The squad was suspended from playing during the 1986 season; a result of some improprieties.

Andre Breton was owner Jack Kerouac's choice to manage the team during the first three seasons. After the 1986 suspension, Breton was canned, and Kerouac has been the field manager ever since. Kerouac became a player/manager last season when he started himself in leftfield. His rookie season as a player was mediocre, but the Beats had a winning season (82-80).

Because of CBA rules, Jack had to relinquish his direct ownership of the Beats and so he has "sold" the team to his mother, Gabrielle Kerouac, affectionately known as "memere".

There are four rookies on this season's team. Levi Asher, the estimable webmaster of the Literary Kicks site on the World Wide Web will start at secondbase. Asher's work on the Beat Generation is one of the more interesting places to visit and his committment to Beat Generation history and mythology is unchallenged. Jay DeFeo, who intersected the Beat Generation while living in San Francisco in the 1950s and 1960s, will start in rightfield (Kerouac has decided to put the injury-prone Hal Chase on the bench). James Ryan Morris, who led a group of Denver writers in the 1970s will be the new Beat shortstop. Finally, John Cassady, Neal's son, like his Mom (Carolyn) and Dad, will be pitching for the Beats. In fact, the Beats make immediate history this season by having three family members active on the same team.

Increased interest in the Dharma Beats coincides with a renewal of interest in the Beat Generation in the culture at large. The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York had a show about the movement and the Internet and World Wide Web have several sites that deal explicitly with the literature and history of the movement. The National Portrait Gallery has put up an exhibition called Rebels: Painters and Poets of the 1950s which runs from February 24 through June 2, 1996. Last Fall there was an article about the children of the Beat generation personalities that provoked a fair amount of response. The article, written by the son of a woman who had been Jack Kerouac's girlfriend for a time, generally painted a dismal picture of the offspring. A more optimistic response to that article can be found at Levi Asher's Beat Generation site at Literary Kicks. Levi has published an interesting interview with Neal Cassady's son, John. Several other sites on the World Wide Web contain useful Beat-related information. Check out Beat, Beatnik or Diet Beat for an essay on the movement. Another piece called Unspeakable Visions: The Absorption of the Avant-garde also will be interesting to those interested in the Beat generation

The CBA has always viewed the Beat Generation movement as a positive force both in literature and in the wider realm of the culture. Appearing after the second great and terrible war of the century the meaning of the Beat movement was that a return to things more spiritual might be the solution to the problems besetting an industrializing and depersonalizing environment. The antidote to the emerging "organization man" was the "beatnik" with his cool jazz and poetry. The notion that the the spirit of liberation would bring a liberation of spirit appears to us to be an essential element of the Beat generation. Like other literary and cultural movements it will be subjected to an increasing amount of analysis.

Asher, Levi
Secondbase

Charters, Ann
Infield

Chase, Hal
Outfield

Cobain, Kurt
Centerfield

DeFeo, Jay
Rightfield

Ferlinghetti, Lawrence
Outfield

Holmes, John Clellon
Infield

Kerouac, Jack
Leftfield

Morris, James Ryan
Shortstop

Rexroth, Kenneth
Outfield

Sampas, Stella
Thirdbase

Burroughs, William
Pitcher

Cassady, Carolyn
Pitcher

Cassady, John
Pitcher

Cassady, Neal
Pitcher

Johnson, Joyce
Pitcher

Kesey, Ken
Pitcher

McClure, Michael
Pitcher

Dodge, Mabel
First Base/Batting Coach

Stein, Gertrude
Thirdbase/Fielding Coach

Toklas, Alice B.
Bullpen/Pitching Coach

Bierce, Ambrose
General Manager

Home Field

Dharma Dome
31,428 capacity

Email: editor@cosmicbaseball.com
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