TigerBlog is doing something today that he's never done before in the history of this blog.
He's starting over after having finished.
He had 821 words in the bank, plenty for one day. And he re-read it, and in doing so came to this conclusion: what he wrote was dull.
So he trashed it. And now he's starting over.
He's never done that before. At least he doesn't think he has. If he did, he can't remember.
He could have stayed with what he had. It wasn't that bad. It's just that there wasn't much substance to it.
Hey, he can be forgiven. It's early July, the hardest time of the year to find stuff to write about, especially considering that Princeton Athletics is seven weeks away from its first games. That's a lot of days to fill without the benefit of having events to use as subject matter.
When TB first started doing this, he thought he might take the summers off. Or only write two or three days a week. Or do a "best of" format, by repeating earlier blogs as the summer went on.
Actually, that last one isn't a bad idea. But no, he's always found something new to say. And if he had a really dull one every now and then, so what, right?
But he couldn't let his first version for today stand. And so here we are.
It's a shame too, because he was done. And now he's starting over.
So where to start on the restart?
How about in Cuba?
One of the stories on the main page of goprincetontigers.com is a video from the trip to Cuba that the men's and women's track and field teams recently made. You can see it by clicking HERE.
So there was Cuba. It seemed like the teams had a good time there, and it certainly seemed like they had a full exposure to the local culture, which is one of the main reasons to have these trips.
Then there was the women's water polo story from Monday, the one where Princeton players Ashleigh Johnson and Ashley Hatcher are competing at the Pan Am Games in Toronto. Johnson is with the U.S. team, while Hatcher is with Argentina.
So that's two items down.
The lead story on goprincetontigers.com yesteday was about how men's basketball alum T.J. Bray will play with the Knicks team in the Las Vegas Summer League. It's a step in the direction of the NBA for Bray, who played in the league last year and then played in Italy.
TigerBlog has no idea how many players make the leap from the Las Vegas league all the way to the NBA. His sense is it isn't many, but it's an opportunity at least.
Bray isn't the only Princeton player in the league. Ian Hummer, the second leading scorer in Princeton men's basketball history, is also playing, with Sacramento's team.
Track. Water polo. Basketball.
There were also stories on the main page from tennis, golf and hockey. That's a pretty normal summer situation, with a fairly random variety of sports represented. Last week it was all rowing all the time with the Henley event.
So what else can TB say?
His old friend "Big Green Alert Guy" wrote this on his blog yesterday: Regular readers of this site know that I lament the end of the printed
media guides. I have a bookshelf lined with them and go back to them all
the time. I'm just not sure as technologies and servers and sports
information directors change that we'll always be able to find older
material on the web. In fact, I'm sure we won't.
TigerBlog is filled with respect for BGA and the job he's always done, but he has a 180 degree disagreement with his friend on this subject. Media guides. The idea of doing them again sends shivers down TB's back.
Does BGA have a good point? Maybe. Depends who you ask. To TB, they're just out-of-date forms of information that were a drain on the budget.
If BGA has a point that TB agrees with, it's that there is a responsibility on the part of those in athletic communications to make sure that the older material about which he speaks is preserved and readily available. In fact, TB wishes that Princeton had more complete archives going back for every sport from Day 1, though it doesn't. No school does.
What there does exist needs to be well documented and aggressively updated. Hopefully BGA won't be right about his concerns.
What else?
Oh yeah, with "Parenthood" done, he's looking for another show. He was on Netflix, scrolling around, when he stumbled on a movie of the children's series "Kipper."
The title character is a dog, a British one at that. His best friend is another dog, this one named, of all things, "Tiger."
TigerBlog Jr. and Miss TigerBlog both watched "Kipper" and had "Kipper" books when they were really little. Neither remembered anything about the show.
TigerBlog did, especially the part where the two dogs greet each other, with thick, thick British accents - "Hello Kipper. Hello Tiger."
Hilarious.
Anyway, he's trying out "Turn," the story of the spies during the American Revolution. He's a few episodes into it, but it's really good.
And that's about all he has for you today.
Okay, this isn't the best day of TigerBlogging ever. But that's okay.
It's way better than what it would have been if he hadn't started over.
What did he originally write?
He deleted it and can't remember. And it's much better this way.
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Don't Call Them Girls
TigerBlog has his share of pet peeves.
There are people who are unaware that there's a world around them, for one. You know, the ones who drive 45 in the left lane or stop their shopping cart right in the middle of the aisle so nobody can get around them or stand in the stairwell so nobody can get past.
Then there's the whole "over/under" thing, as in "he's been here for over 10 years." Over and under are spatial relationships. More than and less than. Those are the terms to use to talk about lengths of time and distances and such.
Oh, and people who use "whom" when they should be using "who," just to sound smart. TigerBlog isn't impressed. Want to impress him? Use nominative case when necessary and objective case when necessary. How hard is that?
Let's see, what else.
Oh yeah. He can't stand when people refer to female college athletes as "girls."
Nobody ever calls the men's teams "boys." Why call the women's teams "girls." They're women.
TigerBlog heard an interesting conversation on the radio yesterday morning. Beasley Reece, a former NFL player and longtime Philadelphia sportscaster, was on with the morning host, and he made he point that, with all due respect to the feminist movement, the single greatest advancement in the area of women's equality came through Title IX. And that the Civil Rights Movement was helped considerably by the integration of Major League Baseball and the full integration of the NFL.
Of course, the event that sparked the discussion was the win by the U.S. women's soccer team at the Women's World Cup Sunday. And, of course, Reece called them "girls."
But back to his point, it's an interesting perspective.
The basic idea is that athletics can make societal changes that other mediums cannot. There is truth to that. Lots of it.
Why? Because athletics are all about equality. The best play. The others have to try to work harder to be better than the best.
Does anyone care what color Carli Lloyd is? What her religion is? What her socio-economic background is?
Nope.
That, though, is in the context of women versus women. But what did the recently completed Women's World Cup say about women's athletics in the larger context of the total sports world, with men's sports included.
First, there will always be men who will never respect women's sports. They will talk down condescendingly about teams of "girls." It's just how it is.
For that matter, there will always be those who look down on soccer, calling it boring and all.
There's just no reasoning with them.
But what about the general sports fan, the open-minded one. The recently completed Women's World Cup drew record television audiences - the final was the most watched soccer game, men or women, ever in the United States - even with the event on Fox, not ESPN. The championship game was played at a sold-out 60,000-seat stadium.
Those numbers didn't come about solely with women's sports fans. There had to be some serious numbers of crossover fans. You know, men's fans.
If the men's World Cup is, along with the Olympics, the largest international sporting event, then where does the Women's World Cup fit in. Is it 50% of the men's? Less? Maybe 25%? Less? More?
Women's athletics do not enjoy the same depth of fan bases that men's sports do. It's just not how it is.
TigerBlog, though, can't help but wonder where women's athletics would be without Title IX. Would it still be what it was before the law passed more than 40 years ago, with women's athletics a complete afterthought to the men?
TigerBlog has talked to enough early Princeton women's athletes - pioneers, as he calls them - and heard enough stories of teams who were given little in the way of uniforms, practice times, quality facilities, athletic training and such to know that when Title IX became law, Princeton's women's athletes had basically nothing.
Today? It's completely different, 180 degrees so.
Princeton has 18 varsity women's teams. They are treated equally in almost every way with their male counterparts, in all of the areas TigerBlog described above and more so. Hey, in his world, TB knows that Princeton would never slight the accomplishments of its women's teams and athletes on goprincetontigers.com, for instance. It's not something that would ever remotely enter anyone's mind.
How different would it be in 2015 if there had been no Title IX? Would society have evolved on its own?
What would Princeton sports look like now without it? TB hopes it would be just like it is now. He can't imagine that he would buy into a world where women's athletes were treated like second class citizens, whether it was the law or not, but then again TB spent many winter nights in the newspaper business as the only one covering the women's game at women/men basketball doubleheaders at Rider and Trenton State College (now the College of New Jersey).
One smart thing women's sports have done is gone away from the idea that they are competing with men's sports. Instead, they are standing on their own merit, with their own stars.
Look at Princeton's women's basketball team from this past year, for instance. That team wasn't compared to a men's team. Nobody said "oh, a men's team would beat crush that team."
No. People - men and women, boys and girls - came to Jadwin in record numbers and marveled at the skill and athleticism of the team on the court. That is something that would not have happened 25 years ago - even after Title IX was law.
So does that mean society's evolution has done more to help women's athletics than the law? Who knows?
TigerBlog does know that events like the recently completed Women's World Cup do nothing but help the advancement for all women's athletics.
The advancement to what? To being just another part of the mainstream sporting world.
And who knows. Maybe with more and more events like this, even the most ardent sexist sports fans will come around.
Wouldn't that be a great accomplishment for a bunch of girls, right?
There are people who are unaware that there's a world around them, for one. You know, the ones who drive 45 in the left lane or stop their shopping cart right in the middle of the aisle so nobody can get around them or stand in the stairwell so nobody can get past.
Then there's the whole "over/under" thing, as in "he's been here for over 10 years." Over and under are spatial relationships. More than and less than. Those are the terms to use to talk about lengths of time and distances and such.
