inch game story, something that he could write in his sleep after doing it so often.
And really, what could be duller? A few sentences of an intro. The score. A quote from a player on the winning team. Some play-by-play. Quote from the losing team. More play-by-play. Quote from the winning coach. Last sentence that takes you back to the first thought.
And there you have basically every story TB wrote about a high school game from 1983-1988.
Eventually, TB figured out that there were other ways to write, ways that might be of more interest. One of the best parts of writing for the web is that space isn't an issue. You don't have to cut your feature down to fit the space in the paper or the program or wherever. You write until you're done.
Maybe that's why he likes the blog and the features so much. You can develop thoughts at your own pace, and you're done when you're done.
He still writes a lot of game stories, and he hopefully has figured out how to make them more interesting than back when it was, say, Ewing-Hamilton boys' basketball.
But speechwriting? That's a whole different animal.
Much of what TB writes for others to read are the PA announcements for games here. The number one thing to remember is that the announcer will be reading the words and not necessarily concentrating on what they say, so the result is that it has to be written exactly how it is to come out over the mic.
Then there's the writing of an actual speech.
The PVC banquet is Thursday night. Gary has traditionally written his own closing remarks, and TB writes the intro and basically everything else - with some help from the PVC for some things specific to what they want said. Gary will take the original version of the script and make any changes to it that he wants.
It's not an easy thing to do. Gary has his own style and way of saying things, and it varies from the way TB would do it.
And then there's the delivery. TB might write a sentence or paragraph a certain way and hear it in his mind as he does; Gary might be the emphasis on different spots.
At the banquet itself, TB finds himself anticipating what comes next, and he can obviously tell when Gary goes off-script and starts to ad lib. It's a fascinating experience, to hear what you've written come out of someone else's mouth.
In some ways, it must be like songwriting. The Princeton Varsity Club banquet - music by Gary Walters, lyrics by TigerBlog.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Karen Malec's Saturday
Of all the dull household tasks that people have to deal with, the two that have never really bothered TigerBlog are doing the dishes and doing the laundry.
Maybe it's a cleanliness thing. Who knows.
Of the two, TB's favorite is easily the laundry. There's a great deal of satisfaction that comes with knowing that all of the clothes have been washed, dried and folded.
For the record, TB is not a big fan of separating out his clothes, and basically everthing he owns can go in the dryer.
Of course, doing TB's laundry isn't that complicated. Perhaps it's because he's not a suit-and-tie guy, unlike FatherBlog, who would wear a sportcoat to the beach.
Instead, most of TB's clothes have the words "Princeton Athletics" on them, unless they say "Princeton Lacrosse" or "Princeton Water Polo." Ever since Princeton signed its deal with Nike several years ago, the attire at Princeton events has been a selection of white or black with orange trim, the aforementioned words and a swoosh.
Almost all of the Nike stuff has been white or black. The varieties have been great, with long-sleeved and short-sleeved stuff, any number of jackets and fleeces, cottons and dri-fits and enough t-shirts to wear a different one every day.
As far as TB can remember, there's only been one orange garment, and that's the bright orange "Princeton Athletics" dri-fit.
If you were in Princeton Stadium Saturday for the NCAA men's lacrosse quarterfinals, you might have noticed an army of people wearing those orange shirts. Why? Because Karen Malec said to, that's why.
And who is Karen Malec? If you're the average Princeton fan - and certainly one of the 8,000-plus who were in the building Saturday - then the odds are good that the name is not familiar.
Princeton athletics is filled with people who work hard and do this hard work far away from the spotlight.
The NCAA quarterfinals are a perfect example. Anywhere you looked Saturday, you saw something that was the product of months of work on somebody's part, all designed to look like it took no effort at all.
What is TB talking about? How about:
* lockerroom and teamrooms. Princeton Stadium has only two team rooms, but four teams needed a place to dress, shower and meet pre-game, halftime and postgame.
* merchandise.
* concessions.
* credentials.
* seating. Did you notice one side was closed off? How did that decision get made?
