[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, all the rest of the month is available for your curiosity, about either baseball or Tarot. Leave a comment with a prompt if you want in. All other comments are still welcome, of course.]
Batter Up! The call from the umpire summons the hitter from their liminal space of the on-deck circle (the Seven of Bases) into the field and into the game itself. No longer required to be just an observer, the batter is now a full participant in the action taking place on the field, and their skill at observation and execution of the plan of action will determine whether they get on base or return to the dugout as one of the three outs of the inning.
As is befitting of the suit of Bats, Batter Up is traditionally seen in the game as a call to action, to get the lumber off one's shoulder and take destiny in hand by taking swings at the pitches thrown by life. A large amount of the televised game constructs and reinforces this narrative of baseball as a game of action, driven by the batter's ability (or lack thereof) to make contact with the baseball. During the game, informative graphics about each batter's performance appear with their plate appearances - first, their season totals to that point, then each subsequent appearance details their performance of the game, showing the results of each of their previous attempts to get on base. Pitchers, in the other hand, tend to receive one battery of statistics at the beginning of their time in the mound. Achievements, accomplishments, and pitch counts and selections are flashed up at the time they happen, but are then tucked back away for the next graphic of the next hitter called into the batter's box. One of the benefits of live games is the information that would otherwise be mediated by the broadcast entities is freely available for consultation at any time. At least, if you have been keeping score yourself, it is. Otherwise, you only get the subset of information built into the field and video boards at the stadium, which can often be the same that you would get by watching the game on television.
In our days, stadia, even at the learning leagues, keep the audience and the players separated and the audience somewhat protected from the possibility of foul balls intruding on someone not paying attention to the game, but there's still a lot of fields and sandlots and alleyways where the game is going on that do not have the benefits of fences, backstop, or even formal bats, mitts, and umpires. There, the cry of "Batter Up!" serves as warning to all around that baseball is about to break out, and that they can either get away from it or join in on the festivities. (Their windows, cars, and more fixed objects don't have the ability to get away, but should there be damage, most players will own up to it and find a way of making amends.) In these informal gatherings, sometimes a Coach will wander by and impart wisdom of the game and their life to the young players, passing on the knowledge that is vital to the continuation of the game in front of them and the game behind it. Trusted adult relationships are needed things for kids and adolescents. With each cry, the opportunity opens to provide one.
It is possible to ignore or refuse to enter the batter's box when summoned, but the rules state that a batter that doesn't do so within a reasonable amount of time after the umpire calls them in is to have strikes called against them for their refusal to participate, until they have accumulated enough strikes to be declared out and the next batter summoned - in that regard, there can be no delay of the game. (Pitchers who refuse to pitch in a timely manner are penalized with balls called against them - the umpire is charged with making sure the game continues, and will use all the tools at their disposal to ensure that happens.) A player or coach looking to redress grievances with the way the game has been played will have to seek other means, like the formal protest procedures.
This card, should it appear in your reading, represents a call to step into the action. All of the preparation you have done, or not done, is being set to the task at hand. Regardless of whether you feel ready to take it on, here's your chance to go out and affect the game. If you have a plan, remember that the reality of the game often demands adjustment of the plan to suit what is actually going on. The important part here, though, is that you accept the call and go forward into the unknown, for better or worse. You cannot stay where you are anymore without consequences.
The downside to the card is the desire for a static and unchanging game, a refusal to go forward. We have reasons for wanting things to stay exactly the same. When going forward means letting go, means acknowledging trauma and loss, means grieving, means being scared shitless at the sheer amount of possibility unfolding right before our eyes, there is a perfectly good reason to want not to acknowledge it or deal with it, and to retreat back into the known, the safe, and the structured. Adulting is fucking hard for all of us once we have to grapple with the randomness of life, and harder still for those who go through life lacking privileges like money, stable living situations, ability, and the "right" gender or skin color.
In a world where authority figures will treat you differently depending on your skin color, where angry mobs exist to tell you they will violate you and send police after you on false pretenses because you dared express an opinion that was different than theirs, where people decide that women who are being care for their bodies deserve to be shot and killed, where women who say no to a man deserve to be shot, stabbed, and killed, where people seek revenge for the mental damage that cliques do to the different, where you may be subjected to the mental (and physical) damage that comes with being visibly different, going out into that world looks like a sucker's bet. And yet, if we try to stay where we are, we die all the same, but faster. Change is a necessary part of our existence, movement essential to survival, growth, and thriving.
