"This isn't Super Nintendo, b——!"
What would prompt a competitor to say that after a hit in a football game? It probably has something to do with junior guard Lance Baird's seventh place finish in Super Nintendo at the 1993 World Blockbuster Video Game Tournament.
"I got my first Nintendo when I was five," Baird said. By the time he was 13, he had become an expert and entered the newly created Blockbuster tournament.
"I made the [entry] deadline by only a few hours," he said.
He went on to win his local store and area tournaments by competing in everything from NBA Jam to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Clayfighter Tournament Edition, qualifying him for the World Championship in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. "They put us up in a real nice Marriot on Peer 66," Baird recalled. Of the 230 competitors, Baird continued into the tournament's final 16 seeded seventh. In his first match, a game of Madden NFL '94, Baird played as "the All-time All-Madden team, and [my competitor] was the regular All-Madden team. I beat him 30-0, so I was feeling pretty cocky," Baird said.
However, his next match would prove to be his last.
"I was supposed to play this Canadian kid, but we thought he wasn't going to show, but he ended up coming really late," Baird said. "It was a game of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo."
Baird selected Ryu for several strategic reasons, but his opponent, who chose Ken, was able to tactically outmaneuver him.
"I don't have a Nintendo or Super Nintendo anymore," Baird said. "I gave them away with all my games to my cousin in Peru. I have an N64, but I'm more into computer games now."
To that end, Baird is planning a possible rejuvenation of "POGO," the Princeton Online Gaming Organization.
"I tried to join, but never got a response, so I think the website just never got taken down, but no one's running it," Baird said.
Football is Lance Baird's real claim to fame here at Princeton. Coming into his sophomore season, Baird figured to play an integral role at left guard, a position for which he was then battling with Matt Peluse.
In one of the later practices of fall camp, during an inside running drill, Baird took his man to the ground. Unfortunately for Baird, "two other guys put their guys on my ankle." Baird suffered a severe ankle sprain and was unable to walk for a while.
Despite dressing out for almost all the games that year, Baird spent many of them watching from the sideline, protecting his injured ankle. He took his first serious reps in a game against Columbia that season, which was the first overtime win in Princeton history.
In typical, selfless fashion, Baird claimed that he "played pretty well [his] junior year."
In fact, Baird was named Offensive Player of the Game against Cornell. He helped the Tigers to grind out an average of 153.9 rushing yards per game on 4.0 yards per carry.
His junior year, Baird started at right guard with an offensive line that was all juniors except for Peluse, who was named Honorable Mention All-Ivy last fall.
"We're one cohesive unit," Baird said. "Only [Chris] Havener didn't start, but he's been with us the whole ride. That is important to us because we have to know what each other's thinking before they think it. We think we can kill a lot of people."
6:00 AM running and lifting sessions five days a week in the off-season have helped Baird realize what makes a good football player.
His doctrine holds true for both football games and video games: "It's not about talking," Baird said. "It's about doing your business."
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