* the field. There was a stencil of "2010 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championships" on the field, and it didn't get there by itself.
* television. ESPN had issues with its generator for the first game, and eventually the feed from the videoboard was tied into the ESPN truck. Again, this didn't just happen.
* game stats.
* press conferences.
On and on the list could go. There were hundreds of details that needed to be taken care of, and while the number of people who did this was large, the person of ultimate responsibility was Malec, Princeton's head of event management.
Of course, she was ably assisted, as always, by Steve Kanaby. And there you have it. Malec and Kanaby - Princeton's entire athletic events staff.
Hosting the quarterfinals began with a bid that Malec and Kanaby submitted a long time ago. The bid itself is a complex document with any number of issues that have to be sorted out before the school knows if it's even going to get the games in the end.
Then, once Princeton was selected as a host, the process of months and months of planning - internally and with the NCAA began. Malec had to find hotels for four teams and officials, food for the VIP area, volunteers to work all over the stadium (TB is pretty sure Malec put her husband and son to work), a way to hang a 90-foot banner, a place for the team buses to park, a rooom for the pre-tournmament meeting, and on and on and on - including finding orange shirts for those who were working and didn't have them.
The quarterfinals are somewhat smaller than the Final Four, but the Final Four naturally draws much greater help. Almost every detail for the quarterfinal round fell to Malec.
TigerBlog arrived at around 11:10 for the games Saturday, after TigerBlog Jr.'s first-round playoff game in the morning (we won). He could afford to be late. Yes, he had a lot of responsibilities, but they were all under control and he had great help from the rest of the OAC and a few volunteers.
Besides, TB's role was nothing compared with what Malec and Kanaby had to do.
TB has no idea what time Malec got there. He does know that when he was leaving, at about 7:30, he looked across Princeton Stadium and saw Malec and a bunch of others doing what? Yes, picking up the garbage.
And, oh by the way, this all came after Malec and Kanaby were there for a month's worth of huge track and field meets, as well as all the other athletic events on the Princeton campus.
If you attended the games Saturday, you probably didn't give any thought to the planning that went into it. You didn't have to, because everything went so smoothly.
The truth is that Karen Malec - and Steve Kanaby - were responsible for just how smooth it all was.
If there had been problems, you would have gone up to one of the people in the orange shirts, demanding to know who was in charge. Then you would have known her name.
The fact that 8,000 people went home without knowing who Karen Malec is shows just who Karen Malec is - and the job she and Kanaby do.
Maybe it's a cleanliness thing. Who knows.
Of the two, TB's favorite is easily the laundry. There's a great deal of satisfaction that comes with knowing that all of the clothes have been washed, dried and folded.
For the record, TB is not a big fan of separating out his clothes, and basically everthing he owns can go in the dryer.
Of course, doing TB's laundry isn't that complicated. Perhaps it's because he's not a suit-and-tie guy, unlike FatherBlog, who would wear a sportcoat to the beach.
Instead, most of TB's clothes have the words "Princeton Athletics" on them, unless they say "Princeton Lacrosse" or "Princeton Water Polo." Ever since Princeton signed its deal with Nike several years ago, the attire at Princeton events has been a selection of white or black with orange trim, the aforementioned words and a swoosh.
Almost all of the Nike stuff has been white or black. The varieties have been great, with long-sleeved and short-sleeved stuff, any number of jackets and fleeces, cottons and dri-fits and enough t-shirts to wear a different one every day.
As far as TB can remember, there's only been one orange garment, and that's the bright orange "Princeton Athletics" dri-fit.
If you were in Princeton Stadium Saturday for the NCAA men's lacrosse quarterfinals, you might have noticed an army of people wearing those orange shirts. Why? Because Karen Malec said to, that's why.
And who is Karen Malec? If you're the average Princeton fan - and certainly one of the 8,000-plus who were in the building Saturday - then the odds are good that the name is not familiar.
Princeton athletics is filled with people who work hard and do this hard work far away from the spotlight.
