December Days: The Baseball Tarot

[silveradept]

Okay, so I floated an idea and people seemed willing to work with it. So, here's how this goes:

I've had enough experience with the game of baseball, as player, viewer, follower, fan, and umpire that it's always going to be a party of my life. I was thrilled to discover, early on in life, that someone had created a tarot deck based on the game of baseball. It's a very visually appealing deck, and like other decks, closer examination can sometimes reveal details that inform the construction of the image.

Here's where you come in: Baseball can be confusing, especially for people whose only exposure is television broadcasts, because there's a lot that goes on in a baseball that the cameras don't focus on. Same thing with Tarot. So, whether you're curious about the game or the deck, here's an opportunity to scratch the knowledge itch.

Leave me a prompt about a baseball term or thing, or your favorite card in a Tarot deck, and a date (or date range) when you would like to read about it, and I'll find the card in the deck that has the term or the equivalent from another deck, then write something to post on the day you choose.

If there's no prompted card for any given day, a card will be drawn at random for that day and you'll get to hear me talk about that.

I also plan on front-loading as much information for this as possible, so I may be writing posts well in advance of the actual day. More prompts is better, in this case.

Here's the current calendar of prompts:

• December 01: The Rookie (The Fool)
• December 02: The All-Star (The Magician) for redsixwing
• December 03: Walk (The Six of Bases)
• December 04: Single (The Three of Bats)
• December 05: Steal (The Eleven of Bases) for onyxlynx
• December 06: The Hit-And-Run (The Ace of Bats) for onyxlynx
• December 07: The Seventh-Inning Stretch (Reflection/The Hermit) for nanila
• December 08: Pop Fly (The Nine of Mitts)
• December 09: XVII, Batting 1.000
• December 10: XII, Slump (The Hanged Man) for DawnM
• December 11: Balk (The Two of Balls)
• December 12: Sidelined (The Four of Balls)
• December 13: Chatter (The Ten of Mitts)
• December 14: The Eleven of Bats (Switch Hitter) for redsnake05
• December 15: Rundown (The Five of Bases)
• December 16: So Much Yet To Learn (The Coach(es)) for onyxlynx
• December 17: You Only THINK You Know Who's In Charge (XVIII, the Catcher) (for onyxlynx
• December 18: The Three Of Balls (Shake-Off) for cxcvi
• December 19: Winning Streak (The Ten of Bases)
• December 20: Everything Must Start Somewhere (XIX, the Pitcher)
• December 21: Safe (The Three of Bases)
• December 22: The Five Of Mitts (Error) for cosmolinguist
• December 23: Wild Pitch (The Twelve of Balls)
• December 24: Ground Rule Double, The Infield Fly Rule, And Other Obvious Rule Patches (The Rule Book/Judgement) for onyxlynx
• December 25: It Ain't Nothing Until I Call It (The Umpire) for onyxlynx
• December 26: Home Plate (The Nine of Bases)
• December 27: Rhubarb (The Five of Bats)
• December 28: A Group of Uniformed People, Looking All Alike (VI, The Team)
• December 29: All Things Must Eventually Come To An End (XIII, Retirement)
• December 30: Foul (The Four Of Mitts)
• December 31: Learn How To Keep Score (Nostalgia, the Six of Mitts) for onyxlynx

If you're not on the list, why not suggest something? Or go look at kaberett's list of December Days postings.

Comments

[cosmolinguist]

This is such a cool idea!

Can I have something on the subject of Errors? (I don't mind which date, but the 22nd is my birthday so that'd be a nice one for me. :) )

[silveradept]

Sure thing. If something else comes to mind, leave another prompt, please!

[redsixwing]

What a neat idea!
I know little-to-nothing about baseball, and not much more about tarot.

How about the Magician, Dec 1-5?

[silveradept]

Done. If something else appears, please leave another prompt.

[(Anonymous)]

I went through a phase of being obsessed with tarot at the end of high school. I've forgotten most of it.
A piece about the hanged man would be interesting. Don't care when.

DawnM

[silveradept]

I'll slot it in somewhere, then. If anything else comes to mind, another prompt would be good.

[cxcvi]

I... would not say that this is my favourite card... actually, it's a card that terrifies me... particularly becauase of it's traditional (Rider-Waite-Smith) imagery, but... could you talk about the three of swords, at some point, please?

[silveradept]

Yes, I can do that. If you have another idea, there's still plenty of space left.

[redsnake05]

The Page of Wands is one of my favourite cards. Perhaps you could talk about that? You pick a day when you see how the list is going.

[silveradept]

Sure. You're on the list now. If something else comes to mind, feel free to leave another prompt.

[nanila]

I know nothing about the tarot and my baseball knowledge is covered in cobwebs, but the first thing that springs to mind is the seventh inning stretch, if that works as a topic? On, er, December 7?

[silveradept]

That works just fine. You're in on the seventh. Anything else comes to mind, drop off another prompt.

[onyxlynx]

Well, y'know, I am intrigued by the thought that there'd be a Tarot card corresponding to the Infield Fly Rule.

Any time in December.

[silveradept]

It's not an exact correspondence, unfortunately, but there is a card relating to the Rule Book, and the Infield Fly is one of those rules that makes casual fans go "bzuh?" the first time they encounter it.

IF you have any other prompts or ideas, please feel free to add more to the list.

[onyxlynx]

Well, there is the hit-and-run. Oh, and the stolen base. And the ground-rule double.

I could go on.

[silveradept]

All three of those could be manufactured. Steal is the easiest, because it has a card, but I can find something to work with four the other two, if you'd like.