TigerBlog saw a story yesterday about a NASCAR racer named Bubba Wallace and how he lost one of his sponsors after he quit on a virtual race.
The point of the story was that this is something that was supposed to be for fun and it ended up having some actual implications. Also, a professional race car driver who finished second at the Daytona 500 two years ago could get so annoyed about a virtual race that he quit in the middle.
How annoying can it be?
Well, if you ever saw "Rocky Balboa" you could understand a bit. Or you could be doing what TB was doing two days earlier.
There is a website that is doing computer simulations of every men's lacrosse game during this season. Each week since the season was postponed, TB has gone through the following pattern: 1) forget that the computer simulations are happening, 2) remember that they're happening, 3) check the score of Princeton's game, 4) follow it the rest of the way as it were real, 5) get annoyed when things don't go the Tigers' way and then finally 6) be mad at himself for doing it.
Yes, he's smart enough to know that the stats don't really match up with the kinds of stats you could expect from a regular Princeton game and that the scores don't necessarily reflect what would have actually happened. Oh, and mostly, you know - they're not real games.
Still, there he was Saturday afternoon, hitting refresh to get updates on Princeton-Stony Brook. Princeton was ahead big in the first half and then, when he came back to see what was going on, saw the Tigers were down 15-14 with a little more than a minute left.
Ah, but there was hope. The last stat was a successful clear for Princeton.
Refresh. Refresh. Seven seconds left. Refresh. Still seven seconds left.
Refresh again. Goal. Tie game. Michael Sowers as time expired. And then overtime.
Stony Brook then won the face-off. Oh no. What next? But then Princeton got it back. And cleared it. And then it was Chris Brown from Alex Slusher. Goal. Princeton wins 16-15.
Oh wait. None of it was real.
TB knew that the whole time. He was angry at himself each time he hit refresh. But still, he did it.
Worse than that, he even considered what stories he would have written had Princeton lost 15-14 or won 16-15.
He's not sure if it makes him feel any better, but he's spoken to several Division I coaches and athletic communications people who are doing the same thing and are just as annoyed at themselves for doing it.
The question is why does a simulated game or a simulated car race bring out real emotions?
He hasn't really been able to figure out why. Is it that he misses the season and is happy that there is anything at all that passes for lacrosse news these days? Is it because of all of the sports movies that he's watched that have blurred the line a bit between what's real and what isn't?
Is it that he - and the others he's spoken to - are so invested in their teams that any loss, even a fictional one, is bothersome?
It's not just simulated games.
The good people at US Lacrosse have a virtual NCAA tournament bracket and competition that is starting. You can vote today for the Princeton men and the Princeton women, in fact, by going HERE.
When TB first saw the link, he clicked on it hoping to see the Tigers in both fields. Again, why?
And why was he happy to see the men seeded fifth (taking on UMass, with a possible game against Penn State after that). In fact, he wondered where the quarterfinal round would have been.
Seriously. That was his first thought.
As for the women, they would have been in Syracuse to play Penn State, with the winner to face the Orange. Both Princeton teams were at-large selections, meaning neither "won" the league tournament.
The regular season? No way to know.
Then again, a reminder - none of this is real.
But it still gets the emotions going in everyone who sees it, and nobody seems to be able to look away.
Why? Does it matter?
Whatever it is, he will be just as annoyed this afternoon, when he checks on the simulated Princeton-Siena game that he otherwise would have been at today in Loudonville. Face-off would have been at 4.
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Monday, April 6, 2020
Hey Russell, Need Any New Stuff?
TigerBlog awoke yesterday to an email calling his attention to a tweet from Russell Crowe, of all people.
Russell played John Nash in the Academy Award-winning movie "A Beautiful Mind," which was filmed on the Princeton campus. Here's the tweet:
That's great stuff.
As TB remembers it, Joe Rosenbaum was an extra in that movie. Rosenbaum was also a standout longstick midfielder in Princeton's men's lacrosse Class of 2003.
He won an NCAA championship with the Tigers in 2001 and played in the 2000 and 2002 NCAA championship games as well. Now it's 17 years later.
Really?
TigerBlog remembers when that class arrived on the campus as the top class in the country that year. Rosenbaum came to Princeton as one of three players from McDonogh School in Baltimore, along with Owen Daly (who would go on to marry one of TB's former co-workers in the Office of Athletic Communications, Kim Milardo) and Brad Dumont.
Their class also included, among others, another Baltimore player, Damien Davis, who 1) played at Gilman and 2) is one half of the answer of an upcoming trivia question that TB will offer you in a few paragraphs.
Who else was in that class?
Sean Hartofilis, for one, whom TB has long considered the most underrated men's lacrosse player he's seen at Princeton in all his time with the team. A lefty attackman from St. Anthony's on Long Island, Hartofilis, now a filmmaker, scored 126 goals at Princeton, still ranking him fourth all-time. Of those 126 goals, he scored 27 in NCAA tournament games.
Last week Joe emailed TigerBlog looking to see if he had a copy of the 2002 roster that he could forward. When TB went to send it to him, he looked through to see if he could match the players from the 2003 season to the high schools they attended.
He got about 50 percent of them correct. And a few others that he got wrong he remembered essentially what their hometowns were.
TB wasn't surprised he could do that. What surprises him is where his memory is strongest.
For instance, he can remember high schools and hometowns, and he can remember scores and game details from years ago. He's really good with remembering uniform numbers players wore decades ago.
What he's not good at is remembering what someone's class year was.
For some reason, he always struggles with this. Were they Class of 2008 or 2009? He's not great with that. He can remember groups of teammates, but he can't always remember which group of teammates came when.
Meanwhile, back at the trivia question TB promised ...
Inside Lacrosse released its women's and men's All-American teams as voted by the media last week. Again, this was supposed the middle of the season, rather than All-American time, but 2020 is unlike any other year.
The Ivy League has already decided it will not be doing all-league teams for the spring season. The USILA and the IWLCA won't be doing their All-American teams either.
When was the last time the USILA did not have men's All-Americans? How about 1921.
TB understands both sides of the coin on this one. There's the side that says that less than 50 percent of the season was played. The other says that the historical record is important, and not doing something for the first time since 1921 is quite unfortunate.
There have been All-Ivy League men's lacrosse teams every year since 1957 and All-Ivy League women's lacrosse teams every year since 1980. In fact, those first two All-Ivy League women's teams featured a first-team selection from Harvard named Chris Sailer.
As for the Inside Lacrosse teams, Princeton had six selections. Marge Donovan and Kyla Sears were second-team selections for the women. Connor McCarthy and Jake Stevens were honorable mention selections for the men.
Michael Sowers was a first-team selection. So too was George Baughan, the junior who is as good an on-ball defender as TB has seen at Princeton since David Morrow back in the early 1990s, up there with anyone else, including first-team All-Americans like Davis and Chad Wiedmaier (he was Class of 2012; TB can remember that one easily enough).
He would have loved to see the unbeaten and third-ranked Tigers have additional selections, especially longstick midfielder Andrew Song and attackman Chris Brown, both of whom play at an All-American level game after game.
Oh, and the trivia question.
With Sowers and Baughan on first-team, when was the last time Princeton had a first-team All-American attackman and defenseman in the same year? It was Davis and Ryan Boyle in 2003.
Before that, you go back to 1998, with Jon Hess and Jesse Hubbard on attack and Christian Cook on defense.
If you want to go back further, there was the duo of Kevin Lowe on attack and Todd Higgins on defense in 1994. The one before that was in 1953 (Bo Willis attack, Dave Tait defense).
In other words, it doesn't happen very often.
And Russell, reach out. Princeton lacrosse will hook you up.
Russell played John Nash in the Academy Award-winning movie "A Beautiful Mind," which was filmed on the Princeton campus. Here's the tweet:
Hope you’re all staying safe @russellcrowe and let us know if you need any new stuff. https://t.co/T3tSRcMEWG— Princeton Lacrosse (@TigerLacrosse) April 5, 2020
That's great stuff.
As TB remembers it, Joe Rosenbaum was an extra in that movie. Rosenbaum was also a standout longstick midfielder in Princeton's men's lacrosse Class of 2003.
He won an NCAA championship with the Tigers in 2001 and played in the 2000 and 2002 NCAA championship games as well. Now it's 17 years later.
Really?
TigerBlog remembers when that class arrived on the campus as the top class in the country that year. Rosenbaum came to Princeton as one of three players from McDonogh School in Baltimore, along with Owen Daly (who would go on to marry one of TB's former co-workers in the Office of Athletic Communications, Kim Milardo) and Brad Dumont.
