Oh, look what I found in my notes!

According to this report from KPRC-TV, seven officers with the Houston Police Department were expelled from an accident investigation class for cheating. It turns out the seven officers (three of whom were sergeants) had copies of quizzes and the final exam from last year's class. Captain William Staney, head of HPD's vehicular crimes division claimed (with a straight face) that it was a "mutual decision" for the officers to "leave" the class.

And I suppose it was a "mutual decision" when the University of Houston and basketball coach Tom Penders chose to go their separate ways.

Apparently HPD didn't want to cough up the funds to provide textbooks for their officers so the department gave them copies of notes from last year's class. Why copies of quizzes and the final exam were in their notes is a mystery.

So we have seven members of the HPD who had no compunction about cheating in an accident investigation class -- what does that say about the manner in which they conduct themselves in uniform? If lying and cheating is condoned in the classroom, what about out on the street? Or in the courtroom?

Sign stealing and the boys of summer

Now it seems as if the Colorado Rockies are all upset because the Philadelphia Phillies were stealing signs in a recent game. The Phillies' bullpen coach was caught on camera looking toward home plate with a pair of binoculars. The clear implication is he was trying to determine what pitch the catcher was calling for so he could alert someone in the dugout.

It's an unwritten rule (and there are probably more unwritten rules in baseball than those of the written variety) that a batter better not turn around to see where the catcher is lining up -- unless he wants a fastball way up and in. However, it has been a longstanding tradition in baseball for a runner at second to try to steal the catcher's signs -- but he best be careful in how he tips the batter lest someone catch a hummer by the earhole.

In 1951, Bobby Thomson of the New York Giants hit one of the most famous homers in baseball history -- The Shot Heart 'Round the World and the radio announcer, Russ Hodges, placed himself in baseball lure with his dramatic cry "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!"



But there was more to the story. As it turns out, the Giants, who overcame a 13 game deficit with but ten weeks to go in the season, had a very sophisticated system in place to steal signs during the second half of the season.

Beginning on July 20, their manager, Leo Durocher, planted Hank Schenz, a spare infielder with a Wollensak telescope, in the center-field clubhouse. From a cutout in the mesh grid covering one of the 14 windows along the distant wall, Schenz — a former Chicago Cub who in 1946 had peered in at opposing catchers’ signs from the scoreboard at Wrigley Field — easily deciphered the signals. Abraham Chadwick, an electrician and, painfully, a Dodger fan employed by the Giants, wired a connection from the clubhouse window to the bullpen, where the reserve catcher Sal Yvars would toss a ball into the air — or not — to clue in the Giants batter as to whether a fastball or curve was coming.

As I've said before, I don't understand the angst of baseball fans when it comes to stealing signs or injecting steroids -- baseball has always been about cheating and not getting caught.