Cosmic Baseball Game Report
Thurn & Taxis @ Lot 49 Characters
Lot 49 Wins, 3-2LINE SCORE
[W]e find Lot 49 to be Pynchon's encrypted meditation on the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. (Charles Hollander)[Bruce] Conner [in his film Report] simultaneously evokes the phenomena of random impersonal forces and those of American technology-- mass communication, mass production, mass demonstration-- creating a strange sense of their connection, if not identity. Thus the energies of the new world take on the weight and impetus of classic tragic fate. The victim and hero who is crushed is President Kennedy.... (Ken Kelman, "The Anti-Information Film" in The Essential Cinema- Essays on the films in the collection of Anthology Film Archives, Vol. 1: Anthology Film Archives Series 2. New York, 1975).
Either you have stumbled indeed, without the aid of LSD or other indole alkaloids, onto a secret richness and concealed density of dream; onto a network by which X number of Americans are truly communicating whilst reserving their lies, recitations of routine, arid betrayals of spiritual poverty, for the official government delivery system; maybe even onto a real alternative to the exitlessness, to the absence of surprise to life, that harrows the head of everybody you know, and you too, sweetie. Or you are hallucinating it. Or a plot has been mounted against you, so expensive and elaborate, involving items like the forging of stamps and ancient books, constant surveillance of your movements... (Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49).
This personal cosmic game was played to determine if there was any additional light that could be spread over the President Kennedy assassination theories. Kennedy's 1963 murder remains one of the great crime mysteries of the 20th century. Could the karmic events that might appear during the game provide more clues or concepts to fill in the spaces left open by the available evidence?
If the characters from Pynchon's second novel prevailed (& since the barely subterranean message of the novel is to be politically paranoid...the end of a chain reaction mobilized by Kennedy's assassination) then we might conclude with the conspiracy nuts that something deeper is at play. On the other hand, if the various princes representing the Thurn und Taxi family (and its identity with the ruling class, despite what some commentators say, creators and administrators of a wide area communications monopoly are members of the ruling class)...if the Thurn and Taxi team won the game, then we might conclude that what is...will never be known, for real.
The Lot 49 characters won...barely and at the very last moment. This game fact makes skeptical, if not paranoid, analysts opine that the karmic inferences are weak.
Meaning what? Are we unable to learn anything from the box score or the events they tabulate from the score card? This game may well document the case that it is, as it was in the 1960s, technophobia fueling cultural instability and anxiety. But we need games that also suggest this fear comes from the manipulation of the technology by malevolent forces.
Source of malevolence: greed, in one of its flavors.
Game Comments... The Lot 49 characters made three errors and still won the close game. An examination of those fielding mistakes (and their identification with broader fields of endeavors) is perhaps useful, instructive.
The first error occurred in the third inning when second baseman Mike Fallopian bobbled a ground ball hit to him by Prince Albert II. This allowed Prince Karl Alexander to advance to third base (he led off the inning with a double). With Thurn and Taxis princes on the corners and one out (Prince Karl Anselm had flied to center field after Karl Alexander's double), Prince Johannes came to the plate.
A brief digression. In a 1960s Time magazine interview First Lady Jackie Kennedy indicated she enjoyed reading authors from Collette to Kerouac. We imagine that Prince Johannes' wife Mariae Gloria Ferdinanada Joachima Wilhelmine Huberta, also known as Glora, Princess of Thurn and Taxis, might have read Pynchon's paranoid tale of the Kennedy assassination. Might have. And if she did, she might have identified with the woman she her husband was now going to face in a pitcher/batter match up. As a 46 year old German the Kennedy assassination may not resonate strongly with the Prince's wife and it is likely that this issue was one of the things furthest from his mind as he advanced to the plate. He was batting right-handed. Probably it did not matter, three fastballs later Prince Johannes was en route back to the team bench.
With two outs and two players on the bases, one in scoring position at third, Prince Karl August, the Thurn and Taxis' left fielder came to bat. There are still two princes on the bases (at first and at third). Oedipa Maas needs an out and pitches too carefully. Prince Karl August gets a single, dazed, Oedipa bobbles the relay up and Karl August ends up on second, with a run batted in because Karl Alexander scored on the single. Prince Albert II is standing at third. The score is now 1-0. It is an unearned run because Oedipa committed a fielding error.
