When TigerBlog heard that the women's lacrosse team was going to Malta as the first stop on its international trip during fall break, he thought the trip had to be the stuff that dreams are made of.
If you're like TB, then your first thought of Malta is the movie "The Maltese Falcon," a 1941 movie starring Humphrey Bogart and a great supporting cast that included Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet.
The movie is set in San Francisco, not in Malta, a nation in the Mediterranean that ranks, as TB found out, 171st in the world in population and 200th in land mass.
The title character is a 16th-century statue covered in jewels and considered priceless. It never made it from the Knights of Malta to the King of Spain because pirates stole it, and nobody knows what ever became of the Maltese Falcon.
Greenstreet and Lorre have a few ideas on the subject though, and they've devoted their lives to finding it. Add in a little murder (of Bogart's partner), Bogart as the private eye whom the cops think may have had something to do with it, Mary Astor as the woman clouding Bogie's judgement and you have an all-time, all-time classic.
Late last week, TigerBlog was asked whether or not he thinks "The Maltese Falcon" is a better movie than "Casablanca," released one year later. To that, TB unflinchingly says "no."
This isn't a knock on "The Maltese Falcon," because "Casablanca" could be the greatest movie of all time.
Still, "The Maltese Falcon" is in that rarest of movie company, the ones that make all dial-changing stop when it appears on TV. TigerBlog isn't sure how many times he's seen the movie, and while he's seen "Casablanca" more, he basically has "The Maltese Falcon" committed to memory as well.
Like "Casablanca," "The Maltese Falcon" also ends with a great last line, uttered by Bogart after his position as the ultimate good guy is reaffirmed.
In "Casablanca," he says "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
In "The Maltese Falcon," it is: "the stuff that dreams are made of."
Meanwhile, the country of Malta was the starting point for the women's lacrosse trip.
The team left Saturday, going to Malta via London. The first order of business was to be a trip to Sicily Monday, but bad weather shut down the ferries and resulted instead in a substitute destination of Gozo, which is an island that is actually part of Malta.
The team will be in Malta until tomorrow, and then it's off to London, where among the activities will be three games against English competition and a trip to an English Premier League game.
As TB has said many times, there is nothing for a team like an international trip. The experience is something that stays with those who go forever.
For the women's lacrosse team, this trip is over fall break, at the conclusion of the fall practice season. In other words, it's timed perfectly.
TB is always fascinated about the destinations that are chosen, especially those that the people who make the trip get to see up close that they probably wouldn't go to under any other circumstances. In this case, it's Malta.
TB can't imagine that many people know more any about Malta than he did, and that was a rough idea of where it was and the movie about the fictional bird. TB doubts that too many of the current players have even heard of the movie, let alone seen it.
But they are in Malta, and then on their way to London.
Hey, it's the stuff that dreams are made of.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Eye Of The Storm
TigerBlog is doing something right now that he's never done before. And it's not really right now.
It's actually Saturday night. Miguel Cabrera just popped out with the bases loaded.
For all TB knows, the World Series is over now. Just not while he's writing.
TigerBlog usually writes the morning of and sometimes the night before, especially if he has a meeting or something early the next day.
So why is did he write Saturday night, which is what it is right now as he types, though it's Tuesday morning as you read?
Oh, before getting to that, TB would like to point out that the blogger function offers the option to post something at a predetermined time in the future, which he does maybe 15% of the time or so. Until now (Saturday night, not Tuesday morning), he's never posted one more than one day in advance.
So why now?
Well, it's Sandy's fault.
As TB writes, the forecast is awful. Rain. Wind. No power for 7-10 days.
And so if TB waited until Tuesday and there was no power, imagine what could go wrong. Maybe his laptop wouldn't be charged and couldn't be recharged. Maybe there would be no way to get to the internet.
So faced with this, TB wrote twice Saturday night. Yesterday's was also actually written today, which is really three days ago.
TB has no idea what Hurricane Sandy will become, or has become, since it's actually now, as opposed to Saturday.
He does know that in the time leading up to the storm, there was a rush on all kinds of stuff, like generators and bottled water. Bottled water? It would have to get really, really bad for it to come to that.
The supermarket was picked clean. There wasn't a loaf of bread to be found. The call was to have three days of food that doesn't require electricity to make on hand. To TB, that meant Pop Tarts.
TB is not a fan of blizzards that close schools and work and keep people anchored at home for a few days. He's even less of a fan of major rain events, especially those that knock out power and flood basements.
Luckily, Sandy held off long enough for the weekend's athletic events to go off, and all of the remnants will be gone by Saturday, when Princeton hosts Penn in a bunch of hugely important games.
One of them will be in football, when the Tigers and Quakers get together at 1 on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium.
Princeton and Penn are both 3-1 in the league, tied with Harvard for first place. Cornell and Dartmouth are both 2-2.
The last two Princeton games have been wildly exciting, to say the least.
In fact, in the win over Harvard and loss to Cornell, there have been a total of 2,168 yards of offense, of which 1,679 have come through the air. In the two games, there have been 15 passing touchdowns.
TB has no way of knowing if those are two-game records for Princeton. He does know that those numbers are off the charts extraordinary.
Princeton scored 120 points in seven Ivy League games a year ago. In the last five quarters, Princeton has scored 69 points.
The winning points in each of the last two games have come in the final minute.
So what's next? The Quakers.
Penn plays Harvard next week, and Harvard still has to play Yale after that. Penn still has to deal with Cornell. Princeton finishes with Yale and Dartmouth after Penn.
In other words, it's not out of the realm of possibility that the league champ will have two losses.
On the other hand, there is the argument that Harvard has lost for the last time, so Princeton needs to go 3-0 to get a share of the title.
Whichever is true, it's important to keep in mind that Princeton is building, transitioning from the team that went 1-9 the last two years. To accomplish what the Tigers have, with such a young team and without running back Chuck Dibilio, has been extraordinary.
With three weeks to go, Princeton still has a chance to to play for the championship. That's all anyone can ask for.
Well, that and for Sandy to fizzle out as quickly as possible.
Now it's time to write Wednesday's entry. Just to be safe.
It's actually Saturday night. Miguel Cabrera just popped out with the bases loaded.
For all TB knows, the World Series is over now. Just not while he's writing.
TigerBlog usually writes the morning of and sometimes the night before, especially if he has a meeting or something early the next day.
So why is did he write Saturday night, which is what it is right now as he types, though it's Tuesday morning as you read?
Oh, before getting to that, TB would like to point out that the blogger function offers the option to post something at a predetermined time in the future, which he does maybe 15% of the time or so. Until now (Saturday night, not Tuesday morning), he's never posted one more than one day in advance.
So why now?
Well, it's Sandy's fault.
As TB writes, the forecast is awful. Rain. Wind. No power for 7-10 days.
And so if TB waited until Tuesday and there was no power, imagine what could go wrong. Maybe his laptop wouldn't be charged and couldn't be recharged. Maybe there would be no way to get to the internet.
So faced with this, TB wrote twice Saturday night. Yesterday's was also actually written today, which is really three days ago.
TB has no idea what Hurricane Sandy will become, or has become, since it's actually now, as opposed to Saturday.
He does know that in the time leading up to the storm, there was a rush on all kinds of stuff, like generators and bottled water. Bottled water? It would have to get really, really bad for it to come to that.
The supermarket was picked clean. There wasn't a loaf of bread to be found. The call was to have three days of food that doesn't require electricity to make on hand. To TB, that meant Pop Tarts.
TB is not a fan of blizzards that close schools and work and keep people anchored at home for a few days. He's even less of a fan of major rain events, especially those that knock out power and flood basements.
Luckily, Sandy held off long enough for the weekend's athletic events to go off, and all of the remnants will be gone by Saturday, when Princeton hosts Penn in a bunch of hugely important games.
One of them will be in football, when the Tigers and Quakers get together at 1 on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium.
Princeton and Penn are both 3-1 in the league, tied with Harvard for first place. Cornell and Dartmouth are both 2-2.
The last two Princeton games have been wildly exciting, to say the least.
In fact, in the win over Harvard and loss to Cornell, there have been a total of 2,168 yards of offense, of which 1,679 have come through the air. In the two games, there have been 15 passing touchdowns.
TB has no way of knowing if those are two-game records for Princeton. He does know that those numbers are off the charts extraordinary.
Princeton scored 120 points in seven Ivy League games a year ago. In the last five quarters, Princeton has scored 69 points.
The winning points in each of the last two games have come in the final minute.
So what's next? The Quakers.
Penn plays Harvard next week, and Harvard still has to play Yale after that. Penn still has to deal with Cornell. Princeton finishes with Yale and Dartmouth after Penn.
In other words, it's not out of the realm of possibility that the league champ will have two losses.
On the other hand, there is the argument that Harvard has lost for the last time, so Princeton needs to go 3-0 to get a share of the title.