Oh, and people who use "whom" when they should be using "who," just to sound smart. TigerBlog isn't impressed. Want to impress him? Use nominative case when necessary and objective case when necessary. How hard is that?
Let's see, what else.
Oh yeah. He can't stand when people refer to female college athletes as "girls."
Nobody ever calls the men's teams "boys." Why call the women's teams "girls." They're women.
TigerBlog heard an interesting conversation on the radio yesterday morning. Beasley Reece, a former NFL player and longtime Philadelphia sportscaster, was on with the morning host, and he made he point that, with all due respect to the feminist movement, the single greatest advancement in the area of women's equality came through Title IX. And that the Civil Rights Movement was helped considerably by the integration of Major League Baseball and the full integration of the NFL.
Of course, the event that sparked the discussion was the win by the U.S. women's soccer team at the Women's World Cup Sunday. And, of course, Reece called them "girls."
But back to his point, it's an interesting perspective.
The basic idea is that athletics can make societal changes that other mediums cannot. There is truth to that. Lots of it.
Why? Because athletics are all about equality. The best play. The others have to try to work harder to be better than the best.
Does anyone care what color Carli Lloyd is? What her religion is? What her socio-economic background is?
Nope.
That, though, is in the context of women versus women. But what did the recently completed Women's World Cup say about women's athletics in the larger context of the total sports world, with men's sports included.
First, there will always be men who will never respect women's sports. They will talk down condescendingly about teams of "girls." It's just how it is.
For that matter, there will always be those who look down on soccer, calling it boring and all.
There's just no reasoning with them.
But what about the general sports fan, the open-minded one. The recently completed Women's World Cup drew record television audiences - the final was the most watched soccer game, men or women, ever in the United States - even with the event on Fox, not ESPN. The championship game was played at a sold-out 60,000-seat stadium.
Those numbers didn't come about solely with women's sports fans. There had to be some serious numbers of crossover fans. You know, men's fans.
If the men's World Cup is, along with the Olympics, the largest international sporting event, then where does the Women's World Cup fit in. Is it 50% of the men's? Less? Maybe 25%? Less? More?
Women's athletics do not enjoy the same depth of fan bases that men's sports do. It's just not how it is.
TigerBlog, though, can't help but wonder where women's athletics would be without Title IX. Would it still be what it was before the law passed more than 40 years ago, with women's athletics a complete afterthought to the men?
TigerBlog has talked to enough early Princeton women's athletes - pioneers, as he calls them - and heard enough stories of teams who were given little in the way of uniforms, practice times, quality facilities, athletic training and such to know that when Title IX became law, Princeton's women's athletes had basically nothing.
Today? It's completely different, 180 degrees so.
Princeton has 18 varsity women's teams. They are treated equally in almost every way with their male counterparts, in all of the areas TigerBlog described above and more so. Hey, in his world, TB knows that Princeton would never slight the accomplishments of its women's teams and athletes on goprincetontigers.com, for instance. It's not something that would ever remotely enter anyone's mind.
How different would it be in 2015 if there had been no Title IX? Would society have evolved on its own?
What would Princeton sports look like now without it? TB hopes it would be just like it is now. He can't imagine that he would buy into a world where women's athletes were treated like second class citizens, whether it was the law or not, but then again TB spent many winter nights in the newspaper business as the only one covering the women's game at women/men basketball doubleheaders at Rider and Trenton State College (now the College of New Jersey).
One smart thing women's sports have done is gone away from the idea that they are competing with men's sports. Instead, they are standing on their own merit, with their own stars.
Look at Princeton's women's basketball team from this past year, for instance. That team wasn't compared to a men's team. Nobody said "oh, a men's team would beat crush that team."
No. People - men and women, boys and girls - came to Jadwin in record numbers and marveled at the skill and athleticism of the team on the court. That is something that would not have happened 25 years ago - even after Title IX was law.
So does that mean society's evolution has done more to help women's athletics than the law? Who knows?
TigerBlog does know that events like the recently completed Women's World Cup do nothing but help the advancement for all women's athletics.
The advancement to what? To being just another part of the mainstream sporting world.
And who knows. Maybe with more and more events like this, even the most ardent sexist sports fans will come around.
Wouldn't that be a great accomplishment for a bunch of girls, right?
Monday, July 6, 2015
Yeah Jill
TigerBlog doesn't like crowds.
They're not quite his thing. He's talking huge crowds here.
The biggest crowd he was ever in was on the Fourth of July one year in the early 1980s. He was on the mall, watching the Beach Boys. MotherBlog lived in Chevy Chase at the time, and TB and his then-girlfriend Tammy went to the Fourth of July celebration on the mall.
There were, oh, 250,000 or so people there. Now that's a crowd. And TB didn't even have Purell yet. How did he do it?
This year's version of the Fourth of July on the mall was a bit odder.
What was up with Bradley Whitford, who hosted the show on PBS? He was awful. Maybe he was nervous? He was terrible though.
And the acts? How many calls did they make before they said "hey, let's call K.C. and the Sunshine Band?"
And nothing says "Happy Birthday America" like the 1812 Overture, which recalls a great American historical event, a war between France and Russia.
And Barry Manilow? What happened to his face? TigerBlog is on record as saying he's a fan of Barry Manilow and the Carpenters, and he wrote this way back in 2010 about the two: If you're in TB's age range, you probably 1) love both and 2) would never admit it publicly.
But what's up with Barry's face? Remember the episode of "The Twilight Zone" when the gorgeous blonde and the handsome man were the outcasts and the people who had the distorted faces were considered the standard of beauty? Barry Manilow looks like one of those guys now.
Fortunately for TigerBlog, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" was also on. And he turned it on at the perfect moment, when James Cagney sings and dances his way through the title song - which is followed by "Give My Regards To Broadway." Talented guy, that Cagney, especially considering that TB had just seen him in one of his other classic roles, as the top gangster in "White Heat."
Virginia Mayo plays his wife in that movie. She was also on Sunday in "The Best Years of Our Lives," when she played Dana Andrews' wife (she shoots Cagney's mother in the back in "White Heat" and yet is still a more likeable character there than she is as Andrews' wife).
As an aside, Mayo looks like a 1940's version of Jennifer Lawrence.
TigerBlog saw no fireworks on the Fourth of July, which is okay, because he's not a huge fan.
For fireworks, there was always the U.S. women's soccer team on the Fifth of July, yesterday, when the Americans came out and exploded for two goals in five minutes and four goals in the first 16 minutes while dominating Japan 5-2 to win the Women's World Cup.
It was an incredible performance by the U.S., and the game was basically over from the start. The biggest fireworks came from Rutgers alum Carli Lloyd, who scored three of those first four goals.
As TigerBlog has said, he was rooting for United States coach Jill Ellis. TB has known Ellis since the day in 2002 when she walked into TB's office with then-Princeton women's soccer coach Julie Shackford.
Ellis was the coach at UCLA at the time. She had just lost a tough game in the third round of the NCAA tournament, losing on PKs to Texas A&M. Princeton has reached the tournament too, losing to Penn State 2-0 in the first round.
For about 20 minutes, the two coaches stood in TB's office and made fun of each other, mocking each other for how their teams didn't win - in a funny way of course. That was TB's introduction to Ellis.
Two years later, Ellis would coach against Princeton after the Tigers reached the Final Four, and UCLA would win 2-0. Two days after that, TB rooted hard for UCLA in the final - but the Bruins would come up heartbreakingly short against Notre Dame, again in PKs.
Why'd he root for Ellis? Because once you meet her, you can't help but do so.
Seven times she'd take UCLA to the Final Four, and seven times her team didn't win it all. Maybe she couldn't win the big one, but now she's won the biggest one.
In some ways, it's easy to coach the U.S. team. You certainly aren't short on the resources you need. And your talent will always equal everyone else's.
On the other hand, the expectations are ridiculous. Either you win it all or you've failed. And the personalities? They're not easy either. Abby Wambach, in particular, was a real challenge for the U.S. coach, what with her being the most popular player on the team but one who clearly was past her prime, though not without value.
Not every coach could have taken the U.S. to the championship. It took Jill Ellis to do so, with her modesty and humble persona and confidence in what she was doing, without the need to be the focal point of anything. How many pictures of her did you see during the championship game, or leading up to it? Next to none?
You saw one after the third U.S. goal, with her arms extended skyward in joy. She was pretty sure then, that her team had basically done it.
And then there was the end of the game. The camera focused on her for about a second, catching her as she did a little dance off the sideline. Then it went to Carli Lloyd and then the rest of the players.
Hey, there were fans in the stands who got more screen time than Ellis did.
But that's okay.
The United States was back on top of the women's soccer world, champions of the World Cup for the first time this century. And she was the one who brought the Americans there.
TigerBlog once drove Ellis to an event she had to attend at a hotel near Rutgers. TigerBlog had to go to the same hotel, for a different event.
When Ellis got out of the car, she stepped into a crowd that was wall-to-wall women's soccer people. TigerBlog was struck by the fact that almost nobody recognized her.
