October 1999 Archive






October 29, 1999
Heartland Capitalists Draft Six


The Heartland Capitalists, CBA's team of business leaders, drafted six mostly CEOs for inclusion on their Season 2000 roster. The rookies are:

Paul Allen (of), co-founder with current Capitalist Bill Gates, of the Microsoft Corporation; Steve Ballmer (of), the number two man at Microsoft; William Esrey (2b), CEO of the Sprint telecommunications company; William Gerstner (p), IBM CEO; Akio Morita (if), recently deceased founder of the Sony company; Charles Schwab (if), Chairman of the stock brokerage firm.

If manager Ayn Rand decides to put veterans Lee Iacocca and John Welch on the bench next season it's possible we will see an all-Microsoft outfield with Gates in right, Ballmer in center and Allen in left.

The Capitalists were 2 games over .500 in 1999 and that's not good enough for team owner Peter Drucker. He's consistently shelled out the big bucks for big players from the high technology fields. Drucker hopes with this collection of rookies he might just have bought himself a serious contender.


Allen
Ballmer
Esrey
Gerstner
Morita
Schwab


Link to 1999 Heartland Capitalists Final Statistics





October 24, 1999
JAMES HAMPTON- Memorial Plate

James Hampton was a visionary artist who spent nearly fifteen years creating the Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nation's Millenium General Assembly. The "throne" was designed to be used by Christ when he returned to Earth during the Second Coming.

The Throne is a remarkable collection of found materials including furniture, gold and silver foil, light bulbs ,etc. Hampton's project was discovered in a garage shortly after he died in 1964. Today The Throne resides inside the National Museum of American Art.

Hampton joined the Cosmic Baseball Association as a pitcher for the Bhutan Vanguards in 1984. He was deactivated in in 1987 and rejoined the team in 1993 for a two year stint as a utility infielder before finally retiring after the 1994 season.


Link to James Hampton's Memorial Plate at the CBA




October 18, 1999
Alphatown Ionians Sign WILHELM REICH

Controversial cosmic pitcher and psychologist Wilhelm Reich has signed on with the Alphatown Ionians. The Ionians, a team of philosophers and scientists, play in the cosmic Overleague.

Reich is a veteran cosmic pitcher having joined the CBA in 1984 as an original member of the New Island Erotics baseball team. He played with the Erotics until the team was deactivated in 1996. Last season he pitched for the new Mindland Brains cosmic team. The Brains (73-89 won-lost record) finished in the cellar of the cosmic Underleague in 1999 but Reich had a good season (15-7, 3.33 ERA). Unfortunately there were personality conflicts and disputes on the team and Reich was frequently in the center of the chaos. (See Walter Freeman and Wilhelm Reich Feud). Reich made it clear that he wouldn't be pitching for the Brains next season and he quit when the 1999 season ended (see Wilhelm Reich Quits Mindland Brains).

In real life Reich was a controversial and enigmatic individual. Born in Austria in 1897 he was a student of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis. Later he developed a novel concept called orgonomy. Because of his controversial nature, Reich ended up dying inside the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania on November 3, 1957.

Reich wrote a large number of books and essays dealing with his research into the psychology of mankind. Much of his study of human personality focused on the sexual nature of individuals. In a March 1, 1919 diary entry he wrote, "I have become convinced that sexuality is the center around which revolves the whole of social life as well as the inner life of the individual."

In 1956 the Food and Drug Administration of the United States government burned some of Reich's books and essays. The government accused Reich of scientific fraud.

As a cosmic baseball pitcher, Reich is known, naturally, for his screwball and other off-speed stuff. He's crafty and the Ionians have made a wise choice in adding Reich to their 2000 roster.



Related Outer Links




October 16, 1999
New Cosmic Baseball Team: ALLAHVILLE SHABAZZERS

The Cosmic Baseball Association announces the creation of the ALLAHVILLE SHABAZZERS a new cosmic baseball team for Season 2000. The SHABAZZERS consist of civil rights activists with a focus on Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. The SHABAZZERS will compete in the cosmic Underleague.