Their class also included, among others, another Baltimore player, Damien Davis, who 1) played at Gilman and 2) is one half of the answer of an upcoming trivia question that TB will offer you in a few paragraphs.
Who else was in that class?
Sean Hartofilis, for one, whom TB has long considered the most underrated men's lacrosse player he's seen at Princeton in all his time with the team. A lefty attackman from St. Anthony's on Long Island, Hartofilis, now a filmmaker, scored 126 goals at Princeton, still ranking him fourth all-time. Of those 126 goals, he scored 27 in NCAA tournament games.
Last week Joe emailed TigerBlog looking to see if he had a copy of the 2002 roster that he could forward. When TB went to send it to him, he looked through to see if he could match the players from the 2003 season to the high schools they attended.
He got about 50 percent of them correct. And a few others that he got wrong he remembered essentially what their hometowns were.
TB wasn't surprised he could do that. What surprises him is where his memory is strongest.
For instance, he can remember high schools and hometowns, and he can remember scores and game details from years ago. He's really good with remembering uniform numbers players wore decades ago.
What he's not good at is remembering what someone's class year was.
For some reason, he always struggles with this. Were they Class of 2008 or 2009? He's not great with that. He can remember groups of teammates, but he can't always remember which group of teammates came when.
Meanwhile, back at the trivia question TB promised ...
Inside Lacrosse released its women's and men's All-American teams as voted by the media last week. Again, this was supposed the middle of the season, rather than All-American time, but 2020 is unlike any other year.
The Ivy League has already decided it will not be doing all-league teams for the spring season. The USILA and the IWLCA won't be doing their All-American teams either.
When was the last time the USILA did not have men's All-Americans? How about 1921.
TB understands both sides of the coin on this one. There's the side that says that less than 50 percent of the season was played. The other says that the historical record is important, and not doing something for the first time since 1921 is quite unfortunate.
There have been All-Ivy League men's lacrosse teams every year since 1957 and All-Ivy League women's lacrosse teams every year since 1980. In fact, those first two All-Ivy League women's teams featured a first-team selection from Harvard named Chris Sailer.
As for the Inside Lacrosse teams, Princeton had six selections. Marge Donovan and Kyla Sears were second-team selections for the women. Connor McCarthy and Jake Stevens were honorable mention selections for the men.
Michael Sowers was a first-team selection. So too was George Baughan, the junior who is as good an on-ball defender as TB has seen at Princeton since David Morrow back in the early 1990s, up there with anyone else, including first-team All-Americans like Davis and Chad Wiedmaier (he was Class of 2012; TB can remember that one easily enough).
He would have loved to see the unbeaten and third-ranked Tigers have additional selections, especially longstick midfielder Andrew Song and attackman Chris Brown, both of whom play at an All-American level game after game.
Oh, and the trivia question.
With Sowers and Baughan on first-team, when was the last time Princeton had a first-team All-American attackman and defenseman in the same year? It was Davis and Ryan Boyle in 2003.
Before that, you go back to 1998, with Jon Hess and Jesse Hubbard on attack and Christian Cook on defense.
If you want to go back further, there was the duo of Kevin Lowe on attack and Todd Higgins on defense in 1994. The one before that was in 1953 (Bo Willis attack, Dave Tait defense).
In other words, it doesn't happen very often.
And Russell, reach out. Princeton lacrosse will hook you up.
Friday, April 3, 2020
Blog 3K
TigerBlog had several Zoom meetings yesterday, including an all-staff one in which there were thumbnails of all of his colleagues whom he hasn't seen in, what's it been?, months, years?
Actually, if you can believe it, TigerBlog was thinking about how four weeks ago this evening was the night he sat on his couch and watched Princeton women's basketball (Bella Alarie broke the school career points record), men's basketball (Princeton big over Columbia) and men's hockey (first-round ECAC win at Dartmouth).
Does it seem like only four weeks? No. It seems like another time from another world.
Another of TB's calls yesterday, by the way, involved head football coach Bob Surace, and a few others. TB asked them all the same trivia question:
"Only two switch-hitters in Major League history reached 3,000 hits. Can you name them?"
Only Coach Surace got them both: Pete Rose and Eddie Murray. Impressive.
Murray, by the way, is the only player ever to have at least 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. That's even more impressive for a switch-hitter.
In case you're wondering, Murray hit 504 career home runs, with 362 lefthanded and 142 righthanded.
Stats are fascinating things. In Princeton Athletic history, there are just some that leap out of the record books - Bill Bradley had 2,503 career points, Keith Elias ran for 4,208 yards, Leslie Robinson had the first triple-double in Princeton basketball history. TB could go on for awhile.
As you probably figured out a long time ago, TigerBlog loves statistics, something that stems from an even greater passion for numbers, patterns and algorithms.
Where this came from he's not sure, but it likely has something to do with the fact that numbers are finite for the most part. They offer clarity and certainty and in an ever spinning world they can offer comfort.
With that as a backdrop, you might be interested to know that this is the 3,000th entry in TigerBlog history.
He doesn't tell you this for recognition, but rather to demonstrate how important this is to him and how appreciative he is of all of you out there who read it every day. Without your feedback and readership TB isn't sure he'd be so dogged in his consistency, but aside from his own personal sense of accomplishment, he loves your comments and support.
The blog was born on Aug. 28, 2008, with no actual purpose other than to say Princeton Athletics had a blog. At the time, who knew what it might become?
At first, it was used for in-game blogging and some small messages. As TB has said before, nobody was reading it then, and it almost simply went by the wayside until TB hit on the idea of using it as a story-telling venture.
From that point, things started to take off a bit. It was a few months until it became a daily venture, and that's where it stays now, without having missed a business day in more than 11 years.
The 1,000th entry was on May 17, 2012. The 2,000th was on May 2, 2016. Now it's 3,000.
If he had to guess, TB would say that he's written 2,800 of them. There were the early ones, that were most the short blurbs and in-game ones. There have been some guest spots through the years, for which he thanks everyone who has ever submitted one, especially Jim Barlow, Tad La Fountain, David Rosenfeld, Craig Sachson and Howard Levy. He also would like to thank the two Princeton Ford Family Directors of Athletics who have allowed it and seen its value, Gary Walters and Mollie Marcoux Samaan.
Every blog is archived here. They're not all worth going back and reading, but some are.
The best have always been the personal ones, the emotional ones, whoever the subjects have been. They have been the ones that have been the best-received, and they've been the ones that have really helped TB explain why Princeton Athletics - and what it has always represented - has been so special to him for more than 30 years now.
When TB first saw what day the 3,000th blog would fall on, he thought he'd be writing it in advance of a really busy spring athletic weekend. Now he's writing it in the middle of a pandemic that has brought athletics to a halt.
And while that may be true, what is even more obvious is that the connections that athletics foster are strong than ever. In these times, there have been all kinds of stories and all kinds of social media that prove that is the case.
As TB has been saying, staying connected now is more important than ever.
So again, he thanks everyone for staying connected with him all these years and through to the present. He's ready to start on the next 1,000 come Monday.
In the meantime, stay safe. And thanks for reading.
Actually, if you can believe it, TigerBlog was thinking about how four weeks ago this evening was the night he sat on his couch and watched Princeton women's basketball (Bella Alarie broke the school career points record), men's basketball (Princeton big over Columbia) and men's hockey (first-round ECAC win at Dartmouth).
Does it seem like only four weeks? No. It seems like another time from another world.
Another of TB's calls yesterday, by the way, involved head football coach Bob Surace, and a few others. TB asked them all the same trivia question:
"Only two switch-hitters in Major League history reached 3,000 hits. Can you name them?"
Only Coach Surace got them both: Pete Rose and Eddie Murray. Impressive.
Murray, by the way, is the only player ever to have at least 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. That's even more impressive for a switch-hitter.
In case you're wondering, Murray hit 504 career home runs, with 362 lefthanded and 142 righthanded.
Stats are fascinating things. In Princeton Athletic history, there are just some that leap out of the record books - Bill Bradley had 2,503 career points, Keith Elias ran for 4,208 yards, Leslie Robinson had the first triple-double in Princeton basketball history. TB could go on for awhile.
As you probably figured out a long time ago, TigerBlog loves statistics, something that stems from an even greater passion for numbers, patterns and algorithms.
Where this came from he's not sure, but it likely has something to do with the fact that numbers are finite for the most part. They offer clarity and certainty and in an ever spinning world they can offer comfort.
With that as a backdrop, you might be interested to know that this is the 3,000th entry in TigerBlog history.
