The scene took place at my high school baseball field. As an FYI, I played four years of varsity baseball in high school, and played something like 11 of 12 years I could play growing up. I wasn't ever amazing, but I was pretty good.
In the dream, we had guys on second and third base and I was at bat. A couple of specifics:
- I'm not sure who "we" were. My team, presumably, but I don't think I recognized anyone on my team outside of my brother.
- I was batting right-handed. I hit left-handed for almost my whole time playing baseball in spite of being right handed overall (throwing, writing, slappin' the ho).
- It was daylight, but the evening. Presumably about the time that we played baseball games after school.
As I was at bat, the umpire threw the ball back to the pitcher (as he might do in the case of a muddy or scuffed ball) but he made a bad throw. The throw bounded past the third baseman and both of my teammates came around to score. I remember telling the second one to slide (although he didn't).
For those non-baseball fans reading this: runners can't advance on a bad throw by the umpire... even one as spectacularly bad as in my dream.
After the errant umpire throw, I was still at bat but an extended discussion (about what? I don't know/remember) occurred in the field and I was standing there, bat in hand, as it became super-dark, super-fast. It was agreed that the game was over. I was upset that I didn't get to bat.
And... it ended. I have no idea why I remembered this dream, given that I almost never do.
(The only other recent dream I recall was more brief and more horrific; I was sitting in a small room, alone, and someone yelled something. I saw smoke coming through the keyhole of the only door of the room, which I could not open. I decided (why?!?) to look through the keyhole but the smoke kept coming. I couldn't breath. I felt myself weaken. And I awoke, panting heavily, very frightened.)
Because I severely doubt my clairvoyant capabilities, I don't look at the baseball dream as prophecy. Instead, I'll look at various things in my life that might have contributed to the la-la-land melange:
- I don't get to see my brother (and the rest of my family) as much as I'd like, but my siblings and I have been ironing out Christmas plans this year and I think we settled on the parameters of a vacation, which excites me.
- I haven't watched any baseball this year. None. I have played in a long-term fantasy baseball league dating back to college, but the league ... went away and I didn't sign up for another league. While I plan on seeing the Mariners after the weather gets better (it seems like a fun, if overpriced, way to trick girls into hanging out with me), now that I don't have my old-school AL-only roto league to cheer, I just haven't had the inclination to follow or watch baseball.
- I am reading a series of books that start with The Three Body Problem. The books are by a Chinese science fiction author and one of the motifs is rapid/chaotic sunlight/darkness changes, so maybe that was part of it. (I'm on the second book now, by the way; it's excellent.)
- I signed up for kickball and I am on a team, although my attendance has been terrible. The first game I played in (about a month ago) we only got to play three innings before it was too dark to continue. Summer kickball signups are occurring, but I decided that while I liked my teammates I am not going to sign up again because (a) work makes attendance tough, and (b) the fields are going to be farther away, and as a non-car owner that makes it more difficult. I still feel like I might be making a mistake by not playing again. I also have an aching shoulder (which I think might be from kickball a couple of weeks ago) and maybe I was sleeping on it wrong.
The good thing about dreams is that they don't matter unless you think they matter, and even then they probably don't matter. My brain
