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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, 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.]
Every pitcher that ever played the game has a fastball. Simple and direct, it is one of the elements of the game that can be improved upon with training to produce more velocity or to introduce some amount of break, but these things only enhance and embellish the pitch rather than changing it entirely. A fastball's purpose is to get to the catcher's mitt before the hitter can get their bat around on it and make contact. It is usually the first pitch of any at-bat, and if the pitcher's control is on that game, will end up being strike one to the batter, making it easier for the pitcher to then use their other pitches for strikes two and three.
As pitchers get tired and further into their game, the velocity of their fastballs decreases a little bit, which can make it easier for batters to start catching up to it and collecting hits when they wouldn't have earlier. Enough instances of this will generally result in the manager calling for relief pitching before too many hits or runs are sacrificed to the exhaustion of the pitcher. Fresh pitching in relief brings fastball speeds back up and requires the batters to readjust their swing timings to compensate. Sometimes this idea backfires and the relief pitchers are easier to hit than the starters are, but that is usually due to the relief staff not always being top-of-the-line players. This can result in losing a surprising number of games during the season - middle relief can be the most treacherous place for any team, especially when the starter leaves early because their technique is not on that game. It may only be two or three innings, but those innings are often the ones that will tell how tense the end of the game is going to be.
If there's a pitcher who specializes in the fastball, it is usually the closer. Closers are brought in to finish games, and generally are rated highly or not by how many times they collect saves, which are games where the team that wins is ahead by a small margin of runs when the closer enters and preserves that lead to the end of the game. An important part of that closing is having a fastball that is a severe adjustment from the starter or relief pitchers, putting batters back in the dugout before they can blink. Many closer fastballs push the limits of human ability, climbing up into three digit speeds, forcing a batter to decide whether they are swinging at a pitch before or on the first few instants a ball leaves the pitcher's hand. With such a short decision time, a closer that can mix up other pitches with a heater that leaves a trail of flame behind can keep the last sets of batters off-balance and swinging at things they should be letting go by.
There's no subterfuge in this card - just driving forward in the bluntest way possible, aiming straight for the target and daring anything in the way to swing the bat and try and catch up. If it's the kind of situation where such a direct approach will be successful or well cut through red tape, just rock and fire. So long as you throw a strike, you will accomplish your goal.
Trick is, not every situation is the kind where the straightforward drive will work. Bluntness and honesty can easily become tactless and ineffective as the message gets lost in all the reasons why the recipient gets mad at you for the delivery. It may be the best, most necessary message, but if someone perceives you as unreasonable, the message will not be accepted except as a last resort. It might be better to throw a breaking pitch here and there and see if they bite on that instead. After all, a steady diet of flamebait is eventually going to rebound.
Every pitcher that ever played the game has a fastball. Simple and direct, it is one of the elements of the game that can be improved upon with training to produce more velocity or to introduce some amount of break, but these things only enhance and embellish the pitch rather than changing it entirely. A fastball's purpose is to get to the catcher's mitt before the hitter can get their bat around on it and make contact. It is usually the first pitch of any at-bat, and if the pitcher's control is on that game, will end up being strike one to the batter, making it easier for the pitcher to then use their other pitches for strikes two and three.
As pitchers get tired and further into their game, the velocity of their fastballs decreases a little bit, which can make it easier for batters to start catching up to it and collecting hits when they wouldn't have earlier. Enough instances of this will generally result in the manager calling for relief pitching before too many hits or runs are sacrificed to the exhaustion of the pitcher. Fresh pitching in relief brings fastball speeds back up and requires the batters to readjust their swing timings to compensate. Sometimes this idea backfires and the relief pitchers are easier to hit than the starters are, but that is usually due to the relief staff not always being top-of-the-line players. This can result in losing a surprising number of games during the season - middle relief can be the most treacherous place for any team, especially when the starter leaves early because their technique is not on that game. It may only be two or three innings, but those innings are often the ones that will tell how tense the end of the game is going to be.
If there's a pitcher who specializes in the fastball, it is usually the closer. Closers are brought in to finish games, and generally are rated highly or not by how many times they collect saves, which are games where the team that wins is ahead by a small margin of runs when the closer enters and preserves that lead to the end of the game. An important part of that closing is having a fastball that is a severe adjustment from the starter or relief pitchers, putting batters back in the dugout before they can blink. Many closer fastballs push the limits of human ability, climbing up into three digit speeds, forcing a batter to decide whether they are swinging at a pitch before or on the first few instants a ball leaves the pitcher's hand. With such a short decision time, a closer that can mix up other pitches with a heater that leaves a trail of flame behind can keep the last sets of batters off-balance and swinging at things they should be letting go by.
There's no subterfuge in this card - just driving forward in the bluntest way possible, aiming straight for the target and daring anything in the way to swing the bat and try and catch up. If it's the kind of situation where such a direct approach will be successful or well cut through red tape, just rock and fire. So long as you throw a strike, you will accomplish your goal.
Trick is, not every situation is the kind where the straightforward drive will work. Bluntness and honesty can easily become tactless and ineffective as the message gets lost in all the reasons why the recipient gets mad at you for the delivery. It may be the best, most necessary message, but if someone perceives you as unreasonable, the message will not be accepted except as a last resort. It might be better to throw a breaking pitch here and there and see if they bite on that instead. After all, a steady diet of flamebait is eventually going to rebound.
