Enough is Enough

Even though Throck beat me to it, I will not be denied one last rant about the SCIAC. First of all I want to congratulate the members of the Oxy water-polo team that were named to the all-conference teams. Being recognized with a spot on either the first team or second team is truly an honor to be proud of. So congrats Nanea Fujiyama, Rachel Adeleye, and Tessa Bailey-Findley. That said, these teams that were selected are an absolute joke. There is no doubt in my mind that Annie Oxborough-Yankus had a great year, and she did so for the best team in the conference. However, the fact that she was named Athlete of the Year just doesn’t make any sense. The only stat available for any Pomona-Pitzer player is goals scored, which suggests to me that this is the biggest factor in determining a player’s performance, at least for the Sagehens. Oxborough Yankus had a very nice season with 61 goals, but that doesn’t even put her as the top scorer on her team (freshmen Alyssa Woodward had 79). Nanea Fujiyama and Jaime Nippert both had absurdly impressive seasons. Fujiyama had 85 goals, 40 assists, and 60 steals; all with other teams basing their defense around stopping her. Nippert one-upped Nanea with 91 goals, 52 assists, and 64 steals. How is it that one of these women did not get named Athlete of the Year makes me wonder exactly what goes on when these teams are selected.

My disappointment in these selections continues with the snubbing of Jill Stein of Redlands and Tessa Bailey-Findley from the 1st team. I know I just said that being named to the second team was an honor, but to undervalue the effort of these two is unacceptable. Stein’s offensive year was solid, as she racked up 59 goals and 33 assists, but it was her defense that was what sets her apart. She had 111 and steals, 32 more than any other player in either Div. I or Div. III. Bailey Findley ended the year with numbers comparable to any of the top players in the nation: 74 goals, 28 assists, and 64 steals. Again I pose the question, what is going?

Ok, I think I’m done…no wait…why wasn’t Corrine Casey put on a team? I don’t know if she should definitely have been put on a team, but someone has to at least raise the question. What Corrine brings to a team is not as visible on a stat sheet as some other players. She’s a scrappy player who provides energy and leadership to her team. Statistically, though she only had 31 goals and 32 steals she was toward the top of the conference with 53 assists.

So how do these errors happen, I mean the coaches voting on these selections have all the information available to them right? They have seen everyone in the conference play, and have detailed statistics to look over don’t they? I doubt it. Finding the statistics that I have listed above were quite difficult to find. In fact, the stats were so difficult to find that I almost believe that a Watergate style cover-up is taking place.

My suspicions of a “Polo-gate” first began when I went to the thesciac.org (at least the conference managed to call dibs on sciac.org…oops). The conference website does not have any water-polo statistics. Strange…maybe all the water-polo stats are on some other website, like this NCAA Water Polo Stats website. Well, they sort of are, except this site does not have stats for Pomona, Whittier, La Verne, Cal Lu, Cal Tech, and it does not even have CMS listed as a school. Again very convenient for the SCIAC.

Even individual team websites seemed to be in on the conspiracy. Cal Lu and Cal-Tech put up a pdf of their stats, but they did not have any players that were rated questionably highly. As I said before, Pomona-Pitzer only has goals scored listed on their website which makes judging their players very difficult. going purely by goals scored Bailey-Findley or Jill Stein should have clearly made the first team over Perri Hopkins who only had 35 goals. This also shows that Corrine Casey could have been named to one of these teams despite her lower number of goals scored. Whittier only mentions the statistics of Katrina Thoreson, their 2nd-team All-SCIAC player, who herself made a strong case for first team honors with 71 goals, 24 assists, and 63 steals. Laverne, and CMS do not have any statistics on any website that I have found, so it’s hard to imagine Candace Filippelli having a better season than Bailey-Findley, Stein, or Thoreson yet she made the 1st-team.

If it took me hours to figure all of this out do you really think that everyone making these selections had all the information they needed to make the right decisions. While Polo-gate may not go down as one of the biggest conspiracies of all time, I think that it’s still something to consider. Way to blow it SCIAC.

Tiger Talk Gets Ready to Graduate

Well, the time has come. Classes are over, the underclassmen are gone from campus, and we’re just two days away from walking across the Greek Bowl stage to grab our diplomas and say sayonara to college life.