The NCAA quarterfinals are a perfect example. Anywhere you looked Saturday, you saw something that was the product of months of work on somebody's part, all designed to look like it took no effort at all.
What is TB talking about? How about:
* lockerroom and teamrooms. Princeton Stadium has only two team rooms, but four teams needed a place to dress, shower and meet pre-game, halftime and postgame.
* merchandise.
* concessions.
* credentials.
* seating. Did you notice one side was closed off? How did that decision get made?
* the field. There was a stencil of "2010 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championships" on the field, and it didn't get there by itself.
* television. ESPN had issues with its generator for the first game, and eventually the feed from the videoboard was tied into the ESPN truck. Again, this didn't just happen.
* game stats.
* press conferences.
On and on the list could go. There were hundreds of details that needed to be taken care of, and while the number of people who did this was large, the person of ultimate responsibility was Malec, Princeton's head of event management.
Of course, she was ably assisted, as always, by Steve Kanaby. And there you have it. Malec and Kanaby - Princeton's entire athletic events staff.
Hosting the quarterfinals began with a bid that Malec and Kanaby submitted a long time ago. The bid itself is a complex document with any number of issues that have to be sorted out before the school knows if it's even going to get the games in the end.
Then, once Princeton was selected as a host, the process of months and months of planning - internally and with the NCAA began. Malec had to find hotels for four teams and officials, food for the VIP area, volunteers to work all over the stadium (TB is pretty sure Malec put her husband and son to work), a way to hang a 90-foot banner, a place for the team buses to park, a rooom for the pre-tournmament meeting, and on and on and on - including finding orange shirts for those who were working and didn't have them.
The quarterfinals are somewhat smaller than the Final Four, but the Final Four naturally draws much greater help. Almost every detail for the quarterfinal round fell to Malec.
TigerBlog arrived at around 11:10 for the games Saturday, after TigerBlog Jr.'s first-round playoff game in the morning (we won). He could afford to be late. Yes, he had a lot of responsibilities, but they were all under control and he had great help from the rest of the OAC and a few volunteers.
Besides, TB's role was nothing compared with what Malec and Kanaby had to do.
TB has no idea what time Malec got there. He does know that when he was leaving, at about 7:30, he looked across Princeton Stadium and saw Malec and a bunch of others doing what? Yes, picking up the garbage.
And, oh by the way, this all came after Malec and Kanaby were there for a month's worth of huge track and field meets, as well as all the other athletic events on the Princeton campus.
If you attended the games Saturday, you probably didn't give any thought to the planning that went into it. You didn't have to, because everything went so smoothly.
The truth is that Karen Malec - and Steve Kanaby - were responsible for just how smooth it all was.
If there had been problems, you would have gone up to one of the people in the orange shirts, demanding to know who was in charge. Then you would have known her name.
The fact that 8,000 people went home without knowing who Karen Malec is shows just who Karen Malec is - and the job she and Kanaby do.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Quarter Century
TigerBlog Jr. had a lacrosse tournament in South Jersey last Saturday, and Princeton wasn't scheduled to play in the NCAA tournament until Sunday.
As Saturday was also the day of TigerBlog's 25th college reunion, things couldn't have worked out more perfectly. TBJ's tournament was in Moorestown, which is eight miles from Philadelphia, and so TB decided to venture over the Ben Franklin Bridge and check out what was going on in West Philadelphia.
By late afternoon, TB stood outside the bookstore on the Penn campus, attending his 25th reunion with TBJ and TBJ's friend Matt, your basic 13-year-old with size 13 shoes.
Specifically, TB stopped by to see his best friends from college, Ed Mikus Jr., Charlie Frohman and Paul Glay-zuh, as the many people from New York that TB knew would say his name.
Before everyone left, TB saw a few other people from his class, none of whom he recognized. Every now and then, Charlie would say "yeah, we saw so-and-so; you remember him," and TB would think "no."
A few days later, it dawned on TB that it was 25 years to the day from when he graduated from college. Twenty-five years. A quarter-century.