He doesn't tell you this for recognition, but rather to demonstrate how important this is to him and how appreciative he is of all of you out there who read it every day. Without your feedback and readership TB isn't sure he'd be so dogged in his consistency, but aside from his own personal sense of accomplishment, he loves your comments and support.
The blog was born on Aug. 28, 2008, with no actual purpose other than to say Princeton Athletics had a blog. At the time, who knew what it might become?
At first, it was used for in-game blogging and some small messages. As TB has said before, nobody was reading it then, and it almost simply went by the wayside until TB hit on the idea of using it as a story-telling venture.
From that point, things started to take off a bit. It was a few months until it became a daily venture, and that's where it stays now, without having missed a business day in more than 11 years.
The 1,000th entry was on May 17, 2012. The 2,000th was on May 2, 2016. Now it's 3,000.
If he had to guess, TB would say that he's written 2,800 of them. There were the early ones, that were most the short blurbs and in-game ones. There have been some guest spots through the years, for which he thanks everyone who has ever submitted one, especially Jim Barlow, Tad La Fountain, David Rosenfeld, Craig Sachson and Howard Levy. He also would like to thank the two Princeton Ford Family Directors of Athletics who have allowed it and seen its value, Gary Walters and Mollie Marcoux Samaan.
Every blog is archived here. They're not all worth going back and reading, but some are.
The best have always been the personal ones, the emotional ones, whoever the subjects have been. They have been the ones that have been the best-received, and they've been the ones that have really helped TB explain why Princeton Athletics - and what it has always represented - has been so special to him for more than 30 years now.
When TB first saw what day the 3,000th blog would fall on, he thought he'd be writing it in advance of a really busy spring athletic weekend. Now he's writing it in the middle of a pandemic that has brought athletics to a halt.
And while that may be true, what is even more obvious is that the connections that athletics foster are strong than ever. In these times, there have been all kinds of stories and all kinds of social media that prove that is the case.
As TB has been saying, staying connected now is more important than ever.
So again, he thanks everyone for staying connected with him all these years and through to the present. He's ready to start on the next 1,000 come Monday.
In the meantime, stay safe. And thanks for reading.
Thursday, April 2, 2020
The Real Heroes
A quick search of his archives here reveals that TigerBlog has been judicious in his use of the word "heroic" through the years.
He's glad to be able to say that.
It probably comes from his mother, who was pretty clear with him - and with her own work with paralyzed veterans - that it's not a word to be thrown around lightly.
The last person that TigerBlog referred to as a hero before today was back in November, when he mentioned Hobey Baker and the "heroic" status he achieved mostly through his post-Princeton military career.
Before that, it was a month earlier, in a reference to Tyler Campbell, Class of 1943, who was killed during World War II. Before that, it was talking about his friend Steve DiGregorio and his wife Nadia in their fight against the rare disease that their son Derek, another hero, has had to face for most of his 22 years. Then it was the people who rescued those stranded in Houston during Hurricane Harvey.
TigerBlog was thinking about heroes yesterday, after he heard the news that Evan Garfein had tested positive for the Coronavirus. It came by a post from his sister, herself a doctor, and then several others alerted TB.
It was just a week ago that TB wrote about Garfein, a plastic surgeon in New York City who had been pressed into emergency duty treating COVID-19 patients for 12 hour shifts.
Garfein is a 1992 Princeton graduate and an NCAA champion with the men's lacrosse team his senior year. He spoke with TB about the lessons he learned as a lacrosse player, one who worked hard to maximize every ounce of his ability and go from a walk-on for a team that was 2-13 the year before he got there to someone who was on the field in the 10-9 double overtime win over Syracuse on Memorial Day 1992.
His Princeton coach, Bill Tierney, spoke glowingly of Garfein's character and his impact on the team when TB spoke to him last week. Even now, 28 years later, Garfein's role on that first NCAA championship team resonated with the Hall-of-Fame coach.
You can read the story HERE.
If you don't want to read the story, here's how it ended:
Heroes. They're not always the ones who score the winning goals. They are the ones who are there when you need them most. These days, Evan Garfein is one of the heroes in a place and time that desperately needs them.
This was that time.
And so he became the hero that New York needed. And now he's sick.
He knew that there was a pretty good possibility that would happen. He mentioned it when he and TigerBlog spoke last week.
He went into those emergency room shifts anyway.
Who knows how many people he helped, even saved, during his time there. They certainly appreciate that he was there.
The country, in fact the world, is filled now with people who are walking into hospitals to do their parts. They're not all doctors and nurses either. They're hospital staff, researchers, cleaning people, anyone who is vital to the effort to end this madness.
TigerBlog knows some of them. He has a friend named Lisa who is a nurse near Albany who also got sick. He has another friend named Tabitha in Chicago who is also a nurse. She keeps heading in to take care of the ones who need it, doing whatever she can.
Everyone has these stories. Everyone knows someone, or knows someone who knows someone.
They deserve your highest level of respect. They deserve everyone's highest level of respect.
TigerBlog had another entry all written and ready to go before he heard the news about Dr. Garfein. He wondered for a minute if it was appropriate to swap that out and write this.
He decided, obviously, to write this. Why? Because of the same reason that he wrote the original story.
These are times unlike any other that have come along, maybe ever. Most of the world is locked down at home, trying to get work done, watching kids, trying to exercise, trying to have a little fun. watching a lot of TV and spending a lot of time on Zoom.
There are others, though, who are walking straight into the fire. In many ways, they're like the firefighters on 9/11, doing what needs to be done and great personal risk.
When this is over, there will be a lot of people alive who literally will owe their lives to the medical personnel who are currently working those 12-hour shifts. Evan Garfein is one of them.
TB wishes him the best. Get well soon.
After all, there are a shortage of real heroes out there.
He's glad to be able to say that.
It probably comes from his mother, who was pretty clear with him - and with her own work with paralyzed veterans - that it's not a word to be thrown around lightly.
The last person that TigerBlog referred to as a hero before today was back in November, when he mentioned Hobey Baker and the "heroic" status he achieved mostly through his post-Princeton military career.
Before that, it was a month earlier, in a reference to Tyler Campbell, Class of 1943, who was killed during World War II. Before that, it was talking about his friend Steve DiGregorio and his wife Nadia in their fight against the rare disease that their son Derek, another hero, has had to face for most of his 22 years. Then it was the people who rescued those stranded in Houston during Hurricane Harvey.
TigerBlog was thinking about heroes yesterday, after he heard the news that Evan Garfein had tested positive for the Coronavirus. It came by a post from his sister, herself a doctor, and then several others alerted TB.
It was just a week ago that TB wrote about Garfein, a plastic surgeon in New York City who had been pressed into emergency duty treating COVID-19 patients for 12 hour shifts.
Garfein is a 1992 Princeton graduate and an NCAA champion with the men's lacrosse team his senior year. He spoke with TB about the lessons he learned as a lacrosse player, one who worked hard to maximize every ounce of his ability and go from a walk-on for a team that was 2-13 the year before he got there to someone who was on the field in the 10-9 double overtime win over Syracuse on Memorial Day 1992.
His Princeton coach, Bill Tierney, spoke glowingly of Garfein's character and his impact on the team when TB spoke to him last week. Even now, 28 years later, Garfein's role on that first NCAA championship team resonated with the Hall-of-Fame coach.
You can read the story HERE.
If you don't want to read the story, here's how it ended:
Heroes. They're not always the ones who score the winning goals. They are the ones who are there when you need them most. These days, Evan Garfein is one of the heroes in a place and time that desperately needs them.
This was that time.
And so he became the hero that New York needed. And now he's sick.
He knew that there was a pretty good possibility that would happen. He mentioned it when he and TigerBlog spoke last week.
He went into those emergency room shifts anyway.
Who knows how many people he helped, even saved, during his time there. They certainly appreciate that he was there.
The country, in fact the world, is filled now with people who are walking into hospitals to do their parts. They're not all doctors and nurses either. They're hospital staff, researchers, cleaning people, anyone who is vital to the effort to end this madness.
TigerBlog knows some of them. He has a friend named Lisa who is a nurse near Albany who also got sick. He has another friend named Tabitha in Chicago who is also a nurse. She keeps heading in to take care of the ones who need it, doing whatever she can.
Everyone has these stories. Everyone knows someone, or knows someone who knows someone.
They deserve your highest level of respect. They deserve everyone's highest level of respect.
TigerBlog had another entry all written and ready to go before he heard the news about Dr. Garfein. He wondered for a minute if it was appropriate to swap that out and write this.
