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May 12, 2012
National Train Day Game This game was unusual, even by Cosmic Baseball standards. COBRA scholars are looking for an explanation for why this game played out the way it did. One cosmic baseball fan called it "the most uncanny game I've ever witnessed anywhere, anytime." But for a ninth inning error by the Train Routes' centerfielder THE VERMONTER, THE CAPITOL LIMITED would have recorded a perfect game. Both the CAPITOL LIMITED and WASHINGTON UNION STATION threw 25 (!) strikeouts...There were fifty (!!) total strikeouts in this strange game. The 2012 National Train Day Game bears no connection with any other baseball game, professional or amateur, except that there is a winner, the TRAIN ROUTES and a loser the UNION STATIONS.
Presidential Selection Every four years the Washington Presidents go through a Presidential Selection process to determine if a rookie can be added to the roster. Like other cosmic baseball teams, the Washington Presidents have specific roster eligibility requirements. In the case of the Presidents only individuals who have actually served as the chief executive of the United States are eligible to be players on the roster. Depending on the circumstances (political and constitutional) a rookie can be drafted as a result of the Presidential selection process. While the Presidents could use some new player blood (based on their recent lackluster performance in the regulated league) there is no constitutional requirement for a rookie selection next season. This year the Washington Presidents are conducting a Presidential Selection Series which will include cosmic baseball games between players representing incumbent President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney. The latter represents the Republican political party and the incumbent represents the Democratic political party. The team rosters include advisers, consultants and others associated with an official presidential campaign.
The Series has begun. The teams have already begun playing.
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It was "Condiments Day" at Sauce Pan Park. Players, fans, umpires...everyone...got a bag full of complimentary sauces. And the played game was a good one. The Dharma Beats are beginning to surge and defeated the Puritan Sauces behind the good pitching of David Kammerer. This Beat surge comes just as the popular culture begins viewing the new ON THE ROAD movie. Click here for the game report
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The Washington Presidents continue their bottom-dwelling ways. Possibly the real world of the presidential selection process and its implications for next year's roster has some players (and management) distracted. Pisces rookie catcher Mitt Romney was this game's most cosmic player. If the former governor from Massachusetts is drafted next November by the Washington Presidents, it will be the first time an active cosmic baseball player is drafted by the Presidents. Click here for the game report
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The result was predictable. Food fights off politics on the cosmic baseball field. Polls and undisclosed attendance numbers suggest the Sauces are more popular than the Presidents...it's hard to love a loser. How can the veteran Presidents turn things around? Click here for the game report
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The Cosmic Baseball Association announced today the names of the teams that will compete in this season's National Train Day Game. The TRAIN ROUTES will play the UNION STATIONS on May 12, which is the same day that the United States will celebrate its fifth annual National Train Day.
The National Passenger Rail Corporation (Amtrak) created National Train Day in 2008 to promote passenger rail service in the United States. The railroad train is as strong a symbol as the horse and the automobile, and equally flush with metaphors.
The names of trains (current and retired) have their own interesting meanings. For example, the EMPIRE BUILDER was named for James J. Hill creator of the Great Northern Railway, which launched the EMPIRE BUILDER service on June 11, 1929. The oldest named train route on the team roster is the SUNSET LIMITED, which has been in service since 1894 when the Southern Pacific Railroad launched her.
Before the "Union Station" concept arrived, it was not uncommon for rail passengers to have to travel from one end of a city or town to another end to get a connecting train from a different railroad company. Promoting the concept of the Union Station was the businessman's recognition that unity was profitable...e pluribus unum...the Union Station idea was one among other contributions capitalism gave to manifest destiny.Indianapolis opened the first Union Station on September 20, 1853 and the idea spread.
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It wasn't until the eighth inning that the Pisces bothered to produce any runs but by that time the Monroes had a comfortable lead thanks in part to Ellen Arden, one of the more mystical characters that Marilyn Monroe played and didn't play. Click here for the game report
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Sandor Ferenczi got the nod for MCP in this game. Was it just a coincidence that before the game the JumboTron was displaying videos of the analyst embracing several apparently satisfied patients? Just as Wade Boggs had his chicken-eating ritual, Ferenczi has his own ritual...he likes to press the flesh before a game. Jung was the winning pitcher. Click here for the game report
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This season's Paul Arthur Memorial Game finds a group of experimental filmmakers and teachers from a small college in New York's Hudson Valley playing against a bureacracy from Washington DC....Politics and art mix it up on the field of play.
