The PRANKTOWN BUSRIDERS are a Cosmic Baseball Association team playing in Cosmic Middleleague. The team is comprised of members of the Merry Pranksters, a 1960s guerilla troupe of anarcho-artists. They were, as social historian Lauren Kessler writes, "a transgenerational bridge between the Beats and the hippies." Ken Kesey and his friend Ken Babbs were the progenitors of the Pranksters. Babbs actually conceived the idea of the "prank" and Kesey turned it into performance art.

The team's roster consists of:

Cathy Adams aka "Mountain Girl"
She joined the Pranksters at La Honda after their east coast trip. She and Jerry Garcia fell in love at the S.F. State Acid test (1966).
Catcher

John Babbs aka "Sometimes Missing"
Ken Babbs' brother. He was a college English teacher who took the trip during his summer vacation.
Infield

Ron Bevirt aka "Hassler"
The official Prankster photographer. Bevirt got on the bus just after finishing a tour of duty in the U.S. Army.
Leftfield

Page Browning aka "Cadaverous Cowboy"
First met Kesey at Perry Lane in Palo Alto. Not initially part of that crowd but a true Prankster member with a tent in La Honda.
Firstbase

Jane Burton aka "Generally Famished"
Friend from the Perry Lane period. She took the bus ride so she could see friends in New York.
Pitcher

Kathy Casano aka "Stark Naked"
She got on the bus hoping and dreaming of becoming a movie star.
Pitcher

John Cooke
Pitcher

Paul Foster
Joined the Pranksters in La Honda after their trip to New York. He was a computer programmer but as a Prankster he made signs like the one outside the La Honda camp that said, "No Left Turn Unstoned."
Outfield

Norman Hartweg
A playwright from Michigan, living in Los Angeles, Kesey invited Hartweg to La Honda to help edit the 50+ hours of 16mm film shot during the Pranksters' trip to New York.
Infield

Denise Kaufmann aka "Mary Microgram"
A San Francisco native she met the Pranksters shortly after their trip to New York. LSD turned her on to music and she was deeply involved in the "acid tests."
Pitcher

Charles Kesey aka "Brother Charlie"
Ken Kesey's brother who climbed on the bus for the trip to New York. He went on to be a successful acidophilus yogurt manufacturer.
Pitcher

Dale Kesey aka "Highly Charged"
Ken Kesey's cousin who also climbed aboard the bus for the trip east.
Centerfield

Fay Kesey
Born in Idaho she is Ken Kesey's wife. They were high school sweethearts in Springfield, Oregon and got married during their first year of college at the University of Oregon.
Shortstop

Zane Kesey
Infield

Steve Lambrecht aka "Zonker"
He was on the bus en route to see his girlfriend in New York. He grew up in San Jose and as a teenager he had watched Neal Cassady changing truck tires at an auto shop. After his Prankster years he returned to San Jose where he owns a hazardous waste disposal company.
Thirdbase

Sandy Lehman-Haupt aka "Dis-mount"
He met Kesey in November 1963 in New York at the opening of the stage version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Sandy was the Pranksters' sound system artist/technician.
Pitcher

Lee Quarnstrom
The Pranksters' "Minister of Information." As a young reporter for the San Mateo Times Quarnstrom went to La Honda to do a story. He became captivated and a Prankster much involved in the "acid tests."
Pitcher

Roy Sebern
A painter and Prankster, he is credited with naming the Pranksters' bus "Furthur." Sebern was also an originator of the acid light show.
Pitcher

Robert Stone
After getting out of the U.S. Navy in 1958 he went to Stanford on a Wallace Stegner Writing Fellowship.
Secondbase

Paula Sundstern aka "Gretchen Fetchin'"
She got on the bus for the east coast trip because she was on her way to a waitressing job at a restaurant owned by the boxer Jack Dempsey. But she never took the job; she stayed on the bus.
Rightfield

George Walker aka "Hardly Visible"
A friend of Kesey's from Oregon. Tom Wolfe describes him as "a blond All-American-looking guy...son of a wealthy housing developer...has what is known as a sunny disposition..." After his Prankster years, Walker got into car racing.
Pitcher

Team Staff & Management

Ken Babbs aka "Intrepid Traveller"
Essentially second-in-command of the Pranksters. He met Kesey at Stanford, then went to Vietnam and flew helicopters for the Marines. After his tour of duty Captain Babbs and Kesey formulated the Prankster concept.
Manager

Stewart Brand
Associated with the Pranksters in San Francisco but not an official Prankster. He went on to create and publish the very popular Whole Earth Catalog.
Coach

Tom Wolfe
Author of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, published in 1968. This book is Wolfe's chronicle of the Merry Pranksters.
G.M.

Ken Kesey aka "Chief"
American author and prime mover behind the Merry Pranksters. Kesey's first published novel was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. This novel was in part a result of Kesey having taken psychedelic drugs as part of a government research program. After his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion Kesey temporarily gave up writing for performance art as expressed in the "acid test" concept.
Captain

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Your 2001 Bustown Prankriders are ready to take the field!

PLAY BALL! (Cosmic Style!)

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