yuri's Major Arcana Workshop ― Custom LAD Tarot Card Edition ―

yuri dabbled in tarot cards a little bit a long time ago.
It wasn't sweet. It might have been bitter.
Rather than whether they were accurate or not, I think I was fascinated by the allegorical nature of the cards.
I pulled out the tarot cards I had tucked away in the back of my desk, took out the Major Arcana cards, and a thought suddenly occurred to me.
Why not turn the 22 Major Arcana cards into an LAD version?
Well then, let's go ahead and upload the cards I've made.

For the images, I would like to base them on the RWS tarot cards created by Arthur Edward Waite in England in 1909, due to their design quality.

■ Upright: Innocence, adventurer, freedom, optimistic
■ Reversed: Dreaminess, foolishness, lack of planning, recklessness
Speaking of the Fool, that has to be the postseason man. His batting average is low, but for some reason, he always manages to drive in runs against the opponent. An optimistic adventurer. Kike Hernandez is the motif. He is the only one who can be the Fool card.

■ Upright: Creation, confidence, skill, talent
■ Reversed: Confusion, immaturity, passive, loss of confidence
Inspired by Freddie Freeman's 2024 walk-off grand slam.
Doesn't 'Home Run Magic' scroll across the electric billboard above the spectator seats at Dodger Stadium? Mr. Freeman is a magician.

■ Upright: Intelligence, wisdom, mystery, sagacity, judgment
■ Reversed: Criticism, pessimism, coldness, ignorance, insensitivity
For the High Priestess, I based it on Mamiko Ohtani, including the card's meaning of intelligence and wisdom. Mamiko, who has become a mother of two. The intelligence and judgment to guide Shohei, their two children, and Decoy. This is the deciding factor.

■ Upright: Fertility, satisfaction, tolerance, charm, affection
■ Reversed: Jealousy, selfishness, wastefulness, emotional, laziness
I'm not sure if she can be called the Empress, but as the leader of the players' association, I imagined Chelsea, the wife of Freddie Freeman. Taking care of Max during his treatment before was truly difficult, wasn't it? But thanks to that love, he seems to be doing well now, which is the best thing. So, this card is for Chelsea.

■ Upright: Domination, power, stability, success, responsibility
■ Reversed: Overconfidence, arrogance, isolation, selfishness, dogmatic
The Emperor card. Since it represents domination, power, success, and responsibility, I think Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers' President of Baseball Operations, is perfect. He is the Emperor who built the LA empire after coming from Wall Street and passing through TB. Stable cash flow is a symbol of the empire's prosperity.

■ Upright: Mercy, kindness, adherence to the law, respect, generosity
■ Reversed: Conservative, bondage, distrust, vanity, stubbornness
The Hierophant card is for LAD GM Brandon Gomes. A former TB pitcher. Since he has a TB connection with Mr. Friedman, he is selected for the Hierophant card. Working hand-in-hand with Emperor Friedman.

■ Upright: Romance, passion, marriage, fluttering heart, harmony
■ Reversed: Temptation, immoral sex, breakdown of relationships
The Lovers card is for Tyler Glasnow and his wife, Meghan.
The two of them are very close. Mr. Glasnow, please don't let your relationship with the LAD break down due to your ongoing injuries. Please regain the harmony of your mind and body as soon as possible.

■ Upright: Execution, strong will, speed, victory, conquest
■ Reversed: Lethargy, leaving things to others, frustration, failure
The Chariot is an interesting card; against strong will, victory, and conquest, it also means failure. Max Muncy's bravery might fit well here for the LAD.
Teoscar Hernandez, hit a 3-run homer with your chariot for Freddie Freeman.

■ Upright: Strong will, self-control, indomitable, reason, ability
■ Reversed: Powerlessness, lack of strength, giving up, indecisiveness, discouragement
Thinking only of the upright position, if it's about self-control and being indomitable, I think a catcher is best.
So, Will Smith is the symbol. Right now, Rushing is in a state of worry and discouragement. So, please return soon and guide him. Because Rushing can only become the king of beasts if you train him.