Now? She's among the biggest names and most recognizable faces in the women's soccer world. If she walked into that same hotel today, she'd be swarmed.
It's what happens when you are the best. It's what happens when you're on top of the world.
And that's where Jill Ellis is today.
On top of the world.
They're not quite his thing. He's talking huge crowds here.
The biggest crowd he was ever in was on the Fourth of July one year in the early 1980s. He was on the mall, watching the Beach Boys. MotherBlog lived in Chevy Chase at the time, and TB and his then-girlfriend Tammy went to the Fourth of July celebration on the mall.
There were, oh, 250,000 or so people there. Now that's a crowd. And TB didn't even have Purell yet. How did he do it?
This year's version of the Fourth of July on the mall was a bit odder.
What was up with Bradley Whitford, who hosted the show on PBS? He was awful. Maybe he was nervous? He was terrible though.
And the acts? How many calls did they make before they said "hey, let's call K.C. and the Sunshine Band?"
And nothing says "Happy Birthday America" like the 1812 Overture, which recalls a great American historical event, a war between France and Russia.
And Barry Manilow? What happened to his face? TigerBlog is on record as saying he's a fan of Barry Manilow and the Carpenters, and he wrote this way back in 2010 about the two: If you're in TB's age range, you probably 1) love both and 2) would never admit it publicly.
But what's up with Barry's face? Remember the episode of "The Twilight Zone" when the gorgeous blonde and the handsome man were the outcasts and the people who had the distorted faces were considered the standard of beauty? Barry Manilow looks like one of those guys now.
Fortunately for TigerBlog, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" was also on. And he turned it on at the perfect moment, when James Cagney sings and dances his way through the title song - which is followed by "Give My Regards To Broadway." Talented guy, that Cagney, especially considering that TB had just seen him in one of his other classic roles, as the top gangster in "White Heat."
Virginia Mayo plays his wife in that movie. She was also on Sunday in "The Best Years of Our Lives," when she played Dana Andrews' wife (she shoots Cagney's mother in the back in "White Heat" and yet is still a more likeable character there than she is as Andrews' wife).
As an aside, Mayo looks like a 1940's version of Jennifer Lawrence.
TigerBlog saw no fireworks on the Fourth of July, which is okay, because he's not a huge fan.
For fireworks, there was always the U.S. women's soccer team on the Fifth of July, yesterday, when the Americans came out and exploded for two goals in five minutes and four goals in the first 16 minutes while dominating Japan 5-2 to win the Women's World Cup.
It was an incredible performance by the U.S., and the game was basically over from the start. The biggest fireworks came from Rutgers alum Carli Lloyd, who scored three of those first four goals.
As TigerBlog has said, he was rooting for United States coach Jill Ellis. TB has known Ellis since the day in 2002 when she walked into TB's office with then-Princeton women's soccer coach Julie Shackford.
Ellis was the coach at UCLA at the time. She had just lost a tough game in the third round of the NCAA tournament, losing on PKs to Texas A&M. Princeton has reached the tournament too, losing to Penn State 2-0 in the first round.
For about 20 minutes, the two coaches stood in TB's office and made fun of each other, mocking each other for how their teams didn't win - in a funny way of course. That was TB's introduction to Ellis.
Two years later, Ellis would coach against Princeton after the Tigers reached the Final Four, and UCLA would win 2-0. Two days after that, TB rooted hard for UCLA in the final - but the Bruins would come up heartbreakingly short against Notre Dame, again in PKs.
Why'd he root for Ellis? Because once you meet her, you can't help but do so.
Seven times she'd take UCLA to the Final Four, and seven times her team didn't win it all. Maybe she couldn't win the big one, but now she's won the biggest one.
In some ways, it's easy to coach the U.S. team. You certainly aren't short on the resources you need. And your talent will always equal everyone else's.
On the other hand, the expectations are ridiculous. Either you win it all or you've failed. And the personalities? They're not easy either. Abby Wambach, in particular, was a real challenge for the U.S. coach, what with her being the most popular player on the team but one who clearly was past her prime, though not without value.
Not every coach could have taken the U.S. to the championship. It took Jill Ellis to do so, with her modesty and humble persona and confidence in what she was doing, without the need to be the focal point of anything. How many pictures of her did you see during the championship game, or leading up to it? Next to none?
You saw one after the third U.S. goal, with her arms extended skyward in joy. She was pretty sure then, that her team had basically done it.
And then there was the end of the game. The camera focused on her for about a second, catching her as she did a little dance off the sideline. Then it went to Carli Lloyd and then the rest of the players.
Hey, there were fans in the stands who got more screen time than Ellis did.
But that's okay.
The United States was back on top of the women's soccer world, champions of the World Cup for the first time this century. And she was the one who brought the Americans there.
TigerBlog once drove Ellis to an event she had to attend at a hotel near Rutgers. TigerBlog had to go to the same hotel, for a different event.
When Ellis got out of the car, she stepped into a crowd that was wall-to-wall women's soccer people. TigerBlog was struck by the fact that almost nobody recognized her.
Now? She's among the biggest names and most recognizable faces in the women's soccer world. If she walked into that same hotel today, she'd be swarmed.
It's what happens when you are the best. It's what happens when you're on top of the world.
And that's where Jill Ellis is today.
On top of the world.
Friday, July 3, 2015
Eight Weeks To Go
For TigerBlog, the first few days of July always take him back to his days at sleepaway camp.
TigerBlog spent six summers at camp, the first five at one called Camp Toledo and then, after a year off, his last one at one called Camp Echo. Both were in the Catskills.
TigerBlog first went to camp when he was six. As he recalls, his parents were headed to a three-week vacation the next year - to Japan and other stops in the region - the following year, and they wanted to see if TB would be okay at a sleepaway camp.
When he was six, he headed off for eight weeks - and he loved it.
As he said, the first few days of July always meant heading to camp. He remembers leaving on 7/1/71 for one of those summers away. They also ran until the end of August, and BrotherBlog's birthday always seemed to come right before the end.
It was fun being a kid at camp back then. There were sports and swimming and boating. And shows and arts and crafts. And bunk inspections and pizza parties for the ones who had the cleanest bunks. And weekly trips to go bowling and roller skating.
And Color War - a three-day competition between the Blue team and the Gold team - at the end of the summers at Toledo and the Olympics - a similar competition, but between three teams named after countries - at Echo.
And girls. TigerBlog had a serious crush on a girl at Camp Echo named Randee. Not Randy or Randi but Randee. Hot.
Anyway, the first few days of July always take TigerBlog back to his camp days. He hasn't seen or heard from anyone he went to those camps with - not even Randee - in decades. He probably wouldn't know any of them - even Randee - if he stumbled over them today.
But he remembers loving his time away each summer. He has nothing but great memories of his years there.
Why wouldn't he? Those were days of great innocence, his Wonder Years days and experiences.
Today is July 3. For most people - including the staff at Princeton University - today is a day off from work.
As an aside, if you're looking for something interesting to read about Princeton University and July 4, 1783, click HERE. It's worth it.
Anyway, there are still summer camps like the ones he went to, TB supposes, and they're probably just getting started for another year.
As July gets underway this year, it dawns on TigerBlog that it means that the following statement is also true: The 2015-16 athletic year for Princeton Athletics begins next month.
Technically, that is correct. It's July, and the first athletic event of the new year will be in August.
Of course, such a sentiment is enough to bring eye rolls from the staff at Princeton, who is just recovering from the long 2014-15 academic year. Hey, they are very long years, and the time off in the summer is precious.
There's a lot of summer between now and the start of the new athletic year, beginning with the Fourth of July holiday weekend. There are still the bulk of summer camps at Princeton to be had as well.
TigerBlog has said this before, but he's had a great idea for a camp at Princeton. Dorm camp.
Kids come to Princeton to stay in the dorms and eat in the dining halls. They have to deposit all of their electronics in a bin when they arrive. The rules - do whatever you want, but you cannot cross any street. The entire purpose of the camp would be to encourage socialization, old fashioned socialization, like TB had at his two camps.
Great idea, no?
The first athletic event of next year is Aug. 28, with a women's soccer game against Howard. It will be the first game for new head coach Sean Driscoll.
That's still 56 days away. Or eight weeks from today.
When he says it that way, it seems like it's just around the corner.
But it isn't. It's a whole summer at sleepaway camp from now.
In the meantime, enjoy the Fourth of July weekend.
TigerBlog spent six summers at camp, the first five at one called Camp Toledo and then, after a year off, his last one at one called Camp Echo. Both were in the Catskills.
TigerBlog first went to camp when he was six. As he recalls, his parents were headed to a three-week vacation the next year - to Japan and other stops in the region - the following year, and they wanted to see if TB would be okay at a sleepaway camp.
When he was six, he headed off for eight weeks - and he loved it.
As he said, the first few days of July always meant heading to camp. He remembers leaving on 7/1/71 for one of those summers away. They also ran until the end of August, and BrotherBlog's birthday always seemed to come right before the end.
It was fun being a kid at camp back then. There were sports and swimming and boating. And shows and arts and crafts. And bunk inspections and pizza parties for the ones who had the cleanest bunks. And weekly trips to go bowling and roller skating.