Whichever is true, it's important to keep in mind that Princeton is building, transitioning from the team that went 1-9 the last two years. To accomplish what the Tigers have, with such a young team and without running back Chuck Dibilio, has been extraordinary.
With three weeks to go, Princeton still has a chance to to play for the championship. That's all anyone can ask for.
Well, that and for Sandy to fizzle out as quickly as possible.
Now it's time to write Wednesday's entry. Just to be safe.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Three From Saturday
As TigerBlog remembers it, the Heps cross country meet was a four-chocolate-chip-cookie, two brownie, one soft pretzel event. At least for him.
In fairness, the brownies were pretty small, and they did have confectioner's sugar on them, which made them completely unavoidable. And the cookies? He did offer one to someone else who turned it down.
TB loves the Heps cross country championships, and not just for the food that can be found at each school's tailgate. And hey, for this year, he limited himself at least to the food at the Princeton tent.
The most commonly heard comments at the West Windsor Fields Saturday during Heps? It was all about how the weather this year was better than last year, when driving snow was the big storyline.
This time, the weather was a big subject as well, with talk about how perfect it was for running and how the hurricane was on the way.
In years past, it hasn't always been easy to tell which team won the race as the parade of runners churns through the chute to the finish line. The first few are easy to identify, and then they start to come by too quickly to keep track of, let alone add up.
Instead, it can take five or 10 minutes for the official results to be posted, during which time the speculation runs as wildly as the race just did.
For the races this past weekend, there was no such problem.
It was obvious when the women's race ended that it was all Cornell, who ran away to the title. The drama was for who would be second, and that ended up being extremely close, as Princeton edged out Harvard and Brown, who tied for third, by two points (91-93).
As for the men, it was supposed to be close between Princeton and Columbia, and the first time the runners came around, it certainly looked that way.
The next time?
It was all orange and black, as the Tigers went 1-2-4-7-12 to win for the third straight year and sixth in the last seven. Princeton has also won seven straight Ivy titles in cross country or track and field after sweeping all three each of the last two years.
The individual winner was Princeton's Chris Bendtsen, who sprinted to the finish line and looked like he wasn't the least bit winded when it was over.
Bendtsen and the men's cross country team weren't the only big winners in Princeton Athletics Saturday.
In fact, Princeton teams won three Ivy League championships Saturday in a span of about eight hours.
Shortly after the cross country races ended, the field hockey team clinched at least a tie for the league championship, its 18th in the last 19 years.
This one was accomplished with a 5-0 win over Cornell. The Tigers would clinch the outright title with a win Saturday against Penn, but regardless of that game, Princeton has already earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
The 2012 Tigers are one of the best field hockey teams in league history, and they have now outscored their Ivy opponents 38-1.
The third championship also was earned in Ithaca, as the women's soccer team defeated Cornell 5-1 to run its record to 6-0-0 in the league and 12-3-1 overall.
It almost became a bigger day for the Tigers when Penn and Brown went into overtime, and a Brown win or tie would have given Princeton the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as well. Instead, Penn scored four minutes into OT, and so the automatic bid will not be decided until this weekend.
Princeton hosts Penn Saturday at 4 on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium, and a win or tie would give Princeton the outright championship and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Tigers could still get into the NCAA tournament with a loss, but that would take some luck.
For one thing, Princeton would need Dartmouth to beat Brown should it lose to Penn, which would create a three-way tie for the title. The NCAA bid would then be decided by a random draw, since Penn, Princeton and Dartmouth would all be 1-1 against each other and 5-0 against the rest of the league.
Of course, a win or tie for the Tigers makes all that irrelevant.
And hopefully the athletic facilities will still be standing when Sandy gets through with her show.
In fairness, the brownies were pretty small, and they did have confectioner's sugar on them, which made them completely unavoidable. And the cookies? He did offer one to someone else who turned it down.
TB loves the Heps cross country championships, and not just for the food that can be found at each school's tailgate. And hey, for this year, he limited himself at least to the food at the Princeton tent.
The most commonly heard comments at the West Windsor Fields Saturday during Heps? It was all about how the weather this year was better than last year, when driving snow was the big storyline.
This time, the weather was a big subject as well, with talk about how perfect it was for running and how the hurricane was on the way.
In years past, it hasn't always been easy to tell which team won the race as the parade of runners churns through the chute to the finish line. The first few are easy to identify, and then they start to come by too quickly to keep track of, let alone add up.
Instead, it can take five or 10 minutes for the official results to be posted, during which time the speculation runs as wildly as the race just did.
For the races this past weekend, there was no such problem.
It was obvious when the women's race ended that it was all Cornell, who ran away to the title. The drama was for who would be second, and that ended up being extremely close, as Princeton edged out Harvard and Brown, who tied for third, by two points (91-93).
As for the men, it was supposed to be close between Princeton and Columbia, and the first time the runners came around, it certainly looked that way.
The next time?
It was all orange and black, as the Tigers went 1-2-4-7-12 to win for the third straight year and sixth in the last seven. Princeton has also won seven straight Ivy titles in cross country or track and field after sweeping all three each of the last two years.
The individual winner was Princeton's Chris Bendtsen, who sprinted to the finish line and looked like he wasn't the least bit winded when it was over.
Bendtsen and the men's cross country team weren't the only big winners in Princeton Athletics Saturday.
In fact, Princeton teams won three Ivy League championships Saturday in a span of about eight hours.
Shortly after the cross country races ended, the field hockey team clinched at least a tie for the league championship, its 18th in the last 19 years.
This one was accomplished with a 5-0 win over Cornell. The Tigers would clinch the outright title with a win Saturday against Penn, but regardless of that game, Princeton has already earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
The 2012 Tigers are one of the best field hockey teams in league history, and they have now outscored their Ivy opponents 38-1.
The third championship also was earned in Ithaca, as the women's soccer team defeated Cornell 5-1 to run its record to 6-0-0 in the league and 12-3-1 overall.
It almost became a bigger day for the Tigers when Penn and Brown went into overtime, and a Brown win or tie would have given Princeton the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as well. Instead, Penn scored four minutes into OT, and so the automatic bid will not be decided until this weekend.
Princeton hosts Penn Saturday at 4 on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium, and a win or tie would give Princeton the outright championship and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Tigers could still get into the NCAA tournament with a loss, but that would take some luck.
For one thing, Princeton would need Dartmouth to beat Brown should it lose to Penn, which would create a three-way tie for the title. The NCAA bid would then be decided by a random draw, since Penn, Princeton and Dartmouth would all be 1-1 against each other and 5-0 against the rest of the league.
Of course, a win or tie for the Tigers makes all that irrelevant.
And hopefully the athletic facilities will still be standing when Sandy gets through with her show.
Friday, October 26, 2012
The Frankenstorm
So a "Frankenstorm" is on the way?
Apparently that's the case, as Hurricane Sandy is making its way north, where it will meet up with cold Canadian air and some low pressure from the west.
One story TigerBlog read about the storm suggests that those in its path will be talking about it for decades to come. There are very few storms that TB still talks about decades later, and all of the ones he does are related to snow, not rain, so it would have to get pretty bad around here for that to be the case.
Very few things for homeowners are worse than a flooded basement, so TB is hoping that the worst of the storm stays away. He read in one place that landfall would be expected in Cape Cod and Maine; he's read in others that it could come ashore across Long Beach Island and into Central New Jersey.
The dire forecast will lead of course to the run on the supermarket, where everyone will stock up on milk and bread. Of course, if the power goes out, then it'll be necessary to have food that can be prepared without electricity, such as Oreos and M&Ms.
So all that's left to do now is to wait and see what happens. Will it hit here or stay out to to sea long enough to mostly miss the Princeton metropolitan area? And when will it be here?
Most of the forecasts say it'll be getting in around Monday or so and lingering through Wednesday, which is of course Halloween.
So what are you supposed to do about that? Go trick-or-treating in the remnants of a hurricane? Or will entire towns tell people that trick-or-treating will be held on another day?
One way to avoid the storm is to leave the country, which the Princeton women's lacrosse team is doing tomorrow, when it heads off to Malta, Sicily and London for a fall-break trip, and which the women's squash team is doing when it heads off to South Africa.
Like the men's lacrosse team, who went to Costa Rica in June, the women 's lacrosse and women's squash teams are taking advantage of their once-in-four-years international trip.
Unfortunately, most people will have to tough it out through the storm.
Before that comes up, though, there is a huge Saturday in Ithaca to go through, so any hurricane will have to wait.
Princeton is at Cornell tomorrow in four different sports, and each of the four games has huge Ivy League championship implications.
Going chronologically:
* The field hockey team is 5-0 in the league and has outscored its opponents by a combined 33-1 in those five games. Dartmouth, the only team to score against Princeton, is 4-1 in the league, followed by 3-2 Cornell and Columbia.
