SLA Media

SLAMedia is a publication of the news for the Science Leadership Academy community. Writers come from the student body in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. We work in unison to create a functioning paper with biweekly postings on a variety of events.

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Phuture Phillies Team in 2018.

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Aaron Watson-Sharer

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Phillies 2016 Current Depth Chart. This team on paper looks like it would be bad. Especially with players like Darin Ruf, Ryan Howard and Peter Bourjos making common starts in the field.
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Phillies fans must be very excited, this season has been nothing short of a pleasant surprise, where we’ve actually been winning. This team’s success has been founded on pitching. A team near the bottom of the majors in runs scored wins by pitching their hearts out.
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On the offensive side, we have Maikel Franco. Franco is a future piece to this team due to his plus defensive value and great bat. He is only hitting .243 with 7 home runs on 23 runs batted in, but this isn’t who he is. His potential is insurmountable compared to any hitter on this tea. Odubel Herrera is another player to watch. He is top five in walk and has been hitting above .300.
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What makes the 2018 roster the contender? The Phillies will have developed their young talent by 2018. This means Aaron Nola, Maikel Franco and other will be feared on gameday. Along with being a big market team, the Phillies have ONE COMMITTED contracts to any past free agent on the team after 2017. That is to Matt Harrison, who is irrelevant. This means the entire team will be making pennies compared to other clubs.
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The Phillies have this year's top draft pick, which should be spent on South Jersey Lefty Jason Groome. He has the ability to be a frontline starter.
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- 1B Tommy Joseph - LF Nick Williams - SP Mark Appel - SS J.P. Crawford - RP Jimmy Cordero Are the 2016 notable promotions.
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The Phillies have money and need a power hitter and a left handed reliever. Moreland is a power hitter who in his time with the Rangers has never disappointed. Brian Matusz was a top five draft back in 2008. The 6'5 lefty has been a consistent bullpen arms besides in 2016. I expect a bounceback after being unfortunate to pitch for the O's his entire career. - Mitch Moreland 3 Years/48MM - Brian Matusz 2 Years/10MM
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-OF Dylan Cozens - C Jorge Alfaro - C Andrew Knapp - RP Zach Eflin - OF Roman Quinn - UT Darnell Sweeney Are the 2017 notable promotions.
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Phillies have the money to get an elite batter. J.D. Martinez in 320 games with the Tigers has 69 homers with a .292 batting average and 198 runs batted in. In 2018., he he'll cost us $168MM/7 Years.
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This is my most bold move. Why this works? The Phillies will need a staff ace, who's young and get strikeouts. That's Archer. In his past two seasons he has had a 3.23 and 4.38 earned run average, respectively. His strikeouts per nine are above eleven. He is the ace we need to push in October. In this trade, we'd give up C Andrew Knapp, RHP Ricardo Pinto, 1B Jhailyn Ortiz and RHP Nick Pivetta. The Philles would pay a hefty price, especially in Andrew Knapp but we have the depth to absorbs these losses. This is a move that winners make.
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This is a winnign team with all the moves made to beat the best. This 2018 club is well rounded and there's enough money that the Phillies could still improve a lot off this. In a few years, we'll be World Series ready.
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Primary Roundup: Kentucky and Oregon

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Tuesday, May 17th Primaries: Kentucky and Oregon

Bernie Sanders continues in his success as news get back that the Democratic hopeful won by 58% in Oregon and tied 49.3% to 49.7% with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Sanders supporters are celebrating this victory, which follows a 51% win in West Virginia, but are wary of the “Super Tuesday pt. 2” to come on June 7th. South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and California- with a whopping 475 delegates at stake- all vote on that day, and their votes could make or break the election for candidates this closely tied. Currently, Clinton leads by 274 unpledged delegates. Like Sanders, she needs the June 7th primaries to work in her favor, especially considering that she has lost to or tied with Sanders in the last 5 primaries (except for the Guam primary, in which she won 4:3).
As the race heats up, every vote begins to matter (unless you’re a Republican, in which case Donald Trump has pretty much sealed the nomination). Send this out to your friends and/or family in any of the 6 states to vote on June 7th, and encourage them to vote!

primary-report Kentucky Report

The People vs. O.J Simpson The Tragedy and Circus from the Past that Remains Powerful to the Audience of Today

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Screen Shot 2016-05-12 at 12.38.35 PM

Sean Morris

Staff Writer

The glove, the Broncco, Nicole’s 911 calls and the Mark Fuhrman tapes, the curls. All this and more are brought back to our television screens with Ryan Murphy’s heavily anticipated debut season of “American Crime story,”another show that has a different story line with each season. This season focuses on infamous case “The People vs. O.J Simpson” and is almost certainly going to be this seasons hot award ticket.

Beginning on the night of the tragic murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, the show chronicles  the resulting media fueled trial of the century that cast a dark spotlight on america’s issues with race, gender, class, celebrity culture and more.  To put it simply: Every episode I saw astonished me . The quality of the show was stellar,  episode after episode after episode.  I’ve seen some episodes multiple times now, and I can still watch them with almost the same feverish anticipation and interest as I did the first time.

Here are my thoughts on a few aspects of the show:

  • The facts: While not everything is true to life on the show- it’s startling how much is, and how much they didn’t need to make up for TV.  For example one thing they did change was Johnny Cochran’s famous catchphrase “if the gloves don’t fit you must acquit” was actually written by another defense lawyer, but in this show they had Cochran penning it and going through variations of it before arriving at the phrase. While not accurate, I could understand why they did it, as it fits into what most people assume, easier narratively to tell and it was admittedly comedic when you first realize he’s going through variations of the line before he came up with that famous catchphrase.
  • The music: The soundtrack is pretty perfect to the respective scenes they’re in and can be hilarious in of itself. For example, when they played “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys during part of the Bronco chase it was an oddly appropriate choice
  • The clothes: The costuming is actually pretty great and did something that I thought could never been done- made 90s clothes look good. Especially for me, I found myself admiring OJ’s lawyers suits and wild ties.
  • The sets: The shows detail to the time period cannot be underestimated and how they were able to intersect actual news clips of the trial really made you feel like you were transported back to that time.

