[This is part of a series exploring the Baseball Tarot. If you would like to prompt for a part of the game or a card from the deck, there's still plenty of space. Leave a comment with a prompt. All other comments are still welcome, of course.]
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redsixwing, who was curious about The Magician.
Where the Rookie represents infinite potential, the All-Star represents mastery. A baseball player holds a bat in their right hand, a mitt with a baseball in it is on their left hand, and stands on a base. All four suits of the Baseball Tarot are represented here - bats, balls, mitts, and bases. The Tarot equivalent, the Magician, also has all four of their suits represented - cups, swords, wands, and coins/pentacles. There's no look of panic on the player's face, because this is an experienced player, who has seen a of games, and been through a lot of different situations. They have achieved comfort and mastery of the game enough to be selected as a representative of their team to play in a game for their league.
Here's an interesting thing: a player is selected to the All-Star Game by the managers and coaches of the team they play on. The fans only get to vote on which players will be starting the game, so being named as an All-Star is an acknowledgement from the people you have been trying to impress that you have succeeded in doing so, and that the mentors of the game think highly of you.
Up until recently, the All-Star Game was an exhibition game between the two leagues, put on at the midway point in the season, and as such, was meant more to showcase players having a good season for their teams, and to get all the fans of whichever team was hosting the game to come out and see people hit home runs, watch prospects, and see the game with the most concentration of star power short of the World Series. As such, there wasn't actually much invested in it in terms of winning the game - pitchers would change each inning, and players would be substituted out regularly to make sure everyone had playing time. Since each team has at least one guaranteed place on the All-Star roster, this made sense. Unfortunately, the collection of magicians were not impressing the fans with their tricks, because they weren't invested in the game, and it showed. Mastery of the game does not draw fans if they can see the game isn't real. Mastery of the elements of magic doesn't produce spectacular results if the will isn't real. (As many people who go to their worship houses on Sunday and go against those beliefs on every other day well know.)
All of the dog-and-pony show, however, came to a head in the last decade, where the game went on into extra innings, but due to the way the pitching changes went, both teams had exhausted their roster of pitchers before the game was resolved. Since it was an exhibition, and the players still had their own teams to go back to, and the rules of the game say that any player who has exited the game and been substituted for cannot return, the situation was not going to end well.
That said, the Commissioner of Baseball was in attendance, and surely he could ask for an exception. But no, the game ended in a tie - which, as you might guess, was the final nail in the coffin. After being ridiculed for the fiasco, the All-Star Game was subjected to an immediate retooling, where a prize was now offered to the athletes competing - the winning league of the All-Star Game would enjoy the benefit of having the fifth and seventh game of the best-of-seven World Series played in their stadium, under the rules of their league (either the Designated Hitter or the pitchers having to bat, basically). It was marketed swiftly as "Now it counts" to try and bring back the audience that abandoned baseball in the face of the farce.
It also changed the game itself, as now the managers selecting for their teams have to think strategically about who they are selecting to the teams, and then to manage a game as they would, which means not everyone will necessarily play equally (or at all). Now, once again, the magicians are invested (even if only minimally) in the presentation and will of their craft. And, correspondingly, it seems that the All-Star Game and the players in it have once again become the people most in control of the elements of the game.
In terms of their placement on the Tarot's Major Arcana, the Rookie and the All-Star are right next to each other, which is pretty well how the journey of life and baseball begins - the Rookie dives into learning the game at the level they are, with the intent of becoming an All-Star in their own right. It's the shortest journey to get from 0 to 1, and a similar jump back from 1 to 0 when needed, but most people prefer or think the only way back to 0 is the long way, through the other parts of the Major Arcana.
For
redsixwing, who was curious about The Magician.Where the Rookie represents infinite potential, the All-Star represents mastery. A baseball player holds a bat in their right hand, a mitt with a baseball in it is on their left hand, and stands on a base. All four suits of the Baseball Tarot are represented here - bats, balls, mitts, and bases. The Tarot equivalent, the Magician, also has all four of their suits represented - cups, swords, wands, and coins/pentacles. There's no look of panic on the player's face, because this is an experienced player, who has seen a of games, and been through a lot of different situations. They have achieved comfort and mastery of the game enough to be selected as a representative of their team to play in a game for their league.
Here's an interesting thing: a player is selected to the All-Star Game by the managers and coaches of the team they play on. The fans only get to vote on which players will be starting the game, so being named as an All-Star is an acknowledgement from the people you have been trying to impress that you have succeeded in doing so, and that the mentors of the game think highly of you.
Up until recently, the All-Star Game was an exhibition game between the two leagues, put on at the midway point in the season, and as such, was meant more to showcase players having a good season for their teams, and to get all the fans of whichever team was hosting the game to come out and see people hit home runs, watch prospects, and see the game with the most concentration of star power short of the World Series. As such, there wasn't actually much invested in it in terms of winning the game - pitchers would change each inning, and players would be substituted out regularly to make sure everyone had playing time. Since each team has at least one guaranteed place on the All-Star roster, this made sense. Unfortunately, the collection of magicians were not impressing the fans with their tricks, because they weren't invested in the game, and it showed. Mastery of the game does not draw fans if they can see the game isn't real. Mastery of the elements of magic doesn't produce spectacular results if the will isn't real. (As many people who go to their worship houses on Sunday and go against those beliefs on every other day well know.)
All of the dog-and-pony show, however, came to a head in the last decade, where the game went on into extra innings, but due to the way the pitching changes went, both teams had exhausted their roster of pitchers before the game was resolved. Since it was an exhibition, and the players still had their own teams to go back to, and the rules of the game say that any player who has exited the game and been substituted for cannot return, the situation was not going to end well.
That said, the Commissioner of Baseball was in attendance, and surely he could ask for an exception. But no, the game ended in a tie - which, as you might guess, was the final nail in the coffin. After being ridiculed for the fiasco, the All-Star Game was subjected to an immediate retooling, where a prize was now offered to the athletes competing - the winning league of the All-Star Game would enjoy the benefit of having the fifth and seventh game of the best-of-seven World Series played in their stadium, under the rules of their league (either the Designated Hitter or the pitchers having to bat, basically). It was marketed swiftly as "Now it counts" to try and bring back the audience that abandoned baseball in the face of the farce.
It also changed the game itself, as now the managers selecting for their teams have to think strategically about who they are selecting to the teams, and then to manage a game as they would, which means not everyone will necessarily play equally (or at all). Now, once again, the magicians are invested (even if only minimally) in the presentation and will of their craft. And, correspondingly, it seems that the All-Star Game and the players in it have once again become the people most in control of the elements of the game.
In terms of their placement on the Tarot's Major Arcana, the Rookie and the All-Star are right next to each other, which is pretty well how the journey of life and baseball begins - the Rookie dives into learning the game at the level they are, with the intent of becoming an All-Star in their own right. It's the shortest journey to get from 0 to 1, and a similar jump back from 1 to 0 when needed, but most people prefer or think the only way back to 0 is the long way, through the other parts of the Major Arcana.
