Posts tagged ‘Philadelphia Phillies’

The Phillies cheat, Charlie Manuel (pictured below) contradicts his own words as well as video evidence as he rattles off nonsensical counter-accusations and excuses, and MLB essentially looks the other way.  There is something very wrong with this picture.

In case you missed this stink that should be much bigger than it is, FSN Rocky Mountain’s cameras — by request of the Rockies coaches — caught Billmeyer, the Phillies’ bullpen coach, using binoculars to look toward home plate during Monday night’s game.  Among Manuel’s excuses is that Billmeyer uses binoculars only to watch his own catcher’s positioning.  The problem with that argument is the facts: the Rockies and FSN only observed Billmeyer using the binoculars during the top of the innings, when the Rockies were in the field and Miguel Olivo was catching.

Using binoculars to steal signs from the other team is explicitly against MLB rules.  So this is an open-and-shut case.  The only logical reason the Phillies would want such a magnified view of the opposing catcher is to steal signs, and the Phillies have offered no alternative explanation.  Instead, Manuel has gone through a laundry list of contradictory statements to deny and excuse his team’s cheating.  At one point, he forcefully denied the accusation, saying his team does not steal signs.  Later he said that his team would steal signs if given the opportunity, but it’s okay because so would any other team.

Manuel also tried to justify the cheating by hypothesizing that — because the Mets have a better record at home than on the road — maybe the Mets do the same thing at Citi Field.  I have to admit he’s got a point there.  Who has ever heard of a sports team that plays better at home than on the road?  There could certainly be no explanation for that other than cheating.  And of course Manuel brought up the infamous incident in the 2007 NLDS when the Phillies convinced themselves that Manuel Corpas was putting a foreign substance on the ball before he pitched it.  What he neglected to mention was how MLB reviewed the incident and found no reason to conclude that Corpas was cheating.

That gets us to the heart of what is so unnerving about this situation.  When the Rockies were accused of cheating based on inconclusive video footage, MLB didn’t hesitate to review the incident.  When the Phillies were caught cheating on videotape, MLB issued them a verbal warning.  It’s not as if this can be regarded as a one time incident that occurred during a couple early innings of one regular season game.  After stealing signs early on in this contest, the Phillies mounted a huge rally at the end of the game to win it.  If you haven’t repressed the memories, you might recall that the Phillies won both of their 2009 NLDS games at Coors Field in an eerily similar fashion.  Make of that what you will, but it certainly calls into question whether there was illegal sign stealing going on there too.  On top of that, the Phillies were previously accused of using a video camera to steal signs, and MLB did nothing.

It’s inexcusable that MLB would ignore repeated and brazen rules violations for certain teams.  When the media ignores 75% of the Big Leagues to shower attention on its darling East Coast teams, it’s obnoxious.  When MLB ignores the rules to allow one of its media darlings to cheat, it threatens the integrity of the entire game.  I had hoped that the powers that be in baseball would have learned from the steroid scandal not to look the other way for the sake of short term gains, but unfortunately that does not appear to be the case.

If you’ve been listening to recent episodes or reading Scott’s angry blogging, you know that Rockiescast was not thrilled with the World Series match-up or with the conduct of these teams’ average fan.  It’s reassuring to see that we are not alone.  Earlier this week, the Daily Show aired a piece on the confluence of trashy fans that took place in South Philly on Sunday, when the Eagles stomped the Giants at Lincoln Financial Field hours before the Yankees took Game 4 from the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.  It brought back fuzzy memories of the two times over the last three Octobers that Scott and I have made the trek to that very asphalt hellscape to take verbal abuse from the trashiest fans in sports.  Both times, it was a small price to pay to watch the Rockies beat the Phillies in a playoff game. Take a look, and I’m sure you’ll understand how these people made the Rockies’ victories that much sweeter.