Game of July 17
2012 Presidential Draft Series

Unlike the more friendly annual congressional baseball game, presidential draft selection contests are more fierce...and this contest was one of the fiercest. The Obamas eventually won this game but not before the Romneys tied it up in the bottom of the ninth inning by combining a single, a stolen base and opposition assistance in the form of a critical fielding error. The Obamas rallied in the next inning and scored a run on two hits. Obama leftfielder Penny Pritzker got the game-winning RBI and the game MCP nod.

There is irony in Pritzker's on-field performance considering that two days before the game the New York Times ran an article about Pritzker's diminished commitment to the 2012 Obama campaign.

Regulated Cosmic Game
Monroes @ Pisces

Since this regulated season game was played the day after the 2012 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the originator of the "all-star game" concept was named the official scorer. Arch Ward made a few questionable calls, recording six errors, five charged against the Maryland Monroes. The Paradise Pisces won the game behind the strong pitching of Vanessa Williams and the offensive might of Fats Domino and Patty Hearst.

Personal Cosmic Game
2012 All Stars Game

The original idea for a professional major league baseball All-Star Game did not come from the baseball players or managers or the baseball commissioner; it was the idea of a Chicago newspaper sports editor. The CBA's 2012 All Stars Game between astronomical and movie stars was the idea of the assistant science editor at The Hollywood Telescope for Stars.

Personal Cosmic Game
2012 All Stars Rosters

The CBA's Commissioner's Office released the team rosters for the 2012 All Stars Game. The specific process of player selection is shrouded in mystery so only a few know exactly how the players were chosen. The star theme lends itself to numerous configurations. This iteration of the All Stars Game integrates two different types of stars: stars in the sky and stars from Hollywood films. The idea for this particular game originated with the assistant science editor at The Hollywood Telescope for Stars. [Click Here for the Game Report].

ALLSTARS1
Deneb the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus (the swan); Deneb is also referred to as alpha Cygni, and is the tail of the swan.	C
Rigel the brightest star in the constellation Orion and one of the brightest stars in the sky. It is a blue (very hot) supergiant	1B
Polaris Polaris (alpha UMi) is the current pole star for the Northern Hemisphere; it is 1 degree from the exact Northern celestial pole. It is the larger star at the end of the handle of the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor). Polaris is also called the Lodestar or the Cynosure.	2B
Alnitak Alnitak (Zeta Orionis) is a star at the eastern end of the Orion's belt (in the constellation Orion).	3B
Antares (Alpha Scorpii) Antares (meaning "Rival of Mars") is the brightest star in Scorpius, one of the constellations in the zodiac.	SS
Betelgeuse Betelgeuse (alpha Orionis) is the second-brightest star in the constellation Orion and one of the brightest stars in the sky.	LF
Canopus Canopus (Alpha Carinae) is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina and Argo Navis, and the second brightest star in the night-time sky, after Sirius.	CF
Ursa Major Ursa Major (Latin: "Larger Bear"), also known as the Great Bear, is a constellation of stars.	RF
Sirius Sirius (meaning "scorching" in Greek), also known as the dog star, is the brightest star in the sky (except for the sun). It is in the constellation Canis Major (The Great Dog).	P
ALLSTARS2
James Dean James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was an American film actor. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Dean the 18th best male movie star.	2B
Brigitte Bardot Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot (born 28 September 1934) is a former French fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist.	1B
Sophia Loren Sophia Loren, (born Sofia Villani Scicolone; 20 September 1934) is an Italian actress.	SS
Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the world's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s.	CF
Jack Nicholson John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American actor, film director, producer, and writer.	LF
Cary Grant Archibald Alexander Leach (January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986), was a British American actor. He was named the second Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute.	3B
Lindsay Lohan Lindsay Lohan (born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, recording artist, and model.	C
Clark Gable William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901 – November 16, 1960) (nicknamed 'The King of Hollywood.') was an American film actor. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Gable seventh among the greatest male stars of all time.	RF
Marlon Brando Marlon Brando, Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American screen and stage actor. Ranked by the American Film Institute as the fourth greatest screen legend among male movie stars.	P

Regulated Cosmic Game
Freuds @ Sauces

A very hot game between the two best cosmic teams this season (at the moment). The crowd gave Pumpsie Green, the game's official scorer a terrific standing ovation at the beginning of the game.

