Phillies: Sign Stealers?

On his Phillies blog, Wilmington News Journal Phillies beat writer Scott Lauber notes the Phillies have been accused of stealing signs:

Major League Baseball has not received a specific complaint about the Red Sox being victims of sign stealing, but the Phillies have been investigated for this in the past. The Sox played the Phillies last week, and one major league official thought the Phillies were taking Boston’s signs.

Lauber notes that after they were swept at CBP last year, the Mets accused the Phillies of stealing signs. “They can check us out any time they want,” Manuel said at the time. “When stuff comes up like that, it’s no big deal. They can sit up there during the game with the camera crew, for all I care.”

You may note the Phillies were allegedly stealing signs from the Red Sox, who beat the Phillies in the last two games of that series by a combined score of 10-4. Wouldn’t it be just like the Phillies to steal signs and receive absolutely no benefit from it?

Sign Stealing? Wade Attacked? [Phillies/baseball]

CBS 3: Text Messaging Could Be Used To Cheat

Apparently looking to out-do NBC 10’s 4:20 investigation, CBS 3’s Susan Barnett lets us know about a new fad: text messaging! She reports text messaging leaves “little or no record” of the conversation. Speech and phone calls do leave records, apparently.

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In My Day, Upper-Middle-Class Kids Did Well Enough In School To Not Have To Cheat

Leave it to the Inquirer to be able to turn a a possible cheating scandal at Cherry Hill High East into a trend piece.

Yes, the trend piece today comes on the revelations/rumors that several high-profile students were involved in said cheating scandal, and is a nice way to advance the story without having to print a bunch of no comments. You see, upper-middle class kids are, like, the only one nobody really understands. (They’re the ones who are not rich enough to do coke but too rich to be unconcerned with grades. They have to get into a good college so they can get coke from the rich kids.)

According to the Inquirer, people take grades seriously, nobody gets anything lower than a B and kids nowadays ride Segways or their butler to school. And the gossip spreads quickly:

“We’re in this crazy race,” Amanda Whitbred said Thursday. “Gossip started halfway through junior year about who the valedictorian would be. It’s like, ‘Did you hear Rachel got a B in gym? That could bring down her GPA.’

All across the suburbs today, mothers of girls named Rachel are grilling their daughters over a possible bad grade in gym they don’t know about.

Amid privilege, crushing pressure to excel [Inquirer]

Dec. 6: An Eloquent Silence

An Eloquent Silence

The Inquirer’s Jan Hefler and Toni Callas have an article today about a possible grade-changing scandal at Cherry Hill High School East. The Inky sez the investigation centers on a senior who obtained a “privileged password” — true story: at my high school, the basketball coach’s password was “basketball” — and changed the grades of five students in exchange for money.

School officials, though, aren’t quite so forthcoming. All of these are sentences from the article:

• Police Lt. Bill Kushina said the investigation remained active. No arrests had been made, he said, declining to elaborate.
• “The district is currently investigating allegations of limited inappropriate use of technology,” school district spokeswoman Susan Bastnagel said. “No other information will be shared about these allegations until the investigation is complete.”
• The school superintendent would not comment.
• Anne Einhorn, vice president of the Board of Education, said school district and high school administrators were investigating allegations, but she would not elaborate.
• Other officials also acknowledged that there was a probe, but would not discuss it.

No comment.

High school hacking, grade changing probed [Inquirer]

Mennonite Cyclist Can’t Dance, Compete Without Cheating

Floyd Landis, the Tour de France champion who inspired “Amber Alert” postings online, tested positive late last week for elevated levels of testosterone. “Oh no!” those even with a vague interest in sports said. “He cheated to win?”

“No, no,” said Landis, who claimed that his testosterone levels were naturally high and not an evidence of blood doping. “Phew,” we said.

“Not so fast,” says the New York Times. In an article in today’s paper, a source at the International Cycling Union reveals that some of Landis’ testosterone in his sample was synthetic.

Dun dun dun. His doctor, though, is still keeping the faith:

Landis’s personal doctor, Dr. Brent Kay of Temecula, Calif., said he hoped that the results of Landis’s… initial [testosterone to epitestosterone ratio] test were false positives. He did, however, acknowledge that the initial test found a ratio of 11 to 1 in Landis’s system. He and Landis are seeking an explanation for that high level. [Note: The limit is 4 to 1]

“I’ve seen bodybuilders with numbers 100 to 1,” Kay said. “Although Floyd’s was elevated, it’s not off the chart or anything.”

Oh. You see, he didn’t cheat as much as bodybuilders! That’s okay, then! Hooray for Floyd! Just shows you can’t trust those shifty Mennonites.

New Finding Challenges Tour Champ’s Claim [NYT]
July 24: Floyd Landis Inspires Child Abduction-Themed Cheers