And Color War - a three-day competition between the Blue team and the Gold team - at the end of the summers at Toledo and the Olympics - a similar competition, but between three teams named after countries - at Echo.
And girls. TigerBlog had a serious crush on a girl at Camp Echo named Randee. Not Randy or Randi but Randee. Hot.
Anyway, the first few days of July always take TigerBlog back to his camp days. He hasn't seen or heard from anyone he went to those camps with - not even Randee - in decades. He probably wouldn't know any of them - even Randee - if he stumbled over them today.
But he remembers loving his time away each summer. He has nothing but great memories of his years there.
Why wouldn't he? Those were days of great innocence, his Wonder Years days and experiences.
Today is July 3. For most people - including the staff at Princeton University - today is a day off from work.
As an aside, if you're looking for something interesting to read about Princeton University and July 4, 1783, click HERE. It's worth it.
Anyway, there are still summer camps like the ones he went to, TB supposes, and they're probably just getting started for another year.
As July gets underway this year, it dawns on TigerBlog that it means that the following statement is also true: The 2015-16 athletic year for Princeton Athletics begins next month.
Technically, that is correct. It's July, and the first athletic event of the new year will be in August.
Of course, such a sentiment is enough to bring eye rolls from the staff at Princeton, who is just recovering from the long 2014-15 academic year. Hey, they are very long years, and the time off in the summer is precious.
There's a lot of summer between now and the start of the new athletic year, beginning with the Fourth of July holiday weekend. There are still the bulk of summer camps at Princeton to be had as well.
TigerBlog has said this before, but he's had a great idea for a camp at Princeton. Dorm camp.
Kids come to Princeton to stay in the dorms and eat in the dining halls. They have to deposit all of their electronics in a bin when they arrive. The rules - do whatever you want, but you cannot cross any street. The entire purpose of the camp would be to encourage socialization, old fashioned socialization, like TB had at his two camps.
Great idea, no?
The first athletic event of next year is Aug. 28, with a women's soccer game against Howard. It will be the first game for new head coach Sean Driscoll.
That's still 56 days away. Or eight weeks from today.
When he says it that way, it seems like it's just around the corner.
But it isn't. It's a whole summer at sleepaway camp from now.
In the meantime, enjoy the Fourth of July weekend.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
The Second Of July
If John Adams had his way, then today would be Independence Day.
The United States would be celebrating the Second of July with barbeques and fireworks. The Fourth of July? That would be a footnote in history.
More than any other day on the calendar, July 2nd has really been cheated. Maybe Dec. 26. Had Mary been overdue by a day, Dec. 26 would have really hit it big. And it's not like one of those holidays like Thanksgiving or Memorial Day, where a bunch of different dates get to take turns being the holiday host.
Jan. 1? Now there's a big winner. New Year's Day.
Why not Sept. 1? Doesn't that feel more like the start of a new year?
Really, though, no date can match July 2nd. Nobody gives July 2nd a thought. Everything is about the Fourth of July.
How many people out there know that decision to declare that the 13 colonies would from now on be known as the United States of America was actually approved unanimously by the Continental Congress on July 2?
The actual document known as the Declaration of Independence was approved two days later and then read publicly. Had 2015 technology existed then, it would have been posted on a website and then linked to in a tweet.
Instead, back then, it was printed and distributed and read in public. TigerBlog, a history major in college, never knew that the Continental Congress printed 200 versions of the document - one of them is now apparently in the Firestone Library.
At least that's what it says on Wikipedia. So it must be true.
TigerBlog did learn a long time ago that the actual day that the U.S. declared independence from Great Britain was July 2, 1776. Not July 4th.
Had TB been around with the Continental Congress - you know, like Bugs Bunny was - he would have sided with John Adams, who advocated for July 2nd as the day American independence was celebrated. He lost that battle, obviously.
The U.S. and Great Britain fought a war for independence, followed by another war - the War of 1812 - which was sort of a second war of independence. Then the two countries put aside their differences and have been best buddies ever since.
It's sort of like Rocky and Apollo Creed, no? Fought twice and then teamed up.
Of course, the two remain major rivals to this day in one area - athletics.
They came close to having a huge matchup in the sports realm until the English women dropped a heartbreaking 2-1 game to Japan in the Women's World Cup semifinal. The deciding goal came in the final minute of stoppage time on an own goal.
TigerBlog felt sort of bad for No. 6 on England, who knocked it into her own goal. That was brutal.
Instead, it'll be the U.S. and Japan, in a rematch of the 2011 final.
Meanwhile, back at U.S.-English sports, the movie "A Yank In Oxford" - and later a remake "Oxford Blues" - tracks the exploits of a cocky American at a stodgy British college, where he redeems himself as a rower. In the case of the remake, the cocky American is Rob Lowe.
There are a bunch of Yanks at Oxford, or Oxfordshire, the home of the Henley Royal Regatta.
The regatta dates to 1839, which was 25 years before Princeton played Williams in baseball in its first-ever intercollegiate event. It has been held every year since, with the exception of the years of World War I and World War II.
If you want to know everything you need to know about Henley and Princeton's history in the event, then you'll want to read the piece that TigerBlog's colleague Craig Sachson put together.
You can click HERE to read it. TB promises you it's more than worth it.
In case you missed that link, try this one.
And to what American event did Princeton's heavyweight men's coach compare Henley?
The Kentucky Derby. As Sachson said, it's "athletic event meets social function."
It's top-flight rowing, that's for sure. And, until he read Sachson's story, TB didn't realize that the format was one-on-one single elimination, like a tournament, rather than heats and finals.
In addition to the preview story, Sachson is all over the rowing, complete with video. Just keep going to goprincetontigers.com for his updates.
The event began yesterday, and it continues through Sunday.
In other words, the racing in England continues on the anniversary of American independence.
Which, as we all know, was 239 years ago today, the Second of July.
The United States would be celebrating the Second of July with barbeques and fireworks. The Fourth of July? That would be a footnote in history.
More than any other day on the calendar, July 2nd has really been cheated. Maybe Dec. 26. Had Mary been overdue by a day, Dec. 26 would have really hit it big. And it's not like one of those holidays like Thanksgiving or Memorial Day, where a bunch of different dates get to take turns being the holiday host.
Jan. 1? Now there's a big winner. New Year's Day.
Why not Sept. 1? Doesn't that feel more like the start of a new year?
Really, though, no date can match July 2nd. Nobody gives July 2nd a thought. Everything is about the Fourth of July.
How many people out there know that decision to declare that the 13 colonies would from now on be known as the United States of America was actually approved unanimously by the Continental Congress on July 2?
The actual document known as the Declaration of Independence was approved two days later and then read publicly. Had 2015 technology existed then, it would have been posted on a website and then linked to in a tweet.
Instead, back then, it was printed and distributed and read in public. TigerBlog, a history major in college, never knew that the Continental Congress printed 200 versions of the document - one of them is now apparently in the Firestone Library.
At least that's what it says on Wikipedia. So it must be true.
TigerBlog did learn a long time ago that the actual day that the U.S. declared independence from Great Britain was July 2, 1776. Not July 4th.
Had TB been around with the Continental Congress - you know, like Bugs Bunny was - he would have sided with John Adams, who advocated for July 2nd as the day American independence was celebrated. He lost that battle, obviously.
The U.S. and Great Britain fought a war for independence, followed by another war - the War of 1812 - which was sort of a second war of independence. Then the two countries put aside their differences and have been best buddies ever since.
It's sort of like Rocky and Apollo Creed, no? Fought twice and then teamed up.
Of course, the two remain major rivals to this day in one area - athletics.
They came close to having a huge matchup in the sports realm until the English women dropped a heartbreaking 2-1 game to Japan in the Women's World Cup semifinal. The deciding goal came in the final minute of stoppage time on an own goal.
TigerBlog felt sort of bad for No. 6 on England, who knocked it into her own goal. That was brutal.
Instead, it'll be the U.S. and Japan, in a rematch of the 2011 final.
Meanwhile, back at U.S.-English sports, the movie "A Yank In Oxford" - and later a remake "Oxford Blues" - tracks the exploits of a cocky American at a stodgy British college, where he redeems himself as a rower. In the case of the remake, the cocky American is Rob Lowe.
There are a bunch of Yanks at Oxford, or Oxfordshire, the home of the Henley Royal Regatta.
The regatta dates to 1839, which was 25 years before Princeton played Williams in baseball in its first-ever intercollegiate event. It has been held every year since, with the exception of the years of World War I and World War II.
If you want to know everything you need to know about Henley and Princeton's history in the event, then you'll want to read the piece that TigerBlog's colleague Craig Sachson put together.
You can click HERE to read it. TB promises you it's more than worth it.
In case you missed that link, try this one.
And to what American event did Princeton's heavyweight men's coach compare Henley?
The Kentucky Derby. As Sachson said, it's "athletic event meets social function."
It's top-flight rowing, that's for sure. And, until he read Sachson's story, TB didn't realize that the format was one-on-one single elimination, like a tournament, rather than heats and finals.
In addition to the preview story, Sachson is all over the rowing, complete with video. Just keep going to goprincetontigers.com for his updates.