Batter up.
Batter Up! The call from the umpire summons the hitter from their liminal space of the on-deck circle (the Seven of Bases) into the field and into the game itself. No longer required to be just an observer, the batter is now a full participant in the action taking place on the field, and their skill at observation and execution of the plan of action will determine whether they get on base or return to the dugout as one of the three outs of the inning.
As is befitting of the suit of Bats, Batter Up is traditionally seen in the game as a call to action, to get the lumber off one's shoulder and take destiny in hand by taking swings at the pitches thrown by life. A large amount of the televised game constructs and reinforces this narrative of baseball as a game of action, driven by the batter's ability (or lack thereof) to make contact with the baseball. During the game, informative graphics about each batter's performance appear with their plate appearances - first, their season totals to that point, then each subsequent appearance details their performance of the game, showing the results of each of their previous attempts to get on base. Pitchers, in the other hand, tend to receive one battery of statistics at the beginning of their time in the mound. Achievements, accomplishments, and pitch counts and selections are flashed up at the time they happen, but are then tucked back away for the next graphic of the next hitter called into the batter's box. One of the benefits of live games is the information that would otherwise be mediated by the broadcast entities is freely available for consultation at any time. At least, if you have been keeping score yourself, it is. Otherwise, you only get the subset of information built into the field and video boards at the stadium, which can often be the same that you would get by watching the game on television.
In our days, stadia, even at the learning leagues, keep the audience and the players separated and the audience somewhat protected from the possibility of foul balls intruding on someone not paying attention to the game, but there's still a lot of fields and sandlots and alleyways where the game is going on that do not have the benefits of fences, backstop, or even formal bats, mitts, and umpires. There, the cry of "Batter Up!" serves as warning to all around that baseball is about to break out, and that they can either get away from it or join in on the festivities. (Their windows, cars, and more fixed objects don't have the ability to get away, but should there be damage, most players will own up to it and find a way of making amends.) In these informal gatherings, sometimes a Coach will wander by and impart wisdom of the game and their life to the young players, passing on the knowledge that is vital to the continuation of the game in front of them and the game behind it. Trusted adult relationships are needed things for kids and adolescents. With each cry, the opportunity opens to provide one.
It is possible to ignore or refuse to enter the batter's box when summoned, but the rules state that a batter that doesn't do so within a reasonable amount of time after the umpire calls them in is to have strikes called against them for their refusal to participate, until they have accumulated enough strikes to be declared out and the next batter summoned - in that regard, there can be no delay of the game. (Pitchers who refuse to pitch in a timely manner are penalized with balls called against them - the umpire is charged with making sure the game continues, and will use all the tools at their disposal to ensure that happens.) A player or coach looking to redress grievances with the way the game has been played will have to seek other means, like the formal protest procedures.
This card, should it appear in your reading, represents a call to step into the action. All of the preparation you have done, or not done, is being set to the task at hand. Regardless of whether you feel ready to take it on, here's your chance to go out and affect the game. If you have a plan, remember that the reality of the game often demands adjustment of the plan to suit what is actually going on. The important part here, though, is that you accept the call and go forward into the unknown, for better or worse. You cannot stay where you are anymore without consequences.
The downside to the card is the desire for a static and unchanging game, a refusal to go forward. We have reasons for wanting things to stay exactly the same. When going forward means letting go, means acknowledging trauma and loss, means grieving, means being scared shitless at the sheer amount of possibility unfolding right before our eyes, there is a perfectly good reason to want not to acknowledge it or deal with it, and to retreat back into the known, the safe, and the structured. Adulting is fucking hard for all of us once we have to grapple with the randomness of life, and harder still for those who go through life lacking privileges like money, stable living situations, ability, and the "right" gender or skin color.
In a world where authority figures will treat you differently depending on your skin color, where angry mobs exist to tell you they will violate you and send police after you on false pretenses because you dared express an opinion that was different than theirs, where people decide that women who are being care for their bodies deserve to be shot and killed, where women who say no to a man deserve to be shot, stabbed, and killed, where people seek revenge for the mental damage that cliques do to the different, where you may be subjected to the mental (and physical) damage that comes with being visibly different, going out into that world looks like a sucker's bet. And yet, if we try to stay where we are, we die all the same, but faster. Change is a necessary part of our existence, movement essential to survival, growth, and thriving.
Batter up.