It’s sad, really, but in a way it’s also been pretty cool. This week has been all about us: we’ve had dinners, we’ve had dances, we’ve gotten free Occidental license plate holders— and this afternoon, we even got to hold our own in a water balloon fight against President Veitch after graduation rehearsal.

It all certainly has been special. And while I’m sure the next two days will fly by, there’s no doubt that we’ll keep having fun– whether we get to throw water balloons at Oxy administrators or not.

Tiger Talk is not at the end yet, but we’re getting there very, very quickly, and clearly I’m starting to get nostalgic. Just two more days until these two college athletes become college graduates. That’s pretty crazy.

Monday Morning Quarterback: Second Team?

If there’s one thing I’m known for amongst my group of friends, is that I like to complain about sports. Not debate, not brag, but complain. Why? Because there’s just so much to whine about, and because it’s just kind of fun.

My fantasy baseball team‘s current standing (10th of 12)? Sucks.

That pitch that Brett Lawrie got called out on the other night? Freakin’ absurd.

The fact that I always have to guard 6’1″ and 215 lbs Casey Harms in pickup basketball even though I’m 5’8″ on a good day and was forced to quit playing rec league when I was a kid because I was so bad? Total crap.

But this week on MMQ, I’m moving my usually-off-the-blog rants onto the Tiger Talk public forum because I am just so damn frustrated with the SCIAC for its baseball and women’s water polo All-Conference selections.

Why are Pedro Aldape and Tessa Bailey-Findley only second-team all-conference, and where is Brent Wunner on the baseball list?

Let’s start with baseball.

Pedro Aldape deserved better than second team all conference this year. Photo by Lisa Gilliand

As had been well-documented throughout the season, this was a great year for the Diamond Tigers. 23 wins in total, a .643 winning percentage in conference, and a late playoff push– this was truly a breakout year for a team that many expected to finish towards the bottom of the conference standings. And leading the charge on the field was none other than young Pedro Aldape: an unassuming 6-foot-tall junior from Sherman Oaks with a heart of gold and ridiculously quick hands at the plate. The kid had a monster year: a .390 average, 53 hits, 10 double, 8 home runs, 45 RBIs, and even 6 stolen bases just because. He finished in the top six in the league in four categories (including second in home runs and RBIs) after having missed six games entirely with a thumb injury. He was the offensive heart and soul of this team, and certainly All-SCIAC material.

But second team? Come on. I know that Pomona-Pitzer’s James Campbell had the lock down at the first team 1B position (Campbell one-upped Aldape in nearly every category), but was CalTech’s Brian Penserini really a better option at DH? I mean, sure the kid hit .430 and it’s nice to give the hapless Beavers a little recognition every now and then, but Aldape was significantly better in nearly every other category: he collected 13 more hits, 6 more home runs, 26 more RBIs, and 39 more total bases. And, more significantly, he did it against other teams’ Friday guys, not a bunch of misfit relievers like myself who CalTech rarely teed off on (ya, I’ll wear that insult for this argument). So my conclusion here is that these two should be switched: Aldape should have been placed on the first team as DH, while Penserini should have been voted onto the second where there are no positions.

The All-SCIAC list was also missing Tiger catcher Brent Wunner.

To that point, Brent Wunner also deserved a nod to the second team. If you look at the all-conference roster, you’ll notice that there are four shortstops on that list: Claremont’s Brian Gose, La Verne’s George Hanna, Redlands’ Chase Tucker, and Oxy’s Logan Allen. Now, I understand why Tucker and Allen were selected (Chase hit .304 with 31 RBIs and 17 stolen bases, while Logy Bear finished at .325 with 3 home runs, 28 RBIs and 24 steals), but Gose and Hanna are suspect. Just look at the numbers: In 45 more at-bats, Gose only hit .15 points higher than Wunner, only had one more extra base hit, only had two more stolen bases, and finished with 4 fewer RBIs than the Tiger’s catcher. Similarly, while Hanna collected 8 more extra base hits and 10 more RBIs than Brent, he finished with a lower average (.278), lower OBP (.375 vs. .402), and the same amount of steals–and had 63 more opportunities to go to bat. Plus, none of this takes into account that Wunner was perhaps the best defensive catcher in the league. Other teams just did not want to run on him: he allowed only 22 steals on the season, the majority of which came when notoriously slow-to-the-plate lefty Tyler Eyrich was pitching (including in the March 23rd game against Cal Lu when the Kingsmen stole 7 bags in a double-steal clinic against Eyrich), and did a phenomenal job of blocking– allowing only six past balls all year. So, yes, Wunner, Gose, and Hanna finished the season with very similar stat lines, but I still think Brent should have gotten the nod here because of his defense.

