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silveradept[This is part of a series exploring the Baseball Tarot.]
Baseball games do not normally end in ties, certain exhibition games that are roundly booed by fans and pointed to as catalysts for making that exhibition game Count notwithstanding. Unlike other sports of the world that routinely end in draws, baseball must have victors and losers. What happens, then, when twenty-seven outs are recorded on both sides and neither team has more runs than the other? Extra Innings.
Each extra inning is a full and complete inning - the visiting team gets to bat for three outs, and the home team gets to bat for three outs. As in the bottom of the ninth inning, if at any point the home team scores more runs than the visitors, the game stops and victory is declared. If both sides bat and the score is still the same at the end of the inning, another one is played. This can mean some late night games go well on into the morning until someone breaks the type and keeps it broken to the end of the inning. One minor league game made it all the way into the twenties of innings before the tie was finally beaten and everyone could go home. Many of the fans had already left by that time, of course, but those that stayed got more than two games worth of baseball. Not bad for a minor league ticket's price, yeah?
So the visiting team has the harder task of winning in extras - they have to score runs and then go out and field well enough to stop the home team from scoring more. The pressure, such that it is, sits mostly on the visiting team to try and win. At least until they do break the tie - then it's the home team's turn to feel the scrutiny of the fanatics. One way or another, this game will end, and hopefully, all the fans will be happy that they got to see a little more baseball than the nine innings promised, whether or not their team won. (And if they didn't, it's a shame.)
The presence of Extra Innings in your reading is about delay. Whatever it was that you were doing or hoping to achieve, it's going to take longer than you were hoping for. There's a thing in the way, and extra time and effort will have to go into it to make it a victorious affair. Nobody knows how long the delay is going to last, so you just have to keep playing the game to win in this inning and hope the other team doesn't do you one better. Or worse, match your increased effort with just enough of their own to keep everything locked up without anyone getting any sort of win. The fanatics on both sides of the baseball are both happy that they haven't lost and very irritated they haven't won yet. Because baseball is supposed to be done in nine innings and their team is supposed to have won. This indecision is grating, and yet enjoyable at the same time, because if you enjoy watching baseball, or if baseball is a social event for you as much as a sporting event, then getting to spend more time at the ball park is a good thing. Too much of a good thing, of course, but a little bit isn't bad.
The good part of this card is when the delay is put to use making things better and that everyone is still playing the game at their highest ability. It produces a better end and makes everyone feel better about it, as well. It can also be used to evaluate things like accessibility or diversity or better design, make revisions, and ensure that the finished product is even better in the end.
The downside of this card is useless delay or unproductive delay. If there's reason to hold things up, or the delay is there just for someone to assert their power over you, then it's stupid delay and you might need to engage in yelling as a service and/or other methods including voice or exit. Because stupid delay is one of the things that saps energy and morale. And eventually people. Unproductive delay is often endless meetings rehashing things that are commonly agreed upon, requiring forms to be filled out that have nothing to do with the project but are yet required by someone's bureaucratic rule (that do not, when poked, have any sort of good reason why they exist), or letting one's own personal politics interfere with the process for the sake of grandstanding, showboating, or because of inane or asinine promises made to not do work because someone else has a different view than you do. (Principled objections don't count here.)
Extra Innings doesn't always happen, but when it does, be prepared to take advantage of the extra time so that your end results will be better. Someone else will if you don't.
Baseball games do not normally end in ties, certain exhibition games that are roundly booed by fans and pointed to as catalysts for making that exhibition game Count notwithstanding. Unlike other sports of the world that routinely end in draws, baseball must have victors and losers. What happens, then, when twenty-seven outs are recorded on both sides and neither team has more runs than the other? Extra Innings.
Each extra inning is a full and complete inning - the visiting team gets to bat for three outs, and the home team gets to bat for three outs. As in the bottom of the ninth inning, if at any point the home team scores more runs than the visitors, the game stops and victory is declared. If both sides bat and the score is still the same at the end of the inning, another one is played. This can mean some late night games go well on into the morning until someone breaks the type and keeps it broken to the end of the inning. One minor league game made it all the way into the twenties of innings before the tie was finally beaten and everyone could go home. Many of the fans had already left by that time, of course, but those that stayed got more than two games worth of baseball. Not bad for a minor league ticket's price, yeah?
So the visiting team has the harder task of winning in extras - they have to score runs and then go out and field well enough to stop the home team from scoring more. The pressure, such that it is, sits mostly on the visiting team to try and win. At least until they do break the tie - then it's the home team's turn to feel the scrutiny of the fanatics. One way or another, this game will end, and hopefully, all the fans will be happy that they got to see a little more baseball than the nine innings promised, whether or not their team won. (And if they didn't, it's a shame.)
The presence of Extra Innings in your reading is about delay. Whatever it was that you were doing or hoping to achieve, it's going to take longer than you were hoping for. There's a thing in the way, and extra time and effort will have to go into it to make it a victorious affair. Nobody knows how long the delay is going to last, so you just have to keep playing the game to win in this inning and hope the other team doesn't do you one better. Or worse, match your increased effort with just enough of their own to keep everything locked up without anyone getting any sort of win. The fanatics on both sides of the baseball are both happy that they haven't lost and very irritated they haven't won yet. Because baseball is supposed to be done in nine innings and their team is supposed to have won. This indecision is grating, and yet enjoyable at the same time, because if you enjoy watching baseball, or if baseball is a social event for you as much as a sporting event, then getting to spend more time at the ball park is a good thing. Too much of a good thing, of course, but a little bit isn't bad.
The good part of this card is when the delay is put to use making things better and that everyone is still playing the game at their highest ability. It produces a better end and makes everyone feel better about it, as well. It can also be used to evaluate things like accessibility or diversity or better design, make revisions, and ensure that the finished product is even better in the end.
The downside of this card is useless delay or unproductive delay. If there's reason to hold things up, or the delay is there just for someone to assert their power over you, then it's stupid delay and you might need to engage in yelling as a service and/or other methods including voice or exit. Because stupid delay is one of the things that saps energy and morale. And eventually people. Unproductive delay is often endless meetings rehashing things that are commonly agreed upon, requiring forms to be filled out that have nothing to do with the project but are yet required by someone's bureaucratic rule (that do not, when poked, have any sort of good reason why they exist), or letting one's own personal politics interfere with the process for the sake of grandstanding, showboating, or because of inane or asinine promises made to not do work because someone else has a different view than you do. (Principled objections don't count here.)
Extra Innings doesn't always happen, but when it does, be prepared to take advantage of the extra time so that your end results will be better. Someone else will if you don't.
no subject
Date: 2016-07-12 02:45 pm (UTC)Occasionally, it (d)evolves into organized exit.