The event began yesterday, and it continues through Sunday.
In other words, the racing in England continues on the anniversary of American independence.
Which, as we all know, was 239 years ago today, the Second of July.
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
On To The Final
Yesterday, TigerBlog was talking about rooting for Donn Cabral.
Today, he's renewing his earlier statement that he's rooting for Jill Ellis.
And hey, if he has to root for the U.S. women's national soccer team, so be it.
Ellis is the head coach for the United States, and she has her team in the championship match at the Women's World Cup. The U.S. will take on the winner of tonight's England-Japan semifinal match in Sunday's final, after the Americans defeated the top-ranked team in the world, Germany, 2-0 in the semifinals last night.
Should the English win, then Ellis would be coaching the United States team against her native country.
Today's quick quiz - what country won the most recent Women's World Cup? If you guessed the U.S.A., you'd be wrong.
The answer is Japan.
Can you name the last three Women's World Cup winners? Japan, Germany (2007) and Germany (2003).
The first time the U.S. won was in 1991. The last time the U.S. won was in 1999, which was the first Women's World Cup, the one where Brandy Chastain knocked in the winning PK and then had her rather famous celebration.
The other Women's World Cup, in 1995, was won by Norway.
In other words, the U.S. isn't a lock to win every time there is one of these tournaments. The casual fan might think so, but that's not the case.
Of course, it's not like there isn't pressure on the U.S. to win each time out. Far from it. Had Ellis' team not won yesterday, even against the No. 1-ranked team in the world, there would have been a sense of failure around the team.
The Americans haven't accomplished their goal yet. The 2011 team reached the championship match against Japan and lost in PKs. Having that happen again would leave an empty taste this time as well.
So Ellis has to deal with the win-it-all expectations every time her team steps on the field. And then there's the whole balancing act that is being the U.S. coach, with all of the personalities and stars and newcomers and everything else.
Just handling a mega-star like Abby Wambach in the tail end of her career is challenge enough. Now factor that across the entire U.S. roster.
The best player, if no the biggest star, for the Americans now is Carli Lloyd.
TigerBlog was Princeton's women's soccer contact in 2004, when Ellis coached UCLA against Princeton in the Final Four, and is 2003, when the Tigers took on Rutgers on the first Tuesday in October.
TB remembers the game pretty well. Princeton was ranked 23rd nationally, and Rutgers was always a national power.
Rutgers had a really strong defense, one that had allowed one goal in 700 minutes prior to the game. TigerBlog didn't remember that part; he saw that when he read the recap of the game he'd written all those years ago.
Princeton led 2-0 after scoring two late first-half goals. TB did remember that.
He didn't remember who scored them, though it turned out to be Rochelle Willis and Emily Behncke.
The other thing he remembers about that game is that Rutgers came back to tie it 2-2. And he also remembered who scored both goals.
That's right. Carli Lloyd. She scored one goal seven minutes into the second half and then the tying goal with seven minutes left in the second half, turning a huge Princeton win into a less-than-satisfying tie.
As TB re-read the story he wrote about the game, he saw that there was a quote from then-head coach Julie Shackford, whose best friend is Jill Ellis.
Here's what Shackford had to say: "Carli Lloyd is a great player. She knows where to put the ball."
She certainly did against Germany last night, when she scored the first U.S. goal on a penalty kick.
Lloyd is the leading U.S. scorer with three goals in this World Cup. Megan Rapinoe has two, and no other American has more than one.
So yes, it seems that Shackford was right about her.
And now the U.S. has one game to go to win the Women's World Cup.
If the Americans get there, Jill Ellis better get the credit she deserves. This isn't just about rolling the balls out there and rolling to the championship.
Nope, this would be the first time in 16 years that America would have won.
It takes a special coach to pull that off.
Today, he's renewing his earlier statement that he's rooting for Jill Ellis.
And hey, if he has to root for the U.S. women's national soccer team, so be it.
Ellis is the head coach for the United States, and she has her team in the championship match at the Women's World Cup. The U.S. will take on the winner of tonight's England-Japan semifinal match in Sunday's final, after the Americans defeated the top-ranked team in the world, Germany, 2-0 in the semifinals last night.
Should the English win, then Ellis would be coaching the United States team against her native country.
Today's quick quiz - what country won the most recent Women's World Cup? If you guessed the U.S.A., you'd be wrong.
The answer is Japan.
Can you name the last three Women's World Cup winners? Japan, Germany (2007) and Germany (2003).
The first time the U.S. won was in 1991. The last time the U.S. won was in 1999, which was the first Women's World Cup, the one where Brandy Chastain knocked in the winning PK and then had her rather famous celebration.
The other Women's World Cup, in 1995, was won by Norway.
In other words, the U.S. isn't a lock to win every time there is one of these tournaments. The casual fan might think so, but that's not the case.
Of course, it's not like there isn't pressure on the U.S. to win each time out. Far from it. Had Ellis' team not won yesterday, even against the No. 1-ranked team in the world, there would have been a sense of failure around the team.
The Americans haven't accomplished their goal yet. The 2011 team reached the championship match against Japan and lost in PKs. Having that happen again would leave an empty taste this time as well.
So Ellis has to deal with the win-it-all expectations every time her team steps on the field. And then there's the whole balancing act that is being the U.S. coach, with all of the personalities and stars and newcomers and everything else.
Just handling a mega-star like Abby Wambach in the tail end of her career is challenge enough. Now factor that across the entire U.S. roster.
The best player, if no the biggest star, for the Americans now is Carli Lloyd.
TigerBlog was Princeton's women's soccer contact in 2004, when Ellis coached UCLA against Princeton in the Final Four, and is 2003, when the Tigers took on Rutgers on the first Tuesday in October.
TB remembers the game pretty well. Princeton was ranked 23rd nationally, and Rutgers was always a national power.
Rutgers had a really strong defense, one that had allowed one goal in 700 minutes prior to the game. TigerBlog didn't remember that part; he saw that when he read the recap of the game he'd written all those years ago.
Princeton led 2-0 after scoring two late first-half goals. TB did remember that.
He didn't remember who scored them, though it turned out to be Rochelle Willis and Emily Behncke.
The other thing he remembers about that game is that Rutgers came back to tie it 2-2. And he also remembered who scored both goals.
That's right. Carli Lloyd. She scored one goal seven minutes into the second half and then the tying goal with seven minutes left in the second half, turning a huge Princeton win into a less-than-satisfying tie.
As TB re-read the story he wrote about the game, he saw that there was a quote from then-head coach Julie Shackford, whose best friend is Jill Ellis.
Here's what Shackford had to say: "Carli Lloyd is a great player. She knows where to put the ball."
She certainly did against Germany last night, when she scored the first U.S. goal on a penalty kick.
Lloyd is the leading U.S. scorer with three goals in this World Cup. Megan Rapinoe has two, and no other American has more than one.
So yes, it seems that Shackford was right about her.
And now the U.S. has one game to go to win the Women's World Cup.
If the Americans get there, Jill Ellis better get the credit she deserves. This isn't just about rolling the balls out there and rolling to the championship.
Nope, this would be the first time in 16 years that America would have won.
It takes a special coach to pull that off.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Rooting For Donn Cabral
Tomorrow is the last day of June, which means it'll be the exact halfway point of 2015.
Think about what you did on New Year's Eve. That was exactly six months ago. Does it seem like that long ago?
The other day was the halfway point between Christmas 2014 and Christmas 2015. June 25th, to be exact, which was last Thursday.
When do you think you'll see your first ad for the new Christmas season? Before opening day of the NFL?
When you're a kid, you're aware of when your half-birthday is, even if it's not that big a deal. It's not like it was good for any presents or anything.
What it was big for was adding the "and a half" to your age when someone asked you how old you were. How old are you? Last week you said seven. Now you say "seven and a half."
It's a big moment.
TigerBlog thinks the slowest time of the year is the time that's about to be upon us, the Fourth of July until the start of the new school year. It's a relaxing summer respite from the busy every day week-to-week season-to-season grind of the school year.
The fastest time of the year is from Halloween to New Year's. Then it slows again a little.
Halloween to New Year's is a total sprint. Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year's. One after the other.
This year, those holidays will be followed by 2016, which will feature, among other things, the next Presidential election. There's a lot at stake for the country in the next election, and yet it will deteriorate into what it always does, with an endless number of primaries, debates, ads and all the rest of it, with the long crawl until Election Day in November. It'll seem like a thousand years have gone by from the summer of 2015 until Election Day 2016.
As an aside, not to get political or anything, but going to Dartmouth for football or basketball in a Presidential election cycle is always interesting, because of the New Hampshire Primary and the importance it plays. There's always something going on at Dartmouth it seems.
Anyway, another big part of 2016 will be the Summer Olympic Games, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, beginning Aug. 5.
TigerBlog is rooting hard for Donn Cabral to be there again.
Cabral is the 2012 Princeton grad who won the NCAA steeplechase championship his senior year. Then he went on qualify for the Olympics in London and then reach the final, where he led for awhile before finishing eighth.
