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<blog-post>
  <updated-at type="datetime">2009-04-01T17:19:39-04:00</updated-at>
  <intro nil="true"></intro>
  <title>Elias' cycle of lies</title>
  <published-at type="datetime">2008-09-02T11:00:55-04:00</published-at>
  <comments-count type="integer">244</comments-count>
  <created-at type="datetime">2008-09-10T06:38:48-04:00</created-at>
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      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-09-02T16:44:37-04:00</created-at>
        <user>
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          <comments-count type="integer">5337</comments-count>
          <state>PA</state>
          <display-name>Anthony E-is out.</display-name>
          <city>Easton                      </city>
          <id type="integer">181117</id>
        </user>
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        <body>wow thats funny. btw my last name is elias hahaha. i always thought i had a relation.</body>
        <id type="integer">2644215</id>
      </comment>
      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-09-02T14:25:09-04:00</created-at>
        <user>
          <image nil="true"></image>
          <comments-count type="integer">8904</comments-count>
          <state>WA</state>
          <display-name>Marshall K. - Top Cat</display-name>
          <city>Tacoma</city>
          <id type="integer">410526</id>
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        <body>LTL's are up.</body>
        <id type="integer">2642002</id>
      </comment>
      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-09-02T14:19:46-04:00</created-at>
        <user>
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          <comments-count type="integer">6092</comments-count>
          <state>FL</state>
          <display-name>BKJ - no 10 Spot, no peace!</display-name>
          <city>Jacksonville                </city>
          <id type="integer">89693</id>
        </user>
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        <body>But BKJ - I thought he had settled down! Or was that just all of his rowdy friends?
---
It's all of that, MG.</body>
        <id type="integer">2641893</id>
      </comment>
      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-09-02T14:19:06-04:00</created-at>
        <user>
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          <comments-count type="integer">3930</comments-count>
          <state>MN</state>
          <display-name>Midvalley</display-name>
          <city>Chanhassen                  </city>
          <id type="integer">181969</id>
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        <body>Marshall has spoken.</body>
        <id type="integer">2641840</id>
      </comment>
      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-09-02T14:17:19-04:00</created-at>
        <user>
          <image>http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/100/298/thumb/not_mcentegart_pete_copy_dead.jpg</image>
          <comments-count type="integer">6222</comments-count>
          <state>VA</state>
          <display-name>Mark G</display-name>
          <city>Richmond                    </city>
          <id type="integer">100537</id>
        </user>
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        <body>But BKJ - I thought he had settled down! Or was that just all of his rowdy friends?</body>
        <id type="integer">2641853</id>
      </comment>
      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-09-02T14:15:06-04:00</created-at>
        <user>
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          <comments-count type="integer">6092</comments-count>
          <state>FL</state>
          <display-name>BKJ - no 10 Spot, no peace!</display-name>
          <city>Jacksonville                </city>
          <id type="integer">89693</id>
        </user>
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        <body>Leave Hank Williams Jr outa this!</body>
        <id type="integer">2641861</id>
      </comment>
      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-09-02T14:14:16-04:00</created-at>
        <user>
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          <comments-count type="integer">6222</comments-count>
          <state>VA</state>
          <display-name>Mark G</display-name>
          <city>Richmond                    </city>
          <id type="integer">100537</id>
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        <body>Jim - healdine should read: &amp;quot;Clemens Arrested After Getting Rowdy with Minors.&amp;quot;</body>
        <id type="integer">2641826</id>
      </comment>
      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-09-02T14:10:47-04:00</created-at>
        <user>
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          <comments-count type="integer">1034</comments-count>
          <state>WI</state>
          <display-name>Jim from Milwaukee</display-name>
          <city>Milwaukee                   </city>
          <id type="integer">93186</id>
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        <body>It's prolly not good to have Roger Clemens and &amp;quot;minor&amp;quot; anything in the same story.</body>
        <id type="integer">2641807</id>
      </comment>
      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-09-02T14:06:39-04:00</created-at>
        <user>
          <image>http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/893/93/thumb/untitled.bmp</image>
          <comments-count type="integer">6092</comments-count>
          <state>FL</state>
          <display-name>BKJ - no 10 Spot, no peace!</display-name>
          <city>Jacksonville                </city>
          <id type="integer">89693</id>
        </user>
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        <body>Help, Pete, HELP!!!</body>
        <id type="integer">2641784</id>
      </comment>