Game of July 3
2012 Presidential Draft Series

The Obamas won this game and thereby tied up the series. The standings reflect the national polls. Rumors that several key endorsers will join the Obamas are flowing freely. According to inside soures, the Romneys will add potential running mates to the roster before the end of the month.

Notes GAME DATE July 3, 2012 GAME DURATION 3h, 12m WEATHER Fair, 880 UMPIRES John Edwards David Vitter Anthony Weiner OFFICIAL SCORER Baba Ram Dass GAME MCP Bill Burton Earlier Games in this Series June 26 Game June 19 Game June 12 Game May 3 Game

Top

Regulated Cosmic Game
MSNBC @ FOX News

"Leaning Forward" @ "Fair & Balanced"

Edith Efron was quoting Walter Cronkite, "We try to present the news as objectively as possible, whether we like or don't like it. Now that is objectivity."

Efron, rebuking the CBS anchorman, opined, "In this desperate conceptual struggle with his subject, Mr. Cronkite merely ended up saying: 'Objectivity is when one tries to be objective.' It is rather circular as definitions go." (see E. Efron, News Twisters, 1971).

Cronkite was a TV news anchorman for nineteen years (1962-1981). Edith Efron was a writer and senior editor at TV Guide magazine during the 1960s and 1970s.

In February 1968 Cronkite expressed his opinion on the war in Vietnam: That the best the United States could salvage from the war effort would be a "stalemate." Cronkite told the American people via television that we couldn't win the war, "To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe in the face of the evidence the optimists who have been wrong in the past. "

Efron published her book The News Busters in 1971. She attempted to document the liberal media bias displayed in the television coverage of the 1968 U.S. Presidential campaign (Nixon v. Humphrey). The book includes 15 appendices detailing her research into the perceived bias.

Mr. Cronkite and Ms. Efron were named as honorary general managers of the teams that played in this personal cosmic baseball game. Mr. Cronkite represented the MSNBC team and Ms. Efron, represented the team from Fox News. After the game, the two did not shake hands.

On the other hand, the field managers did shake hands and talk to each other during the pre-game festivities. Phil Griffin told his counterpart Roger Ailes that "you [Ailes] get cable." Griffin told others, "Everybody else learned it [cable], studying Roger...[he] got it from day one." (see Esquire magazine profile of Roger Ailes, February 2011 issue.)

It was a well-played game. MSNBC did commit three fielding errors, one of which resulted in an unearned run. (Chris Hayes threw thoughlessly from leftfield allowing Steven Doocy to get to third on a scored double. The most controversial aspect of this game was probably the naming of the Most Cosmic Player by the Official Scorer. As usual, some disagreed that Alisyn Camerota was the game's MCP...but doesn't her two runs batted in make it right?

Regulated Cosmic Game
Monroes @ Beats

The Maryland Monroes are not sweeping the cellar floor (the Washington Presidents claim that dishonor) but they are a struggling rookie team (rumors of drug use and personality conflicts abound). The Dharma Beats are fighting near the top of the standings and there is hope that the release of the ON THE ROAD movie (based on Kerouac's 1957 novel) will spur the Beats upward. Click here for the game report

Game of June 26
2012 Presidential Draft Series

In the STATUS SEEKERS (1959) Vance Packard identified several factors that determine a citizen's politics. One is "the money factor." Upper-class rich people tend to be conservative, prefer the status quo, and vote Republican. Voters from the working-class tend to be liberal or radical and vote Democratic.

Another factor, called the "ancestry factor" focuses on group characteristics such as origins, race and creed. Packard writes, "There is a growing tendency in recent years for the two national parties to play politics with the ethnic blocs."

Packard refers to an "egghead factor" to determine what role intellectuality has in politics. Packard quotes from a a 1958 Time magazine article: "An overwhelming majority of key reporters and pundits who write the day-to-day political stories for the U.S. newspapers, radio and television are down-the-line Democrats; and so are most literary figures and librarians."

But this is old news. Vance Packard was writing in the middle of the last century.

The contemporary political environment has changed, witness the presidential campaigns now underway in the United States.