A win tomorrow in Ithaca would mean at least a share of the league title, and while that's never taken for granted, it's clearly not the main goal for the No. 2-ranked Tigers, who are thinking Final Four - and beyond.
* The football team has a difficult task tomorrow when it kicks off against the Big Red.
Right now, the Tigers are the only unbeaten team in the Ivy League at 3-0, followed by Harvard, Dartmouth and Penn at 2-1. Cornell is 1-2 in the league and 3-3 overall, but the Big Red have not lost at home this year.
Princeton is dealing with a bunch of other issues as well. The Tigers are coming off an amazing 39-34 win over Harvard in what was the best game any current Princeton player has ever been a part of on any level, TB will assume. After a week on that high, can the team pump it back up tomorrow?
In addition, there's also the whole expectations piece of the equation.
Princeton was 1-9 two years ago and 1-9 last year and 1-13 in the Ivy League in the two years combined. Princeton was picked eighth this year and now suddenly has to deal with success and along with increased expectations, even as the Tigers prepare to finish the season with games against four teams against whom Princeton is 0-8 the last two years.
* The men's soccer race in the Ivy League is insane, and a repeat of two years ago, when the league got four bids and saw two teams reach the Sweet 16, is again a possibility.
Princeton is unbeaten in the league - and in fourth place. The Tigers are 2-0-2 (eight points), behind 3-0-1 Brown (10 points) and 3-1 Dartmouth and Penn (nine points each) as they take on a Cornell team that lost for the first time this season (in or out of the league) last week at Brown.
Princeton does finish the league schedule with games against Penn and Yale, who are a combined 1-6-1 in the league.
* The women's soccer team is playing for some big prizes tomorrow evening.
The surging Tigers, led by the great Jen Hoy and a strong supporting cast, is 11-3-1 overall and 5-0-0 in the league. Penn and Dartmouth are tied for second at 4-1-0.
Cornell is 1-12-1 overall and 0-4-1 in the Ivy League, and a win over the Big Red would give the Tigers at least a share of the league championship. On the other hand, Cornell is 0-4-1 in the league with four one-goal losses.
If Princeton really wants to think big, then a win over Cornell and a Penn loss or tie with Brown would give the Tigers the Ivy's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Tigers will finish the regular season at home against Penn next Saturday, and a win over the Quakers would mean the automatic bid regardless of what happens tomorrow.
There are other scenarios as well for Princeton, mostly good but some bad. Still, Princeton has accomplished the first step, which is reach this stage of the season in position to play for championships and the postseason. And with some margin for error to boot.
Apparently that's the case, as Hurricane Sandy is making its way north, where it will meet up with cold Canadian air and some low pressure from the west.
One story TigerBlog read about the storm suggests that those in its path will be talking about it for decades to come. There are very few storms that TB still talks about decades later, and all of the ones he does are related to snow, not rain, so it would have to get pretty bad around here for that to be the case.
Very few things for homeowners are worse than a flooded basement, so TB is hoping that the worst of the storm stays away. He read in one place that landfall would be expected in Cape Cod and Maine; he's read in others that it could come ashore across Long Beach Island and into Central New Jersey.
The dire forecast will lead of course to the run on the supermarket, where everyone will stock up on milk and bread. Of course, if the power goes out, then it'll be necessary to have food that can be prepared without electricity, such as Oreos and M&Ms.
So all that's left to do now is to wait and see what happens. Will it hit here or stay out to to sea long enough to mostly miss the Princeton metropolitan area? And when will it be here?
Most of the forecasts say it'll be getting in around Monday or so and lingering through Wednesday, which is of course Halloween.
So what are you supposed to do about that? Go trick-or-treating in the remnants of a hurricane? Or will entire towns tell people that trick-or-treating will be held on another day?
One way to avoid the storm is to leave the country, which the Princeton women's lacrosse team is doing tomorrow, when it heads off to Malta, Sicily and London for a fall-break trip, and which the women's squash team is doing when it heads off to South Africa.
Like the men's lacrosse team, who went to Costa Rica in June, the women 's lacrosse and women's squash teams are taking advantage of their once-in-four-years international trip.
Unfortunately, most people will have to tough it out through the storm.
Before that comes up, though, there is a huge Saturday in Ithaca to go through, so any hurricane will have to wait.
Princeton is at Cornell tomorrow in four different sports, and each of the four games has huge Ivy League championship implications.
Going chronologically:
* The field hockey team is 5-0 in the league and has outscored its opponents by a combined 33-1 in those five games. Dartmouth, the only team to score against Princeton, is 4-1 in the league, followed by 3-2 Cornell and Columbia.
A win tomorrow in Ithaca would mean at least a share of the league title, and while that's never taken for granted, it's clearly not the main goal for the No. 2-ranked Tigers, who are thinking Final Four - and beyond.
* The football team has a difficult task tomorrow when it kicks off against the Big Red.
Right now, the Tigers are the only unbeaten team in the Ivy League at 3-0, followed by Harvard, Dartmouth and Penn at 2-1. Cornell is 1-2 in the league and 3-3 overall, but the Big Red have not lost at home this year.
Princeton is dealing with a bunch of other issues as well. The Tigers are coming off an amazing 39-34 win over Harvard in what was the best game any current Princeton player has ever been a part of on any level, TB will assume. After a week on that high, can the team pump it back up tomorrow?
In addition, there's also the whole expectations piece of the equation.
Princeton was 1-9 two years ago and 1-9 last year and 1-13 in the Ivy League in the two years combined. Princeton was picked eighth this year and now suddenly has to deal with success and along with increased expectations, even as the Tigers prepare to finish the season with games against four teams against whom Princeton is 0-8 the last two years.
* The men's soccer race in the Ivy League is insane, and a repeat of two years ago, when the league got four bids and saw two teams reach the Sweet 16, is again a possibility.
Princeton is unbeaten in the league - and in fourth place. The Tigers are 2-0-2 (eight points), behind 3-0-1 Brown (10 points) and 3-1 Dartmouth and Penn (nine points each) as they take on a Cornell team that lost for the first time this season (in or out of the league) last week at Brown.
Princeton does finish the league schedule with games against Penn and Yale, who are a combined 1-6-1 in the league.
* The women's soccer team is playing for some big prizes tomorrow evening.
The surging Tigers, led by the great Jen Hoy and a strong supporting cast, is 11-3-1 overall and 5-0-0 in the league. Penn and Dartmouth are tied for second at 4-1-0.
Cornell is 1-12-1 overall and 0-4-1 in the Ivy League, and a win over the Big Red would give the Tigers at least a share of the league championship. On the other hand, Cornell is 0-4-1 in the league with four one-goal losses.
If Princeton really wants to think big, then a win over Cornell and a Penn loss or tie with Brown would give the Tigers the Ivy's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Tigers will finish the regular season at home against Penn next Saturday, and a win over the Quakers would mean the automatic bid regardless of what happens tomorrow.
There are other scenarios as well for Princeton, mostly good but some bad. Still, Princeton has accomplished the first step, which is reach this stage of the season in position to play for championships and the postseason. And with some margin for error to boot.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Playing Favorites
TigerBlog has done a lot of radio in his life, probably more than just about anyone else who isn't actually a radio person.
He began doing it while at Penn, where among his broadcasting partners were Scott Graham, who ended up doing the Phillies on the radio for a few years and now does a lot of work with NFL Films and is also the voiceover for just about anything you'll hear on radio or TV, and a bunch of guys who are now lawyers or investment bankers.
Oh, and Paul Jolovitz, who has something to do with radio in Philadelphia, especially with the Eagles.
TigerBlog first did Princeton basketball on the radio with David Brody, who, TB believes, took over for Howard David. TB doesn't remember exactly how he went from simply covering the games for the newspaper to being Brody's partner; it just seemed to happen one day.
In fact, TB was part of something that almost never happens on basketball on the radio, a three-man booth with Brody and former Tiger center Rich Simkus. As TB remembers, it sort of worked, especially since Princeton spent so much time moving the ball around on offense that there was time for TB and Simkus to both make their points and make fun of each other.
TB's radio career has been more of necessity, as in there really hasn't been anyone else to do the games or he does them cheap (as in for free). He's not the greatest radio guy out there, but he'd say he's pretty good at it.
He's done a ton of basketball and not as much football, and he has done lacrosse by himself for a long time - something that's not easy to do.
Since 2005, TB has been the PA announcer for football here, and he's never been able to figure out whether he likes radio or PA better.
Among the men's basketball voices TB has worked with here have been Tom McCarthy, Dan Loney and John Sadak, who has been the Tiger play-by-play man for a number of years now.
Starting this season, Derek Jones will be replacing Sadak, coming to the men's radio chair after calling women's games previously, like Sadak did as well.