The team is owned by Malcolm X (a former thirdbaseman for the Psychedelphia Woodsox) and managed by Louis Farrakhan (a former secondbaseman for the Paradise Pisces.) Marcus Garvey is the General Manager. Players include the three men accused of assassinating Malcolm X in 1965 as well as notable personalities associated with the Nation of Islam.


Link to the ALLAHVILLE SHABAZZERS Official 2000 Team Roster




October 12, 1999
Reality Baseball: Tony Trigilio Uncovers the Red Sox

The Cosmic Baseball Association is pleased to announce that Tony Trigilio has joined CBA as our new Reality Baseball columnist. Tony saw his first baseball game when he was 5, sitting in the steep upper-deck at Shea Stadium to watch the Mets against the Expos. Since then, he has followed the sport with full confidence that baseball launches us into revelation, and our revelations just as often lead us back to baseball. He is also a former resident of the Fenway neighborhood in Boston.

At the moment Tony is writing a series of columns on the Boston Red Sox and their quest for a World Series title. No fan who has weathered the trials and tribulations of the Red Sox (1946,1967,1975,1986) can sleep without the past creeping into our crack-pot impossible dreams. If the Red Sox do survive the New York Yankees and get to the Fall Classic, well, destiny mandates that the series will go seven games. And that scares the living daylights out of every long-suffering Red Sox fan.


Here's the Link to Tony's Columns at Reality Baseball




October 11, 1999
Woodsox Draft KATHERINE ANN POWER

The Psychedelphia Woodstockings, in desperate need of pitching, drafted Katherine Ann Power for their 2000 roster. Power was a 21-year-old student at Brandeis University in September 1970 when she committed a crime that would change the course of her life. As part of a radical student political group, Power was driving the getaway car in a bank robbery attempt that left policeman Walter A. Schroeder dead. Power went underground for over twenty years until she surrendered to the Massachusetts police in September 1993. She pled guilty to manslaughter and received a sentence of 8 to 12 years in prison. While incarcerated at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Framingham she contributed to a poetry journal published by the Boston University Prison Education Fund. On October 2, 1999 Power was paroled and is now out of prison. During her underground years she married and had a son. Now, age 50, Power is a grandmother and a potential starting pitcher for the Woodsox.


Link to News Article on Power's Release




October 9, 1999
CBA Celebrates 18th Anniversary

Eighteen years ago today in Lost Angeles, California a group of teachers, artists, poets, filmmakers, philosophers and other riffraff formed a club and published a manifesto declaring the supremacy of the creative imagination. And so what began as a modest endeavor remains a modest endeavor eighteen years later. The Cosmic Baseball Association is pleased to represent a small contribution to the collective imagination. We are grateful to our members and friends and are delighted, eighteen years later, to be able to thank them all for their support and kindness.




October 8, 1999
Beat Generation Auction Nets $674,466

According to newswire reports Thursday, the 2-session Sothebys Beat-related auction took in $674,466.

Called ALLEN GINSBERG & FRIENDS, a number of paintings, photographs and personal items related to Beat Generation personalities were up for sale to the highest bidders.

A collection of Neal Cassady letters fetched $28,750. A first edition of Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl went for $16,100 (four times the auction catalog's high estimate). A photo of Jack Kerouac cost someone $17,250 (three times the high estimate). A painting by Kerouac (Red, White & Blue Abstract) sold for $17,250 (high estimate was $25,000).

The highest price paid for something was $40,250. That item was a set of collages by artist Jean-Michael Basquiat (1960-1988) which sold for $40,250.

As a point of comparison the baseball memorilbilia auction held at Sothebys in September netted 21.8 million good American dollars. The top item at that auction was the last baseball glove used by Yankee great Lou Gehrig during his final game on April 30th, 1939, which fetched $387,500 (a new record for a baseball glove at auction.)




October 5, 1999
PISCES Broaden Eligibility Requirements for Season 2000

In a controversial move the Paradise Pisces have again changed the eligibility requirements for playing on the team. Effective with the 2000 cosmic season any potential player who was born or died between February 19 and March 20 will be eligible to join the team.