The Obamas won this game despite the error in Boston when they overtly displayed bias for the White kind of sox in a very Red sox environment. Not to be out done, error-wise, the Romneys need to revisit Packard's "ancestry factor."

BOXSCORE

Personal Cosmic Game
2012 Summer Solstice Game

It must just be coincidence but this game which lasted 14 full innings is now the longest personal cosmic game played this season. Were it not for a wild pitch and a sacrifice, and since theoretically any baseball game can go on indefinitely, we might still be scoring this season's Summer Solstice game. But alas, there was a wild pitch by Sagittarius and Saturn hit a sacrifice fly scoring planet Earth who began the top of the 14th inning with a walk. Click here for the game report

Game of June 19
2012 Presidential Draft Series

Mitt Romney's modest (3 point) Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll lead did not translate into a Romney victory in the June 19th game of the series. Perhaps the influence of the Investor's Business Daily/Christian Science Monitor/TIPP Poll which had Barack Obama with a modest (4 point) lead exerted more influence. Some question the meaning and/or meaningfulness of the numbers at this point in the draft.

Boxscore

GAME NOTES

• Duration 3 hours 0 minutes Weather 79^o
• Umpires John Booth, Charles Guiteau, Lee Oswald
• Official Scorer Baba Ram Dass
• Game MCP Robert Gibbs

Regulated Cosmic Game
Freuds @ Presidents

Games between the Vienna Freuds and the Washington Presidents have an added dimension this season since the public is receiving significant doses of pseudo-psychoanalytic analysis in relationship to the unfolding presidential campaign. It is not uncommon to hear journalists and opinionators make reference to psychological concepts like ego and psychobabble like "mommy" and "daddy" issues.

The Vienna Freuds won this game but that may be less a commentary on the accuracy or relevance of psychobabbling about political campaigns than the consistent lackluster performance of the Washington Presidents on the cosmic field of play. Click here for the game report

Game of June 12
2012 Presidential Draft Series

Presidential politics in the United States is as complex and intense as the politics of baseball. The metaphysics of political spin is no less alchemical than the physics of the pitched curve ball.

How did the now-apocryphal story get started that the dying Abraham Lincoln told Abner Doubleday to make sure baseball didn't die because it would help unite the country? The fantasy of Lincoln's communications with Doubleday notwithstanding, there isn't any debate that the 16th president of the United States played the game of baseball. Lincoln's association with baseball was reflected in an 1860 political cartoon. One tradition claims that he was playing baseball during the 1860 Republican Convention. (In those days, presidential candidates did not typically attend the party conventions.)

What purpose was behind the Brooklyn Cyclones' Barack Obama bobblehead doll promotion? The NY-Penn Class A club renamed itself the Baracklyn Cyclones (for the day of the promotion, June 23. 2009; the Cyclones led their league in attendance during that season, but, alas, they did not win a penant.)

Baseball and politics is very American like...apple pie, motherhood, hot dogs, cars, capitalism, democracy, civil rights, racism, adultery, greed and beauty, and opinions without facts.

The Washington Presidents have played in the Cosmic Baseball Association since the early years. Only one criterion is used to determine a player's eligibility to be on the Presidents' roster: The individual has to have served at least one minute as chief executive of the United States.

What makes the current selection process unique is that the presumptive or rather we should say the potential "rookie" is already a cosmic baseball player. Mitt Romney by virtue of his date of birth plays for the Paradise Pisces. (Potential Pisces players must be born on or after February 20 and on or before March 20.) Obama was signed as a pitcher by the Washington Presidents. Romney is a catcher for the Pisces. If Romney becomes the 45th president, The Presidents will need to activate an older president to pitch. (The question of whether Romney would be eligible for any rookie awards has yet to be decided.)

The series of cosmicbaseball games currently being played between the Obamas and the Romneys will shed light on the outcome of the political selection in November.

One rule in effect for the 2012 Presidential Selection Series is that games can only be played on Tuesdays. All games will be played at Nationals Park in Washington D.C. during moments when it is not in use for Major League Baseball games or other sponsored events.

