Where do I start today?
How about this: There are four complete Premier League games so far in the 2024 season.
There were 38 complete games all of last season, when there were also 11 teams that had ZERO complete games. How is it possible? Analysis. And a change of mindset.
If you’re in the TigerBlog age range, you remember when a full game was pretty much the norm. A year ago, the major league lead in complete games was three (Sandy Alcantara, Jordan Lyles). In 1975 – a year TB chose at random – the Major League hitter was Catfish Hunter, who pitched 30 complete games. There were 39 pitchers who had at least 10 complete games that season.
Want to know how many there were in the 1975 season overall? Carry on. Guess.
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Although the subject is baseball, the Princeton baseball team has seven regular season games to play, all on the road, all after yesterday’s home finale against Wagner. There’s a midweek game at Rutgers next week, which ties into a trip to Dartmouth this weekend for three and then a trip to Columbia next weekend for another three.
To continue playing beyond that, Princeton must be in the top four of the Ivy rankings, which would mean a return to the league tournament. Princeton is currently 8-7 and in third place, trailing 12-3 Columbia and 10-5 Cornell.
Behind the Tigers are Yale, Penn and Harvard, all one game back at 7-8. Princeton has a tiebreaker over Penn in the bracket tied for fourth place, accomplishing that with a 3-2 win in the first series and then a 3-1 victory in the third game last weekend.
Who was the winning pitcher in these two games? In Game 1, it was Jacob Faulkner. In Game 3, it was Jacob Faulkner. The junior from Venice, Fla., has carried the Tigers this season, and he improved his record to 6-1, with a 3.11 ERA and 37 strikeouts with nine walks in 46 innings.
Are these good numbers?
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In other sports played on the diamond, Princeton’s softball team finished first in the Ivy League at 11-4, ahead of Harvard and Yale at 12-6. While the baseball team is off the next two weekends, the softball team is at home for three this weekend against Brown (Saturday at 12:30/2:30 and Sunday at 2:30) and then closes out the regular season with a three at home against Cornell next weekend.
The Tigers have yet to earn a berth in the Ivy League tournament, with a three-game lead over 8-7 Dartmouth and fourth-seeded Columbia.
Princeton had a huge blowout at Yale last weekend. Unlike baseball, the Ivy softball competition has two teams that have played 18 of their 21 games, while the others have played 15.
Princeton split its first eight Ivy games. Since then, the Tigers have won seven in a row.
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The answer is that in 1975 there were 1,052 complete games. There were also 3,866 games that entire year, meaning one out of every 3.67 games was a complete game.
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The Penn Relays return to Franklin Field this weekend for the 128th edition of what Penn’s website calls “the world’s oldest and largest annual track and field carnival.”
TigerBlog was at the Penn Relays and it really is a carnival. If you’re going to be watching track and field at the Olympics this summer, it’s worth making the time to head to Penn for this weekend’s show.
The event starts today and you can find all the information HERE.
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The Collegiate Water Polo Association has a tournament this weekend at Harvard. The winner of the six-team field will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Princeton is the top seed after going undefeated through the league’s regular season. The second seed is Michigan, and those two have a first-round bye.
In the quarterfinals tomorrow, third-seeded Harvard will face sixth-seeded St. Francis, and fourth-seeded Brown will play fifth-seeded Bucknell. Princeton’s semifinal game will be Saturday at noon and the final will be Sunday at noon.
Princeton is 21-6 overall, with 13 wins against ranked teams. The Tigers have the CWPA Player of the Year in goaltender Lindsay Lucas, and Derek Ellingson was named the league’s Coach of the Year for the third time.
Lucas is Princeton’s third CWPA Player of the Year behind Ashley Johnson and Jovana Sekulic, both of whom are vying for spots on this summer’s U.S. Olympic team.
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You can find the full schedule for the weekend’s events HERE.