TB was okay turning 30. He was okay turning 40. He suspects he'll be okay turning 50. Somehow, the idea of having been out of college for 25 years was a little much.
TB ended up at Penn because BrotherBlog went there and it was basically the only college TB knew. Penn was one of two schools TB applied to (the other was Boston University), and he was going to apply to a few others when he got his likely letter from Penn. Knowing that he basically had a guarantee of admission, TB took the money that FatherBlog gave him for the remaining applications and bought records with them.
As an aside, "records" were black vinyl-type things that went on something called a "record player." They spun in circles while the "needle" was put on top of them, and the result was music.
When TB first went to Penn, he figured that he would end up as a lawyer (BrotherBlog actually did go down that career path). Instead, his junior year, the brother of current University of Iowa basketball coach Fran McCaffery, with whom TB had a work-study job copying and collating reading assignments in the psychology department, got TB a job at the Trenton Times covering high school football.
That started TB down his actual career path, which has taken him to 11 years in the newspaper business and more than that in the athletic communications business.
Standing outside the Penn bookstore, TB was surrounded by guys who worked in business, venture capital, law, finance, medicine - all kinds of stuff foreign to TB's world.
On graduation day back 25 years ago, TB probably never imagined he'd spend more time in his life on Princeton's campus than he did on Penn's campus. And yet that's how it turned out.
While at his 25th, TB was asked by a few people to compare Princeton and Penn. He thought back to the time that he interviewed then-Penn president Sheldon Hackney, who had been the Princeton provost (just like the current Penn president, Amy Gutmann). When TB asked Hackney the difference, he said that Penn was an exciting, vibrant urban community and that Princeton was "bucolic."
He was trying to be funny. The differences between the two, though, are very real.
For starters, TigerBlog had no chance of being admitted to Princeton, but hey, let's forget that for a minute.
And yes, there are physical differences between Penn, located in West Philly, and Princeton, located in suburbia. And the student bodies are different, at least from what TB has seen in his two decades on this campus compared with experiences as a Penn undergrad.
But none of that is what leaps out at TB.
Princeton alums love Princeton. Penn alums have an affection for their alma mater, but it doesn't approach what Princeton alums feel.
Except for one time when he was making fun of some writers from the Daily Pennsylvanian, TB has never referred to himself by his class year. For that matter, none of the Penn alums that TB knows have done so. Also, TB has never used the word "classmate" to describe the people in his year.
At Princeton, those are staples for all alums. It's a great source of pride, one that supersedes anything TB has ever seen (or felt) for Penn.
Reunions at Princeton will be held beginning next week. The number of people who flood this campus will dwarf the number who were in West Philadelphia last weekend. In 25 years, TB has gone to Penn reunions twice - his 20th (because Princeton did not make the NCAA lacrosse tournament) and 25th (because TBJ was in South Jersey and Princeton played on Sunday).
There's something extraordinary about the way Princeton as an institution is revered by those who went here. TB can understand it from having been here so long only to a certain point, having never actually been a Princeton student.
And yet there he was, at his 25th reunion at a school at which he had a wonderful time and made some lifelong friends.
Was he wearing a red-and-blue striped shirt? A Penn fedora? Any of the stuff you'll see all over this campus next week?
Nope. He wore a Princeton hat.
TB loved the irony.
As Saturday was also the day of TigerBlog's 25th college reunion, things couldn't have worked out more perfectly. TBJ's tournament was in Moorestown, which is eight miles from Philadelphia, and so TB decided to venture over the Ben Franklin Bridge and check out what was going on in West Philadelphia.
By late afternoon, TB stood outside the bookstore on the Penn campus, attending his 25th reunion with TBJ and TBJ's friend Matt, your basic 13-year-old with size 13 shoes.
Specifically, TB stopped by to see his best friends from college, Ed Mikus Jr., Charlie Frohman and Paul Glay-zuh, as the many people from New York that TB knew would say his name.