Jones' former and new teams have both been selected as the preseason favorites in Ivy League basketball.
The women are seeking their fourth consecutive championship. The men are seeking their 27th overall and second in three years.
Each league school had two of its media members vote in the preseason polls, and a national writer was added in as well, meaning there were 17 voters in each poll or 34 overall.
Speaking of polls, TB has always wanted to be polled about a political race but never has been.
Anyway, between the 34 votes in the two polls, Princeton received 29 first-place votes. A bit stunningly, Princeton actually got more first-place votes on the men's side than the women's.
The men were picked on 16 of the 17 ballots, while the women were picked on 13 of 17.
In case you forgot, the Princeton women went 14-0 in the Ivy League last year and won all 14 games by double figures, including 12 of 14 by at least 20. The Tigers were ranked in the Top 25 at season's end, becoming the first Ivy school to be so honored.
In the last three years, Princeton is 41-1 in the Ivy League. Yes, the Tigers did graduate 1,000-point scorers Devona Allgood and Lauren Edwards, but Niveen Rasheed returns for her senior year as by far the best player in the league.
But hey, it's okay not to be unanimous. Last year, Princeton picked up 14 first-place votes in the preseason poll. TB respects the opinion of the four this year who picked Harvard to win the league, though he would like to hear the logic.
As for the men, size certainly won't be a problem, as nine of the 14 members of the team are at least 6-8 and five of the 14 are at least 6-10.
Princeton has the benefit of its summer trip to Spain under its belt as preseason practices are moving along and opening day approaches. Like the women, the men also have a total superstar to build around, in the case of the men the wildly athletic and talented Ian Hummer, who is a Big East player in the Ivy League.
Back about this time 15 years ago (maybe even 15 years ago today, for that matter), Bill Carmody said at Ivy League basketball media day - they used to have those types of things - that his unanimously selected team should be the favorite, based on what they had back, and that he would have voted for his team as well.
It was a far cry from what Pete Carril used to say before each season, which was this: "I'm still trying to figure out what game we're going to win."
Anyway, that 1997-98 Princeton team featured Mitch Henderson and Brian Earl, who are now the head coach and assistant coach for the 2012-13 team. The 1997-98 Tigers went out and destroyed the league, rose into the national Top 10 and have just recently been mentioned by Sports Illustrated's Alex Wolff as one of the most influential teams of all time for the impact that running the Princeton Offense would have as a result of that success.
So the 2012-13 Princeton men and women are favored. Now they just have to go out and do it on the court.
It should be a fun winter around here.
He began doing it while at Penn, where among his broadcasting partners were Scott Graham, who ended up doing the Phillies on the radio for a few years and now does a lot of work with NFL Films and is also the voiceover for just about anything you'll hear on radio or TV, and a bunch of guys who are now lawyers or investment bankers.
Oh, and Paul Jolovitz, who has something to do with radio in Philadelphia, especially with the Eagles.
TigerBlog first did Princeton basketball on the radio with David Brody, who, TB believes, took over for Howard David. TB doesn't remember exactly how he went from simply covering the games for the newspaper to being Brody's partner; it just seemed to happen one day.
In fact, TB was part of something that almost never happens on basketball on the radio, a three-man booth with Brody and former Tiger center Rich Simkus. As TB remembers, it sort of worked, especially since Princeton spent so much time moving the ball around on offense that there was time for TB and Simkus to both make their points and make fun of each other.
TB's radio career has been more of necessity, as in there really hasn't been anyone else to do the games or he does them cheap (as in for free). He's not the greatest radio guy out there, but he'd say he's pretty good at it.
He's done a ton of basketball and not as much football, and he has done lacrosse by himself for a long time - something that's not easy to do.
Since 2005, TB has been the PA announcer for football here, and he's never been able to figure out whether he likes radio or PA better.
Among the men's basketball voices TB has worked with here have been Tom McCarthy, Dan Loney and John Sadak, who has been the Tiger play-by-play man for a number of years now.
Starting this season, Derek Jones will be replacing Sadak, coming to the men's radio chair after calling women's games previously, like Sadak did as well.
Jones' former and new teams have both been selected as the preseason favorites in Ivy League basketball.
The women are seeking their fourth consecutive championship. The men are seeking their 27th overall and second in three years.
Each league school had two of its media members vote in the preseason polls, and a national writer was added in as well, meaning there were 17 voters in each poll or 34 overall.
Speaking of polls, TB has always wanted to be polled about a political race but never has been.
Anyway, between the 34 votes in the two polls, Princeton received 29 first-place votes. A bit stunningly, Princeton actually got more first-place votes on the men's side than the women's.
The men were picked on 16 of the 17 ballots, while the women were picked on 13 of 17.
In case you forgot, the Princeton women went 14-0 in the Ivy League last year and won all 14 games by double figures, including 12 of 14 by at least 20. The Tigers were ranked in the Top 25 at season's end, becoming the first Ivy school to be so honored.
In the last three years, Princeton is 41-1 in the Ivy League. Yes, the Tigers did graduate 1,000-point scorers Devona Allgood and Lauren Edwards, but Niveen Rasheed returns for her senior year as by far the best player in the league.
But hey, it's okay not to be unanimous. Last year, Princeton picked up 14 first-place votes in the preseason poll. TB respects the opinion of the four this year who picked Harvard to win the league, though he would like to hear the logic.
As for the men, size certainly won't be a problem, as nine of the 14 members of the team are at least 6-8 and five of the 14 are at least 6-10.
Princeton has the benefit of its summer trip to Spain under its belt as preseason practices are moving along and opening day approaches. Like the women, the men also have a total superstar to build around, in the case of the men the wildly athletic and talented Ian Hummer, who is a Big East player in the Ivy League.
Back about this time 15 years ago (maybe even 15 years ago today, for that matter), Bill Carmody said at Ivy League basketball media day - they used to have those types of things - that his unanimously selected team should be the favorite, based on what they had back, and that he would have voted for his team as well.
It was a far cry from what Pete Carril used to say before each season, which was this: "I'm still trying to figure out what game we're going to win."
Anyway, that 1997-98 Princeton team featured Mitch Henderson and Brian Earl, who are now the head coach and assistant coach for the 2012-13 team. The 1997-98 Tigers went out and destroyed the league, rose into the national Top 10 and have just recently been mentioned by Sports Illustrated's Alex Wolff as one of the most influential teams of all time for the impact that running the Princeton Offense would have as a result of that success.
So the 2012-13 Princeton men and women are favored. Now they just have to go out and do it on the court.
It should be a fun winter around here.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Walking And Running
TigerBlog found himself back in New York City yesterday.
Unlike his last trip, which was on a glamorous Saturday night in the theater district, this time he was there during a work day.
As he walked through the streets of midtown, he was struck by two things.
First, a lot of people in New York City smoke. Actually, that may or may not be accurate. It seems like a lot of them smoke because they all stand out in front of buildings to do it, and so it creates a never-ending wave of smoke for those who are just walking by.
TigerBlog can't understand why anyone would choose to smoke. It's a vile habit, and beyond that, it has a pretty good chance to shorten your life dramatically. There are enough hazards in the world without entering into one like that so needlessly.
If you smoke, quit. TB is happy to refer to you MotherBlog, who smoked - and died at age 55.
The other thing that TB was shocked by was how many people walk up to the food carts on the street and order whatever happens to be cooking there, without any real regard for, oh, general health?
It reminded TB of the scene in the wildly underrated "The Pope of Greenwich Village," when Mickey Rourke pulls Eric Roberts away from such a cart and says "all they're selling there is warm germs."
A long time ago, TigerBlog had a summer job in the city at 68th and Park, and right on the corner was a hot dog cart, where every now and then TB would get two with kraut and a YooHoo. And by every now and then, he means every afternoon.
Of course, he was 19 at the time, so maybe his system was better equipped to handle it.
Still, even back then, he would never have dreamed of getting some of the stuff that is being sold on the corners, things with meat and no place to wash their hands and - yuck - TB is getting queasy just thinking about it.
One undeniable part about his walking in Manhattan yesterday was that it was nearly perfect weather to be doing so, with the temperature right at 70 and an overcast sky that threatened but never really opened up.
In fact, the weather this fall has been astonishingly perfect for the most part.
It makes TB think back 52 weeks ago, when it snowed on a crazy Saturday in Princeton in late October.
It didn't just snow; it blizzarded. The day before it was sunny and 70. The day after it was sunny and 60. In between was the biggest accumulated snowfall of last winter, even if it came in the fall.
It destroyed the home weekend against Cornell, where field hockey, football and both soccers had work around the flakes.
More than that, it completely ruined the Ivy League Heptagonal cross country championships, which were held here because of the construction at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
The result was a series of great pictures with snowflakes falling all around the competitors - and an all-around lousy experience for athletes, administrators and spectators.
