[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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cxcvi, who has had bad associations with the Tarot equivalent, the three of swords.
There are two pairings in baseball that tends to get mentioned a lot in combination - the shortstop and second baseman, who have to be synchronized well to perform the first leg of the double play, and to know who is going to receive the catcher's throw to apply a tag during a steal, and the battery, composed of the pitcher and catcher. The catcher gives the signals to the pitcher, and the pitcher attempts to deliver the ball the way the catcher requested.
Except, that is, when the pitcher disagrees. Sometimes the pitcher has their own idea about what pitch should be thrown, based on their confidence in the called pitch, how the game has gone, or something they have noticed about the hitter on this at-bat. A pitcher disagreeing like this will usually indicate their non-agreement by shaking their head from side to side a bit. The catcher may move down their list of possible pitches to the next option and present that one, which can either be accepted with a nod, or another shake-off. Very patient catchers may have a third possible pitch in mind to present, but after the third shake-off, it's pretty well inevitable that the catcher will call for time and have a jog or to the pitching mound to see what's wrong and try to get the pitcher back on the same page as the plan. After a discussion, where pitchers will talk until their mitts to avoid having their lips read, everyone returns to their positions and play resumes. Long conferences will be broken up by the umpire, whose patience is discretionary on these matters.
So, at its core, the shake-off is a disagreement. In a game, though, where the nine players of the defense all need to be following the same playbook, disagreements have to be handled swiftly and completely, as outstanding disagreements lead to fielding errors, or worse, extra-base hits. Bad things generally happen when everyone isn't working from the same book from the start.
Now, this seems not all that bad, mostly because in baseball, you always have a team around to help with support, and most people know that baseball is an abstraction, where the worst consequences are "if they don't win, it's a shame." Outside of baseball, though, the team isn't always there. And the consequences can be or feel a lot worse. And to be fair, the Rider-Waite imagery for this card is pretty scary and memorable - on the field of a lightning rainstorm, a heart pierced by three swords. It's pretty iconic, and most people will remember that type of imagery when it appears in their readings. As one might guess, that card generally signals the appearance or presence of pain of the heart, sometimes very strong pain of the heart. And most of us get our worst heart pains by people we know and are friends with, often over disagreements that explode if handled poorly or left to fester. We tend to use the imagery of being stabbed, either as a betrayal or as how acutely the pain is felt, so there's a good reason that imagery has swords through the heart. The translation to the baseball concept softens things somewhat, but inside that context, things like giving up a double or a home run are bad, heart-hurting things - just look at a pitcher that's just been tagged for that, and try to tell me they're not hurting. Especially if this isn't the first time this game or they've been having trouble with their stuff and struggling the whole time.
So, if this card shows up in your reading, figure out whether you're giving the shake-off or whether you're receiving it. If you're giving the shake-off, what's your problem with the signal? Are you not confident in that pitch? Is the something you think you're seeing about the batter that would make a different pitch better? Can you articulate this to the catcher if they come up to the mound? The thing is, you'll probably get blamed for bad pitch selection or execution by the TV audience no matter what pitch you throw, but they aren't important, so if you're concerned about what others think in this situation, you probably shouldn't be. More important is what your team thinks about it. If you can't put your finger on the why, you're going to frustrate everyone, so be ready to articulate or to go along with the signs. There's still more players behind you that can save your butt if it turns out the pitch call was wrong. In a relationship, if you're giving the signs and your partners ask, you'll probably have to be completely open and forthright if you want to fix the problems. If you're already in a situation where honesty doesn't produce reconciliation or a lessening of the problems, it's probably time to think about dissolving the relationship. It's going to hurt a lot, but it will likely be better for your emotional and mental health (and possibly your physical health) in the long term.
If you're getting a shake-off, try to figure out why. Discomfort is a very real thing and impacts performance, so spend some time figuring out what the problem is. See if any alternatives will work out, or if you can find out the core of the disagreement. This is going to require listening, but also doing the prep work or having done the prep work so that you are perceived as someone who actually listens and cares about what the other people around you have to say. If you're seen as the bully that always gets their way because they don't move or listen, people will find a way to route the workflow around you, or will not open up and be intimate with you about their feelings and perceptions. If you're in a managerial position or tasked with responsibility, being routed around makes your job infinitely more difficult, because you're robbing you're team of the resources you can bring to bear, because nobody wants to work with you. This is a bad situation and needs to be fixed immediately. If you're in a relationship and getting these signs, if you want to keep the relationship, you're going to have to be willing to work through the disagreement and be able to compromise if necessary. Otherwise, it's probably time to stop the relationship.
It's not the cheeriest card, but all cards are not universally good or bad, but context and question dependent. This, too, is something that must be learned.
