COSMIC BASEBALL ASSOCIATION

Swift Boaters @ Hurricanes of the 1990s [10 Innings]

The Swift Boaters

A group of Vietnam War veterans and their associates who became active in their collective dislike of the presidential ambitions of John F. Kerry.

Their dislike of Kerry was rooted in his 1971 congressonal testimony which argued against the country's particpation in the Vietnam War. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is an organization formed in 2004. The book Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry and several television advertisements challenging Kerry's military record and activism against the Vietnam War had impacted on presidential politics in 2004.

John O'Neill, an active member of the SBVFT and an author of Unfit for Command, has been a Kerry nemesis since 1971. O'Neill resented what he called Kerry's ambition and opportunism. O'Neill was enlisted by the Nixon administration as an example of a veteran who supported the government's role in Vietnam.

Ironically, it was O'Neill's tenth inning error that cost the Swift Boaters the game.

Some consider the name Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ironic. True, some members were swift boat operators in Vietnam, but it is the notion of their truth that elicits the irony. The group has been criticized as pawns of the Bush political machine, utilized to neurtalize George W. Bush's lackluster military service. But the intensity of the group's dislike for Kerry and their fear of his potential presidential ascendancy burns on its own fuel. They dislike Kerry for his criticisms of the war after his return from his four month tour of duty. They begrudge his privileged background and his oppurtunism.

In their besmirchment of Kerry, the facts have become casualties. Their opportunism is no less naked then Kerry's or Bush's.

Hurricanes of the 1990s

Atlantic tropical cyclones since 1993. This is a Legacy League team with an affiliation to the Tropicland Hurricanes who competed in the Cosmic Baseball Association's Underleague in the early 1990s.

The decade of the 1990s saw a "slight increase in East Coast hurricane frequency." However, the twenty (20) hurricanes recorded in 1995 and 1996 represent the highest ever recorded for a two year period. In 1996, six of nine hurricanes were "major" (Category 3 or above), making it the second busiest year behind 1961 which had seven major hurricanes. (REF: E. Smith, 1999).

Leftfielder Hurricane Bonnie was the standout player. She had a double, a stolen base, a base on balls, and she accounted for two of the four runs scored by the Hurricanes.

The origin of Bonnie was a large and vigorous tropical wave that moved over Dakar, Senegal on 14 August 1998. The wave was depicted on visible satellite imagery by a large cyclonic low- to mid-level circulation void of deep convection. On 19 August the tropical wave became a tropical depression. Despite a poorly organized center, the winds to the north of the system mandated that the tropical wave be upgraded to a tropical storm on 20 August. Designated Bonnie, the tropical storm system became a hurricane on 22 August when it was 200 nautical miles north of the eastern tip of Hispaniola. It wasn't until 27 August that Bonnie made landfall when it passed just east of Cape Fear, North Carolina. At the time of landfall, Bonnie was a borderline Category 2/3 hurricane with peak winds of 100 knots at Wrightsville Beach. The storm surge was measured at six feet in the Albemarle Sound.

Total U.S. damage estimates were placed at $720 million. Three people died as a result of Hurricane Bonnie. A 12-year old girl was killed when a large tree fell on her home in Currituck County, NC. Another person was caught in rip currents and drowned in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The third person died in Cape Cod in a rowboat accident when choppy seas overturned the boat. The last one may have been indirectly related to Bonnie.

Source for the above information: Preliminary Report-Hurricane Bonnie
19-30 August 1998
by Lixion A. Avila
National Hurricane Center
24 October 1998

Score Card

Inn. 1: 04Swifton Lenny [Starter] O'Neill 4-3 . . . Spaeth E-5 . . X Elliott 5-4 FO . . X Thurlow 4-3 . X . Inn. 1: Hurricanes Plumly [Starter] Fran 3-1 . . . Bret 1B . . X Opal 6-3 . X . Floyd 1B . X . 1 Georges 4 . X . Inn. 2: SwiftBoaters Ponder 3-UN . . . Corsi BB . . X - Corsi SB . X . Swett 5-3 . X . Areceneaux 5-3 . X . Inn. 2: Hurricanes Bonnie 6-3 . . . Erin 8 . . . Marilyn 7 . . . Inn. 3: SwiftBoaters Plumly 1B . . X O'Neill 3B X . . 1 Spaeth 7 SAC . . . 1 Elliott 5-3 . . . Thurlow 6-3 . . . Inn. 3: Hurricanes Lenny 8 . . . Fran 3-1 . . . Bret 1B . . X Opal 7 . . X Inn. 4: SwiftBoaters Ponder 6-3 . . . Corsi 5-3 . . . Swett BB . . X Areceneaux 4 . . X Inn. 4: Hurricanes Floyd 5-3 . . . Georges 1B . . X Bonnie 6-4 FO . . X Erin 1B . X X Marilyn 5-3 X X . Inn. 5: SwiftBoaters Plumly 8 . . . O'Neill 3-UN . . . Spaeth 7 . . . Inn. 5: Hurricanes Lenny 8 . . . Fran 1B . . X Bret 6-4 FO . . X Opal 5-3 . X . Inn. 6: SwiftBoaters Elliott 5 . . . Thurlow K . . . Ponder 3-UN . . . Inn. 6: Hurricanes Floyd BB . . X Georges 3-6 FO . . X Bonnie 6-4 FO . . X - Bonnie SB . X . Erin BB . X X Marilyn 7 . X X Inn. 7: SwiftBoaters Corsi 2B . X . Swett 4-3 X . . Areceneaux 8 SAC . . . 1 Plumly K . . . Inn. 7: Hurricanes [PH] Ernesto 3-1 . . . Fran 3-1 . . . Bret 7 . . . Inn. 8: SwiftBoaters Cindy [Relief] O'Neill 1-3 . . . Spaeth K . . . Elliott 8 . . . Inn. 8: Hurricanes Opal 1B . . X Floyd 1B . X X Georges 3-UN X X . Bonnie 2B . X . 2 Erin 7 . X . Marilyn BB . X X Cindy 9 . X X Inn. 9: SwiftBoaters Thurlow 5-3 . . . Ponder 3-UN . . . Corsi E-6 . . X Swett 5-3 . X . Inn. 9: Hurricanes Horne [Relief] Fran 3-UN . . . Bret 6-3 . . . Opal 2B . X . Floyd 7 . X . Inn. 10: SwiftBoaters Areceneaux 7 . . . Horne HBP . . X O'Neill 4-6-3 DP . . . Inn. 10: Hurricanes Georges 3B X . . Bonnie Int BB X . X Erin Int BB X X X Marilyn 6 X X X Cindy E-6 X X X 1

Personal Cosmic Game Report
Swift Boaters @ Hurricanes of the 1990s
URL: http://www.cosmicbaseball.com/swifthurricanes.html
Published: September 6, 2004
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