He decided, obviously, to write this. Why? Because of the same reason that he wrote the original story.
These are times unlike any other that have come along, maybe ever. Most of the world is locked down at home, trying to get work done, watching kids, trying to exercise, trying to have a little fun. watching a lot of TV and spending a lot of time on Zoom.
There are others, though, who are walking straight into the fire. In many ways, they're like the firefighters on 9/11, doing what needs to be done and great personal risk.
When this is over, there will be a lot of people alive who literally will owe their lives to the medical personnel who are currently working those 12-hour shifts. Evan Garfein is one of them.
TB wishes him the best. Get well soon.
After all, there are a shortage of real heroes out there.
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Fact Checking
TigerBlog gets some very random inquiries requesting all kinds of random information.
He's gotten a bunch of emails and calls from hiring managers fact-checking resumes. Let that be a lesson to everyone out there applying for jobs; they are checking out what you're saying.
And speaking of fact-checking, TB has a great story from a long time ago about a different sort of inquiry.
Back in the 1990s or so, he received a call from a seemingly young woman who wanted to know if a certain person had been an All-American fencer. It seemed innocuous enough, so TB looked up the information.
That was before these things were on a webpage, which has certainly cut down on the phone calls.
When TB went to check the record book, he learned in fact that the person was not a fencing All-American. For that matter, he was not a men's fencing letterwinner.
When TB mentioned that to the young woman, she asked if he had a way to check to see if the person had gone to Princeton. It turned out that he hadn't.
By now, TB's curiosity was peeked, so he asked what the purpose was.
To paraphrase, the woman said that she and her friends had been out the night before in a bar in New York City and a young man told her that he had been an All-American fencer at Princeton in the course of their, um, conversation. She was calling his bluff - and presumably not calling him ever again after that.
At the time, and now for that matter, TB thinks it was a pretty sharp move by the prospective suitor.
If he said that he was the captain of the football team, she wouldn't have bought that too easily. Princeton. Fencer. Sure, why not.
Even if he flopped.
TB has no way of knowing if this next story is true, but he did hear it once and it does seem plausible. An old friend of his was in a bar listening to another young man trying to impress another young woman, and he told her that he was a former Major League Baseball player. Not believing it for a second, TB's friend asked him who he got his first Major League hit off of, and when the guy stumbled and didn't immediately have the answer, TB's friend called him out and said he was full of it, causing the young woman to flee.
Of course, it's easy to assume that everyone who ever played in the Major Leagues can recall who his first hit was against, or, for pitchers, who the first batter he struck out was. To test this, TB asked a former Major Leaguer, Scott Bradley, if he could remember whom his first hit was against.
This was the response:
"First hit was against the Blue Jays in old Exhibition Stadium. Pitcher was Louis Leal! Ground ball between first and second. Was my third major league at bat!! Remember it like it was yesterday!!"
Bradley, of course, is Princeton's long-time baseball coach.
Bradley was a lefthanded hitting catcher, which is a rare and valuable commodity. He was a career .257 hitter in nine Major League seasons, and he played in more than 100 games in four straight years with the Mariners from 1987-90.
The highlight of that time was June 2, 1990, when he caught a no-hitter thrown by Randy Johnson. He would go on to coach Ross Ohlendorf at Princeton, and Ohlendorf was once part of a trade for Johnson.
Bradley has won 413 games in 22 seasons as Princeton head coach, trailing only the 564 that Bill Clarke won in 36 years as Tiger head coach. He has taken Princeton to seven NCAA tournaments, most recently in 2016 at Louisiana-Lafayette, and he has turned out an army of professional players, including several Major Leaguers and a World Series champion in Chris Young.
You don't have to email anyone. All of those facts are correct.
And there it for today, which is Wednesday, right? If you're like TB, you're having trouble remembering which day is which in these surreal times.
Stay safe.
He's gotten a bunch of emails and calls from hiring managers fact-checking resumes. Let that be a lesson to everyone out there applying for jobs; they are checking out what you're saying.
And speaking of fact-checking, TB has a great story from a long time ago about a different sort of inquiry.
Back in the 1990s or so, he received a call from a seemingly young woman who wanted to know if a certain person had been an All-American fencer. It seemed innocuous enough, so TB looked up the information.
That was before these things were on a webpage, which has certainly cut down on the phone calls.
When TB went to check the record book, he learned in fact that the person was not a fencing All-American. For that matter, he was not a men's fencing letterwinner.
When TB mentioned that to the young woman, she asked if he had a way to check to see if the person had gone to Princeton. It turned out that he hadn't.
By now, TB's curiosity was peeked, so he asked what the purpose was.
To paraphrase, the woman said that she and her friends had been out the night before in a bar in New York City and a young man told her that he had been an All-American fencer at Princeton in the course of their, um, conversation. She was calling his bluff - and presumably not calling him ever again after that.
At the time, and now for that matter, TB thinks it was a pretty sharp move by the prospective suitor.
If he said that he was the captain of the football team, she wouldn't have bought that too easily. Princeton. Fencer. Sure, why not.
Even if he flopped.
TB has no way of knowing if this next story is true, but he did hear it once and it does seem plausible. An old friend of his was in a bar listening to another young man trying to impress another young woman, and he told her that he was a former Major League Baseball player. Not believing it for a second, TB's friend asked him who he got his first Major League hit off of, and when the guy stumbled and didn't immediately have the answer, TB's friend called him out and said he was full of it, causing the young woman to flee.
Of course, it's easy to assume that everyone who ever played in the Major Leagues can recall who his first hit was against, or, for pitchers, who the first batter he struck out was. To test this, TB asked a former Major Leaguer, Scott Bradley, if he could remember whom his first hit was against.
This was the response:
"First hit was against the Blue Jays in old Exhibition Stadium. Pitcher was Louis Leal! Ground ball between first and second. Was my third major league at bat!! Remember it like it was yesterday!!"
Bradley, of course, is Princeton's long-time baseball coach.
Bradley was a lefthanded hitting catcher, which is a rare and valuable commodity. He was a career .257 hitter in nine Major League seasons, and he played in more than 100 games in four straight years with the Mariners from 1987-90.
The highlight of that time was June 2, 1990, when he caught a no-hitter thrown by Randy Johnson. He would go on to coach Ross Ohlendorf at Princeton, and Ohlendorf was once part of a trade for Johnson.
Bradley has won 413 games in 22 seasons as Princeton head coach, trailing only the 564 that Bill Clarke won in 36 years as Tiger head coach. He has taken Princeton to seven NCAA tournaments, most recently in 2016 at Louisiana-Lafayette, and he has turned out an army of professional players, including several Major Leaguers and a World Series champion in Chris Young.
You don't have to email anyone. All of those facts are correct.
And there it for today, which is Wednesday, right? If you're like TB, you're having trouble remembering which day is which in these surreal times.
Stay safe.
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Howard And Richmond
Speaking of staying connected, as TigerBlog was yesterday, here are two more examples.
Now that's cool.
That would be Duncan Joyce, a junior on the men's squash team. And that would be the squash court in the basement of his family home.
Is there a better way to pass the time than playing squash in your basement? Ah, the days of lunchtime squash and the epic battles between TB and his former colleague Craig Sachson, the battles that raged before TB had surgery on both knees and bad shoulder tendinitis, the direct result of which is that his major form of exercise the last few years has been riding his bike.
Still, it was worth it. TB loved to play squash, especially against Sachson, against whom he was fairly evenly matched (though he'd guess Sachson won around 55 percent of their career matches).
Before that, TB played a lot of lunchtime basketball in Jadwin. He was never a good ballhander or shooter, but he could pass and he could play the low post, at least the lunchtime version of that. Had he been about eight or so inches taller, he would have been a fine Princeton backup center, he supposes.
As a former lunchtime center, at least, TB can appreciate the Mikan Drill, especially when it's done these days in a driveway and then put on Instagram as part of the efforts to stay connected.
Do they still do the Mikan Drill anymore? It's named after George Mikan, who was the first dominant big man the NBA ever saw and who was famous for playing with big, thick glasses on.
The man in the video is Howard Levy, the head coach of the Mercer County Community College men's basketball team. He's also the Princeton career record holder for field goal percentage at .647.
In the video, Howard shot 30 for 32, which is .938. TB was surprised to see that he missed any.
Howard came to Princeton from Suffern, N.Y., and he went from not being in the regular rotation to one of the best big men Princeton has ever had.