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The Presidents haven't won many games this year and they'll likely be bottom-dwellers this season. But the chief executives did eke out a win against the new Puritan Sauces in Lafayette Park. Jimmy Carter got the win, Tabasco the loss. Click here for the game report
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Iris Martin, a secretary/receptionist at a small town newspaper is beginning to attract some attention. Good with a bat, absolutely; and nearly disabled in the field. Everyone knows why the blonde is playing the hot corner but it's costing the team games. Click here for the game report
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The St. Patrick's Land team played McNamara's Band and the Band won. It was an exciting game and the big surprise was that the St. Patrick's team was shut out...(The after-party on the field and in the stands was a blast too.) Click here for the game report.
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The Ides of March...and the Cosmic Baseball Association launches its 31st Regulated Season. The season opener has the Beats visiting the Pisces in Paradise. The Game Report is here.
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The Jack Kerouac Memorial Cosmic Baseball Game is played each season on Kerouac's birthday in remembrance of the celebrated American writer.
Fans of the Beat Generation are celebrating the 90th birthday of Jack Kerouac today. It is difficult to imagine a 90 year old Kerouac since much of the Beat movement was, in its time, a youthful rebellion. In a few months the film version of Kerouac's novel On The Road will be released (it is already completed and in the can and a marketing campaign is currently underway via the social networks on the internet and elsewhere.)
This season's Kerouac Memorial Game was played between the CHARACTERS in On The Road and the ACTORS who portrayed those characters in the film version.
This game predicts that the film will not do well critically or financially. According to the Internet Movie Database the film's budget was $25 million. (The most recent Oscar winning film for best picture cost $15,000,000, and has grossed $36.8 million to date. The estimated budget for the film version of Kerouac's The Subterraneans, released in 1960, was $931,724.)
Our reason for predicting that the new film will be a disappointment, however, has nothing to do with any specific historical, cultural, or cinematic factors. The prediction is based on the high number of fielding errors that occurred during this season's game.
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The On The Road Actors will meet the On The Road Characters in this season's Jack Kerouac Memorial Cosmic Baseball Game.
In preparation for the annual event, three teams, connected in one way or another to Kerouac's novel On The Road, competed for the honor to participate in the Kerouac Memorial game played each season on March 12 to honor the American writer and baseball fan.
A team of CHARACTERS in the novel, a team of ACTORS playing the characters in the novel and REAL life individuals associated with the novel, played a short series of cosmic baseball games to determine which two teams would play each other on March 12. According to the planners of the JK Memorial Game, this year the focus on Kerouac's novel, published in 1957, meshes well with the release of the long delayed and awaited film version of the novel.
Below, please find some of the series data.
| Roster for THE ACTORS | |
| Player | Position |
| Kristen Stewart | 3B |
| Kirsten Dunst | LF |
| Tom Sturridge | RF |
| Viggo Mortensen | CF |
| Danny Morgan | 2B |
| Elizabeth Moss | 1B |
| Marie-Ginette Guay | SS |
| Sam Riley | C |
| Garrett Hedlund | P |
| Roster for THE REAL | |
| Player | Position |
| Jack Kerouac | C |
| Allen Ginsberg | LF |
| William Burroughs | RF |
| LuAnne Henderson | CF |
| Carolyn Cassady | 3B |
| Nin Kerouac | 1B |
| Al Hinkel | SS |
| Helen Hinkel | 2B |
| Neal Cassady | P |
| Roster for THE CHARACTERS | |
| Player | Position |
| Ed Dunkel | 2B |
| Bull Lee | RF |
| Camille | 3B |
| Carlo Marx | LF |
| MaryLou | CF |
| Gabrielle Levesque | 1B |
| Sal Paradise | C |
| Galatea Dunkel | SS |
| Dean Moriarty | P |
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This season's Cinema Game was played between Academy Award winning Hollywood directors of the 1960s and notable artists within the New American Cinema circle of experimental filmmakers.
Link to 2012 Cinema Game Box Score
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This personal cosmic baseball game places the two characters in John Logan's play RED on the cosmic field of play. Logan's psychodrama has been well received winning the Tony Award for best play during the 2010 season.
RED is about the interaction between the abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko and his imaginary studio assistant, Ken. In the play, Rothko and Ken argue about color, money, pop art. It's a play about the child being father to the man. And this cosmic baseball game tells us that the child finds home more often.
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The Cosmic Baseball Association announced the creation of three new cosmic baseball teams that will compete during the Season 2012 regulated season. The MARYLAND MARILYNS represent a team of characters acted by the famous American actress Marilyn Monroe. The PURITAN SAUCES are a team of sauces associated with cooking and eating. The VIENNA FREUDS will field a team of mostly psychologists with some connection to the founder of psychoanalysis.
Maryland Marilyns |  |
Puritan Sauces |  |
Vienna Freuds |  |
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Everyone here at the Cosmic Baseball Association wishes all our friends and fans a very happy and a very healthy New Year.
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