Ok, and now onto water polo.

Tessa Bailey-Findley (2) had a huge year both on offense and defense. Image from Occidental Water Polo

It’s harder to argue this one because not all water polo teams keep stats, but I’m going to try it anyway. Tessa Bailey-Findley deserves a first-team bid, not a second. Why? Because  the girl absolutely shut down her competition on defense, and had one of the best offensive years in all of college water polo.

Now, it’s difficult to quantify defensive ability; I mean, you can’t just look at the numbers and say, “wow, this girl shut down the girls she was guarding all year.” But by most accounts and by the fact that she finished 6th in all of college water polo in steals and set an Oxy record in that category, I think it’s safe to say that she was a defensive force in the SCIAC this season. Furthermore, Tessa also produced on offense: her 74 goals ranked second on the team, third in conference, and 7th in all of the nation (Division I and Division III reported stats) and her 102 points put her at 8th in the country. So second team material? I think she was a little better than that. Should have been first team, without a question.

Admittedly, I’m not exactly sure how the SCIAC picks its all-conference teams. I asked around in the athletics department and some said the SIDs get to influence the results, and others said it’s just all the coaches. But what I do know is that the selectors messed up. Pedro, Brent, and Tessa all got screwed, and I don’t like it.

What?

So I went on to oxyathletics.com to checkout the recap of the women’s lacrosse game, more to come on that in another post, and instead what I found was the article below which explains how Oxy football coach of 30 years Dale Widolff has been terminated. I’m sure this comes as quite a shock, and I would like to be able to report more, but all I know is what is written below. I’m sure Throck will get the inside scoop as soon as he can.

————————————————————————————————

Jim Tranquada

LOS ANGELES — Occidental College head football coach Dale Widolff has been terminated in the wake of a NCAA investigation into alleged recruiting violations, College officials announced today.

The investigation is the second into Occidental’s football program in two years. Widolff was suspended without pay in August 2010 for six weeks for violation of NCAA rules and internal college policies.

“We take violations of the rules very seriously and believe that, however difficult, we have done the right thing,” said Occidental College Athletic Director Jaime Hoffman. “Our top priority is to ensure that the future of our student-athletes is not placed in jeopardy.”

The NCAA has asked Occidental officials not to discuss the details of the case so as not to jeopardize the investigation, which was set in motion when Hoffman contacted the NCAA on April 17. The 2010 investigation also was the result of self-reporting by the college.

During his 30-year career as Occidental’s head coach, Widolff won 11 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles and made seven post-season appearances. His 178 wins ranked him fifth among active NCAA Division III coaches.

Occidental will conduct a national search to find a successor for Widolff. Offensive coordinator Eric Bergstrom will serve as acting head football coach until the search has concluded.

Moving Up in the World

Klout is the new swag.

In case you’re behind the times (like I was until this morning when I first read about it in Wired Magazine), klout is a measure of the amount of influence a person or group holds in the digital world based on their level of connectedness. It takes into account how many Twitter and Facebook followers they have, how many times their blog and YouTube pages have been accessed, how many pictures they’ve uploaded to Flickr, how many check-ins they’ve amassed on FourSquare, and a number of other factors. It’s essentially a barometer for one’s marketing and political reach– a measure of how important someone or some company is to the ever evolving, ever expanding frontier known commonly as the great World Wide Web.

Why do I bring all of this up? Because this afternoon, our klout score got a huge boost.

