Completely Conspicuous 529: Cheat to Win

I talk to Phil Stacey and Dave Olson about baseball's cheating scandal while we drive to a rock concert. Listen to the episode below or download directly.


Show notes:
- Recorded on the way to see the Drive-By Truckers in Somerville, MA
- Not the first cheating scandal in MLB, but this has a different feel
- Houston Astros accused of stealing signs on the way to 2017 World Series
- Every team cheats in some way or another
- "If you're not cheating, you're not trying"
- Corked bats, scuffed pitches
- Baseballs were juiced last year to generate interest
- The sport is fading in popularity
- Too slow for short attention spans of today's society
- Steroids in the late '90s were ignored in favor of home run records
- Did the punishment fit the crime?
- Astros were fined and lost draft picks, but could have been worse
- MLB didn't expect this to blow up; former Astro revealed it in an interview
- Public reaction has been loud
- Two other teams have fired their managers who had connections to Astros that season
- Did MLB and the teams coordinate these actions?
- MLB wants this to go away and it's not
- Other teams and players are upset about it
- A pitcher sued because Astros lit him up and he was out of the majors
- Astros are going to be booed mercilessly all season on the road
- We don't know how much the sign stealing helped them
- Houston will get some big TV ratings this season
- Brought to you by Google Maps
- Altuve was a heroic figure, now tarnished
- MMA and pro wrestling are resonating with a younger generation
- A lot of baseball teams struggle to fill the seats
- Young kids would rather watch eSports, where other people play video games
- Easier to cheat in baseball or basketball
- Astros intern figured out how to steal signs and convinced management to adopt it
- Astros players should expect to get hit by a lot of pitches this season

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts and anywhere else you get podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Stuck In Thee Garage #234: August 17, 2018

Let's face it, people like to take short cuts. Whether it's in life, school, love or during a game, cheating has become commonplace in our society. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about cheating in hour 2.

This playlist is totally not cheating:

Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Thin Lips - A Song for Those Who Miss You All the Time/Chosen Family
Big Ups - Fear/Two Parts Together
Dentist - Alone in the Garden/Night Swimming
Jim James - Just a Fool/Uniform Distortion
Ty Segall & White Fence - Do Your Hair/Joy
Nine Inch Nails - Shit Mirror/Bad Witch
Sink Ya Teeth - Substitutes/Sink Ya Teeth
The Beths - Future Me Hates Me/Future Me Hates Me
Snuff Redux - The French Press/Denim American
Lifted Bells - Follow Me/Minor Tantrums
Ovlov - Tru Punk/TRU
Protomartyr - Same Face in a Different Mirror/Consolation EP
Courtney Barnett - City Looks Pretty/Tell Me How You Really Feel
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Kite/Sparkle Hard
Sloan - Gone For Good/12

Hour 2: Cheats
The Clash - The Card Cheat/London Calling
Lefty's Deceiver - Cheats/Cheats
Fugazi - Cashout/The Argument
Run the Jewels - Lie, Cheat, Steal/Run the Jewels 2
David Bowie - The Jean Genie/Aladdin Sane
Squeeze - Tempted (alternate take)/Excess Moderation
Sloan - The Other Man/Pretty Together
Nirvana - Where Did You Sleep Last Night/MTV Unplugged in New York
Elvis Costello - I Want You/Blood & Chocolate
Parliament - All Your Goodies Are Gone/Up for the Down Stroke
The Afghan Whigs - If I Were Going/Gentlemen
The Pursuit of Happiness - Hate Engine/The Wonderful World of...
The Who - A Quick One, While He's Away/Live at Leeds

Through the Past Dorkily: Leave It

Editor's note: Through the Past Dorkily is a recurring feature that looks back at the embarrassingly dorky diary I kept as a 16-year-old in 1984.

Wednesday, February 1, 1984

WAAF Top 5 at Five
1. Jump - Van Halen
2. The Heart of Rock 'n Roll - Huey Lewis and the News
3. Leave It - Yes
4. Sister Christian - Night Ranger
5. New Moon on Monday - Duran Duran

Weird day. We saw this dumb videotape on New Hampshire in NH Civics today. Then we painfully looked at the final in Geometry. And so the day went on. In French, I had my cheat notes under my notebook on my desk. [French teacher] wanted to look at my Deuxieme Livre and the notes fell out on my knee! I didn't even know where they were! Finally [classmate] told me where they were and I almost died on the spot! Stupid [teacher] didn't even notice! Man, talk about a close shave!

Prep for College sucks! We got tons of homework in there already!

Tomorrow we use first period to pick our subjects for next year.

- The Barbarian

Thursday, February 2, 1984

WAAF Top 5 at Five
1. Jump - Van Halen
2. Looks That Kill - Motley Crue
3. I Want a New Drug - Huey Lewis and the News
4. Middle of the Road - The Pretenders
5. Tied Up in Love - Ted Nugent

We picked our subjects today. I found out that I can't take Adv. Math in summer school because I didn't already have it. You can only make up subjects in summer school. So now I have to take Adv. Math next year. Also, there was a screw up with Type 1 and Keyboarding, so I just took Keyboarding and Media for another elective.