■Upright: Spirituality, introspection, enlightenment, thoughtful, cautious
■Reversed: Passivity, pessimism, conservative, closed-off, reclusive
The Hermit card. Spirituality and enlightenment. Since it is the Hermit, I created this based on Clayton Kershaw, the #22 of the LAD who retired last year. Once you have enjoyed resting with your family, please come back to the bench and stay by our side as a pitching coach staff member along with Mark Prior. I don't want you to seclude yourself.

■Upright: Temporary good luck, change, destiny, encounters
■Reversed: Accident, rapid deterioration, missing each other
I could have put an LAD player or Manager Roberts in the wheel, but based on the allegory, I thought the LAD logo design would fit better. I imagined a team where change, destiny, and encounters intersect.

■Upright: Fair judgment, balance, correctness, equality
■Reversed: Guilt, injustice, loss of balance, inequality
When it comes to justice, it's Shohei Ohtani, right? Fair judgment, respecting everyone, and treating them equally. Ohtani-san, who never forgets to show respect even to SD fans. I also had Decoy-kun appear on the screen.

■Upright: Ordeal, training, effort, hard work rewarded
■Reversed: Unrewarded suffering, futility, giving up
I couldn't just put an LAD player as the Hanged Man, so I made it SD's Manny Machado, who let his intentional dropped ball end in futility.
yuri is vengeful, you know ( ´艸｀)

■Upright: Forced termination, cancellation, breakup, end, stop
■Reversed: Rebirth, restart, comeback, new development
The Death card has quite a harsh allegory when read upright, but considering both upright and reversed, I thought Cody Bellinger, formerly of the LAD and currently with the NYY, would be good. Bellinger, who transferred from LAD to CHC to NYY and is active this year. The end at LAD, the rebirth at CHC, and the new development at NYY—the allegory of this card is Bellinger himself, so I chose him.

■Upright: Circulation, smooth progress, harmony, management, steady flow
■Reversed: Waste, stagnation, imbalance, stop, inertia
The Temperance card. I might have made a mistake in selecting the image. I tried to make the original photo Tommy Edman, a switch-hitter and utility player. He ended up looking Japanese, or rather, Asian, didn't he?

■Upright: Temptation, corruption, betrayal, ruin, dependence
■Reversed: Liberation, rebirth, awakening, letting go of attachment
The Devil card. I based this on Ippei Mizuhara, who is not currently affiliated with the LAD, and who fell into corruption and ruin through betrayal and dependence. I hope he wakes up and is reborn with the reverse card.

■Upright: Disaster, calamity, accident, collapse, shock
■Reversed: Disgrace, tense situation, suffering, instability
The Tower, said to be the worst card in the Major Arcana. I don't want to use a player.
After much hesitation, I decided to use the 50-50 commemorative Ohtani pancake tower instead of the tower.

■Upright: Intuition, inspiration, hope, longing, goal
■Reversed: Disappointment, high expectations, despair, disillusionment, lethargy
It's the Star card. I hear that Clayton Kershaw is a family man who, along with his wife Ellen, established the Kershaw Foundation and is enthusiastic about charitable activities.
So, I based it on Ellen, out of longing and hope.

■Upright: Anxiety, melancholy, half-heartedness, misunderstanding, change
■Reversed: Breaking away, clarity, resolution of trauma, recovery
The Moon card. Since the celestial cards starting with the Star have women embedded in them, I based this on Will Smith's wife, Cara, reflecting the meaning of the reverse card. She seems to be taking a leadership role in the wives' association, too.

■Upright: Innocent, naive, joy, glory, success
■Reversed: Malaise, disappointment, downfall, deterioration, no
The Sun card. I've already embedded it directly into the sun, but it had to be Brianna, Mookie Betts' wife. The innocence of Brianna, who is also active at home parties where players are invited. I think this is the card itself.