Before everyone left, TB saw a few other people from his class, none of whom he recognized. Every now and then, Charlie would say "yeah, we saw so-and-so; you remember him," and TB would think "no."
A few days later, it dawned on TB that it was 25 years to the day from when he graduated from college. Twenty-five years. A quarter-century.
TB was okay turning 30. He was okay turning 40. He suspects he'll be okay turning 50. Somehow, the idea of having been out of college for 25 years was a little much.
TB ended up at Penn because BrotherBlog went there and it was basically the only college TB knew. Penn was one of two schools TB applied to (the other was Boston University), and he was going to apply to a few others when he got his likely letter from Penn. Knowing that he basically had a guarantee of admission, TB took the money that FatherBlog gave him for the remaining applications and bought records with them.
As an aside, "records" were black vinyl-type things that went on something called a "record player." They spun in circles while the "needle" was put on top of them, and the result was music.
When TB first went to Penn, he figured that he would end up as a lawyer (BrotherBlog actually did go down that career path). Instead, his junior year, the brother of current University of Iowa basketball coach Fran McCaffery, with whom TB had a work-study job copying and collating reading assignments in the psychology department, got TB a job at the Trenton Times covering high school football.
That started TB down his actual career path, which has taken him to 11 years in the newspaper business and more than that in the athletic communications business.
Standing outside the Penn bookstore, TB was surrounded by guys who worked in business, venture capital, law, finance, medicine - all kinds of stuff foreign to TB's world.
On graduation day back 25 years ago, TB probably never imagined he'd spend more time in his life on Princeton's campus than he did on Penn's campus. And yet that's how it turned out.
While at his 25th, TB was asked by a few people to compare Princeton and Penn. He thought back to the time that he interviewed then-Penn president Sheldon Hackney, who had been the Princeton provost (just like the current Penn president, Amy Gutmann). When TB asked Hackney the difference, he said that Penn was an exciting, vibrant urban community and that Princeton was "bucolic."
He was trying to be funny. The differences between the two, though, are very real.
For starters, TigerBlog had no chance of being admitted to Princeton, but hey, let's forget that for a minute.
And yes, there are physical differences between Penn, located in West Philly, and Princeton, located in suburbia. And the student bodies are different, at least from what TB has seen in his two decades on this campus compared with experiences as a Penn undergrad.
But none of that is what leaps out at TB.
Princeton alums love Princeton. Penn alums have an affection for their alma mater, but it doesn't approach what Princeton alums feel.
Except for one time when he was making fun of some writers from the Daily Pennsylvanian, TB has never referred to himself by his class year. For that matter, none of the Penn alums that TB knows have done so. Also, TB has never used the word "classmate" to describe the people in his year.
At Princeton, those are staples for all alums. It's a great source of pride, one that supersedes anything TB has ever seen (or felt) for Penn.
Reunions at Princeton will be held beginning next week. The number of people who flood this campus will dwarf the number who were in West Philadelphia last weekend. In 25 years, TB has gone to Penn reunions twice - his 20th (because Princeton did not make the NCAA lacrosse tournament) and 25th (because TBJ was in South Jersey and Princeton played on Sunday).
There's something extraordinary about the way Princeton as an institution is revered by those who went here. TB can understand it from having been here so long only to a certain point, having never actually been a Princeton student.
And yet there he was, at his 25th reunion at a school at which he had a wonderful time and made some lifelong friends.
Was he wearing a red-and-blue striped shirt? A Penn fedora? Any of the stuff you'll see all over this campus next week?
Nope. He wore a Princeton hat.
TB loved the irony.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Who Needs Access?
Back at the 1996 NCAA men's basketball tournament, or at least TigerBlog is pretty sure it was the 1996 tournament, then-OAC staffer Vinnie DiCarlo was standing on the court the day before the games, when the teams have open practices.
DiCarlo was wearing his all-access pass, when one of the fans in the stands asked him what his pass meant.
"It means," Vinnie said, "that I have access to all."
