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silveradept[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.]
Not every hit ball will be caught. If it were, baseball would be a very boring game. (As it should have been for the super-speed-enhanced Cullen clan in Twilight.) The six fielders of the infield can cover a lot of ground, as can the three in the outfield, but there's more space available in fair territory than any fielder can totally cover. Hot shots from the bat can put a ball past the infield within a few seconds, rolling contentedly on the outfield grass until scooped up by an outfielder and thrown back in. A perfect bunt is designed to stop equally distant from all the fielders converging on it, preventing any of them from throwing to any base to collect an out. A ball that crosses the outfield fence in the air is still a home run, regardless of whether it's into the upper deck or just beyond the line.
Some of these hits are obvious that they won't be fielded for an out. Some of them end up becoming circus catches, with the accompanying cheers from the fanatics for the success of extraordinary effort. And then there are the ones that look like they could be caught, but end up just beyond the ability of the fielder's outstretched glove. Depending on how much diving, leaping, or all out effort is going on from
the fielder, the hit goes for extra bases while the backup fielder runs down the ball and gets it back into the infield. The reward potential from making the catch was great, but the risk potential for missing is similarly great. And since it's often very difficult to see the difference between a ball that will be a circus catch certain one that will be out of reach, many baseball players sacrifice knees, chests, uniforms, socks, and other body parts to try and reel in balls that are ultimately not going to be catchable. Not making that kind of effort during a game is usually a fast way to the manager's doghouse, the bench, or a trip to the other leagues as an attempt to get a player to understand their effort is lacking.
Even when fielders are putting in all the effort they can, there are some balls that are going to be out of reach because of the way they're hit. The defense can't run faster, jump higher, stretch farther, or do anything more physically to catch the ball, not unless they have some sort of mechanical advantage, a time-stopping device, or the cheat codes to reality. Everyone has to admit at some point that there will be things that are out of reach - some clearly so, others that tantalizingly hang there as they fall and taunt us, showing us the failure that is about to happen.
So this card, when it appears in your reading, is ultimately about limitations. Accept that some things are beyond you at this point and that you cannot be everything to everyone all the time. Yes, it means taking a hit, and possibly even giving up a run or more, and sometimes it means losing the game. If you can accept what your limits are right now, you will be able to play the next ball better - maybe you have to shade a little bit more one way or another to compensate for the hitter's tendencies. Maybe you have to think about self-preservation first and defense later. Maybe your first step has to be back before you can come in to catch a fly ball, just to be sure that the ball isn't hit harder than it looked. Maybe you need more practice, or to learn a new skill, before you can catch the next ball sent your way. Acknowledgement of your limits is what makes it possible to work toward overcoming them, if that's what you want to do.
The bad side to this card is the person that cannot admit that they have limits, the person that refuses to respect them when they appear, and the person that continually hurts their own self-image chasing things that are out of reach by blaming everything on themselves. None of these approaches produces a happy and stable relationship between a person and others or a person and themselves. If the first step is admitting there are limits, these people will stay stuck and increasingly frustrated that their current skills can't seem to get the job done.
Everyone has limits, even those that claim they have no limits. The right environment is necessary to acknowledge and then do the work so that someone's limits are what they have consciously chosen to accept. By putting some things out of reach, one can narrow the scope of existence (and sport) to a more manageable level.
Not every hit ball will be caught. If it were, baseball would be a very boring game. (As it should have been for the super-speed-enhanced Cullen clan in Twilight.) The six fielders of the infield can cover a lot of ground, as can the three in the outfield, but there's more space available in fair territory than any fielder can totally cover. Hot shots from the bat can put a ball past the infield within a few seconds, rolling contentedly on the outfield grass until scooped up by an outfielder and thrown back in. A perfect bunt is designed to stop equally distant from all the fielders converging on it, preventing any of them from throwing to any base to collect an out. A ball that crosses the outfield fence in the air is still a home run, regardless of whether it's into the upper deck or just beyond the line.
Some of these hits are obvious that they won't be fielded for an out. Some of them end up becoming circus catches, with the accompanying cheers from the fanatics for the success of extraordinary effort. And then there are the ones that look like they could be caught, but end up just beyond the ability of the fielder's outstretched glove. Depending on how much diving, leaping, or all out effort is going on from
the fielder, the hit goes for extra bases while the backup fielder runs down the ball and gets it back into the infield. The reward potential from making the catch was great, but the risk potential for missing is similarly great. And since it's often very difficult to see the difference between a ball that will be a circus catch certain one that will be out of reach, many baseball players sacrifice knees, chests, uniforms, socks, and other body parts to try and reel in balls that are ultimately not going to be catchable. Not making that kind of effort during a game is usually a fast way to the manager's doghouse, the bench, or a trip to the other leagues as an attempt to get a player to understand their effort is lacking.
Even when fielders are putting in all the effort they can, there are some balls that are going to be out of reach because of the way they're hit. The defense can't run faster, jump higher, stretch farther, or do anything more physically to catch the ball, not unless they have some sort of mechanical advantage, a time-stopping device, or the cheat codes to reality. Everyone has to admit at some point that there will be things that are out of reach - some clearly so, others that tantalizingly hang there as they fall and taunt us, showing us the failure that is about to happen.
So this card, when it appears in your reading, is ultimately about limitations. Accept that some things are beyond you at this point and that you cannot be everything to everyone all the time. Yes, it means taking a hit, and possibly even giving up a run or more, and sometimes it means losing the game. If you can accept what your limits are right now, you will be able to play the next ball better - maybe you have to shade a little bit more one way or another to compensate for the hitter's tendencies. Maybe you have to think about self-preservation first and defense later. Maybe your first step has to be back before you can come in to catch a fly ball, just to be sure that the ball isn't hit harder than it looked. Maybe you need more practice, or to learn a new skill, before you can catch the next ball sent your way. Acknowledgement of your limits is what makes it possible to work toward overcoming them, if that's what you want to do.
The bad side to this card is the person that cannot admit that they have limits, the person that refuses to respect them when they appear, and the person that continually hurts their own self-image chasing things that are out of reach by blaming everything on themselves. None of these approaches produces a happy and stable relationship between a person and others or a person and themselves. If the first step is admitting there are limits, these people will stay stuck and increasingly frustrated that their current skills can't seem to get the job done.
Everyone has limits, even those that claim they have no limits. The right environment is necessary to acknowledge and then do the work so that someone's limits are what they have consciously chosen to accept. By putting some things out of reach, one can narrow the scope of existence (and sport) to a more manageable level.