As usual, Jake was productively procrastinating (is that a thing?) from his school work by trying to spread the Tiger Talk name across cyberspace and Twitter. Because President Obama and Oxy student/Hannah Montana co-star Emily Osment refused to recognize our existence, Jake turned to a lesser-known but equally awesome former Tiger named Rider Strong for a retweet. Here’s what he got:

Now, most of you probably don’t get why a retweet and shout out from some guy dressed as a hippie is awesome. But do you know who that guy is?

The cast of the unforgettable 1990s sitcom “Boy Meets World.” Rider Strong aka “Shawn Hunter” is the one wearing stripes on the left. Image from neontommy.com

It’s Shawn Hunter from Boy Meets World! Yes, the Shawn Hunter. As in Cory’s best friend who often wears horizontal stripes. As in the one who’s sort of a badass and sometimes almost makes bad decisions before others talk some sense into him. As in the kid who sets up eventual soul-mates  Cory and Topanga, leaves his drunkard father to live with the ever-so-suave Mr. Turner, and eventually moves with the gang to New York in the show’s finale. Shawn Freakin’ Hunter!

And not only did he retweet us. He responded! With a joke about Oxy! How awesome is that?

So forget the fact that we only have 47 Facebook followers, that our most popular YouTube video only has 92 views, or that the leading search term that brings people to our blog is “sad tiger” (“tiger in snow” follows in a close second, for those who were wondering). Today, Rider Strong mentioned Tiger Talk on Twitter, and that’s pretty damn cool.

Oh ya, and our klout score rose from 2 to 14. I’d say that means we’re moving up in the world.

I can’t wait to see who retweets us next.

Finally I Don’t Have to Be Angry

It’s been a great last few days for Occidental Lacrosse, as both the SCIAC and the NCAA have finally decided to give the Tigers a little respect. Yesterday we found out that 6 members of the team were selected to either the 1st or 2nd all-conference teams. Attacker Tori Larson (Denver), midfielder Sarah Kessler (Portland, Ore.) and defender Charlotte Bromley (Watertown, Conn.) made the first team. Attacker Lauren Wemple (Needham, Mass.), midfielder Rebecca Belding (Burlingame) and defender Kristen Feinberg (Haverford, Penn.) made the second team. As per usual Oxy SID Mike Wells has put together more information about these selections in a more eloquent way than I could, so I’ll direct you to his congratulatory press release.

Even more important than the recognition these individuals received, today the amazing improvement this team has shown from last year to this year was rewarded with an at-large bid to the NCAA Div. III tournament. I am a little bit disappointed that I have to praise the NCAA for making such an insightful decision instead of getting to write about how much I hate how they favor the East Coast, but my elation for Women’s Lax far outweighs this disappointment. The Tigers will be taking on fellow SCIAC member, the University of Redlands Bulldogs, this Wednesday May 9th, at Farquhar Fields in Redlands at 7:00 pm. To speculate on the Tigers road to a potential championship here’s a link to the full tournament bracket. If you can make it all the way out to Redlands to support your Tigers I’m sure they would love some extra fans, but if not be sure to checkout either oxyathletics.com for live stats, and hopefully a live feed of the game.

You Don’t Want to Be in the Library Anyway

Random gun shots, rapidly moving objects, periodic cheering, a voice booming over a loud speaker… sounds like a perfect environment to get some finals studying in this Saturday. Here at Tiger Talk we fully understand the pressures of Oxy’s rigorous finals schedule, but we also have an obligation to try to get people to go out and support Oxy athletics. The Oxy Invite will be taking place all-day Saturday on Bill Henry Track in Jack Kemp Stadium, and going to check out an event or two probably won’t effect your grades too much. Maybe, the background extra stimuli described above could even be help studying.At the very least though if you are walking by the Market Place or are taking a study break to go work out, why not take a look at the event, yell some encouragement for Oxy, or shout an expletive at a rival school’s team.

For those of you who do not know a lot about track and field (join the club), and are still on the fence about whether or not you should head out to the track I think you should know that these athletes go through rigorous training at the beginning of their season so that they can taper off to have their best performances at the end of the season. With this being the last meet for the Tigers before the National Championships, everyone should be at their best. With performances at the SCIAC championships like Cole Williams first place in the 800m, Claire Larson missing her third straight 800m title by just 1 second, and a host of talented Oxy distance runners like Tara Saxena and Sierra Walker posting personal bests in the 3000m steeplechase their should be plenty of action to check out.

