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October 28, 2004
The Boston Red Sox won their fifth World Championship yesterday when they defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-0 in Game 4 of the World Series to complete a four-game sweep of their National League opponents. (The Boston Americans won a championship in 1903; the Americans became the Red Sox in 1908. As the Red Sox they won championships in 1912, 1915, 1916, and 1918.) Just as important, the much-maligned Boston Red Sox have been decursed. And so have the team's fans, those long-suffering citizens of Red Sox Nation who used to tell you that death was life's other disappointment.
This year's Red Sox, a crew of decursed self-styled "idiots" not only won the franchise's first World Series in eighty-six years, they made history doing it. The way the Red Sox beat the New York Yankees, long their chief nemesis, to win the American League pennant, was historic, dramatic and decisive. 
After their historic battle with the Yankees, the Red Sox swept their opponents in the World Series (and in the process they set another record by winning eight straight post-season games). This season's Red Sox exorcised generations of bad karma. How significant is all of this?
Could it mean that a junior Senator from Massachusetts, currently trying to oust the incumbent President of the United States, might benefit from the cosmic resonance generated by the Red Sox' victory? Obviously, the answer to that question depends on your point of view. But the Red Sox' victory and the celebrations now taking place in Boston and elsewhere, provide the citizens of Red Sox Nation, at least a brief moment of escape from the confines of a wider nation no longer as curseless as it once imagined itself .
October 27, 2004
World Series Game 4, etc.
Wednesday, October 27...The Boston Red Sox are Major League Baseball's World Champions. It is well known that it has been eighty-six (86) years since the Red Sox have been the champions. In this baseball game, nine (9) hits and six (6) walks produced three (3) runs for Boston. The opposition had no (0) runs on four (4) hits and two (2) walks. The Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals. This World Series Game Four (4), in St. Louis, represents the Red Sox' eighth straight post-season win. The 2004 Red Sox are an historic team. The game lasted three hours and fourteen minutes (3:14). Game attendance: 52,037. Congratulations Red Sox Nation.
 The rookie field manager of the Boston Red Sox, Terry Francona spent ten years in the big leagues as a player. He played in his first Major League baseball game on August 19, 1981 and he played his last game on April 19, 1990. He had his most at bats (281) during the 1985 season. That same season he made $250,000. During his career, Francona hit sixteen (16) homeruns, seventy-four (74) doubles and six (6) triples. He walked sixty-five (65) times and struck out one hundred and nineteen (119) times. Francona played left and right field and first and third base; he committed twenty-two (22) career errors. During his playing career Francona wore uniform numbers 16, 10, 24, and 30.
October 26, 2004
World Series Game 3, etc.
Tuesday, October 26...The Red Sox are barreling towards their first world championship since 1918. In an error-free game, the team from Boston, Massachusetts racked up four (4) runs on nine (9) hits, including one (1) home run, and four (4) walks. Leading the best-of-seven series three games to none (3-0), only one (1) team in Major League Baseball history has ever come back and won after being down three (3) games in a post-season series and never in a World Series. The game took under two hours and fifty-eight minutes to play (2:58). Game attendance: 52,015.
It is one (1) week from the presidential election in the United States and nobody seems certain who will win the race. The Washington Post tracking poll today gives John F. Kerry a two (2) point lead over incumbent George W. Bush. Eight (8) battleground states were visited today by the candidates, running mates and spouses. Since March 3, Bush has visited the Statre of Florida sixteen (16) times; Kerry has visited the Sunshine state twenty-five (25) times. Kerry has also visited Ohio twenty-five (25) times; Bush has been in the Buckeye state fifteen (15) times. The Bush-Cheney campaign spent $14.2 million in August; the Kerry-Edwards campaign spent $10.3 million during the same period.
October 24, 2004
World Series Game 2, etc.
Sunday, October 24...The Red Sox again committed four (4) errors en route to winning the second game of the 2004 World Series. In thirty-one (31) at bats, using eight (8) hits, six (6) walks (but no home runs) the Red Sox scored six (6) runs, four (4) more than their opponents, the St. Louis Cardinals. The game took three hours and twenty minutes (3:20) to play. Game attendance: 35, 001.
Members of an Iraqi militant group killed forty-nine (49) Iraqi Army recruits on Sunday. Described as a "massacre" the event took place about fifty-five (55) miles northeast of Baghdad near the town or Kirkush. One (1) U.S. diplomat was killed by a mortar strike near Baghdad airport.