[Teacher] bitched at me again in NH Civics. [Another student] made a joke, I laughed and got yelled at. So who cares?

I stayed after school for a Junior Planning Committee meeting about the prom. We were trying to think of a theme song and narrowed it down to 5 songs. I still don't even know when the prom is! [Class president] walked out early because we were being noisy and rude. Big deal. Anyhoo, the meeting only lasted around 15 minutes and I had to wait for the friggin' late bus for 1.5 hours! I was talking to [cute girl I liked] for a while. Man, she's a babe! She has guitar lessons from [same instructor as me], too. She goes on Fridays. Wow.

Later.

- The Barbarian

Postscript: I was surprised to read that I had used cheat notes in French class there. Definitely don't remember doing that. Scandalous!

The math thing was a problem because of all the moving around we did my freshman year. At the high school I attended for three months in Canada, you only took subjects for a semester and I hadn't taken math yet before we moved. So when we got to Washington state, I got thrown in a remedial math class because I was too far behind in algebra. I never caught up and didn't have pre-calculus before going to college as a chemical engineering major; I was hopelessly lost in my calculus class freshman year at UNH. Just as well, I suppose.

I had also forgotten how big that Yes comeback album, 90215, was at this time. Back with Jon Anderson for the first time in a few years (but not Steve Howe), they had some big radio hits, including "Leave It." Nice video, guys. Yeesh.

 

   

Times Are Passing Us By

Welcome to the working week. It was a strange weekend. Saturday was hotter than hell, hitting the mid-90s. I opted not to do my long run, waiting for hopefully cooler temps on Sunday. We took Hannah to her first week of soccer, which basically involved having the kids do a lot of drills. Hannah didn't really have much fun, between having to run around in heavy socks and cleats in the sweltering heat and having those cleats be a size too small (we tried out her cousin's old ones). Hopefully, next weekend will be better for her.

Part of the problem also may have been that it was one more new thing to deal with last week. I may have spoken too soon about her dealing with kindergarten. On Friday and this morning, she was pretty anxious and weepy about the whole situation. I sat with her in the lobby both days until school started. She seems to have been fine once in the classroom, but she's worked herself up into a lather about the beginning of the day for some reason. Of course, she wasn't the only kid who was upset this morning; there were a few others there going through similar emotions. She's a sensitive kid, but I think once she gets a little more familiar with the school, teacher and other students, she'll be okay.

Saturday afternoon, we went to the beach and spent four hours there. Call it summer's last stand. Our timing was good, because about 90 minutes after we got home, some thunderstorms moved in and it poured like a mofo for about 20 minutes.

I got up at 5:30 Sunday morning to head out for my 20-mile run and was literally tying my shoes when the thunder and lightning started up again. I had to wait for three hours before I could hit the road, but it ended up being a nice cloudy and cool run. Less than five weeks until race day.

Let the bullets fly:

• After my run yesterday, I plunked down on the couch (post-shower, of course) and watched the Patriots destroy the Jets, 38-14. Brady had so much time to stand in the pocket and fire away to Randy Moss and his other new receivers. I'm just pissed I didn't activate Moss on my frickin' fantasy football team; he hadn't practiced at all, so I figured he wouldn't do much. Goes to show what I know. Meanwhile, a controversy has blossomed as the Jets have accused the Pats of stealing signals during the game. Apparently a Patriots employee with a camera was allegedly filming Jets' coaches using hand signals and relaying them to the Pats sideline; Green Bay accused the team of doing the same thing last November. The league's looking into the situation; if they're found guilty, the Patriots could lose a draft pick. To me, it sounds like sour grapes. Besides, wouldn't you change your signals regularly to prevent opponents from figuring them out anyway?
• Speaking of the NFL, a scary scene occurred yesterday in the Bills-Broncos game when tight end Kevin Everett sustained a life-threatening spinal-cord injury that paralyzed him. The surgeon who operated on him afterward said Everett may never walk again. Everett was trying to make a tackle and hit a Broncos player helmet on helmet. It highlights what a brutal game football is (and I'm not saying that as a criticism); any hit can result in a major injury, especially with the size of the players. Hopefully, Everett can recover enough to lead a somewhat normal life.
• Wow, Sen. Larry Craig is actually taking steps to withdraw his guilty plea in the Minneapolis airport sex sting. How clueless is this guy? He says the guilty plea was the result of "an intense state of anxiety" about the arrest becoming public knowledge and pressure from the media investigating reports that he is gay. Craig, of course, vehemently denies being gay because that goes against his conservative ideology. Wonder how his constituents feel about it? Whatever the case, he's making late-night monologue writers giddy with anticipation for his next idiotic move.