A Toast to the Fan

No doubt about it, people love their tigers. No, I’m not talking about the kind of people who dress their babies as tigers because it’s cute or even those that paint their dogs like tigers because they think it’s the safest and next best thing– I’m talking about those Tiger fans who show up to every game, and every event because they love their Oxy Tiger athletes.

I’m talking about Oxywood.

I’m talking about those awesome women’s water polo fans who go the extra mile with facepaint.

I’m talking about the students who dress up, dress down, and do whatever else it takes to show their team that they’re behind them all the way.

So here’s to you crazy Tiger fans for all of your dedication. It’s been a pleasure to write for you, announce for you, and play for you, and both Jake and I are truly grateful for all of your support.

Mixed Feelings on Sunday Morning

Even though the Tigers' baseball team had plenty to celebrate this weekend, it wasn't all smiles for Oxy athletes on Saturday

–Written Sunday, April 29–

Yesterday was good and bad.

On the one hand, women’s lacrosse won, advancing to their first ever SCIAC finals game with a win over CMS, and Jake and I were both part of the most ridiculous baseball comeback I’ve ever been a part of. But on the other, women’s water polo lost— thus ending their push towards what many thought was an eminent national championship.

It was all just sort of weird.

Baseball and water polo were both at Whittier yesterday, playing at the same time in adjacent facilities: the baseball field is on one side of a parking lot, and the swimming pool is on another. We could see the scoreboard from our dugout, and because the Poets jumped out to a 7-0 lead against us by the third inning, many of us began looking past the right-field fence to try to follow the score of the women’s game. We saw them finish the first period tied at two, saw them score three goals in the second and one early in the third to take a 6-3 lead, and then figured they were on their way to yet another SCIAC finals game appearance.

But suddenly, things changed and both teams’ luck reversed.

Katie Gibbs and the women's water polo team was sent home packing early from the SCIAC tournament by the University of Redlands Bulldogs

It was like the Twilight Zone: as soon as we scored two runs in the fifth on a double by Pedro Aldape, the Whittier aquatics center erupted with cheers from Redlands fans after a huge Bulldogs goal. And that was only the beginning. As we quietly gained momentum in the later innings with David Feasler‘s pitching performance and Jonathan Brooks‘ pinch-hit RBI triple, Redlands stormed back against Oxy in the third period, scoring three times to tie the game.

What happened next was just plain bizarre: as the Bulldogs netted the go-ahead and eventual game-winning goal in the fourth quarter to ruin the Tigers’ chances of returning to the SCIAC championship, across the parking lot our offense exploded for six runs in the top of the ninth to stun the Whittier crowd and take a 9-8 lead. One, two, three went the Poets in the bottom half of the frame, and just like that, we had pulled off one of the most improbable comebacks in all of college baseball this year.

It was awesome, but equally unsettling. As we jumped and screamed with joy (senior pitcher Tyler Eyrich summed it up best when he repeatedly yelled “This can’t be happening!”), we couldn’t help but think of the Oxy women’s water polo team driving home, having to deal with such a crushing and shocking defeat. At the start of the semester, if someone had suggested to me that the Tigers’ baseball team would finish its season in a dog-pile (albeit not one celebrating a national championship) while the pre-season ranked No. 1 water polo club sulked their way home, I would have called them crazy. But alas, that’s how things went this past weekend.

It was a weird, weird day.

The Tiggers are Coming

It’s been a great year for Tiger Talk, and we want to recap it in style so we will be handing out some end of the year accolades to a few elite individuals as we presents the first annual (and probably last annual) Tiger Talk Tigger Awards (Disclaimer: Tiger Talk does not own the likeness of Tigger, we just periodically put pictures of him on our blog. We would love to not be sued).

Some of the categories will include:

Best Mascot

Best Individual Athletic Performance

Biggest Upset

Most Improved Team

Hopefully Throck will figure out how to get some polls up so that we can get some fan (literally the one fan we have) voting in. But for now, leave a comment, check out our facebook, or shoot us a tweet if you have an idea for an award category.