5. CHEATING IN CHICAGO? Who'd have figured? A legendary figure in Chicago's history of political high jinks is Sidney "Short Pencil" Lewis, who was accused of erasing votes for Richard J. Dailey during the 1955 Democratic mayoral primary. (This determines who will be the next Chicago mayor.)
According to author James Marriner, "short pencil" also referred to other unfair Sidney Lewis tactics like providing voters with a stubby pencil that made it difficult to mark their ballots, or putting the pencil on such a short string that they couldn't mark the whole ballot and instead were encouraged to vote straight ticket, for Democrats, of course.
6. CHEATING IN BASEBALL. When the New York Giants' Bobby Thompson hit his famous "shot heard 'round the world" homer off Brooklyn Dodgers' pitcher Ralph Branca in 1951, it might not have been the answer to a thousand prayers so much as careful planning, er, cheating.
The Giants used a telescope for most of the season to steal the opposing teams' pitching signs, a fact confirmed 50 years later by reporter Joshua Prager. The elaborate scheme required the team running an electrical line to te dugout to quickly relay the info.
Bobby Thompson went to his grave denying that he knew a fastball was coming his way.
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