Ah, but another chance has arisen. Van Cortlandt is still not available, and so the meet returns to Princeton for a second time, coming this Saturday to the West Windsor fields (beginning at 11 am).
The forecast is for nearly perfect weather again, 67 degrees, or about 40 more than last year. And the best part? No snow.
If you've never been to a Heps cross country meet, they are among the best events on the annual Ivy League sports calendar. There are big tents with great spreads for each of the eight teams. The full color of the rainbow - on the trees and uniforms - is well-represented.
The competition is fierce, and one of TB's favorite parts is how it's impossible to tell which team has won (usually, unless one team completely dominates) until shortly after everyone finishes and the results are totaled.
And there are such subtle differences in the scoring, as the runner from one school moves from 15th to 12th right at the end and changes the team score in any number of directions.
There are few competitions where the athletes are as spent as they are at the end of a major cross country event.
TB always loved going to the ones at Van Cortlandt.
This time, they're at Princeton. Again. With everything that makes the event great, without having to drive to the Bronx.
Or, mercifully, without the snow.
Unlike his last trip, which was on a glamorous Saturday night in the theater district, this time he was there during a work day.
As he walked through the streets of midtown, he was struck by two things.
First, a lot of people in New York City smoke. Actually, that may or may not be accurate. It seems like a lot of them smoke because they all stand out in front of buildings to do it, and so it creates a never-ending wave of smoke for those who are just walking by.
TigerBlog can't understand why anyone would choose to smoke. It's a vile habit, and beyond that, it has a pretty good chance to shorten your life dramatically. There are enough hazards in the world without entering into one like that so needlessly.
If you smoke, quit. TB is happy to refer to you MotherBlog, who smoked - and died at age 55.
The other thing that TB was shocked by was how many people walk up to the food carts on the street and order whatever happens to be cooking there, without any real regard for, oh, general health?
It reminded TB of the scene in the wildly underrated "The Pope of Greenwich Village," when Mickey Rourke pulls Eric Roberts away from such a cart and says "all they're selling there is warm germs."
A long time ago, TigerBlog had a summer job in the city at 68th and Park, and right on the corner was a hot dog cart, where every now and then TB would get two with kraut and a YooHoo. And by every now and then, he means every afternoon.
Of course, he was 19 at the time, so maybe his system was better equipped to handle it.
Still, even back then, he would never have dreamed of getting some of the stuff that is being sold on the corners, things with meat and no place to wash their hands and - yuck - TB is getting queasy just thinking about it.
One undeniable part about his walking in Manhattan yesterday was that it was nearly perfect weather to be doing so, with the temperature right at 70 and an overcast sky that threatened but never really opened up.
In fact, the weather this fall has been astonishingly perfect for the most part.
It makes TB think back 52 weeks ago, when it snowed on a crazy Saturday in Princeton in late October.
It didn't just snow; it blizzarded. The day before it was sunny and 70. The day after it was sunny and 60. In between was the biggest accumulated snowfall of last winter, even if it came in the fall.
It destroyed the home weekend against Cornell, where field hockey, football and both soccers had work around the flakes.
More than that, it completely ruined the Ivy League Heptagonal cross country championships, which were held here because of the construction at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
The result was a series of great pictures with snowflakes falling all around the competitors - and an all-around lousy experience for athletes, administrators and spectators.
Ah, but another chance has arisen. Van Cortlandt is still not available, and so the meet returns to Princeton for a second time, coming this Saturday to the West Windsor fields (beginning at 11 am).
The forecast is for nearly perfect weather again, 67 degrees, or about 40 more than last year. And the best part? No snow.
If you've never been to a Heps cross country meet, they are among the best events on the annual Ivy League sports calendar. There are big tents with great spreads for each of the eight teams. The full color of the rainbow - on the trees and uniforms - is well-represented.
The competition is fierce, and one of TB's favorite parts is how it's impossible to tell which team has won (usually, unless one team completely dominates) until shortly after everyone finishes and the results are totaled.
And there are such subtle differences in the scoring, as the runner from one school moves from 15th to 12th right at the end and changes the team score in any number of directions.
There are few competitions where the athletes are as spent as they are at the end of a major cross country event.
TB always loved going to the ones at Van Cortlandt.
This time, they're at Princeton. Again. With everything that makes the event great, without having to drive to the Bronx.
Or, mercifully, without the snow.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Looking Forward
TigerBlog had a meeting Saturday morning in the gorgeous chemistry building that creates a triangle with Jadwin Gym and Princeton Stadium (although, as he recalls from Mrs. Mancuso's geometry class, any three points create a triangle).
When it was over, he walked out into the bright, brilliant late morning sunshine, with the multi-colored leaves of mid-fall visible through the openings in the stadium.
It was a great morning to be on the Princeton campus, with pristine weather and wall-to-wall people, all wearing either orange and black or crimson.
The first person TB saw when he walked outside was an older gentleman who was wearing a Crimson blazer. He looked at TB and saw his Princeton Athletics shirt and said "good luck to the Tigers today."
Any time that he is in that kind of situation, TB is reminded of the time that he pulled up to Columbia for a football game and had the parking attendant, another kindly older gentleman, say "I hope you enjoy the game," to which one of TB's favorites, Harvey Yavener, replied "we didn't come here to enjoy the game; we came here to kick your a--."
Forgetting for a minute that Yav really shouldn't have cared who won, because he was a newspaper writer and not affiliated with Princeton itself, the moment was pretty funny. And TB always thinks he's going to respond in a similar fashion one day, just for the shock value.
Sadly, TB is far too mature for that. Well, maybe not mature. Maybe he just wants to keep his job.
So what TB said to the man in the Harvard jacket was this: "Good luck to the Crimson as well."
To that, Mr. Crimson responded with what was basically the prevailing thought a little before noon Saturday, something along the lines of "we should win football, you should win field hockey, we'll see who wins soccer, beautiful day."
As it turned out, Princeton won field hockey.
And men's soccer in overtime.
And women's soccer.
And of course, football, in a game that you might have by now heard about.
A 4-0 day against Harvard. And yes, in beautiful weather.
There aren't too many Princeton fans who could ask for more than that from their Saturday.
As for TigerBlog, well, he's always cautious when it comes to days like that. You never want to get too high or take anything for granted, because days like that don't come along very often.
The first instinct in athletic communications would be to stick the chest out and trumpet that success. The reality is that you never want to go overboard.
Why?
Because there are a lot of other weekends coming up, and they all can't be this good. It's important to be humble and move on to the next.
And you never want to give the other teams something to gnaw at them any more than necessary.
Besides, for all of those teams, there are still so many huge games coming up, including this weekend at Cornell, before the fall is over.
It's always a weird feeling for TigerBlog when there are huge midseason games, win or loss, and then the one-week wait until the next one. The drama continues to build, and seasons can turn so dramatically from one week to the next.
So yes, this past Saturday was, in many ways, historic, for the football game alone.
But there is a lot left to play for across the board.
The women's soccer team and field hockey team would get at least a share of the Ivy League title with a win in Ithaca. The men's soccer game is huge.
And football?
One of TigerBlog's favorite coaches was a man named Donnie Marsh, who coached men's basketball at the College of New Jersey when TB was in the newspaper business. Marsh once said something that has stuck with TB ever since, when he essentially said that anyone can win a big game; what's tougher is the game after the big game.
Now that it's Tuesday, the glow from last weekend can fade as it's time to get back to business as usual, with a renewed focus on this coming weekend.
As George C. Scott says in the final line of "Patton" as he walks across the field: All Glory Is Fleeting.
When it was over, he walked out into the bright, brilliant late morning sunshine, with the multi-colored leaves of mid-fall visible through the openings in the stadium.
It was a great morning to be on the Princeton campus, with pristine weather and wall-to-wall people, all wearing either orange and black or crimson.
The first person TB saw when he walked outside was an older gentleman who was wearing a Crimson blazer. He looked at TB and saw his Princeton Athletics shirt and said "good luck to the Tigers today."
Any time that he is in that kind of situation, TB is reminded of the time that he pulled up to Columbia for a football game and had the parking attendant, another kindly older gentleman, say "I hope you enjoy the game," to which one of TB's favorites, Harvey Yavener, replied "we didn't come here to enjoy the game; we came here to kick your a--."
Forgetting for a minute that Yav really shouldn't have cared who won, because he was a newspaper writer and not affiliated with Princeton itself, the moment was pretty funny. And TB always thinks he's going to respond in a similar fashion one day, just for the shock value.
Sadly, TB is far too mature for that. Well, maybe not mature. Maybe he just wants to keep his job.
So what TB said to the man in the Harvard jacket was this: "Good luck to the Crimson as well."
To that, Mr. Crimson responded with what was basically the prevailing thought a little before noon Saturday, something along the lines of "we should win football, you should win field hockey, we'll see who wins soccer, beautiful day."