TigerBlog has been to, by his count, a lot of NCAA tournaments, mostly in basketball and lacrosse. Back when he was a novice at the experience, he was fascinated that he had a pass of any kind and the access that goes with it.
There's something special about having access, all or otherwise, at an NCAA event. The entire crowd goes one way; you get to go another, through the secret door or on the magic elevator. It's like the media version of getting one of Willy Wonka's golden tickets.
TigerBlog has saved several of the credentials he's gotten through the years, as do many people who get them. For what reason? Who knows.
The NCAA quarterfinals for men's lacrosse are here Saturday, with Notre Dame against Maryland at noon and North Carolina against Duke at 2:30. TB's role in this event includes being the media coordinator, which includes putting together the credentials.
For the regular lacrosse season, TB made one kind of pass. It had a picture of a game from last year at Class of 1952 Stadium, and it said "Princeton men's lacrosse 2010."
These passes were used as season, single-game, photo, anything. One pass fits all.
For Saturday's event, TigerBlog has passes labeled "media," "photo," "medical," "official," "VIP," "ESPN," "team bench," "participant" and of course the granddaddy of them all, "all-access."
What's the difference between, say, participant and team bench? Well, each team has a certain number of players who can be in uniform, and they get participant passes to get into the stadium. During the game, of course, they're in uniform. The team bench passes are for coaches, equipment people, non-dressed players, etc.
Of course, each team also gets two medical passes, for a doctor and trainer.
And VIP? That's for the hospitality area. Unlike the other passes, a VIP one doesn't get you into the stadium, only into the hospitality area. VIPs also need to have a ticket to the game.
TigerBlog's philosophy on credentials is to keep it as simple as possible, as the lacrosse passes for the regular season suggest.
TB's experience with the National Football League suggests that the league doesn't share that philosophy, what with the "limited access" and "temporary access" passes. The NFL has so many different kinds of passes that they print up poster boards that have pictures of each pass on them so that the security people can keep them all straight.
In past years, TB tried to have more complicated credentialing for regular season football, until it dawned on him one day what the point of all these passes is: to give you access to certain areas and not to others.
On a regular Princeton football Saturday, there's no need to have, say, a difference between a photo pass and a media pass. It's not like access will become restricted from any place in the stadium anyway.
Then there's the whole issue of enforcement.
Two weeks ago, TB had an all-access pass for the Ivy League men's lacrosse tournament at Cornell. TB was there for the semifinals Friday and the final Sunday, and he went everywhere on Schoellkopf Field. At no point did he display his credential or get asked to show it.
The same is true for any Princeton event here. Maybe it's TB's authoritative way of carrying himself. Or the "Princeton Athletics" shirts that the staff here wears.Ti
The event here Saturday will be a little different, and the NCAA championships will be even tighter to get around.
Also back in 1996 - TB is sure about this one - TB worked for the University communications office when then-President Bill Clinton spoke on campus at graduation. TB was a liaison for the national press corps, and part of his job involved helping issue credentials.
This time, credentials were a must, and nobody was walking one inch past the line where they were supposed to be.
Unlike an NCAA championship event, the people doing the checking carried very, very big guns.
DiCarlo was wearing his all-access pass, when one of the fans in the stands asked him what his pass meant.
"It means," Vinnie said, "that I have access to all."
TigerBlog has been to, by his count, a lot of NCAA tournaments, mostly in basketball and lacrosse. Back when he was a novice at the experience, he was fascinated that he had a pass of any kind and the access that goes with it.
There's something special about having access, all or otherwise, at an NCAA event. The entire crowd goes one way; you get to go another, through the secret door or on the magic elevator. It's like the media version of getting one of Willy Wonka's golden tickets.
TigerBlog has saved several of the credentials he's gotten through the years, as do many people who get them. For what reason? Who knows.
The NCAA quarterfinals for men's lacrosse are here Saturday, with Notre Dame against Maryland at noon and North Carolina against Duke at 2:30. TB's role in this event includes being the media coordinator, which includes putting together the credentials.