Cabral competed at the U.S. Track and Field Championships in Oregon this past weekend, as did five other Princeton alums. Cabral finished second in the steeplechase, running an 8:13.37, leaving him 1.08 seconds behind Evan Jager, who was the other American in the 2012 Olympics, where he finished sixth.
TigerBlog knows next to nothing about track and field and how it works and what times mean what.
He does know this: Had Cabral run the time he just ran in Oregon in the 2012 Olympic final, he would have won gold - by more than five seconds.
Yes, this is not an apples to apples comparison. Still, Cabral is getting faster, no? His time to finish eighth in Londan was 8:25.91, or 12.54 seconds slower than he ran last weekend.
TigerBlog has talked to Cabral twice, he thinks. Once was for a feature story for the football game program, and TB still has the thank you note that Cabral sent him.
That seems to be the kind of person he is.
He's not the most imposing physical presence. That's for sure. He doesn't overwhelm you with bravado or anything like that.
He just comes across as a nice guy, one who is very serious about what he's doing and - very, very good at it.
Plus, as TB has said many times before, watching him train on the Weaver Stadium track when he was a senior was a daily event, one that drew the attention of anyone who happened to casually glance at Cabral as he ran.
Anyway, the 2016 Olympics are not exactly around the corner. First are the World Championships in Beijing in August. Then there is still most of a year until Olympic qualifying.
TigerBlog will be rooting for him. That's for sure.
How can he not?
After all, Donn Cabral is pretty much everything that is good with Princeton Athletics.
Think about what you did on New Year's Eve. That was exactly six months ago. Does it seem like that long ago?
The other day was the halfway point between Christmas 2014 and Christmas 2015. June 25th, to be exact, which was last Thursday.
When do you think you'll see your first ad for the new Christmas season? Before opening day of the NFL?
When you're a kid, you're aware of when your half-birthday is, even if it's not that big a deal. It's not like it was good for any presents or anything.
What it was big for was adding the "and a half" to your age when someone asked you how old you were. How old are you? Last week you said seven. Now you say "seven and a half."
It's a big moment.
TigerBlog thinks the slowest time of the year is the time that's about to be upon us, the Fourth of July until the start of the new school year. It's a relaxing summer respite from the busy every day week-to-week season-to-season grind of the school year.
The fastest time of the year is from Halloween to New Year's. Then it slows again a little.
Halloween to New Year's is a total sprint. Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year's. One after the other.
This year, those holidays will be followed by 2016, which will feature, among other things, the next Presidential election. There's a lot at stake for the country in the next election, and yet it will deteriorate into what it always does, with an endless number of primaries, debates, ads and all the rest of it, with the long crawl until Election Day in November. It'll seem like a thousand years have gone by from the summer of 2015 until Election Day 2016.
As an aside, not to get political or anything, but going to Dartmouth for football or basketball in a Presidential election cycle is always interesting, because of the New Hampshire Primary and the importance it plays. There's always something going on at Dartmouth it seems.
Anyway, another big part of 2016 will be the Summer Olympic Games, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, beginning Aug. 5.
TigerBlog is rooting hard for Donn Cabral to be there again.
Cabral is the 2012 Princeton grad who won the NCAA steeplechase championship his senior year. Then he went on qualify for the Olympics in London and then reach the final, where he led for awhile before finishing eighth.
Cabral competed at the U.S. Track and Field Championships in Oregon this past weekend, as did five other Princeton alums. Cabral finished second in the steeplechase, running an 8:13.37, leaving him 1.08 seconds behind Evan Jager, who was the other American in the 2012 Olympics, where he finished sixth.
TigerBlog knows next to nothing about track and field and how it works and what times mean what.
He does know this: Had Cabral run the time he just ran in Oregon in the 2012 Olympic final, he would have won gold - by more than five seconds.
Yes, this is not an apples to apples comparison. Still, Cabral is getting faster, no? His time to finish eighth in Londan was 8:25.91, or 12.54 seconds slower than he ran last weekend.
TigerBlog has talked to Cabral twice, he thinks. Once was for a feature story for the football game program, and TB still has the thank you note that Cabral sent him.
That seems to be the kind of person he is.
He's not the most imposing physical presence. That's for sure. He doesn't overwhelm you with bravado or anything like that.
He just comes across as a nice guy, one who is very serious about what he's doing and - very, very good at it.
Plus, as TB has said many times before, watching him train on the Weaver Stadium track when he was a senior was a daily event, one that drew the attention of anyone who happened to casually glance at Cabral as he ran.
Anyway, the 2016 Olympics are not exactly around the corner. First are the World Championships in Beijing in August. Then there is still most of a year until Olympic qualifying.
TigerBlog will be rooting for him. That's for sure.
How can he not?
After all, Donn Cabral is pretty much everything that is good with Princeton Athletics.
Monday, June 29, 2015
Nous Sommes Quarante Et Un
So Miss TigerBlog has become a tad obsessed with speaking French.
Of the last 12 text messages she has sent her father, nine of them have been in French. This would be fine, except TigerBlog speaks only a single word of French.
Fromage.
It means "cheese."
Before he gets into the whole French thing, TB wants to point out that his daughter - who recently completed her freshman year of high school - is tethered at all times to her cell phone but is only 50-50 to respond to a text of his. And if he calls? Forget it. She's 90-10 not to answer.
Why is that?
Okay, back at the French thing.
TigerBlog took Spanish in high school and German in college and had basically no natural affinity for learning foreign languages. BrotherBlog did - he could pick up pretty much anything, including Mandarin Chinese.
Pete Carril once said of one his players a long time ago that he "can speak seven languages, but when I try to tell him what to do, I sometimes think English isn't one of them."
TigerBlog Jr. took four years of French in high school. He was pretty good at it, if his grades through the years are to be believed. But he never really has spoken much of it in casual conversation around the house.
Then there's MTB. She's all French, all the time. She took a brief middle school rotation of French, Spanish and German and chose French for high school.
It was a about halfway through the year that she started with the whole French deal. Now? It's an every day thing.
It certainly has its charm.
TigerBlog will text "what are you doing?" and the answer will come back to him in French. Or he'll ask what she wants for dinner, and the answer comes back in French, to which he will respond "would you like 'fromage' with that?"
Usually, TigerBlog has to then forward it to BrotherBlog for translation. It's an arduous process, yet in some ways it's been good for family bonding.
TigerBlog asked MTB yesterday how to say "we are 41" in French, and she replied "Nous Sommes Quarante Et Un." TB will take it at her word - or words - that she is correct.
Why did TB want to know how to say "we are 41" in French? Because Princeton finished the year 41st in the Directors' Cup.
Princeton was actually 40th until TCU vaulted past the Tigers with its points in the last sport of the year, baseball. For those who don't know, the Directors' Cup measures the top athletic programs in Division I, Division II and Division III through a system that awards points based on NCAA championship participation.
Princeton had a huge spring, getting 80 points in the fall, 172 in the winter and then 300.5 in the spring. The teams contributing to the spring haul were women's lacrosse, women's open rowing, women's tennis, men's tennis, women's track and field and men's track and field.
And women's water polo. Princeton got more points in the spring from women's water polo than any other sport. The most points by any sport all year were the 80 in fencing, though that is a combined total for the men and women.
Princeton went from 77th at the end of the fall to 56th at the end of the winter to 41st in the final standings.
Princeton led all Ivy League schools and was in fact the highest ranking school from a non-power conference. Adding it up, the top 40 featured eight Pac 12 schools - including the top three, who were Stanford, UCLA and USC - eight ACC schools, six Big 12 schools, nine SEC schools and nine Big Ten schools.
Think about that. That's 40 power conference schools and then Princeton.
For everything that Princeton accomplishes athletically, there are few things that reflect the combination of what the athletic program is striving to be than having such a strong showing in the Directors' Cup. Princeton is showing how well it can compete against schools that spend tens of millions of dollars more per year on athletics and can compete without having to compromise its core values in any way.
This is the 22nd year of the Directors' Cup. Princeton has finished in the top 50 19 times.
The 2014-15 year was also the 19th time in those 22 years that Princeton has finished first in the Ivy League.
That's great stuff. It's a great way to end the year.
Being Quarante Et Un?
That's something to applaud.
Of the last 12 text messages she has sent her father, nine of them have been in French. This would be fine, except TigerBlog speaks only a single word of French.
Fromage.
It means "cheese."
Before he gets into the whole French thing, TB wants to point out that his daughter - who recently completed her freshman year of high school - is tethered at all times to her cell phone but is only 50-50 to respond to a text of his. And if he calls? Forget it. She's 90-10 not to answer.
Why is that?
Okay, back at the French thing.
TigerBlog took Spanish in high school and German in college and had basically no natural affinity for learning foreign languages. BrotherBlog did - he could pick up pretty much anything, including Mandarin Chinese.
Pete Carril once said of one his players a long time ago that he "can speak seven languages, but when I try to tell him what to do, I sometimes think English isn't one of them."
TigerBlog Jr. took four years of French in high school. He was pretty good at it, if his grades through the years are to be believed. But he never really has spoken much of it in casual conversation around the house.
Then there's MTB. She's all French, all the time. She took a brief middle school rotation of French, Spanish and German and chose French for high school.