      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-09-02T14:06:09-04:00</created-at>
        <user>
          <image nil="true"></image>
          <comments-count type="integer">8904</comments-count>
          <state>WA</state>
          <display-name>Marshall K. - Top Cat</display-name>
          <city>Tacoma</city>
          <id type="integer">410526</id>
        </user>
        <quoted-text nil="true"></quoted-text>
        <commentable-sequence nil="true"></commentable-sequence>
        <body>OK, if we don't get a new post soon, I'm going to be forced to bring out some of my &amp;quot;when I was growing up&amp;quot; stories.  Don't make me go there...</body>
        <id type="integer">2641768</id>
      </comment>
    </comments>
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  </comments-page>
  <body>&lt;p&gt;In the latest blow to the credibility of our most hallowed institutions, the Elias Sports Bureau has admitted to fabricating a story over the weekend.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When two major leaguers&amp;nbsp;-- Arizona&amp;#39;s &lt;strong&gt;Stephen Drew&lt;/strong&gt; and Mariners third baseman &lt;strong&gt;Adrian Beltre&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;-- each hit for the cycle on Monday, Elias announced that the rare feat had last been accomplished twice on the same day on Sept. 17, 1920, by &lt;strong&gt;Bobby Veach&lt;/strong&gt; of the Tigers and the New York Giants&amp;#39; &lt;strong&gt;George Burns&lt;/strong&gt;. Alas, that claim was no more accurate than a pitch by the Mets&amp;#39; bullpen.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;We at Elias learned this morning that the information we distributed on Monday night was in error,&amp;quot; said &lt;strong&gt;Tom&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Statsny&lt;/strong&gt;, Elias&amp;#39;s president. &amp;quot;A bored employee simply made it up. For heaven&amp;#39;s sake, George Burns didn&amp;#39;t even play baseball. I&amp;#39;m not sure whether you&amp;#39;d call him more of an actor or a comedian, but I know he was really old.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The ruse has been traced to &lt;strong&gt;Joe Quigley&lt;/strong&gt;, a college intern who was the only person working at Elias over the Labor Day Weekend. As soon as Beltre completed his cycle on Monday night to match Drew&amp;#39;s earlier effort, Elias was inundated by requests from sportswriters on deadline asking when the last time such a statistical oddity had occurred.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I don&amp;#39;t want to make excuses,&amp;quot; said Quigley, &amp;quot;but I was pretty upset that I was the only guy in the office. I had to skip a Labor Day barbeque, and my buddy told me there were a lot of drunk sorority girls there. Talk about missed opportunities. So I thought I&amp;#39;d have a little fun.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Quigley, a Detroit fan from Grosse Pointe, Mich., decided to honor overlooked Tigers outfielder Veach with part of his fake note. Veach was Detroit&amp;#39;s starting leftfielder from 1913-23 and hit .311 for his career, but is all but forgotten because he was overshadowed by outfield mates &lt;strong&gt;Ty Cobb&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Sam&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Wahoo&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;quot; &lt;strong&gt;Crawford&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I never thought it was right that Veach didn&amp;#39;t get more pub,&amp;quot; said Quigley. &amp;quot;Just because he wasn&amp;#39;t an ornery S.O.B. like Cobb and didn&amp;#39;t have a cool nickname like Wahoo doesn&amp;#39;t mean he should be forgotten. Even guys with boring nickname like &amp;#39;JQ&amp;#39; don&amp;#39;t deserve to have a cup of beer poured on them from a third-floor dorm window by some dumb football player. Not saying that happened to anybody I know.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As for coming up with Burns, Quigley concedes he pulled that name out of the air because he was watching &lt;em&gt;Oh God! You Devil&lt;/em&gt; on Starz. Still, the intern insists he only meant his fabricated release to be a harmless prank. He didn&amp;#39;t expect media members to believe it and run with the information.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I thought I made it obvious I was kidding when I wrote than George Burns played for the New York Giants,&amp;quot; said Quigley. &amp;quot;Come on, that&amp;#39;s a football team, not a baseball team. Didn&amp;#39;t anyone see the Super Bowl?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now Elias must work to repair its tattered image as the unimpeachable source of obscure baseball trivia.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I don&amp;#39;t know if I can trust Elias again,&amp;quot; said a sportswriter who requested anonymity, but is really &lt;strong&gt;Tom Smiley&lt;/strong&gt; of the New York &lt;em&gt;Daily News&lt;/em&gt;. &amp;quot;Let&amp;#39;s be honest, nobody remembers anything that happened in baseball before 1950. Elias could make up anything it wanted, and who would know the difference? Do you know the last time a lefthander with an overly prominent birthmark carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning on the summer solstice? Well, neither do I, but Elias always did. Or at least they claimed to. As far as I&amp;#39;m concerned for Elias, it&amp;#39;s say goodnight, &lt;strong&gt;Gracie&lt;/strong&gt;. Wait, don&amp;#39;t use that. I want to save that line for my column.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(&lt;em&gt;Editor&amp;#39;s Note&lt;/em&gt;: This story is satire.)&lt;/p&gt;</body>
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    <display-name>The 10 Spot</display-name>
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</blog-post>