The Pisces changed the rules last year so that only players born under the sign of the fish would be eligible to play for the team. Prior to the 1999 cosmic season a player's birth date was irrelevant. Pisces Field Manager Anais Nin explained that the reason for this latest change in the rules was based on the team's desire to enlarge the pool of potential players.

The one current cosmic player that might be influenced by the rule change is current Psychedelphia Woodstocking thirdbaseman Malcom X (also known as Malik El-Shabazz.) The 11-year veteran of cosmic baseball indicated during the summer that he might retire after the 1999 season. A chance to play with CBA's flagship team might change his mind. Since Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965 he would be eligible, under the new rules, to play for the Pisces. According to sources, neither Malcolm X nor anyone from Pisces management will comment on this issue until after the Pisces' have completed their post-season games.

The Pisces (97-65 won-loss record) won the Overleague Pennant this season and will meet the Pre-Raphaelite Baseball Club (92-70) in Cosmic Universal Series XVII beginning Thanksgiving Day (November 25).




October 4, 1999
US Supreme Court Denies MUMIA ABU-JAMAL'S Appeal

Without comment or dissent the United States Supreme Court let stand today the conviction of political activist and Armegeddonia Anarchist rightfielder Mumia Abu-Jamal. Abu-Jamal was convicted in 1982 of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. The trial was controversial and Abu-Jamal, who now sits in a prison cell on Pennsylvania's death row, attracted international attention with his jailhouse essays and polemics on the American political justice system.

Since this is the second time the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his case, the prospects of Abu-Jamal ever again seeing freedom has become more remote.

ABU-JAMAL at the CBA: Abu-Jamal just completed his rookie season as the Anarchists' everyday rightfielder. He compiled an impressive set of numbers for his first cosmic season finishing with a .268 batting average, 15 home runs and 68 runs batted in.


For more information:




October 3, 1999
Sappho Retires; Sexton Named New Virgin Skipperess


As expected Vestal Virgins field manager and ancient Greek poet Sappho has retired from cosmic baseball. Sappho's career in the CBA spanned nine years, five as a catcher and the last four as manager of the Virgins. While her historical career as one of the first to write first-person personal poetry is remarkable, her efforts in cosmic baseball were less successful. Her five years as a player garnered a below average set of statistics (.227 career batting average) and her four years managing produced a sub-.500 winning percentage (313-335 won-loss record.) An Honorary Cosmic Player Plate is planned for Sappho in the near future.

Also as expected former Virgins relief pitcher and American poet Anne Sexton has been named to replace Sappho as manager. This move reunites Sexton with her spiritual sister current Virgins starting pitcher Sylvia Plath. Sexton pitched for the Virgins during the 1996 and 1997 seasons compiling an 8-9 record and a taut 2.98 earned run average. The Virgins have been suffering the past couple of years and pitching has been the main problem. Sexton, a popular if somewhat eccentric personality, should help straighten the pitching situation out.





October 2, 1999
Book Review: THE TAROT OF BASEBALL DECK & BOOK SET

Baseball and the occult are frequent partners and lovers. Baseball people are notoriously superstitious and the game itself obviously has some mystical connection to the occult science of numerology. In THE TAROT OF BASEBALL DECK & BOOK SET, writer Robert Kasher attempts to "take baseball one step further by creating a divinatory system through which the metaphors divined from baseball can be used for meditating on the state of modern life, allowing us to divine the future..." (from the Introduction.). By reshuffling the Tarot's customary metaphors and putting them in the context of the great game of the quadrature, Kasher has produced an enchanting approach to understanding what he refers to as the "World Series of Life