His career-high was 24 points in a game, which he did twice, including in the 1984 NCAA tournament game against UNLV in Salt Lake City. When TB looked it up, he wondered in that was something that Howard would remember easily, so he texted hm. He got this response:
"I had 43 points against North Rockland HS, 38 for Princeton JV against Cambden CCC and 24 a couple times for the Tigers."
Impressive recall.
The video on his driveway is not the first time that Levy did that Mikan Drill. That's how he got better. TigerBlog would guess Richmond Aririguzoh did more than his share.
In fact, Aririguzoh finished his career second all-time at Princeton in field goal percentage at .636, trailing only Levy. As TB looked a little closer he found that Aririguzoh had a career not that much unlike Levy's.
How does this comparison look:
* Aririguzoh played in 13 games as a freshman and averaged 1.5 points per game; Levy played in 11 games as a freshman and averaged 1.0 points per game.
* as sophomores, their averages were 2.7 (Aririguzoh) and 1.8 (Levy)
* the following season, their junior years, they both increased their per game averages by exactly 9.4 points per game, as Aririguzoh went to 12.1 and Levy to 11.2.
* as seniors, they averaged pretty much the same, with Levy at 12.1 and Aririguzoh at 12.0.
* neither was in double figures in scoring in game as a freshman or sophomore; as a junior Aririguzoh had 20 double figures scoring games, while Levy had 19.
* blocked shots in their careers: Aririguzoh 53, Levy 51; assists in their careers: Levy 125; Aririguzoh 117
* career highs for both were 24
Also, they both went from being non-starters to finishing their careers as All-Ivy League selections. Levy would be a second-team selection in 1985, while Aririguzoh was a first-team selection this season and a second-team selection last season.
How'd they do this?
Coaching, for one. And especially work ethic. Both of them showed what can happen when those two things are combined.
The result is that both have their rightful place among the all-time great Tiger centers. Deservedly so.
It took a lot of Mikan Drills to get them there.
Now that's cool.
That would be Duncan Joyce, a junior on the men's squash team. And that would be the squash court in the basement of his family home.
Is there a better way to pass the time than playing squash in your basement? Ah, the days of lunchtime squash and the epic battles between TB and his former colleague Craig Sachson, the battles that raged before TB had surgery on both knees and bad shoulder tendinitis, the direct result of which is that his major form of exercise the last few years has been riding his bike.
Still, it was worth it. TB loved to play squash, especially against Sachson, against whom he was fairly evenly matched (though he'd guess Sachson won around 55 percent of their career matches).
Before that, TB played a lot of lunchtime basketball in Jadwin. He was never a good ballhander or shooter, but he could pass and he could play the low post, at least the lunchtime version of that. Had he been about eight or so inches taller, he would have been a fine Princeton backup center, he supposes.
As a former lunchtime center, at least, TB can appreciate the Mikan Drill, especially when it's done these days in a driveway and then put on Instagram as part of the efforts to stay connected.
Do they still do the Mikan Drill anymore? It's named after George Mikan, who was the first dominant big man the NBA ever saw and who was famous for playing with big, thick glasses on.
The man in the video is Howard Levy, the head coach of the Mercer County Community College men's basketball team. He's also the Princeton career record holder for field goal percentage at .647.
In the video, Howard shot 30 for 32, which is .938. TB was surprised to see that he missed any.
Howard came to Princeton from Suffern, N.Y., and he went from not being in the regular rotation to one of the best big men Princeton has ever had.
His career-high was 24 points in a game, which he did twice, including in the 1984 NCAA tournament game against UNLV in Salt Lake City. When TB looked it up, he wondered in that was something that Howard would remember easily, so he texted hm. He got this response:
"I had 43 points against North Rockland HS, 38 for Princeton JV against Cambden CCC and 24 a couple times for the Tigers."
Impressive recall.
The video on his driveway is not the first time that Levy did that Mikan Drill. That's how he got better. TigerBlog would guess Richmond Aririguzoh did more than his share.
In fact, Aririguzoh finished his career second all-time at Princeton in field goal percentage at .636, trailing only Levy. As TB looked a little closer he found that Aririguzoh had a career not that much unlike Levy's.
How does this comparison look:
* Aririguzoh played in 13 games as a freshman and averaged 1.5 points per game; Levy played in 11 games as a freshman and averaged 1.0 points per game.
* as sophomores, their averages were 2.7 (Aririguzoh) and 1.8 (Levy)
* the following season, their junior years, they both increased their per game averages by exactly 9.4 points per game, as Aririguzoh went to 12.1 and Levy to 11.2.
* as seniors, they averaged pretty much the same, with Levy at 12.1 and Aririguzoh at 12.0.
* neither was in double figures in scoring in game as a freshman or sophomore; as a junior Aririguzoh had 20 double figures scoring games, while Levy had 19.
* blocked shots in their careers: Aririguzoh 53, Levy 51; assists in their careers: Levy 125; Aririguzoh 117
* career highs for both were 24
Also, they both went from being non-starters to finishing their careers as All-Ivy League selections. Levy would be a second-team selection in 1985, while Aririguzoh was a first-team selection this season and a second-team selection last season.
How'd they do this?
Coaching, for one. And especially work ethic. Both of them showed what can happen when those two things are combined.
The result is that both have their rightful place among the all-time great Tiger centers. Deservedly so.
It took a lot of Mikan Drills to get them there.
Monday, March 30, 2020
Staying Connected
So here is how someone who has spent most of his life in athletic communications tends to think every now and then.
TigerBlog was watching part of the "Rocky" marathon on AMC Saturday. When it got to the point where Rocky was going to fight his rematch with Clubber Lang, TB thought to himself "what is Rocky's record now?'
Well, before his first fight with Apollo Creed, Rocky's record was given by the two commentators as 44-20. Since he loses that fight but then beats Creed again (Rocky II) and then says he won his first 10 title defenses before losing to Lang the first time (Rocky III), that would make him 55-22 prior to the rematch.
It also means there were a lot of guys in the Philadelphia are who watched one of Balboa's fights and said "you know I kicked his butt, right?"
By the way, there have been eight movies in the series, and Sylvester Stallone wrote seven of them. Can you guess the one he didn't write?
For the record, TigerBlog was so disappointed in "Rocky IV" when it first came out that he never saw "Rocky V." Through the years, he's come to be okay with "Rocky IV," even if he'll never love it. He did think the two "Creed" movies were awesome, and he'd rank "Creed" up there with any of the other movies other than the original, which will forever be in a class by itself.
The "Rocky" marathon was a big part of TB's Saturday. It was raining in the greater Princeton metropolitan area, so it was a good day to sit inside and watch movies you've seen a million times before.
Of course, TB is still not past the idea of where he was supposed to be while the marathon was going on. In fact, he even checked the weather in Providence to see if it would be raining there for the Princeton-Brown men's lacrosse game, which of course was not going to be played.
Turns out it wasn't raining at 1, when face-off was supposed to be. It would have been a great day for what figured to be a great game.
Oh, and TB is not a fan of all of these simulations of games or NCAA tournaments or anything. It's okay if you like them, and he's not talking them down. It's just that they are most decidedly not his thing.
If TB is still this tuned in to when and where games were supposed to be, he imagines the coaches and especially players are even more so. In the meantime, as the pandemic continues, this surreal spring moves ahead with no games and remote classes.
In this era, staying in touch and staying connected are hugely important, maybe more so than ever, as people spend very little time with actual contact with the overwhelming majority of people in their lives.
The softball team is another team that should have been playing this past weekend. The Tigers, though, are staying in touch the way so many teams, and all organizations for that matter, are currently doing.
You can see for yourself:
That's just one of the many ways that Princetonians are staying connected these days.
There have been highlight videos. Lots of them. And former Tigers who have checked in about their teams, including this from Sandi Bittler, who had been the all-time leading scorer for Princeton women's basketball before Bella Alarie beat her 30-year-old record:
There've been written pieces, including "Dear Princeton" essays such as this one from Evan Quinn of the men's golf team that you can see HERE and which includes this:
There have also been coaches who have been turning their homes into family workout areas, some really good:
And, of course, what did everyone's mother say? It's only fun til someone gets hurt?
TigerBlog can confirm that A.J. is doing fine.
In the meantime, you can continue to check out the webpage and social media for more content. As TB said, staying connected has never been more important.
You can't watch TV all day, not even when there's a "Rocky" marathon.
Oh, and Sylvester Stallone did not write the first "Creed."
TigerBlog was watching part of the "Rocky" marathon on AMC Saturday. When it got to the point where Rocky was going to fight his rematch with Clubber Lang, TB thought to himself "what is Rocky's record now?'