As it turned out, Princeton won field hockey.
And men's soccer in overtime.
And women's soccer.
And of course, football, in a game that you might have by now heard about.
A 4-0 day against Harvard. And yes, in beautiful weather.
There aren't too many Princeton fans who could ask for more than that from their Saturday.
As for TigerBlog, well, he's always cautious when it comes to days like that. You never want to get too high or take anything for granted, because days like that don't come along very often.
The first instinct in athletic communications would be to stick the chest out and trumpet that success. The reality is that you never want to go overboard.
Why?
Because there are a lot of other weekends coming up, and they all can't be this good. It's important to be humble and move on to the next.
And you never want to give the other teams something to gnaw at them any more than necessary.
Besides, for all of those teams, there are still so many huge games coming up, including this weekend at Cornell, before the fall is over.
It's always a weird feeling for TigerBlog when there are huge midseason games, win or loss, and then the one-week wait until the next one. The drama continues to build, and seasons can turn so dramatically from one week to the next.
So yes, this past Saturday was, in many ways, historic, for the football game alone.
But there is a lot left to play for across the board.
The women's soccer team and field hockey team would get at least a share of the Ivy League title with a win in Ithaca. The men's soccer game is huge.
And football?
One of TigerBlog's favorite coaches was a man named Donnie Marsh, who coached men's basketball at the College of New Jersey when TB was in the newspaper business. Marsh once said something that has stuck with TB ever since, when he essentially said that anyone can win a big game; what's tougher is the game after the big game.
Now that it's Tuesday, the glow from last weekend can fade as it's time to get back to business as usual, with a renewed focus on this coming weekend.
As George C. Scott says in the final line of "Patton" as he walks across the field: All Glory Is Fleeting.
Monday, October 22, 2012
The Greatest Ivy League Football Game TB Has Seen
Instead, he spends 15 minutes watching the Fifth Quarter, when Powers Field is turned over to the fans. Eventually, as the clock winds down, he then asks, begs, cajoles the crowd to exit the field via the ramps at the bottom of sections 3, 4, 29 and 30 - something he's said about a billion times in his life.
While the Fifth Quarter party goes on, the Princeton players and their families/friends gather near the tunnel to the locker room. TB has to remind that group to exit the field as well.
Usually, it takes about three announcements to get the ball rolling.
This past Saturday, TB didn't even bother. What was the point?
Some days, you just have to let the party happen. This past Saturday was one of them.
As Powers Field was engulfed in a sea of orange and black humanity, the reason for the party hung over all of their heads, as if a reminder was needed. There it was anyway, lingering on the scoreboard:
Princeton 39, Harvard 34.
If you want to watch it again, go to espn3, search for Princeton and click on the Princeton-Harvard football link. It'll be there for five more days.
TigerBlog has been watching Princeton play football for nearly 30 years. Including his time as a Penn undergrad, he's always figured that the best Ivy League football games he's seen were, chronologically:
1982 - Penn 23, Harvard 21
1983 - Penn 28, Princeton 27
2006 - Princeton 31, Penn 30 (two OT)
2006 - Princeton 38, Yale 35
The game from this past Saturday surpasses any of those, for any number of reasons.
According to TigerBlog, that is 1) the best Ivy League football game he's ever seen and 2) the best football game he's seen in person.
And here's why: Princeton was such a huge underdog in that game that to come back the way the Tigers did defied any kind of logic. And the comeback itself? It was stunning, riveting.
The win over Penn in 2006 featured the play where Rob Toresco lateraled the ball to Jeff Terrell for a touchdown in the second OT, followed by the wild (and often-forgotten) play where Penn almost turned a bad snap on an extra point into the winning points, only to fall a yard short.
The win over Yale a week later featured a comeback from two touchdowns back as Terrell put on the aerial show that stamped him as the Bushnell Cup winner.
But the Penn game was a good game that had a dramatic ending, and the Yale game was the two best teams in the league, so it figured to even out over 60 minutes. And Princeton had the best player in both games.
The game this past Saturday was different because Harvard has been the dominant team in the league, had the nation's longest winning streak, had players put up obscene offensive numbers all day and held a 24-point lead with 12 minutes to go. Harvard was picked to win the league; Princeton was picked by many to finish eighth.
Put the teams in that same situation again, Harvard up 34-10 in the fourth quarter, and the Crimson win that game, what, 999 times out of a 1,000? Maybe more?
Princeton was outgained 415-51 in the first half, which ended 20-0 Harvard. It appeared that Princeton's chance was after its touchdown drive to start the second half and then fumble recovery on the Crimson 5, but when Princeton was held to a field goal and Harvard came right down the field to make it 27-10, TB thought it was over.
Harvard would end up with a school-record 448 yards and five touchdowns from its quarterback, Colton Chapple. One running back ran for 100 yards; three receivers had at least 100 yards, including Kyle Juszczyk, who caught 15 passes for 192 yards and three TDs.
In all, the Crimson rolled up 634 yards of offense.
But it was Princeton who could not be stopped in the fourth quarter.
Twice Princeton scored touchdowns, went for two and converted, cutting a 24-point deficit to one possession. And then Princeton scored another touchdown, Connor Michelsen (who was fabulous) to Seth DeValve, and it was 34-32 2:27 to play.
And then came the biggest play of the game. Princeton failed on the two-point conversion. And that ended up being a huge part of why Princeton won.
Had Princeton tied it there, then Harvard would have had 2:27 and all three of its timeouts needing only a field goal to win. Given the way the Crimson offense had gone all day, the chances of success there were huge.
But instead, Harvard needed to run out the clock against a team determined to get the ball back. And so Princeton did just that, holding Harvard less than a yard shy on three downs. Harvard elected to punt instead of going for the first down - TB understands it, and given what the Tigers had to do to win, it's hard to second-guess.
The winning drive went 11 plays and covered 90 yards, without any timeouts, taking 1:44 off the clock. The touchdown was Quinn Epperly to Roman Wilson from 38 yards, after Michelsen had been knocked out of the game a few plays earlier, with 13 seconds left.
Really, it was something like from a sports movie, where the underdogs need the late touchdown and the ball seems to hang in the air forever - and nobody can really believe what happened.
TigerBlog Jr.'s friend and father had left earlier in the fourth quarter to go to Nassau Street. He called them to come back, and they made it back to the outside of the stadium just as Wilson was hauling in his pass, where they were greeted by a roar that almost knocked them over, a roar that told the whole story.
And then the crowd held its breath through a kickoff return and incomplete pass, and then the Fifth Quarter - and Sixth and Seventh Quarters - began.
Ordinarily, TB isn't a huge fan of storming the field when a championship hasn't been won, but in this case, he could hardly blame anyone.
Two games into the season, Princeton was 0-2, 2-20 under Bob Surace.
And now? An unlikely four-game winning streak and sole possession of first place in the Ivy League with four games to go.
Now keep in mind that Princeton is 0-8 the last two years against the four remaining teams (at Cornell, home with Penn, at Yale, home with Dartmouth).
On the other hand, if Saturday's game showed anything, it showed that this team has a special quality to it, and that quality can take teams a long, long way.
Will this team win the Ivy title? If it does, it would be one of the great stories in Princeton Athletics history.
And if not? They'll always have this past Saturday, a win that nobody who was there will ever forget. It was a shocking 12 minutes, a time that reminds you why it is that sports are like nothing else out there.
As TB looked down on it from the PA booth, he couldn't help but feel good for Surace, one of the nicest guys who's ever walked into Jadwin Gym, and the rest of the coaches and players, all of whom had been through so much during their time here.
It was a special, special moment. Every now and then, TB would glance back up at the scoreboard, just to make sure he'd seen it the right way.
Princeton 39, Harvard 34.
The greatest Ivy League football game TB has ever seen.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Guest TigerBlog: The Case For Squash (by Julie Cerullo ’13)
TigerBlog has a long-standing policy of opening up the floor to those with something to say. Today, though, is a first - a Princeton athlete has taken him up on his offer. Julie Cerullo, a senior on the women's squash team, is a three-time first-team All-America and and Academic All-Ivy League selection who reached the national semifinals a year ago. She offered to write about the chances of having her sport become an Olympic sport. Her piece is well-timed, given what tomorrow has been designated in the world of squash - and that TigerBlog is still busy celebrating the end of the Yankees' season.
What is 140 years old, played by 17 million people in 185 countries, and is described by Forbes Magazine as “the world’s healthiest sport?”
Hint: The Princeton Tigers men’s team is the reigning intercollegiate champion.
The answer is SQUASH.
For all its heritage and global popularity, though, for some reason it is still not an Olympic sport. Squash is not even an NCAA sport!