For the regular lacrosse season, TB made one kind of pass. It had a picture of a game from last year at Class of 1952 Stadium, and it said "Princeton men's lacrosse 2010."
These passes were used as season, single-game, photo, anything. One pass fits all.
For Saturday's event, TigerBlog has passes labeled "media," "photo," "medical," "official," "VIP," "ESPN," "team bench," "participant" and of course the granddaddy of them all, "all-access."
What's the difference between, say, participant and team bench? Well, each team has a certain number of players who can be in uniform, and they get participant passes to get into the stadium. During the game, of course, they're in uniform. The team bench passes are for coaches, equipment people, non-dressed players, etc.
Of course, each team also gets two medical passes, for a doctor and trainer.
And VIP? That's for the hospitality area. Unlike the other passes, a VIP one doesn't get you into the stadium, only into the hospitality area. VIPs also need to have a ticket to the game.
TigerBlog's philosophy on credentials is to keep it as simple as possible, as the lacrosse passes for the regular season suggest.
TB's experience with the National Football League suggests that the league doesn't share that philosophy, what with the "limited access" and "temporary access" passes. The NFL has so many different kinds of passes that they print up poster boards that have pictures of each pass on them so that the security people can keep them all straight.
In past years, TB tried to have more complicated credentialing for regular season football, until it dawned on him one day what the point of all these passes is: to give you access to certain areas and not to others.
On a regular Princeton football Saturday, there's no need to have, say, a difference between a photo pass and a media pass. It's not like access will become restricted from any place in the stadium anyway.
Then there's the whole issue of enforcement.
Two weeks ago, TB had an all-access pass for the Ivy League men's lacrosse tournament at Cornell. TB was there for the semifinals Friday and the final Sunday, and he went everywhere on Schoellkopf Field. At no point did he display his credential or get asked to show it.
The same is true for any Princeton event here. Maybe it's TB's authoritative way of carrying himself. Or the "Princeton Athletics" shirts that the staff here wears.Ti
The event here Saturday will be a little different, and the NCAA championships will be even tighter to get around.
Also back in 1996 - TB is sure about this one - TB worked for the University communications office when then-President Bill Clinton spoke on campus at graduation. TB was a liaison for the national press corps, and part of his job involved helping issue credentials.
This time, credentials were a must, and nobody was walking one inch past the line where they were supposed to be.
Unlike an NCAA championship event, the people doing the checking carried very, very big guns.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
24 Straight
Everywhere TigerBlog looks on the Princeton campus this week, he sees signs of the coming of Reunions.
Except Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium, of course, where there are signs of the coming of the World Cup.
The class year signs are up. Beautification projects are obvious. It happens every year at this time, as the only event that outdraws football on this campus (TB believes) is right around the corner.
As amazing as it seems, the athletic year at Princeton is basically over. There are some track and field athletes still competing, and there are still the national rowing championships. Hilary Bartlett and Taylor Marable are playing in the NCAA women's tennis doubles tournament.
Beyond that, it's all over for 2009-10. And it's officially over for Ivy League competition, which ended this past weekend with a first-place and two second-place finishes at the Eastern Sprints.
With the end of Ivy League competition, the 2009-10 Ivy League unofficial all-sports points standings are also finalized. For those who have forgotten from TB's other 9,000 mentions of these standings, points are awarded based on Ivy finish, with eight points for first, seven for second, etc. In the event of ties in places, the teams involved split the points.
For the record, here are the results:
Overall
1. Princeton 205.5
2. Harvard 173
3. Cornell 152.5
4. Yale 144
5. Penn 140.5
6. Columbia 120.5
7. Dartmouth 119
8. Brown 117
If you're interested in championships won, it goes:
1. Princeton 12
2. Cornell 7
3. Harvard/Penn/Yale 4
6. Columbia 3
7. Dartmouth/Brown 1
If you want to go back to the points, Princeton also won for the men and for the women and won each of the three seasons individually.