Well, before his first fight with Apollo Creed, Rocky's record was given by the two commentators as 44-20. Since he loses that fight but then beats Creed again (Rocky II) and then says he won his first 10 title defenses before losing to Lang the first time (Rocky III), that would make him 55-22 prior to the rematch.
It also means there were a lot of guys in the Philadelphia are who watched one of Balboa's fights and said "you know I kicked his butt, right?"
By the way, there have been eight movies in the series, and Sylvester Stallone wrote seven of them. Can you guess the one he didn't write?
For the record, TigerBlog was so disappointed in "Rocky IV" when it first came out that he never saw "Rocky V." Through the years, he's come to be okay with "Rocky IV," even if he'll never love it. He did think the two "Creed" movies were awesome, and he'd rank "Creed" up there with any of the other movies other than the original, which will forever be in a class by itself.
The "Rocky" marathon was a big part of TB's Saturday. It was raining in the greater Princeton metropolitan area, so it was a good day to sit inside and watch movies you've seen a million times before.
Of course, TB is still not past the idea of where he was supposed to be while the marathon was going on. In fact, he even checked the weather in Providence to see if it would be raining there for the Princeton-Brown men's lacrosse game, which of course was not going to be played.
Turns out it wasn't raining at 1, when face-off was supposed to be. It would have been a great day for what figured to be a great game.
Oh, and TB is not a fan of all of these simulations of games or NCAA tournaments or anything. It's okay if you like them, and he's not talking them down. It's just that they are most decidedly not his thing.
If TB is still this tuned in to when and where games were supposed to be, he imagines the coaches and especially players are even more so. In the meantime, as the pandemic continues, this surreal spring moves ahead with no games and remote classes.
In this era, staying in touch and staying connected are hugely important, maybe more so than ever, as people spend very little time with actual contact with the overwhelming majority of people in their lives.
The softball team is another team that should have been playing this past weekend. The Tigers, though, are staying in touch the way so many teams, and all organizations for that matter, are currently doing.
You can see for yourself:
Physical distancing doesn’t mean disconnected. Still a team. And teammates are for life. 🐅#PSB4L pic.twitter.com/90K9bROgcA— Princeton Softball (@PUSoftball) March 26, 2020
That's just one of the many ways that Princetonians are staying connected these days.
There have been highlight videos. Lots of them. And former Tigers who have checked in about their teams, including this from Sandi Bittler, who had been the all-time leading scorer for Princeton women's basketball before Bella Alarie beat her 30-year-old record:
The all-time greats knew how special this @PrincetonWBB team was. #TigersForever #GameRecognizeGame pic.twitter.com/KmTJJSJk5t— PrincetonVarsityClub (@PVCTIGERS) March 27, 2020
There've been written pieces, including "Dear Princeton" essays such as this one from Evan Quinn of the men's golf team that you can see HERE and which includes this:
I am so appreciative of everyone who has made my last four years so unforgettable.
Every day really is a great day to be a Tiger.
Sincerely,
Evan Quinn '20
The whole piece is really good.
TB's colleague Cody Chrusciel has set up a home broadcast center, one in which he originally featured an interview, such as it was, of his dog.
The first human interview was with wrestler Patrick Glory. You can see that one too:
Every day really is a great day to be a Tiger.
Sincerely,
Evan Quinn '20
The whole piece is really good.
TB's colleague Cody Chrusciel has set up a home broadcast center, one in which he originally featured an interview, such as it was, of his dog.
The first human interview was with wrestler Patrick Glory. You can see that one too:
Hear From The Hodge Trophy Finalist.@tigerwrestling Superstar Patrick Glory Is The First Guest On #TigTalks Presented By @RWJBarnabas
🗳️ For The Hodge:https://t.co/gGNbdJJKaT pic.twitter.com/UoohsZ2hDk— Princeton Tigers (@PUTIGERS) March 26, 2020
There have also been coaches who have been turning their homes into family workout areas, some really good:
I give a quick explanation of what I mean by “giving the opponent head position”
We then get into a couple of attacks on the “other side” of the U-hook ...the primary reason we want the opponents head on the same side as U-hook. Opponent doesn’t see the hi-c or single coming. pic.twitter.com/vwPedeZjfc— Coach Chris Ayres (@tigercoachayres) March 29, 2020
And, of course, what did everyone's mother say? It's only fun til someone gets hurt?
“No blood, no foul” was @tony62bob (dads) family rule. We had a flagrant today in our home gym while bringing the #OrangeJ21CE. My experience coaching @aj_surace12 fav John Lovett prepared me well when “CAN I PLAY NOW” day one out of surgery hits level 10 tomorrow pic.twitter.com/Oc4gePlXqh— Bob Surace '90 (@CoachBobSurace) March 29, 2020
TigerBlog can confirm that A.J. is doing fine.
In the meantime, you can continue to check out the webpage and social media for more content. As TB said, staying connected has never been more important.
You can't watch TV all day, not even when there's a "Rocky" marathon.
Oh, and Sylvester Stallone did not write the first "Creed."
Friday, March 27, 2020
Unmasked
A few weeks ago, which seems a lot longer than a few weeks ago, TigerBlog stumbled upon a team picture of the 1953 men's hockey team.
His first thought on seeing it was of John McPhee, a member of the Class of 1953 and someone who has often talked about his friendship with George Hackl, the captain of the 1955 men's hockey team and a sophomore in 1952-53. TB thought he'd like it.
He also sent him another picture he found of John's cousin Frank McPhee, an All-American end on the football team in the early 1950s.
Yesterday, TB and McPhee (John, not Frank) ventured out to for a bike ride. TB has been out most days, but this was the first time he rode with Mr. McPhee in awhile.
John, by the way, was featured on the princeton.edu website yesterday as he continues to teach his sophomore writing seminar, albeit using Zoom these days. It went fairly seamlessly, the story said and he concurred, as everyone seems to be becoming a Zoom expert these days.
You can read that story HERE.
During the ride, the two got to talking about the 1953 hockey picture. John pointed out that the picture included a lot of his friends and even two of his roommates, and he also mentioned how George could identify every single player in the picture.
This got TB to thinking about whether or not that would be expected or was something impressive. He thinks he'll go with expected (for impressive, consider that John McPhee, age 89, rode his bike more than 11 miles yesterday).
In fact, TB would go so far as to say that he'd guess that a high majority of Princeton athletes could go through a team photo decades later and correctly recall the name of everyone in it. That, TB would suggest, speaks to the bond that is created by being a Princeton athlete.
In addition to his pretty much daily bike rides, TB has been doing a lot of writing and a lot of updating of things on the webpage. He's guessing he's not the only person who works in athletic communications who is doing those things.
TB would have gotten on the men's lacrosse bus today for the trip to Brown that had been scheduled. He's going to say that the Tigers, who were 5-0 when the season was suspended, would be 7-0 now, and hey, he acknowledges that anyone from Penn (his friend Quaker Meeting House for instance) or Yale would definitely say otherwise.
Another person on the bus would have been Derek Griesdorn, the equipment manager for men's lacrosse and other Princeton teams.
TB has know Derek since he came to Princeton three years ago, and he can vouch for the fact that Derek means every word of this quote on his bio on the webpage: "I will bend over backwards to help anyone achieve what they need done. If there is anything I can do in the line of equipment, I will do whatever I possibly can to make it happen. Always looking to better myself and the people around me."
Also, from that bio, TB sees that Derek is a graduate of the University of Dayton. That's rough, since he's left to wonder not only about how Princeton men's lacrosse would have done the rest of the way but also how Dayton men's basketball would have as well.
In typical Derek fashion, he shrugged it off by saying it was a fun year and he loves the school and the arena.
By the way, last night and tonight would have been the men's Sweet 16.
Derek is spending his time these days doing what he can to help the fight against the coronavirus, or at least to help those who are fighting it. An expert at sewing, Derek has been working to convert fabric, mostly cotton, into masks that can be used in this time of a shortage. Cotton works the best because it is breathable but can also catch the particles.
At least that's what Derek said.
"It's a great cause," he says. "There's a shortage, and if I can help out, I'm happy to do it."
It takes him about 30 minutes to convert an old t-shirt to a mask. He's been supplied fabric by local organizations and by some others at Princeton, and he has been making 10 masks a day.
For more information, including how to donate fabric, click HERE.
And, you know, TB doesn't expect Tiger fans to know who Derek is. And yes, Derek would rather be getting on the bus to Providence than sewing masks.
But that's what he's doing, sewing masks. And making a difference.