In an effort to make this right, the World Squash Organization has declared tomorrow (Oct. 20) World Squash Day. It’s a chance to promote the demand of squash lovers that the sport be included in the 2020 Olympics. World Squash Day has garnered extra attention in the U.S. because of the considerable public relations push devoted to the Olympics effort. World Squash has engaged Mike Lee, head of VERO Communications to spearhead the campaign. Lee was instrumental in effecting “Rugby Sevens’” successful bid for a berth in the 2016 Olympics.
Princeton’s ties to squash are deep. Men’s coach Bob Callahan ’77 was recently inducted into the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame. Women’s coach Gail Ramsay is the only four-time intercollegiate women's champion; Yasser El Halaby ’06 is the only four-time men's champ.
Princeton has in its alumni ranks many intercollegiate champions – current men’s Co-captain Todd Harrity ’13, Jon Nimick ’81, Wendy Zaharko ’75, Demer Holleran ’89, and Julia Beaver ’01, to name a few. Some have gone on to incorporate their passion for the sport into careers. John Nimick owns a sports production company that stages athletic competitions, such as international squash tournaments, in non-traditional settings. Jack Wyant ’96 is Head Coach of the University of Pennsylvania men’s and women’s varsity squash teams.
US Squash CEO Kevin Klipstein was recently on campus helping celebrate the 120th anniversary of Princeton Squash, an alumni day that attracted more than 200 returning squash enthusiasts. The celebration entailed two exhibition matches and round-robin play followed by a reception and dinner, during which Klipstein presented a compelling argument and video for why squash should be in the Olympics.
Klipstein accepts that sports seeking Olympic status do have to put forward what positive contribution they could make to the Olympics. But he thinks squash’s case is strong.
“It’s a growing sport with real global appeal, and all five continents have already produced both men’s and women’s world champions. The game has a unique ability to showcase a host city and is easy and cost-effective to integrate. It’s a game that already has well-established men’s and women’s tours and is played in every other major multi-sports games,” Klipstein said. “And by the way it’s a clean sport [from the drug perspective] and really reinforces Olympic Values.”
On paper, squash meets all the criteria required of an Olympic sport in terms of its history, universality and popularity. It’s good for athletes’ health and would be relatively cheap to integrate. But squash will be competing against five other sports for one open berth in the 2020 games.
The other aspirant sports are Karate, wushu (a martial art), roller sports, sport climbing and wake boarding, and it won’t get any easier beyond 2020 as lacrosse and mixed martial arts have announced their plans to seek Olympic status in the future. A possible bid by softball and baseball for reinstatement in 2020 further complicates the decision.
Squash has come close to achieving Olympic status in the past, only narrowly failing to gain the required two-thirds majority vote from the IOC.
There is evidence of broadening support for squash’s bid in the August 2012 issue of “The Atlantic.” In her article, Ashley Fetters rated squash’s changes highly. She cited the sentiment of many, including academic John Barrow, professor of mathematical sciences at Cambridge and author of the book “Mathletics,” who posits that criteria for inclusion in the Olympics should be whether winning the Olympic Games would be the pinnacle of achievement in that sport. One might argue that sports such as golf, soccer, tennis and baseball do not meet this threshold.
Steve Harrington ’13, current co-captain of both the men’s squash team and the baseball team agrees.
He said, “winning the World Series will always be the pinnacle achievement in baseball. Because the World Series and the Olympic Games overlap, the top baseball players wouldn’t even show up to compete for gold.”
For this reason, he believes that squash is much more deserving of Olympic status. He continues, “having the Olympics on the squash calendar would make the sport much more official, and an Olympic gold would no doubt be the highest achievement possible in the sport.”
Like these sports, squash does exist on a professional level, but on a very modest scale. It would be tough to cite a professional squash player who lives merely on squash earnings, let alone one who is able to retire on them. In the case of the baseball/softball rebid, it is widely believed that baseball was ejected because the stars of the game have opted not to play in the Olympics.
Meredeth Quick ’01, who was a member of two national championship teams during her time at Princeton and played professionally post college, argues that squash has an unusual attribute:
You can keep on playing it into middle and even old age. “It’s a lifetime sport – you can play it forever, ” she says. Quick, now a teacher, continues to compete on the women’s doubles circuit, coaches high school squash at her school and has coached two consecutive U. S. Junior National Teams. She believes that squash’s inclusion in the Olympics would encourage greater participation in the sport.
Indeed squash has been growing in the U.S., and Klipstein notes that “squash has grown by a factor of about 25% every year over the last five years.”
There is no question that increased exposure by way of Olympic coverage would boost squash’s profile. Olympic sponsorship funds are distributed through sports federations to their sports. This would be a big boon for squash in terms of supporting national training. And squash is not presently an NCAA sport. Klipstein adds that the Olympics would make a big case for elevating the sport domestically in this regard.
The fate of squash as an Olympic sport will essentially be known by this time next year. While baseball and lacrosse are beloved at Princeton too, it may be squash’s turn. What a coup squash in the Olympics would be for a sport embraced by Princeton – perhaps home of more future Olympians!
[And in case you’re wondering, the game of squash originated at The Harrow School in England. It derived from a combination of the games “racquets” (tennis) and “fives” (handball). The name squash comes from the notion of the rubber ball “squashing” against the court wall upon impact.]
What is 140 years old, played by 17 million people in 185 countries, and is described by Forbes Magazine as “the world’s healthiest sport?”
Hint: The Princeton Tigers men’s team is the reigning intercollegiate champion.
The answer is SQUASH.
For all its heritage and global popularity, though, for some reason it is still not an Olympic sport. Squash is not even an NCAA sport!
In an effort to make this right, the World Squash Organization has declared tomorrow (Oct. 20) World Squash Day. It’s a chance to promote the demand of squash lovers that the sport be included in the 2020 Olympics. World Squash Day has garnered extra attention in the U.S. because of the considerable public relations push devoted to the Olympics effort. World Squash has engaged Mike Lee, head of VERO Communications to spearhead the campaign. Lee was instrumental in effecting “Rugby Sevens’” successful bid for a berth in the 2016 Olympics.
Princeton’s ties to squash are deep. Men’s coach Bob Callahan ’77 was recently inducted into the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame. Women’s coach Gail Ramsay is the only four-time intercollegiate women's champion; Yasser El Halaby ’06 is the only four-time men's champ.
Princeton has in its alumni ranks many intercollegiate champions – current men’s Co-captain Todd Harrity ’13, Jon Nimick ’81, Wendy Zaharko ’75, Demer Holleran ’89, and Julia Beaver ’01, to name a few. Some have gone on to incorporate their passion for the sport into careers. John Nimick owns a sports production company that stages athletic competitions, such as international squash tournaments, in non-traditional settings. Jack Wyant ’96 is Head Coach of the University of Pennsylvania men’s and women’s varsity squash teams.
US Squash CEO Kevin Klipstein was recently on campus helping celebrate the 120th anniversary of Princeton Squash, an alumni day that attracted more than 200 returning squash enthusiasts. The celebration entailed two exhibition matches and round-robin play followed by a reception and dinner, during which Klipstein presented a compelling argument and video for why squash should be in the Olympics.
Klipstein accepts that sports seeking Olympic status do have to put forward what positive contribution they could make to the Olympics. But he thinks squash’s case is strong.
“It’s a growing sport with real global appeal, and all five continents have already produced both men’s and women’s world champions. The game has a unique ability to showcase a host city and is easy and cost-effective to integrate. It’s a game that already has well-established men’s and women’s tours and is played in every other major multi-sports games,” Klipstein said. “And by the way it’s a clean sport [from the drug perspective] and really reinforces Olympic Values.”
On paper, squash meets all the criteria required of an Olympic sport in terms of its history, universality and popularity. It’s good for athletes’ health and would be relatively cheap to integrate. But squash will be competing against five other sports for one open berth in the 2020 games.
The other aspirant sports are Karate, wushu (a martial art), roller sports, sport climbing and wake boarding, and it won’t get any easier beyond 2020 as lacrosse and mixed martial arts have announced their plans to seek Olympic status in the future. A possible bid by softball and baseball for reinstatement in 2020 further complicates the decision.
Squash has come close to achieving Olympic status in the past, only narrowly failing to gain the required two-thirds majority vote from the IOC.
There is evidence of broadening support for squash’s bid in the August 2012 issue of “The Atlantic.” In her article, Ashley Fetters rated squash’s changes highly. She cited the sentiment of many, including academic John Barrow, professor of mathematical sciences at Cambridge and author of the book “Mathletics,” who posits that criteria for inclusion in the Olympics should be whether winning the Olympic Games would be the pinnacle of achievement in that sport. One might argue that sports such as golf, soccer, tennis and baseball do not meet this threshold.
Steve Harrington ’13, current co-captain of both the men’s squash team and the baseball team agrees.
He said, “winning the World Series will always be the pinnacle achievement in baseball. Because the World Series and the Olympic Games overlap, the top baseball players wouldn’t even show up to compete for gold.”