The year is the 24th straight in which Princeton has won the Ivy's unofficial all-sports points championship. The 205.5 points eclipsed last year's total of 205 and was Princeton's highest since the 1998-99 academic year.
The standings measure athletic success from top to bottom, so it's not just about how many championships are won. The closest Princeton has come to not winning in recent years came in 2004-05, when Harvard won 14 Ivy titles to five for Princeton. Still, the Tigers won, although by 2.5 points.
Princeton's 12 championships this year marked the 19th time that the program has reached double figures in Ivy wins in an academic year. Harvard, the only other leagues school to accomplish this, has done it five times.
What's most amazing to TB is that Princeton has this success without relying on the same programs over and over to win league titles. This year, for instance, Princeton won 12 Ivy titles without winning a single one in perennial powers men's and women's squash, baseball, softball, women's lacrosse and women's soccer and despite losing the men's cross country title by one point.
In the last three years alone, 20 of the 33 teams that compete in Ivy League sports have won at least one championship. This year, like last year, 25 of 33 teams finished in first, second or third.
With Reunions about to start and the end of the 2009-10 athletic year not too far away, Princeton's coaches and athletes can take a minute to be proud of their accomplishments.
And then they can start to look ahead to 2010-11.
As TB always says, just because there have been 24 straight doesn't mean that 25 is a lock.
Except Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium, of course, where there are signs of the coming of the World Cup.
The class year signs are up. Beautification projects are obvious. It happens every year at this time, as the only event that outdraws football on this campus (TB believes) is right around the corner.
As amazing as it seems, the athletic year at Princeton is basically over. There are some track and field athletes still competing, and there are still the national rowing championships. Hilary Bartlett and Taylor Marable are playing in the NCAA women's tennis doubles tournament.
Beyond that, it's all over for 2009-10. And it's officially over for Ivy League competition, which ended this past weekend with a first-place and two second-place finishes at the Eastern Sprints.
With the end of Ivy League competition, the 2009-10 Ivy League unofficial all-sports points standings are also finalized. For those who have forgotten from TB's other 9,000 mentions of these standings, points are awarded based on Ivy finish, with eight points for first, seven for second, etc. In the event of ties in places, the teams involved split the points.
For the record, here are the results:
Overall
1. Princeton 205.5
2. Harvard 173
3. Cornell 152.5
4. Yale 144
5. Penn 140.5
6. Columbia 120.5
7. Dartmouth 119
8. Brown 117
If you're interested in championships won, it goes:
1. Princeton 12
2. Cornell 7
3. Harvard/Penn/Yale 4
6. Columbia 3
7. Dartmouth/Brown 1
If you want to go back to the points, Princeton also won for the men and for the women and won each of the three seasons individually.
The year is the 24th straight in which Princeton has won the Ivy's unofficial all-sports points championship. The 205.5 points eclipsed last year's total of 205 and was Princeton's highest since the 1998-99 academic year.
The standings measure athletic success from top to bottom, so it's not just about how many championships are won. The closest Princeton has come to not winning in recent years came in 2004-05, when Harvard won 14 Ivy titles to five for Princeton. Still, the Tigers won, although by 2.5 points.
Princeton's 12 championships this year marked the 19th time that the program has reached double figures in Ivy wins in an academic year. Harvard, the only other leagues school to accomplish this, has done it five times.
What's most amazing to TB is that Princeton has this success without relying on the same programs over and over to win league titles. This year, for instance, Princeton won 12 Ivy titles without winning a single one in perennial powers men's and women's squash, baseball, softball, women's lacrosse and women's soccer and despite losing the men's cross country title by one point.
In the last three years alone, 20 of the 33 teams that compete in Ivy League sports have won at least one championship. This year, like last year, 25 of 33 teams finished in first, second or third.
With Reunions about to start and the end of the 2009-10 athletic year not too far away, Princeton's coaches and athletes can take a minute to be proud of their accomplishments.
And then they can start to look ahead to 2010-11.
As TB always says, just because there have been 24 straight doesn't mean that 25 is a lock.
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