And so now you know who he is. And you can be glad people like that are a part of Princeton Athletics.
His first thought on seeing it was of John McPhee, a member of the Class of 1953 and someone who has often talked about his friendship with George Hackl, the captain of the 1955 men's hockey team and a sophomore in 1952-53. TB thought he'd like it.
He also sent him another picture he found of John's cousin Frank McPhee, an All-American end on the football team in the early 1950s.
Yesterday, TB and McPhee (John, not Frank) ventured out to for a bike ride. TB has been out most days, but this was the first time he rode with Mr. McPhee in awhile.
John, by the way, was featured on the princeton.edu website yesterday as he continues to teach his sophomore writing seminar, albeit using Zoom these days. It went fairly seamlessly, the story said and he concurred, as everyone seems to be becoming a Zoom expert these days.
You can read that story HERE.
During the ride, the two got to talking about the 1953 hockey picture. John pointed out that the picture included a lot of his friends and even two of his roommates, and he also mentioned how George could identify every single player in the picture.
This got TB to thinking about whether or not that would be expected or was something impressive. He thinks he'll go with expected (for impressive, consider that John McPhee, age 89, rode his bike more than 11 miles yesterday).
In fact, TB would go so far as to say that he'd guess that a high majority of Princeton athletes could go through a team photo decades later and correctly recall the name of everyone in it. That, TB would suggest, speaks to the bond that is created by being a Princeton athlete.
In addition to his pretty much daily bike rides, TB has been doing a lot of writing and a lot of updating of things on the webpage. He's guessing he's not the only person who works in athletic communications who is doing those things.
TB would have gotten on the men's lacrosse bus today for the trip to Brown that had been scheduled. He's going to say that the Tigers, who were 5-0 when the season was suspended, would be 7-0 now, and hey, he acknowledges that anyone from Penn (his friend Quaker Meeting House for instance) or Yale would definitely say otherwise.
Another person on the bus would have been Derek Griesdorn, the equipment manager for men's lacrosse and other Princeton teams.
TB has know Derek since he came to Princeton three years ago, and he can vouch for the fact that Derek means every word of this quote on his bio on the webpage: "I will bend over backwards to help anyone achieve what they need done. If there is anything I can do in the line of equipment, I will do whatever I possibly can to make it happen. Always looking to better myself and the people around me."
Also, from that bio, TB sees that Derek is a graduate of the University of Dayton. That's rough, since he's left to wonder not only about how Princeton men's lacrosse would have done the rest of the way but also how Dayton men's basketball would have as well.
In typical Derek fashion, he shrugged it off by saying it was a fun year and he loves the school and the arena.
By the way, last night and tonight would have been the men's Sweet 16.
Derek is spending his time these days doing what he can to help the fight against the coronavirus, or at least to help those who are fighting it. An expert at sewing, Derek has been working to convert fabric, mostly cotton, into masks that can be used in this time of a shortage. Cotton works the best because it is breathable but can also catch the particles.
At least that's what Derek said.
"It's a great cause," he says. "There's a shortage, and if I can help out, I'm happy to do it."
It takes him about 30 minutes to convert an old t-shirt to a mask. He's been supplied fabric by local organizations and by some others at Princeton, and he has been making 10 masks a day.
For more information, including how to donate fabric, click HERE.
And, you know, TB doesn't expect Tiger fans to know who Derek is. And yes, Derek would rather be getting on the bus to Providence than sewing masks.
But that's what he's doing, sewing masks. And making a difference.
And so now you know who he is. And you can be glad people like that are a part of Princeton Athletics.
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Garfein And Glory
TigerBlog, like everyone else who is spending pretty much all day at home, is always open to a good diversion.
He saw this one yesterday, and it's great - but only if you're a Broadway fan, especially "Les Mis." TB's colleague Jon Kurian definitely fits the bill.
Or Playbill, as it were.
You can see what TB means HERE. If you don't to click, it's a bunch of Broadway actors and actresses singing "One Day More" from "Les Mis" while they are quarantined. TB isn't exactly sure who's doing the actual singing, but he still liked it a lot.
Okay, hopefully it's about three minutes since you read the last paragraph, and hopefully you enjoyed the little diversion.
For today, TB would like to talk about two people, and he'll do so alphabetically.
First, there is Garfein, Evan.
That's actually Dr. Evan Garfein, a plastic surgeon who has been called to the frontlines of the the fight against COVID-19 in New York City. Evan is a working 12-hour shifts in an emergency room these days, and he's seeing first-hand what this virus is doing.
You can read TB's story about Garfein HERE.
If you don't read the story (TB is wondering what percentage of people reading this sentence have read the story after they listened to the "Les Mis" video), or even if you did, Garfein played on Princeton's 1992 NCAA championship men's lacrosse team, the first of six such teams the program had.
Garfein came to Princeton in the fall of 1988 as a walk-on, and the team he joined had just gone through a 2-13 season under first-year head coach Bill Tierney. Expectations, and roster numbers, were both low, but Tierney promised his first recruiting class that it would win an NCAA title.
Nobody believed him.
Garfein was able to get a spot on the team, something he says might not have happened a few years later, and he would work his way up to being a contributor. He even dressed for the semifinal and championship games in 1992, the circumstances of which are covered in the story.
What really strikes TB about the story is the way that Garfein talks about the lessons he learned playing at Princeton and how now, nearly 30 years later, he is still drawing on those lessons as he approaches the current crisis.
In fact, what he's talking about is what came to be known as "Education Through Athletics," and he has gone on to be everything that is summed up under the heading "Achieve, Serve, Lead." It's a fascinating dynamic, and he is doing incredible work right now.
The other person is Glory, Patrick.
A long time ago, there was a baseball pitcher at a local high school whose last name was "Lord," which led to all kinds of predictable headlines after he'd win. When Glory first came to Princeton, TB imagined that he had been the recipient of similar headlines during his high school career.
His, uh, Glory Days hardly ended with high school though.
Glory, from North Jersey and the Delbarton School, had an extraordinary season, going 24-0, winning the EIWA title at 125 pounds (for the second straight year), becoming Princeton's first Ivy Wrestler of the Year since 1986 and winning 13 of his 24 matches through either a techincal fall or a pin.
Excruciatingly, Glory is one of the many athletes who will never be able to find out how the 2020 season would have turned out, as the NCAA wrestling championships were cancelled, just like the basketball tournaments, hockey tournaments and all spring championships.
Still, Glory's sophomore season has another potential honor on the table, as he is one of 10 nominees for the Hodge Award as the top collegiate wrestling.
The award, by the way, is named for Danny Hodge, who 1) went 46-0 at Oklahoma from 1955-57, 2) won the NCAA title each of his three varsity seasons, pinning his opponent all three times in the final (one of only two wrestlers ever to win three NCAA finals by pin, with the other being Oklahoma A&M's Earl McCready from 1928-30), 3) an Olympic silver medalist in 1956 and 4) now 87 years old and still, apparently, crushing apples in his hand (that's what it says on Wikipedia anyway).
Fans can vote for Glory until 6 pm Eastern time tomorrrow at THIS website. The winner will be announced Monday.
He saw this one yesterday, and it's great - but only if you're a Broadway fan, especially "Les Mis." TB's colleague Jon Kurian definitely fits the bill.
Or Playbill, as it were.
You can see what TB means HERE. If you don't to click, it's a bunch of Broadway actors and actresses singing "One Day More" from "Les Mis" while they are quarantined. TB isn't exactly sure who's doing the actual singing, but he still liked it a lot.
Okay, hopefully it's about three minutes since you read the last paragraph, and hopefully you enjoyed the little diversion.
For today, TB would like to talk about two people, and he'll do so alphabetically.
First, there is Garfein, Evan.
That's actually Dr. Evan Garfein, a plastic surgeon who has been called to the frontlines of the the fight against COVID-19 in New York City. Evan is a working 12-hour shifts in an emergency room these days, and he's seeing first-hand what this virus is doing.
You can read TB's story about Garfein HERE.
If you don't read the story (TB is wondering what percentage of people reading this sentence have read the story after they listened to the "Les Mis" video), or even if you did, Garfein played on Princeton's 1992 NCAA championship men's lacrosse team, the first of six such teams the program had.
Garfein came to Princeton in the fall of 1988 as a walk-on, and the team he joined had just gone through a 2-13 season under first-year head coach Bill Tierney. Expectations, and roster numbers, were both low, but Tierney promised his first recruiting class that it would win an NCAA title.
Nobody believed him.