Game of June 12, 2012 Boxscore

Top

Personal Cosmic Game
2012 Venus Transit Game

This cosmic baseball game was played under the influence of the Venus Transit on June 5, 2012. The planet Venus, visible as a small black dot, moved across the large yellow Sun. Described as a once-in-a-lifetime event, this transit of Venus across the solar sphere generated a lot of public attention. Click here for the game report

Roger Clemens Study Group
Hall-of-Fame Controversy

Regulated Cosmic Game
Beats @ Presidents

It is not startling that the Dharma Beats routinely best the Washington Presidents on the cosmic field of play. This game was played on the same day that Bob Dylan, sometimes called the "beatnik bard", received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama. John F. Kennedy instituted the award in 1963 and it is the highest honor offered by the government to a civilian in the United States. Dylan was one of 13 medalists honored at the White House moments after the Beats, with Dylan sitting in a box of honor, beat the Presidents. Click here for the game report

Personal Cosmic Game
Internetworks @ Social Networks

The first in a series of games was played on the day that the Facebook initial public offering took place. Since the social networks are derived from the evolution of the digital internetworks many predicted which team would win this first contest.

Regulated Cosmic Game
Monroes @ Freuds

This was a a game full of mental and physical slip-ups. After the game Monroe coach Arthur Miller tried to blame the number of errors on sky events by pointing out that planet Venus is retrograde (in the sign of Gemini). What? Click here for the game report

Personal Cosmic Game
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.

Link to the Game Report

Cosmic Players
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.

Romneys Roster Kevin Rewkowski, Director of Technology, Catcher Caitlin Checkett, Digital Integration Director, Firstbase Zac Moffatt, Digital Director, Secondbase Kristen Caron, Communications Manager, Thirdbase Gail Gitcho, Communications Director, Shortstop Andrea Saul, Press Secretary. Right Field James Garcia, National Field Director, Centerfield Rich Beeson, Political Director, Leftfield Matt Rhoades, Campaign Manager, Pitcher Katie Packer Gage, Deputy Campaign Manager, Utility Eric Fehrnstrom, Senior Advisor, Utility Lanhee Chen, Policy Director, Utility

Obamas Roster James Reed, Chief Technology Officer, Catcher Teddy Goff, Digital Director, Firstbase Joe Rospars, Chief Digital Strategist, Secondbase Aaron Gunderson, Digital Strategy, Thirdbase Betsy Hoover, Digital Organizing Director, Shortstop Michael Gottwald, Digital Projects Manager, Rightfield Ben LaBolt, Press Secretary, Centerfield Jeremy Bird, Field Director, Leftfield Jim Messina, Campaign Manager, Pitcher Stephanie Cutter, Deputy Campaign Manager, Utility David Axelrod, Consultant, Utility Katherine Archuleta, Utility

The Series has begun. The teams have already begun playing.

Game of May 3, 2012

Top

---

May 2, 2012

Regulated Cosmic Game
Beats @ Sauces

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

Regulated Cosmic Game
Presidents @ Pisces

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

Regulated Cosmic Game
Presidents @ Sauces

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

Rosters Announced
National Train Day Game

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.

2012 National Train Day Game Rosters

Regulated Cosmic Game
Pisces @ Monroes

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

Regulated Cosmic Game
Freuds @ Beats

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

Personal Cosmic Game
2012 Paul Arthur Memorial Game

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.

Regulated Cosmic Game
Sauces @Presidents

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

Regulated Cosmic Game
Monroes @ Freuds

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

Personal Cosmic Game
St. Patrick's Game

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.

Regulated Season 2012 Begins
Season Opener: Beats @ Pisces

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.

Personal Cosmic Games
2012 JACK KEROUAC MEMORIAL GAME

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.

Link to the Game Report

Personal Cosmic Games
ON THE ROAD SERIES

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.

OTR Series Final Standings

OTR Series Top Batting Averages

OTR Series Top Pitching Statistics

OTR Series Fielding Statistics

Personal Cosmic Games
2012 Cinema Game

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.

Personal Cosmic Game
Oedipus Red- The Rothko Game Report

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.

Game Report

Cosmic Baseball Teams
New Cosmic Baseball Teams

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

Welcome to the New Year
Happy New Year

Everyone here at the Cosmic Baseball Association wishes all our friends and fans a very happy and a very healthy New Year.