October 23, 2004
World Series Game 1, etc.
Saturday, October 23...The Boston Red Sox committed four (4) errors on their way to defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in Game One of the 2004 World Series, played at Fenway Park in Boston. In thirty-eight (38) at bats the Red Sox had thirteen (13) hits, including two (2) homeruns. They scored eleven (11) runs, two (2) more than their opponents. The game took four (4) hours to play. Game attendance: 35,035.On Saturday, in Iraq, there were two (2) car bombings. Seventeen (17) Iraqi security officers were killed. Two (2) Iraqi truck drivers were killed. Six (6) United States military personnel were injured.
October 22, 2004
Victory & Tragedy
The rumors that Babe Ruth wants to be traded back to Boston are as improbable as Casey hitting a homerun. As improbable as the Boston Red Sox recovering from a 3-game deficit against the dynastic New York Yankees to win the 2004 American League Pennant. Remarkably, two of the four must-win games were won inside Yankee Stadium.
Let's come back down to Earth and re-enter the reality realm. The greatest comeback in sports history coupled with "the most humiliating defeat the Yankees have ever had" (Mike Lupica, October 22, 2004) has altered the cosmos. With Major League Baseball's highest salary, the $194 million Yankees could not produce a pennant or a visit to the World Series. But amid all the euphoria of the Red Sox' improbable comeback in New York, there was the tragic death of a young soul in Boston, Massachusetts. Victoria "Torie" Snelgrove of East Bridgewater, Mass. found herself celebrating the Red Sox' historic victory not far from Fenway Park just as Thursday, October 21 began. Rowdy celebrators prompted the Boston Police to fire so-called "non-lethal" projectiles. One of the projectiles hit Ms. Snelgrove in the head and a few hours later she was dead.
In memory of Ms. Snelgrove the Vestal Virgins have announced that she will be a team coach for the 2005 cosmic baseball season.
October 16, 2004
Bush Has Good Numbers
Whatever else you want to say about George W. Bush and his presidency, he has proved to be an asset to his team, the Washington Presidents. Bush has had a solid performance at the plate where he swings the bat ably. His performance in right field is steady. Even if John Forbes Kerry defeats Bush in the upcoming presidential elections in the United States, there is little doubt that Bush will remain a fixture in right field. Kerry, an able athlete in his own right, has elected to get a spot on the Presidents' roster as a pitcher, despite his poor pitching exhibition last summer at Fenway Park.
October 11, 2004
Bush Says No to Homerun Derby
President George W. Bush declined today to compete against Senator John F. Kerry in a Cosmic Baseball Home Run Derby. No doubt mindful of the home run contest he had with former Vice President Albert Gore in 2000, Bush decided to forgo the ritual event. Even though Bush won the 2000 event and went on to become a member of the Washington Presidents, his advisors pointed out the President had little to gain and everything to lose in a home run contest against the Democratic presidential nominee.
The Kerry campaign had no comment on President Bush's decision.
See Earlier News Item
October 9, 2004
CBA Celebrates 23rd Anniversary
The Cosmic Baseball Association celebrated its 23rd Anniversary today with a series of events in several locations. The Board of Directors of CBA met in Washington, D.C. and announced the appointment of Ms. Eileen Stein as a new member of the Board. Since there are no scheduled retirements from the Board, Ms. Stein's appointment means there are now ten (10) members. In announcing the appointment, Elka Lampert, Board Chairperson, said that Ms. Stein's addition to the Board means, "we have vastly broadened our experience level."
In Boston, Massachusetts, members of the Cosmic Baseball Association were invited to a gala celebrating the Boston Red Sox' victory in their division series against the Anaheim Angels...In Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, a large contingent of CBA members celebrate the anniversary with a music and drama orgy near and on the campus of Bard College...A small band of members in Bhutan played a cosmic baseball game celebrating the anniversary.
October 2, 2004
Regular Cosmic Season Ends
 The Wonderland Warriors will meet the Heartland Capitalists in the Cosmic Universal Series scheduled to begin Thanksgiving Day (November 25). The Warriors won the Upperleague pennant and the Capitalists took the Lowerleague pennant while winning more cosmic games (103) than any other team this season.
The end of the season was delayed several days as a result of meterological events which impacted several CBA computers used primarily for running computer-generated game simulations. Components of several content production programs running on computers impacted by high winds and torrential rainfalls also caused delays in the conclusion of the season.
Link to Season 2004 Plate
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