Garfein was able to get a spot on the team, something he says might not have happened a few years later, and he would work his way up to being a contributor. He even dressed for the semifinal and championship games in 1992, the circumstances of which are covered in the story.
What really strikes TB about the story is the way that Garfein talks about the lessons he learned playing at Princeton and how now, nearly 30 years later, he is still drawing on those lessons as he approaches the current crisis.
In fact, what he's talking about is what came to be known as "Education Through Athletics," and he has gone on to be everything that is summed up under the heading "Achieve, Serve, Lead." It's a fascinating dynamic, and he is doing incredible work right now.
The other person is Glory, Patrick.
A long time ago, there was a baseball pitcher at a local high school whose last name was "Lord," which led to all kinds of predictable headlines after he'd win. When Glory first came to Princeton, TB imagined that he had been the recipient of similar headlines during his high school career.
His, uh, Glory Days hardly ended with high school though.
Glory, from North Jersey and the Delbarton School, had an extraordinary season, going 24-0, winning the EIWA title at 125 pounds (for the second straight year), becoming Princeton's first Ivy Wrestler of the Year since 1986 and winning 13 of his 24 matches through either a techincal fall or a pin.
Excruciatingly, Glory is one of the many athletes who will never be able to find out how the 2020 season would have turned out, as the NCAA wrestling championships were cancelled, just like the basketball tournaments, hockey tournaments and all spring championships.
Still, Glory's sophomore season has another potential honor on the table, as he is one of 10 nominees for the Hodge Award as the top collegiate wrestling.
The award, by the way, is named for Danny Hodge, who 1) went 46-0 at Oklahoma from 1955-57, 2) won the NCAA title each of his three varsity seasons, pinning his opponent all three times in the final (one of only two wrestlers ever to win three NCAA finals by pin, with the other being Oklahoma A&M's Earl McCready from 1928-30), 3) an Olympic silver medalist in 1956 and 4) now 87 years old and still, apparently, crushing apples in his hand (that's what it says on Wikipedia anyway).
Fans can vote for Glory until 6 pm Eastern time tomorrrow at THIS website. The winner will be announced Monday.
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
The All-Americans
TigerBlog was giving thought to the number of meetings he's attended in all his years at Princeton. It's probably more than he could ever begin to count.
Or maybe he can. Hmm. Weekly. Monthly. Conference calls. Multiple decades.
Nope. He has no idea how many he's been a part of though the years. It has to be somewhere around, well, a lot. More than 1,000, he'd guess. Probably closer to 1,500.
It was one of the very first ones where Hank Towns, the beloved former equipment manager, mentioned that teams were practicing way too late, which led to a question of where the athletes were eating if practices were going past the time when the dining halls would close.
"I'm not worried about their dinners," Hank said. "I'm worried about my dinner. They can eat at McDonald's."
Classic stuff.
Meetings are much different in the surreal times in which the world now exists, but they still go on. TB has been on several meetings in the last week, with more to come today and tomorrow, but they've been done remotely through an app called Zoom.
Have you used it?
A link is created (once the app is downloaded), and you can click on the link and be connected with all of the people you otherwise would have met with in person. The only issues is that every person on the meeting is on the screen in their own little box.
It gives the impression that everyone is staring closely at you at all times, in ways that are different from regular meetings, when everyone is around a table. Maybe it's in TB's head, but it takes a little getting used to, that's for sure.
There was an Office of Athletic Communications meeting yesterday to talk about a variety of subjects, including content for goprincetontigers.com and social media. If you looked on the webpage yesterday, you saw a series of stories that had "All-American" in there somewhere. Four straight stories, to be exact.
In short order, Princeton had:
* women's hockey player Sarah Fillier named second-team All-American. Fillier is now the first two-time All-American in program history, and she has achieved this after only her sophomore year. You can read about it HERE.
* two of the stories were about the men's and women's squash All-Americans. There were a total of four Princeton athletes honored, three women and two men. The women, as you might know, reached the national championship match against Harvard. The stories are HERE and HERE.
* finally Bella Alarie keeps adding honors to her already hugely long resume. Alarie became the first Ivy League women's basketball player ever to be a two-time All-American. HERE.
Also, this All-American talk got TB to wondering if there will be spring All-Americans named. On the one hand, it would be nice to have continuity in the records through the years, even if the season's were very much abbreviated. On the other, the seasons were very much abbreviated.
Just something to think about.
Oh, and one more thing for today, something that has nothing to do with Princeton Athletics.
TigerBlog has always liked his cousin Steve very much, ever since he was a little kid.
Steve is married to Linda, who was MotherBlog's first cousin. Linda's mother and MB's mother were sisters who, if stood one on top of the other, would barely have been taller than Chris Young, but hey, at least they were taller than their brother Maurice.
Linda and Steve have been married for 56 years now, and have raised two daughters, TB's cousins Nicole and Jill (who happens to be a Cornell graduate, but it's okay, TB still loves her).
Steve spent his professional career in the New York City probation department, working with some of the toughest people there - and also helping untold numbers of them to turn their lives around. Standing around 6-6 with a deep voice, a slow manner of speaking and a dry sense of humor, he is very much what used to be known as the strong silent type, the kind of character Gary Cooper might have played in a movie long ago.
This past Sunday Steve turned 80 years old. He doesn't look it, and he certainly doesn't act it. Maybe the first has something to do with the second?
Anyway, TB wanted to sneak in a quick "Happy 80th" to his cousin. You know, because he didn't send a card.
Or maybe he can. Hmm. Weekly. Monthly. Conference calls. Multiple decades.
Nope. He has no idea how many he's been a part of though the years. It has to be somewhere around, well, a lot. More than 1,000, he'd guess. Probably closer to 1,500.
It was one of the very first ones where Hank Towns, the beloved former equipment manager, mentioned that teams were practicing way too late, which led to a question of where the athletes were eating if practices were going past the time when the dining halls would close.
"I'm not worried about their dinners," Hank said. "I'm worried about my dinner. They can eat at McDonald's."
Classic stuff.
Meetings are much different in the surreal times in which the world now exists, but they still go on. TB has been on several meetings in the last week, with more to come today and tomorrow, but they've been done remotely through an app called Zoom.
Have you used it?
A link is created (once the app is downloaded), and you can click on the link and be connected with all of the people you otherwise would have met with in person. The only issues is that every person on the meeting is on the screen in their own little box.
It gives the impression that everyone is staring closely at you at all times, in ways that are different from regular meetings, when everyone is around a table. Maybe it's in TB's head, but it takes a little getting used to, that's for sure.
There was an Office of Athletic Communications meeting yesterday to talk about a variety of subjects, including content for goprincetontigers.com and social media. If you looked on the webpage yesterday, you saw a series of stories that had "All-American" in there somewhere. Four straight stories, to be exact.
In short order, Princeton had:
* women's hockey player Sarah Fillier named second-team All-American. Fillier is now the first two-time All-American in program history, and she has achieved this after only her sophomore year. You can read about it HERE.
* two of the stories were about the men's and women's squash All-Americans. There were a total of four Princeton athletes honored, three women and two men. The women, as you might know, reached the national championship match against Harvard. The stories are HERE and HERE.
* finally Bella Alarie keeps adding honors to her already hugely long resume. Alarie became the first Ivy League women's basketball player ever to be a two-time All-American. HERE.
Also, this All-American talk got TB to wondering if there will be spring All-Americans named. On the one hand, it would be nice to have continuity in the records through the years, even if the season's were very much abbreviated. On the other, the seasons were very much abbreviated.
Just something to think about.
Oh, and one more thing for today, something that has nothing to do with Princeton Athletics.
TigerBlog has always liked his cousin Steve very much, ever since he was a little kid.
Steve is married to Linda, who was MotherBlog's first cousin. Linda's mother and MB's mother were sisters who, if stood one on top of the other, would barely have been taller than Chris Young, but hey, at least they were taller than their brother Maurice.
Linda and Steve have been married for 56 years now, and have raised two daughters, TB's cousins Nicole and Jill (who happens to be a Cornell graduate, but it's okay, TB still loves her).
Steve spent his professional career in the New York City probation department, working with some of the toughest people there - and also helping untold numbers of them to turn their lives around. Standing around 6-6 with a deep voice, a slow manner of speaking and a dry sense of humor, he is very much what used to be known as the strong silent type, the kind of character Gary Cooper might have played in a movie long ago.
This past Sunday Steve turned 80 years old. He doesn't look it, and he certainly doesn't act it. Maybe the first has something to do with the second?
Anyway, TB wanted to sneak in a quick "Happy 80th" to his cousin. You know, because he didn't send a card.
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