The history of the mysteries of baseball is no less intriguing than the history of the secrets of the Tarot deck. Kasher adjusts the names of the 78 cards in the Tarot's Major and Minor Arcana. Despite the name changes the so-called divinatory meanings are mostly based on historical Tarot meanings, introduced with a baseball motif. The Fool (0) becomes The Rookie: "[H]e is walking down a country road. We don't know if he's been sent back to the Minor Leagues…He has a smile on his face and a carefree look of innocence…in the background are trees, playgrounds and open greens on which one might vaguely see a game of pickup baseball being played." The Rookie's divinatory meanings are more traditional: "The subject of this card faces a choice in life requiring one to move ahead in the face of a variety of obstacles and the possibility of failure in success. It is a choice stemming from deep desire or obsession or perhaps from a naïve lack of knowledge of current business practices." In the Tarot of Baseball, the traditional Tarot Lovers (6) are the Fans of baseball. Death (13) is the General Manager and the Devil (15) is a Base Stealer. The four suits of the traditional Tarot: Swords, Cups, Pentacles and Wands are now the Balls, Gloves, Caps and Bats, respectively.

The TAROT OF BASEBALL provides the Key to the Door of Knowledge of many of the important questions of life and allows you to play a game of baseball in the process.
Kasher writes that "The Tarot of Baseball provides the Key to the Door of Knoweldge of many of the important questions of life and allows you to play a game of baseball in the process." It is this second potential that caught our attention. At the end of the guide book Kasher describes how to play (simulate) a baseball game with the Tarot of Baseball deck. We have added this card-based baseball simulation to our collection of imaginative baseball games. We put it alongside Harold Richman's Strat-O-Matic baseball game and Jack Kerouac's personal baseball game. Each one of Kasher's baseball Tarot cards indicates two potential baseball events. Consistent with traditional Tarot card readings the specific event chosen is dependent on whether the card is drawn "reversed" (upside down) or not. For example, the Ace of Balls card indicates a fastball strike to the batter; but if drawn reversed it becomes a fastball down the middle hit for a home run. The card representing the traditional World (21) card is called the Steady Veteran in the Tarot of Baseball. If not reversed it means a single has been hit; if reversed it means a fly out. All 78 cards in the deck are defined with two possible baseball events enabling the simulator/reader/seeker to "play" a game of baseball.

In addition to the guidebook written by Kasher there is the Tarot card deck itself nicely illustrated by Beverley Ransom and a foldout page illustrating the "Ancient 10-card Tarot Spread." Also included with the package is a mini-guide to the meanings of the cards which supplements the more detailed guidebook.

Use this link to the Barnes & Noble online bookstore for more information about the Tarot of Baseball Deck and Book Set by Robert Kasher with Artwork by Beverley Ransom. © 1996 U.S. Games Systems, Inc.





October 1, 1999
Season 1999 Final Team/Player Statistics

The Final Official numbers are in for the just completed 1999 cosmic playing season. Based just on the numbers it looks like rookie Pisces pitcher Vanessa Williams could win the rookie and pitcher of the year awards. Her 2.74 earned run average and 16-1 won-loss record is outstanding for any player, rookie or not. There weren't any 20 game winners in the pitching ranks. Jazz great and Delta Dragon pitcher Charlie Mingus, with his 2.59 earned run average led all cosmic pitchers in the ERA category. Pitcher Aurelia Plath led all the leagues in throwing strikeouts with 169 Ks recorded. Aurelia is the mother of Vestal Virgins pitcher and poet Sylvia Plath who led the CBA in number of innings pitched with 249.

In the batting department popular writer Douglas Adams of the Cisco Giants won the batting average contest posting a .363 with 139 hits in 383 at bats. Andy Warhol, veteran cosmic player now with the Bhutan Vanguards staged a career comeback with a .342 batting average. President William Taft (Washington Presidents) hit 82 home runs to lead all cosmic batters in that department. Steve Case, CEO of the America Online internet service company and Heartland Capitalist thirdbaseman led the Middleague with 63 home runs and 144 runs batted in. Case likely will be named Middleleague Player of the Year.


For tables of team and player statistics visit the following links:

1999 Overleague Statistical Tables
1999 Middleleague Statistical Tables
1999 Underleague Statistical Tables
1999 Batting/Pitching Leaders






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CBA News & Information Plate: October 1999 Archive
URL http://www.cosmicbaseball.com/http://www.cosmicbaseball.com/1099news.html
Archived: November 1, 1999
Copyright © 1999 by the Cosmic Baseball Association

Email: editor@cosmicbaseball.com

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