For
cxcvi, who has had bad associations with the Tarot equivalent, the three of swords.There are two pairings in baseball that tends to get mentioned a lot in combination - the shortstop and second baseman, who have to be synchronized well to perform the first leg of the double play, and to know who is going to receive the catcher's throw to apply a tag during a steal, and the battery, composed of the pitcher and catcher. The catcher gives the signals to the pitcher, and the pitcher attempts to deliver the ball the way the catcher requested.
Except, that is, when the pitcher disagrees. Sometimes the pitcher has their own idea about what pitch should be thrown, based on their confidence in the called pitch, how the game has gone, or something they have noticed about the hitter on this at-bat. A pitcher disagreeing like this will usually indicate their non-agreement by shaking their head from side to side a bit. The catcher may move down their list of possible pitches to the next option and present that one, which can either be accepted with a nod, or another shake-off. Very patient catchers may have a third possible pitch in mind to present, but after the third shake-off, it's pretty well inevitable that the catcher will call for time and have a jog or to the pitching mound to see what's wrong and try to get the pitcher back on the same page as the plan. After a discussion, where pitchers will talk until their mitts to avoid having their lips read, everyone returns to their positions and play resumes. Long conferences will be broken up by the umpire, whose patience is discretionary on these matters.
So, at its core, the shake-off is a disagreement. In a game, though, where the nine players of the defense all need to be following the same playbook, disagreements have to be handled swiftly and completely, as outstanding disagreements lead to fielding errors, or worse, extra-base hits. Bad things generally happen when everyone isn't working from the same book from the start.
Now, this seems not all that bad, mostly because in baseball, you always have a team around to help with support, and most people know that baseball is an abstraction, where the worst consequences are "if they don't win, it's a shame." Outside of baseball, though, the team isn't always there. And the consequences can be or feel a lot worse. And to be fair, the Rider-Waite imagery for this card is pretty scary and memorable - on the field of a lightning rainstorm, a heart pierced by three swords. It's pretty iconic, and most people will remember that type of imagery when it appears in their readings. As one might guess, that card generally signals the appearance or presence of pain of the heart, sometimes very strong pain of the heart. And most of us get our worst heart pains by people we know and are friends with, often over disagreements that explode if handled poorly or left to fester. We tend to use the imagery of being stabbed, either as a betrayal or as how acutely the pain is felt, so there's a good reason that imagery has swords through the heart. The translation to the baseball concept softens things somewhat, but inside that context, things like giving up a double or a home run are bad, heart-hurting things - just look at a pitcher that's just been tagged for that, and try to tell me they're not hurting. Especially if this isn't the first time this game or they've been having trouble with their stuff and struggling the whole time.
So, if this card shows up in your reading, figure out whether you're giving the shake-off or whether you're receiving it. If you're giving the shake-off, what's your problem with the signal? Are you not confident in that pitch? Is the something you think you're seeing about the batter that would make a different pitch better? Can you articulate this to the catcher if they come up to the mound? The thing is, you'll probably get blamed for bad pitch selection or execution by the TV audience no matter what pitch you throw, but they aren't important, so if you're concerned about what others think in this situation, you probably shouldn't be. More important is what your team thinks about it. If you can't put your finger on the why, you're going to frustrate everyone, so be ready to articulate or to go along with the signs. There's still more players behind you that can save your butt if it turns out the pitch call was wrong. In a relationship, if you're giving the signs and your partners ask, you'll probably have to be completely open and forthright if you want to fix the problems. If you're already in a situation where honesty doesn't produce reconciliation or a lessening of the problems, it's probably time to think about dissolving the relationship. It's going to hurt a lot, but it will likely be better for your emotional and mental health (and possibly your physical health) in the long term.
If you're getting a shake-off, try to figure out why. Discomfort is a very real thing and impacts performance, so spend some time figuring out what the problem is. See if any alternatives will work out, or if you can find out the core of the disagreement. This is going to require listening, but also doing the prep work or having done the prep work so that you are perceived as someone who actually listens and cares about what the other people around you have to say. If you're seen as the bully that always gets their way because they don't move or listen, people will find a way to route the workflow around you, or will not open up and be intimate with you about their feelings and perceptions. If you're in a managerial position or tasked with responsibility, being routed around makes your job infinitely more difficult, because you're robbing you're team of the resources you can bring to bear, because nobody wants to work with you. This is a bad situation and needs to be fixed immediately. If you're in a relationship and getting these signs, if you want to keep the relationship, you're going to have to be willing to work through the disagreement and be able to compromise if necessary. Otherwise, it's probably time to stop the relationship.
It's not the cheeriest card, but all cards are not universally good or bad, but context and question dependent. This, too, is something that must be learned.