ROSTERS
Thurn & Taxis Lot 49 Characters
Thurn and Taxis family ancestors were postmasters during the Holy Roman Empire. They were key players in the 16th century development of the postal/mail services in Europe. The point of origin for the family appears to be Omodeo de Tassis del Cornello who lived near Bergamo, Italy in 1251. Beneath Omodeo is the della Torre (Torriani) family from Valsassina. Members of the Torriani became active in the politics of Milan during the 13th century. After political defeat at the hands of the Visconti in 1277 the family settled by the Tasso mountains and became known as de Tassis. (Reference: Taxis Surname/Y-DNA Project)
Albert II
3B Johannes
1B Karl August LF Franz Josef CF Albert I 2B Maximillian Maria RF Maximillian Karl C Karl Alexander SS Karl Anselm P
Lot 49 Characters Thurn & Taxis
Genghis Cohen Catcher Metzger First Base Mike Fallopian Second Base Manny di Presso Third Base Randolph Driblette Short Stop Clayton Chiclitz Left Field John Nesfastis Center Field Emory Bortz Right Field Oedipa Mass Pitcher
BOXSCORE
SCORECARD
Inn. 1: ThurnTaxis
[Starter] MassO
AlbertII 9 . . .
Johannes 4-3 . . .
KarlAugust 5-3 . . .
Inn. 1: Lot49
[Starter] KarlAnselm
Cohen 3UN . . .
Metzger 5-3 . . .
Fallopian 2B . X .
di Presso 1B . X .
X@4:Fallopian 7-2 . X .
Inn. 2: ThurnTaxis
FranzJosef 6 . . .
AlbertI 8 . . .
MaximillianM 1B . . X
MaximillianK 4-6 F . . X
Inn. 2: Lot49
Driblette 4-3 . . .
Chiclitz 5-3 . . .
Nesfastis 3-1 . . .
Inn. 3: ThurnTaxis
KarlAlexander 2B . X .
KarlAnselm 8 . X .
AlbertII E-4 X . X
Johannes K X . X
KarlAugust 1B/E-1 X X . 1
FranzJosef 5-3 X X .
Inn. 3: Lot49
Bortz 5-3 . . .
MassO 6-3 . . .
Cohen 3UN . . .
Inn. 4: ThurnTaxis
AlbertI 1B . . X
X@2:AlbertI CS 2-4 . . .
MaximillianM 4-3 . . .
MaximillianK 6 . . .
Inn. 4: Lot49
Metzger 7 . . .
Fallopian 6-3 . . .
di Presso 5-3 . . .
Inn. 5: ThurnTaxis
KarlAlexander 7 . . .
KarlAnselm 5-3 . . .
AlbertII 1B . . X
WP . X .
Johannes 6-3 . X .
Inn. 5: Lot49
Driblette 6-3 . . .
Chiclitz 1B . . X
*SB:Chiclitz SB . X .
Nesfastis 8 . X .
Bortz 7 . X .
Inn. 6: ThurnTaxis
KarlAugust 5-3 . . .
FranzJosef 5 (Foul) . . .
AlbertI 8 . . .
Inn. 6: Lot49
MassO BB . . X
*SB:MassO SB . X .
Cohen 1B X . X
Metzger 8 SACF . . X 1
Fallopian 8 . . X
X@2:Cohen CS 2-4 . . .
Inn. 7: ThurnTaxis
MaximillianM 6-3 . . .
MaximillianK 1B . . X
KarlAlexander 1B X . X
KarlAnselm 7 SACF . . X 1
*SB:KarlAlexander SB/E-2 X . .
AlbertII 4-3 X . .
Inn. 7: Lot49
di Presso 6-3 . . .
Driblette 7 . . .
Chiclitz 7 . . .
Inn. 8: ThurnTaxis
Johannes 1B . . X
KarlAugust 3-1 SAC . X .
FranzJosef 6 . X .
AlbertI 8 . X .
Inn. 8: Lot49
Nesfastis 1B . . X
Bortz 5-3 . X .
MassO 5-3 . X .
Cohen 1B . X . 1
Metzger 2 (Foul) . X .
Inn. 9: ThurnTaxis
MaximillianM 4-3 . . .
MaximillianK 9 . . .
KarlAlexander 5-3 . . .
Inn. 9: Lot49
Fallopian K . . .
di Presso 1B . . X
*SB:di Presso SB . X .
Driblette 7 . X .
Chiclitz 1B . . X 1
Game Notes
| Time | 3 hours, 8 minutes |
| Weather | Cloudy, 63o F |
| Attendance | undisclosed |
| Umpires | Edward Kennedy, John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy |
| Scorer | Thomas Pynchon |
| MCP | Clayton Chiclitz 
Chiclitz is the president of Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems. His bottom of the ninth inning two out single scored the winning run and garnered him the game's MCP award. |