It was a about halfway through the year that she started with the whole French deal. Now? It's an every day thing.
It certainly has its charm.
TigerBlog will text "what are you doing?" and the answer will come back to him in French. Or he'll ask what she wants for dinner, and the answer comes back in French, to which he will respond "would you like 'fromage' with that?"
Usually, TigerBlog has to then forward it to BrotherBlog for translation. It's an arduous process, yet in some ways it's been good for family bonding.
TigerBlog asked MTB yesterday how to say "we are 41" in French, and she replied "Nous Sommes Quarante Et Un." TB will take it at her word - or words - that she is correct.
Why did TB want to know how to say "we are 41" in French? Because Princeton finished the year 41st in the Directors' Cup.
Princeton was actually 40th until TCU vaulted past the Tigers with its points in the last sport of the year, baseball. For those who don't know, the Directors' Cup measures the top athletic programs in Division I, Division II and Division III through a system that awards points based on NCAA championship participation.
Princeton had a huge spring, getting 80 points in the fall, 172 in the winter and then 300.5 in the spring. The teams contributing to the spring haul were women's lacrosse, women's open rowing, women's tennis, men's tennis, women's track and field and men's track and field.
And women's water polo. Princeton got more points in the spring from women's water polo than any other sport. The most points by any sport all year were the 80 in fencing, though that is a combined total for the men and women.
Princeton went from 77th at the end of the fall to 56th at the end of the winter to 41st in the final standings.
Princeton led all Ivy League schools and was in fact the highest ranking school from a non-power conference. Adding it up, the top 40 featured eight Pac 12 schools - including the top three, who were Stanford, UCLA and USC - eight ACC schools, six Big 12 schools, nine SEC schools and nine Big Ten schools.
Think about that. That's 40 power conference schools and then Princeton.
For everything that Princeton accomplishes athletically, there are few things that reflect the combination of what the athletic program is striving to be than having such a strong showing in the Directors' Cup. Princeton is showing how well it can compete against schools that spend tens of millions of dollars more per year on athletics and can compete without having to compromise its core values in any way.
This is the 22nd year of the Directors' Cup. Princeton has finished in the top 50 19 times.
The 2014-15 year was also the 19th time in those 22 years that Princeton has finished first in the Ivy League.
That's great stuff. It's a great way to end the year.
Being Quarante Et Un?
That's something to applaud.
Friday, June 26, 2015
Keeping Stats
TigerBlog watched the first 30 minutes of last night's NBA draft, which enabled him to see four picks.
That's 30 more minutes and four more picks he's seen of the last, oh, 10 or so NFL drafts combined, partly because the NFL hasn't figure out yet that having its draft in the heart of college lacrosse season is just killing its marketability.
Anyway, TB saw basically everything he needed to in those four picks.
The Sixers had the third pick. The Knicks had the fourth. TB's Office of Athletic Communications colleagues Craig Sachson (Sixers fan) and Ben Badua (Knicks fan) were both less than thrilled by how it played out, as the Sixers ended up with Jahlil Okafor and the Knicks took Kristaps Porzingis.
TB has no idea what will ever come of all these players. Some will pan out. Others won't. Will Porzingis? No clue.
TigerBlog grew up rooting for the Mets, Knicks, Giants and Islanders. He still roots for the Giants. He doesn't really care about the Mets or Islanders anymore.
The Knicks? They are the hardest team in sports to root for, bar none. The owner (James Dolan) and the star player (Carmelo Anthony) are completely impossible to root for. The team hasn't won a championship since 1973.
For the most part in recent years, the Knicks have fielded teams made up of highly priced jerks. And charged really high prices to watch the jerks play - and usually lose.
So will Porzingis matter? Doesn't matter.
The best part of the 30 minutes that TigerBlog watched was by far the tribute commissioner Adam Silver paid to Harvey Pollack, the long-time statistician for the Sixers, who recently passed away at the age of 93.
Pollack, whom TB never met, is a legend. He invented a bunch of stats and put together expansive compilations of statistical analysis year after year after year.
As Silver said, he was the last remaining original employee of the NBA from its inaugural 1946-47 season.
As he listened to Silver, it dawned on TB that stat keeping is about the only remaining original task from when he started in the OAC all those years ago.
Everything else has changed through the years. Everything.
It makes TigerBlog laugh to think back to the "old" days. He tries to explain to the newer generations, like Badua, about how much different it was back then, before the internet, before the explosion of technology. Tasks that now take a few seconds took hours 20 years ago.
For all that, stat keeping remains essentially the same. Well, sort of.
When TB first started at Princeton, stats were kept by hand and then entered into a computer to get the season cumes and all that.
After a football or basketball game, TB had to use the computer of Marge DeFrank, a secretary in the department then who has long since passed away, since it was the only computer in the building that had the stat program on it. He could only use it when DeFrank wasn't around. TB remembers it being a giant pain in the butt.
Then along came computer stats. At first, they were intimidating. The first time TigerBlog had to enter stats at a basketball game on the computer was about as stressful a task as he's had here.
Actually, the first football game with computer stats featured a play where there was an interception that was run back to near the goal line, where it was fumbled into the end zone and picked up by an offensive lineman, who ran it out to the two. TigerBlog and the stat crew just looked at each other and laughed
These days computer stats are simple. At first, there was someone doing backup stats by hand. Now? Never.
As the mechanism for stat keeping has evolved, the whole concept of the stats themselves has not. A basket is still a basket. A goal is still a goal.
There is still too much discrepancy from place to place on assists in all sports. And there are still too many people - many coaches included - who don't know the rules of keeping stats. Hey, there are a lot of people in athletic communications who don't know the rules too.
TigerBlog, for instance, had no idea that in women's lacrosse, no ground ball is given without a change of possession, except on a missed shot.
TigerBlog has seen countless examples of bad stat keeping in his time. It tortures him. There are NCAA manuals online, and they have official rules in them. TigerBlog himself helped write the rules for men's lacrosse.
In general, though, most people who keep stats in college athletics are well-informed and well-intentioned. And they produce final stats that can be trusted, which is the most important thing.
When the action gets going in a game, it's easy to panic as the official statistician. And to miss things. Over the course of a season, this all evens itself out.
TigerBlog has had players ask him about stats, ask them to be changed. Unless it's a score or penalty that was given to the wrong person, they can't be changed.
Being a statistician is different now than when TB started and certainly when Harvey Pollack started. When he first put pencil to paper, there's no way he imagined computers and live stats and people who followed the stats on their smart phones.
But stats? They're not just numbers. They're a way of comparing eras, of having continuity from generation to generation, of establishing unquestionable greatness for teams and individuals.
It's the responsibility of the stat keeper to make sure those numbers are accurate. It's challenging and rewarding when done right.
And, even after all these years and all of these changes in the business, those little numbers are still one of TigerBlog's very favorite parts of the job.
That's 30 more minutes and four more picks he's seen of the last, oh, 10 or so NFL drafts combined, partly because the NFL hasn't figure out yet that having its draft in the heart of college lacrosse season is just killing its marketability.
Anyway, TB saw basically everything he needed to in those four picks.
The Sixers had the third pick. The Knicks had the fourth. TB's Office of Athletic Communications colleagues Craig Sachson (Sixers fan) and Ben Badua (Knicks fan) were both less than thrilled by how it played out, as the Sixers ended up with Jahlil Okafor and the Knicks took Kristaps Porzingis.
TB has no idea what will ever come of all these players. Some will pan out. Others won't. Will Porzingis? No clue.
TigerBlog grew up rooting for the Mets, Knicks, Giants and Islanders. He still roots for the Giants. He doesn't really care about the Mets or Islanders anymore.
The Knicks? They are the hardest team in sports to root for, bar none. The owner (James Dolan) and the star player (Carmelo Anthony) are completely impossible to root for. The team hasn't won a championship since 1973.
For the most part in recent years, the Knicks have fielded teams made up of highly priced jerks. And charged really high prices to watch the jerks play - and usually lose.
So will Porzingis matter? Doesn't matter.
The best part of the 30 minutes that TigerBlog watched was by far the tribute commissioner Adam Silver paid to Harvey Pollack, the long-time statistician for the Sixers, who recently passed away at the age of 93.
Pollack, whom TB never met, is a legend. He invented a bunch of stats and put together expansive compilations of statistical analysis year after year after year.
As Silver said, he was the last remaining original employee of the NBA from its inaugural 1946-47 season.
As he listened to Silver, it dawned on TB that stat keeping is about the only remaining original task from when he started in the OAC all those years ago.
Everything else has changed through the years. Everything.
It makes TigerBlog laugh to think back to the "old" days. He tries to explain to the newer generations, like Badua, about how much different it was back then, before the internet, before the explosion of technology. Tasks that now take a few seconds took hours 20 years ago.
For all that, stat keeping remains essentially the same. Well, sort of.
When TB first started at Princeton, stats were kept by hand and then entered into a computer to get the season cumes and all that.
After a football or basketball game, TB had to use the computer of Marge DeFrank, a secretary in the department then who has long since passed away, since it was the only computer in the building that had the stat program on it. He could only use it when DeFrank wasn't around. TB remembers it being a giant pain in the butt.
