by Story written by Jamie Ellifritz
In 1994 Ken Burns released his documentary called Baseball. The series covers nearly 170 years of baseball in just under 23 hours of footage. With that being said, what I saw on a baseball diamond this week in Akron will not resemble the sport in this historical collection as you know it traditionally. The fact is, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that because The Cosmic Takeover Tour represents the game of baseball in its most unique form that had a sellout crowd engaged the entire evening nonstop. 7 17 Credit Union Park, home of the Akron Rubberducks is known for its “affordable family fun” reputation and that’s exactly what the Cosmic Baseball teams and their entertainment crew provided. This isn’t just baseball. This is an experience! What makes Cosmic Baseball unique? The glow during gameplay under the black lights is must see in person.
Prior to the game just outside the ballpark there were kids activities and merchandise tents provided to get you geared up with your favorite team’s glow apparel and souvenirs. Once you entered the park, there were more merchandise tents available along the concourse. Fans everywhere were buying up items from the 2 teams playing in tonight’s game, the Glow Mojis and the home team, the Tri City Chili Peppers. Tri City, who in 2024 based out of Virginia as a collegiate summer team had videos go viral when they wore high visibility colored uniforms and the black lighting just made everything pop on the field.
The teams went through normal warmups and then entered the field through the outfield wall gates waving their team flags. The player’s enthusiasm was noticeable even during the game play with dancing to the music pumping through the park all game long. The tradition of players sitting in the dugouts during the game was not the case as the players were standing out in front of the dugouts the majority of their time. Even then they were throwing baseballs to fans over the netting and entering the stands for more giveaways. They posed for pictures, signed balls, and sat with fans if there was an open seat. They were also up there because during an inning they had “Three Minutes of Chaos” where if a foul ball is hit in the stands, the ball is still considered live and a fan can throw it to a player to help get it back onto the field of play.
Even then you had guys on unicycles with giant balloons on their heads peddling out on the infield and having sword fights. There was an inflatable cow that was put in a box that the entertainment crew was trying to send to Cosmic space by stacking box after box after box after box inside each other from the bottom raising the cow sticking out of the top box what looked like 50 feet in the air.
The darkness was set and it was time for the players to return to the field. After full uniform changes by both teams the countdown began and the black lights were flipped to ON! The pop off the sold color uniforms was legit awesome! The fans around the stadium with their new Chili Peppers and Glow Mojis shirts and hats could be seen everywhere! The ballpark was rocking with an excitement that answered to their anticipation of what they came to witness. Cosmic Baseball!
The game restarted and my first thought was how will seeing the baseball be all over the ballpark high and low. The pitchers, they were throwing just as hard and the hitters took their normal hacks at the fluorescent yellow colored baseballs. Even the pop-ups in the infield and the fly balls in the outfield, you could see the ball the entire time glow in the sky. The half innings that featured a home run Derby representative one for each team, were a spectacle to see as balls were flying out of the park! You had visibility of the home run ball until it landed into the fans and right field or into the trees over the left field wall. Each home run counted as a run on the scoreboard inflating the score to a ridiculously high number for an inning, which was awesome!
Even the bases for the black light portion of the game or painted in high visibility colors. The confetti that was shot off throughout the game that was littered on the grass popped under the lights. The players in the stands, fan interaction continued under the black lights as well. You can tell how important fan engagement is to the players, the staff and the entertainers of Cosmic Baseball as their brand does this at an elite level!
The game ended at the bottom of the eighth inning with a final score of Glow Mojis 34 and the Chili Peppers 26. I’ve never been to a baseball game before where it felt like the scoreboard didn’t even matter to your own personal joy of attending a game. Just because the game ended the entertainment did not you players eventually left the field to go outside the Ballpark to do more pictures and autographs with their fans. Prior to that, though there was a very special moment that happened at the end of the game. Players from both teams, huddled together at home plate and one player with the microphone spoke and thanked the crowd for coming out to the game.