For this reason, he believes that squash is much more deserving of Olympic status. He continues, “having the Olympics on the squash calendar would make the sport much more official, and an Olympic gold would no doubt be the highest achievement possible in the sport.”
Like these sports, squash does exist on a professional level, but on a very modest scale. It would be tough to cite a professional squash player who lives merely on squash earnings, let alone one who is able to retire on them. In the case of the baseball/softball rebid, it is widely believed that baseball was ejected because the stars of the game have opted not to play in the Olympics.
Meredeth Quick ’01, who was a member of two national championship teams during her time at Princeton and played professionally post college, argues that squash has an unusual attribute:
You can keep on playing it into middle and even old age. “It’s a lifetime sport – you can play it forever, ” she says. Quick, now a teacher, continues to compete on the women’s doubles circuit, coaches high school squash at her school and has coached two consecutive U. S. Junior National Teams. She believes that squash’s inclusion in the Olympics would encourage greater participation in the sport.
Indeed squash has been growing in the U.S., and Klipstein notes that “squash has grown by a factor of about 25% every year over the last five years.”
There is no question that increased exposure by way of Olympic coverage would boost squash’s profile. Olympic sponsorship funds are distributed through sports federations to their sports. This would be a big boon for squash in terms of supporting national training. And squash is not presently an NCAA sport. Klipstein adds that the Olympics would make a big case for elevating the sport domestically in this regard.
The fate of squash as an Olympic sport will essentially be known by this time next year. While baseball and lacrosse are beloved at Princeton too, it may be squash’s turn. What a coup squash in the Olympics would be for a sport embraced by Princeton – perhaps home of more future Olympians!
[And in case you’re wondering, the game of squash originated at The Harrow School in England. It derived from a combination of the games “racquets” (tennis) and “fives” (handball). The name squash comes from the notion of the rubber ball “squashing” against the court wall upon impact.]
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Book It
To look at Miss TigerBlog, you'd think it wouldn't take much of a strong breeze at all to knock her flying.
Measuring her body fat would be problematic, because you'd first have to find some, somewhere, on a body that is almost all legs, scrawny ones at that.
And yet she can somehow lift up her backpack to bring it back and forth to school.
TigerBlog can barely get the thing off the ground, what with the way it is jammed with book after book - and measuring his body fat is getting easier and easier these days.
MTB is not the only kid who goes to school who carries a backpack that seems to weigh more than she does. In fact, there are studies now about the health issues related to carrying such heavy objects, especially on young backs.
It's amazing to TB that these books need to go back-and-forth every day, especially when he did about 80% of his homework in the class before it needed to be turned in. Well, maybe not 80% - though he's pretty sure the statute of limitations of not paying attention in English to get his statistics homework done long since expired.
It's even more amazing that these books are loaded up every day in the year 2012, when they could all be replaced by one iPad.
The worst part for TB isn't when MTB asks him to carry her bag from the car to the house. It's when the books come out and TB is asked to help with homework questions, especially math ones.
TigerBlog never got anything less than an A in any math class he ever took, from elementary school up through calculus. He's a big fan of the logic involved, and for some reason, it always just clicked for him.
And of course he long ago forgot most of it (other than the basics, like how to compute the tip for the check or a save percentage or how many days until lacrosse season starts or something important like that).
So when MTB asks him questions about whatever it is they're up to these days, it either triggers a great challenge in TB to remember how to do it and figure out or a sense that he'll never be able to, in which case he summons TigerBlog Jr., whose own willingness to help his younger sister can be summed up neatly in his usual one-word response of "no."
And then there's the question that no parent can figure out a way to answer: Why can't we divide by zero?
Back when TB was in school, if he told his father that he got a 98 on a test, the response would be "who got the other two?"
TB's own approach is a little different and involves something that Pete Carril always said: "can you look your father in the eyes and tell him that you did the very best you could do and gave your maximum effort?"
As kids go through the school progression, there is the graph of those with the intelligence to get into the very best colleges and those with the athletic ability to play at a high Division I level.
The overlap of those two graphs will be on display all over Princeton's campus this weekend.
TigerBlog senses that the introduction to strength and conditioning that many of these athletes who will play here this weekend came as a result of carrying backpacks like MTB's.
In what is one of the best things about Ivy League athletics - and something not done enough - this Saturday will offer four Princeton-Harvard matchups, beginning at noon and running non-stop until long after it gets dark.
It begins with field hockey on Bedford Field (noon) and continues with football at 1, men's soccer at 4 and women's soccer at 7. The only one of those events that charges admission is football, and even that is extraordinarily affordable.
And the weather forecast? Sunny, high of 66, zero percent chance of rain. In other words, you have no excuse for not being there.
Princeton and Harvard have a great rivalry, one that begins each year with the U.S. World and News Report rankings of the top colleges and universities in the country, where Harvard or Princeton or both is always ranked No. 1.
Naturally, such a rivalry would inspire loyalty and devotion among its alums, and it's only enhanced when the current generation of Orange and Black takes on the current generation of Crimson.
Making it even better on top of that is the fact that there are Ivy League championship implications across all four events as the races start to get really serious.
If your measuring stick is big-time BCS football and men's basketball, you're missing something if you've never walked around an Ivy League school on a fall Saturday like the one coming up. There will be alums everywhere, all wearing their school colors, some going back many, many decades.
For TB's money, there aren't many days on many campuses that more represent what is good about college athletics.
Measuring her body fat would be problematic, because you'd first have to find some, somewhere, on a body that is almost all legs, scrawny ones at that.
And yet she can somehow lift up her backpack to bring it back and forth to school.
TigerBlog can barely get the thing off the ground, what with the way it is jammed with book after book - and measuring his body fat is getting easier and easier these days.
MTB is not the only kid who goes to school who carries a backpack that seems to weigh more than she does. In fact, there are studies now about the health issues related to carrying such heavy objects, especially on young backs.
It's amazing to TB that these books need to go back-and-forth every day, especially when he did about 80% of his homework in the class before it needed to be turned in. Well, maybe not 80% - though he's pretty sure the statute of limitations of not paying attention in English to get his statistics homework done long since expired.
It's even more amazing that these books are loaded up every day in the year 2012, when they could all be replaced by one iPad.
The worst part for TB isn't when MTB asks him to carry her bag from the car to the house. It's when the books come out and TB is asked to help with homework questions, especially math ones.
TigerBlog never got anything less than an A in any math class he ever took, from elementary school up through calculus. He's a big fan of the logic involved, and for some reason, it always just clicked for him.
And of course he long ago forgot most of it (other than the basics, like how to compute the tip for the check or a save percentage or how many days until lacrosse season starts or something important like that).
So when MTB asks him questions about whatever it is they're up to these days, it either triggers a great challenge in TB to remember how to do it and figure out or a sense that he'll never be able to, in which case he summons TigerBlog Jr., whose own willingness to help his younger sister can be summed up neatly in his usual one-word response of "no."
And then there's the question that no parent can figure out a way to answer: Why can't we divide by zero?
Back when TB was in school, if he told his father that he got a 98 on a test, the response would be "who got the other two?"
TB's own approach is a little different and involves something that Pete Carril always said: "can you look your father in the eyes and tell him that you did the very best you could do and gave your maximum effort?"
As kids go through the school progression, there is the graph of those with the intelligence to get into the very best colleges and those with the athletic ability to play at a high Division I level.
The overlap of those two graphs will be on display all over Princeton's campus this weekend.
TigerBlog senses that the introduction to strength and conditioning that many of these athletes who will play here this weekend came as a result of carrying backpacks like MTB's.
In what is one of the best things about Ivy League athletics - and something not done enough - this Saturday will offer four Princeton-Harvard matchups, beginning at noon and running non-stop until long after it gets dark.
It begins with field hockey on Bedford Field (noon) and continues with football at 1, men's soccer at 4 and women's soccer at 7. The only one of those events that charges admission is football, and even that is extraordinarily affordable.
And the weather forecast? Sunny, high of 66, zero percent chance of rain. In other words, you have no excuse for not being there.
Princeton and Harvard have a great rivalry, one that begins each year with the U.S. World and News Report rankings of the top colleges and universities in the country, where Harvard or Princeton or both is always ranked No. 1.
Naturally, such a rivalry would inspire loyalty and devotion among its alums, and it's only enhanced when the current generation of Orange and Black takes on the current generation of Crimson.
Making it even better on top of that is the fact that there are Ivy League championship implications across all four events as the races start to get really serious.
If your measuring stick is big-time BCS football and men's basketball, you're missing something if you've never walked around an Ivy League school on a fall Saturday like the one coming up. There will be alums everywhere, all wearing their school colors, some going back many, many decades.
For TB's money, there aren't many days on many campuses that more represent what is good about college athletics.
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