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[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. Otherwise, there will be a lot of random draws. Leave a comment with a prompt. All other comments are still welcome, of course.]
The single - a base hit, hitting safely, the begging, or continuation, of a rally. The basic building block of the offense. Unlike the walk, which is a defensive penalty, the single is the expression of the batter winning the fight between themself and the pitcher. It's quite hard to achieve - not only does the hitter have to make contact with a ball that is moving at high velocity, usually moving away from the hitter in some way, they then also have to put the ball somewhere in fair territory that the fielders cannot collect it to make an out with. It's a one against nine battle - no wonder the greatest baseball players only officially succeed three times out of ten over the years.
Baseball is hard. And despite the incredible emphasis on the home run as the primary method of scoring runs, a good team is more likely to win a game 1-0 with a short stretch of singles than in trying to outscore the other team with dingers. Singles lack the flash, but they will get the job done.
There are many ways of achieving a single - the most common ones involve hitting balls on the ground though the infield or through the air between the outfield players, but sufficiently fast players can turn bunts into singles if the bunt is good, or can leg out sufficiently deep-struck ground balls that are fielded by the defense anyway. Singles, combined with effective and smart running on the basepaths, can move runners into places where another single could score them. Particularly effective singles can sometimes score runners from first base in the right conditions
Similarly, the Tarot meaning of the card indicates methodical progress, good starts to projects, first steps, and slow but effective movement toward a goal. There's still a ways to go, and you'll still need the help of teammates to come around and score, but you've done your job at the at-bat by getting on base though your own power and the bat.
In all these situations, singles are prosaic, boring, and utterly essential. Start at step one and proceed according to the rules until finished. If you find yourself always for the fences (and missing), understand that your job is to keep the inning going, not necessarily to clear the bases by yourself. Most power hitting comes after you demonstrate the ability to scatter the ball and hit the tough balls for singles.
So, once you have the eyes to lay off bad pitches and collect walks, and the hands to fight off and put in play the tough pitches, you're two-thirds of the way there to being an effective offensive player. We'll get to the third tomorrow.
The single - a base hit, hitting safely, the begging, or continuation, of a rally. The basic building block of the offense. Unlike the walk, which is a defensive penalty, the single is the expression of the batter winning the fight between themself and the pitcher. It's quite hard to achieve - not only does the hitter have to make contact with a ball that is moving at high velocity, usually moving away from the hitter in some way, they then also have to put the ball somewhere in fair territory that the fielders cannot collect it to make an out with. It's a one against nine battle - no wonder the greatest baseball players only officially succeed three times out of ten over the years.
Baseball is hard. And despite the incredible emphasis on the home run as the primary method of scoring runs, a good team is more likely to win a game 1-0 with a short stretch of singles than in trying to outscore the other team with dingers. Singles lack the flash, but they will get the job done.
There are many ways of achieving a single - the most common ones involve hitting balls on the ground though the infield or through the air between the outfield players, but sufficiently fast players can turn bunts into singles if the bunt is good, or can leg out sufficiently deep-struck ground balls that are fielded by the defense anyway. Singles, combined with effective and smart running on the basepaths, can move runners into places where another single could score them. Particularly effective singles can sometimes score runners from first base in the right conditions
Similarly, the Tarot meaning of the card indicates methodical progress, good starts to projects, first steps, and slow but effective movement toward a goal. There's still a ways to go, and you'll still need the help of teammates to come around and score, but you've done your job at the at-bat by getting on base though your own power and the bat.
In all these situations, singles are prosaic, boring, and utterly essential. Start at step one and proceed according to the rules until finished. If you find yourself always for the fences (and missing), understand that your job is to keep the inning going, not necessarily to clear the bases by yourself. Most power hitting comes after you demonstrate the ability to scatter the ball and hit the tough balls for singles.
So, once you have the eyes to lay off bad pitches and collect walks, and the hands to fight off and put in play the tough pitches, you're two-thirds of the way there to being an effective offensive player. We'll get to the third tomorrow.