Then along came computer stats. At first, they were intimidating. The first time TigerBlog had to enter stats at a basketball game on the computer was about as stressful a task as he's had here.
Actually, the first football game with computer stats featured a play where there was an interception that was run back to near the goal line, where it was fumbled into the end zone and picked up by an offensive lineman, who ran it out to the two. TigerBlog and the stat crew just looked at each other and laughed
These days computer stats are simple. At first, there was someone doing backup stats by hand. Now? Never.
As the mechanism for stat keeping has evolved, the whole concept of the stats themselves has not. A basket is still a basket. A goal is still a goal.
There is still too much discrepancy from place to place on assists in all sports. And there are still too many people - many coaches included - who don't know the rules of keeping stats. Hey, there are a lot of people in athletic communications who don't know the rules too.
TigerBlog, for instance, had no idea that in women's lacrosse, no ground ball is given without a change of possession, except on a missed shot.
TigerBlog has seen countless examples of bad stat keeping in his time. It tortures him. There are NCAA manuals online, and they have official rules in them. TigerBlog himself helped write the rules for men's lacrosse.
In general, though, most people who keep stats in college athletics are well-informed and well-intentioned. And they produce final stats that can be trusted, which is the most important thing.
When the action gets going in a game, it's easy to panic as the official statistician. And to miss things. Over the course of a season, this all evens itself out.
TigerBlog has had players ask him about stats, ask them to be changed. Unless it's a score or penalty that was given to the wrong person, they can't be changed.
Being a statistician is different now than when TB started and certainly when Harvey Pollack started. When he first put pencil to paper, there's no way he imagined computers and live stats and people who followed the stats on their smart phones.
But stats? They're not just numbers. They're a way of comparing eras, of having continuity from generation to generation, of establishing unquestionable greatness for teams and individuals.
It's the responsibility of the stat keeper to make sure those numbers are accurate. It's challenging and rewarding when done right.
And, even after all these years and all of these changes in the business, those little numbers are still one of TigerBlog's very favorite parts of the job.
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Nice Working With You, Mike
Back when TigerBlog used to read a newspaper every morning, he used to love to check out the "Transactions" section of the sports section.
He had his routine down. Comics. Jumbles. Sports. Letters to the editor. The usual.
Now he gets the comics and jumbles online. And sports news. Letters to the editor have been replaced by comments under stories, online as well.
Oh well. Those were the days.
Anyway, the "Transactions" section was always fun. There was almost always something that had a local connection.
Maybe it was another Ivy school that hired a coach. Maybe it was a former Princeton athlete or coach who was hired someplace else. Maybe it was someone who played against Princeton.
And of course there were the NFL cutdown days. Those really were the mother lode for "Transactions" days.
And then there were the days when Princeton had a transaction. Those were stressful, making sure that it was actually in the paper. TigerBlog could never remember if he was supposed to send it to the AP office in Newark or Trenton or if they received it or if anyone could confirm it.
Anyway, the transactions still exist, but it's not the same online.
Were Princeton's Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux not such a good sport, then it would be possible that today's "Transactions" would include this: Princeton - Announced field hockey assistant coach Mike Pallister has been fired.
Fortunately for Mike, he's still in good standing with Mollie, even after beating her in the championship match of the Dillon Gym ping-pong tournament yesterday.
The championship was the second straight for Pallister, who won last year's inaugural tournament. Pallister, at about 6-7, covers the table fairly effortlessly, and he is somewhat intimidating with his backward baseball hat and all.
Mollie was a two-sport athlete at Princeton, All-Ivy in soccer and hockey. She is competitive, that's for sure. She wants to win.
The Dillon tournament last year was limited to only those people who actually worked in Dillon. Mollie's office is in Jadwin, but she was given as exemption into the tournament, as was her assistant Kim Meszaros, who didn't make it out of Round 1.
Mollie had a huge win in the quarterfinals, defeating last year's runner-up, men's soccer assistant Steve Totten. Pallister reached the finals by defeating men's soccer coach Jim Barlow in the semifinals.
TigerBlog figures one of these years is Barlow's year.
So the final came down to Pallister and Marcoux. It's not easy playing against the boss, right? On the other hand, Mollie isn't the kind who would respect anyone who let her win just because she's the AD.
Pallister and Totten went the distance last year in a best-of-five. This time, Pallister swept the championship match.
TigerBlog is a decent ping-pong player, though Barlow wiped him out in a ping-pong Friendly last year. He's not sure who the best player in Jadwin is.
He does have an idea, though.
How about Dillon vs. Jadwin. You know, like how it's done in squash. Nine players, ranked 1-9, playing their counterpart in that position from the other building.
That would draw ratings, no? Or at least interest in the department.
Hmmm. Where would TB start on this? He supposes he has to see if there's a ping-pong table in Jadwin.
In the meantime, things like the recently completed Dillon tournament are a pretty nice piece of the Princeton Department of Athletics fabric. Princeton Athletics features 38 teams, all with their own challenges and struggles on a day-to-day basis.
Plus there are administrators, staff members, everyone else who makes up the entire department, all with their own needs and requirements in their jobs.
But still, when you work in college athletics, you do so largely because you like being part of something bigger than just your own personal area.
That's what the tournament is all about. It's all Princeton Athletics.
That spirit is one of the best parts of working here.
Congratulations to Mike Pallister.
And rest easy, Mollie won't take it personally.
Besides, she will get her revenge when Jadwin beats Dillon. Of course, Dillon would have a big edge with Pallister, Barlow and Totten at the top of the lineup.
Jadwin would either have to steal a match up there and hope to have better depth, or else have Mollie move the soccer or field hockey offices over here.
He had his routine down. Comics. Jumbles. Sports. Letters to the editor. The usual.
Now he gets the comics and jumbles online. And sports news. Letters to the editor have been replaced by comments under stories, online as well.
Oh well. Those were the days.
Anyway, the "Transactions" section was always fun. There was almost always something that had a local connection.
Maybe it was another Ivy school that hired a coach. Maybe it was a former Princeton athlete or coach who was hired someplace else. Maybe it was someone who played against Princeton.
And of course there were the NFL cutdown days. Those really were the mother lode for "Transactions" days.
And then there were the days when Princeton had a transaction. Those were stressful, making sure that it was actually in the paper. TigerBlog could never remember if he was supposed to send it to the AP office in Newark or Trenton or if they received it or if anyone could confirm it.
Anyway, the transactions still exist, but it's not the same online.
Were Princeton's Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux not such a good sport, then it would be possible that today's "Transactions" would include this: Princeton - Announced field hockey assistant coach Mike Pallister has been fired.
Fortunately for Mike, he's still in good standing with Mollie, even after beating her in the championship match of the Dillon Gym ping-pong tournament yesterday.
The championship was the second straight for Pallister, who won last year's inaugural tournament. Pallister, at about 6-7, covers the table fairly effortlessly, and he is somewhat intimidating with his backward baseball hat and all.
Mollie was a two-sport athlete at Princeton, All-Ivy in soccer and hockey. She is competitive, that's for sure. She wants to win.
The Dillon tournament last year was limited to only those people who actually worked in Dillon. Mollie's office is in Jadwin, but she was given as exemption into the tournament, as was her assistant Kim Meszaros, who didn't make it out of Round 1.
Mollie had a huge win in the quarterfinals, defeating last year's runner-up, men's soccer assistant Steve Totten. Pallister reached the finals by defeating men's soccer coach Jim Barlow in the semifinals.
TigerBlog figures one of these years is Barlow's year.
So the final came down to Pallister and Marcoux. It's not easy playing against the boss, right? On the other hand, Mollie isn't the kind who would respect anyone who let her win just because she's the AD.
Pallister and Totten went the distance last year in a best-of-five. This time, Pallister swept the championship match.
TigerBlog is a decent ping-pong player, though Barlow wiped him out in a ping-pong Friendly last year. He's not sure who the best player in Jadwin is.
He does have an idea, though.
How about Dillon vs. Jadwin. You know, like how it's done in squash. Nine players, ranked 1-9, playing their counterpart in that position from the other building.
That would draw ratings, no? Or at least interest in the department.
Hmmm. Where would TB start on this? He supposes he has to see if there's a ping-pong table in Jadwin.
In the meantime, things like the recently completed Dillon tournament are a pretty nice piece of the Princeton Department of Athletics fabric. Princeton Athletics features 38 teams, all with their own challenges and struggles on a day-to-day basis.
Plus there are administrators, staff members, everyone else who makes up the entire department, all with their own needs and requirements in their jobs.
But still, when you work in college athletics, you do so largely because you like being part of something bigger than just your own personal area.
That's what the tournament is all about. It's all Princeton Athletics.
That spirit is one of the best parts of working here.
Congratulations to Mike Pallister.
And rest easy, Mollie won't take it personally.
Besides, she will get her revenge when Jadwin beats Dillon. Of course, Dillon would have a big edge with Pallister, Barlow and Totten at the top of the lineup.
Jadwin would either have to steal a match up there and hope to have better depth, or else have Mollie move the soccer or field hockey offices over here.
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