Now I can’t talk about this show without crediting  about this incredible cast. Oh my god this cast. With everyone in this show giving nothing short of excellent performances- some that have even been the best of their careers. From John Travolta — my favorite presence — David Schwimmer, Nathan Lane, Christian Clemenson, Bruce Greenwood, Kenneth Choi, giving their best work in years.  Joseph Siravo giving a brief, but powerful few scenes as the father of the one victims, Sterling Brown becoming something of a breakout star.

The ultimate cast credit has to go to Sarah Paulson and Courtney B Vance for stealing the show. Paulson’s Marcia Clark becomes the heart of the story as we see her crusade for justice for the victims and their families while battling the complexities of the case, a divorce settlement and the sexism harassment of the media. Courtney B Vance is breathtaking as the famous lawyer of Johnnie Cochran, who uses the case as platform to highlight racial injustices in America, particularly the LAPD- especially considering this case about two years after the Rodney King riots.

The case highlights the injustices that many african americans face , but also comes to references of gender, class, celebrity culture, the failings of the justice system and more. The series never explicitly suggests  that OJ Simpson is guilty or innocent, instead allows the audience to look at the facts and the emotions in the case and allows the audience to make its own mind on whether justice was served or not. The show managed to be both funny and heartbreaking,  and while it took place 20 years ago, it’s startlingly relevant to the present day  and deserves everyone’s time and attention.

 

Post Script- I hope the last frame will break your heart as much as mine was

Varsity Boys Baseball Team Dominates E&S in Win

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Lukas Aznar pitches in the 1st inning against E&M
Lukas Aznar pitches in the 1st inning against E&S, Photo Taken by Jesse Shuter

On Friday, April 24th the Science Leadership Academy varsity baseball team took down E&S in an absolute rout. The final score of the game was a 15-0 finish in a mercy rule shortened game. The varsity team now stands at an 8-0 undefeated record and is in first in their division.

The SLA boys team also has a whopping total run differential this year. They have scored an incredible 84 runs while only allowing ten. They have not given up a run as a team since April 8th.

The game started with pitcher and junior Lukas Supovitz-Aznar began dealing as he quickly took down their hitters stiking out many of the batters. Then when SLA began to bat it got ugly very quickly for E&S.

Kevin Courtney swinging at and hitting a pitch in the bottom of the 1st inning
Kevin Courtney swinging at and hitting a pitch in the bottom of the 1st inning, Photo Taken by Jesse Shuter

After hits by many of the SLA batters including captain and senior Kevin Courtney, SLA was up on a 8-0 lead at the end of the first inning. In the second inning Aznar struck out the side, not an easy feat. The SLA boys were then held to a scoreless inning.

At times the game looked as though it might be shortened by rain, but the weather held more than long enough for this game to finish.

While winning in such a way is the major story, perhaps another big story is senior Kevin Courtney coming into the game as a pitcher. Courtney was one of SLA’s best pitchers and most promising players before his season was ended with Tommy John surgery.

Tommy John is a surgery that many pitchers go through, especially major leaguers and it takes over a year to recover from the surgery.

Courtney pitching was somewhat miraculous as he was not yet expected to start pitching, but he game into the game and finished with a strong showing, holding onto the shutout.

Broen/Bron: What a blast!

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I don’t know about how any of you spent your weekends, but I probably spent mine watching one of the best TV shows I have ever seen. I am talking about Broen/Bron, a Danish/Swedish Crime Thriller TV series that could possibly be one of the best TV shows in recent memory.

To avoid spoilers, you’ll just have to trust me: it’s  a great show. The first episode introduces you to the main characters and is essentially the exposition of the story, which  revolves around a murder that happens directly on eh Øresund (the Sound) bridge between Sweden and Denmark near Malmo and Copenhagen respectively and what course it takes during the investigation.

The main characters are portrayed by Kim Bodina and Sofia Helin, who are Danish and Swedish respectively. Both play extraordinary characters, whose personal development as the show goes on, only increased the tension and thrill of watching the show. Unlike other TV shows, the director and the actors took great care giving their stories and having them be more than emotionless crime solvers and that gave a quite humanizing aspect to the detectives.

Full of twists and turns, Broen/Bron holds no bars back. As a Danish and Swedish production I was definitely taken aback at times over what was portrayed in the TV show. To give some context, Nordic TV is very liberal with what it shows. When I mean very liberal, I mean with both violence and sexual content, so my warning  is not to be taken lightly. I personally believed that I could stomach some scenes only to cringe and turn away . Do not watch this show unless you are both prepared to have your mind blown away and to see things that might shock you.

This TV show is also one that cannot be predicted. Full of red herrings, dead ends, and other engaging fillers, this show actively tries to mess with your thinking. More than once, I thought that I knew what was going on, only to rethink everything in the entire show. If you feel as if all crime shows are predictable and therefore a bore to watch, then watch this one, it’ll keep you guessing at every turn.

I am not a fan of crime shows for their stale, monotonous style, but this one was brilliant. I would highly recommend this show to anyone who wants to really wants a fresh TV show. Again this is to be taken with a grain of salt for the reasons in paragraph 3, but it should not hold you back from watching this show. What are you waiting for, go watch already!

This show is available for rent from the Free Library of Philadelphia, and can also be purchased online. As far as I can tell it is not available on any of the popular streaming services in the United States but can be found on some websites for free, those however at at your own risk.