■Upright: Resurrection, blessing, rebirth, re-challenge
■Reversed: Warning, punishment, extinction, darkness, atonement
The Judgement card. It's not a baseball umpire, you know (*´∇`*) The words resurrection and rebirth.
Symbolized by Edwin Diaz, who left the team for surgery early in the season. Since a trumpet is used in the original illustration, I thought Diaz would be a good fit.

■Upright: Completion, utopia, success, fulfillment, perfection
■Reversed: Incomplete, inertia, dissatisfaction, slump
The 21st and final card, The World. Given the meaning of the upright position, let's have Shohei Ohtani grace The World. The original illustration has stick-like objects in both hands, but I changed them to a glove and a bat.

I also created a box to store the cards. Since they are on a two-year winning streak, I had Buehler, the pitcher who was tossed in the air, appear on the 2024 version.

For the 2025 version, I made the box art feature Yoshinobu Yamamoto and his teammates. If they win three in a row in 2026, what kind of box art should I make? It makes you look forward to it, doesn't it?

I tried laying out the 22 Major Arcana cards. I'm sure someone will point out that it's different from the uploaded image, but please forgive me as it's just an image for now.

If you are new to tarot cards, please refer to the fortune-telling methods in the link below.

Things I felt this time.

Making 22 cards was a bit of a chore.
I chose the RWS cards because I, yuri, own them, but the allegorical paintings of the original cards were so strong that the premise of being in the style of Lautrec was significantly reduced. This is a point of reflection for me.
With a quantity of 22 cards, there was some inconsistency in the overall quality of the cards, which is another point of reflection.

There were quite a few nude figures in the original card illustrations, and GPT would often refuse when I tried to have them processed as is.
I couldn't generate the images unless I first created cards where I put clothes on the nude figures from the original cards.
I suppose it's because the ethical constraints on image generation are becoming stricter.

I uploaded this as an article this time, but if I have time, I hope to make small corrections little by little, and also create the 56 Minor Arcana cards, and hopefully complete it someday. Although I'm running out of ideas for the illustrations.

The images are created in quite a large format, so if you like them, please feel free to copy them and print them out with a printer. You are free to use them as your own Major Arcana cards for fortune-telling or just for appreciation.

※ I came up with this project after seeing one tarot card uploaded in Makari-sama's article on how to create AI-generated images.

I've also provided a back design for the cards, so please feel free to use it if you'd like.

Today's Song

Blasterjaxx & Timmy Trumpet - Narco (Official Music Video)

The End.

Today's MLB

Today's commentary was provided by So Taguchi.

June 29 will be So Taguchi's 10th commentary game of the season.
One reason his winning percentage is struggling to improve might be that he has been involved in 5 games where the LAD starter was either Sheehan (3 games) or Stone (2 games). However, both Sheehan and Stone have won one game each, so it's hard to say...
The run differential is 0.9, which seems like a narrow margin, but the total runs allowed in the 5 games started by Sheehan and Stone is 24, making the average runs allowed 4.8. Consequently, there are quite a few games where they lost by a large margin. Since there was also a rare 5-run loss in a game started by Wrobleski, he might just be a commentator with bad luck in his assignments.

He was entrusted with the commentary for an important game after returning to a 1-1 tie with the SD on the 28th.
Since the LAD starter is Sheehan, he will be involved in yet another game.
It seems to be a phenomenon that occurs because the commentary rotation and the LAD starting rotation are subtly synchronized.
If they win, they will be 10 games ahead of the SD, and even if they lose, they will be 8 games ahead. However, with a 4-game series against the SD at Dodger Stadium starting Friday, sandwiched around a series against the Athletics, losing 4 games while 8 games ahead would shrink the lead to 4 games.
This is a game they would ideally like to win.

Petco Park
June 29, 05:10 (JST) Game Start
Weather: Sunny, Temperature: 22°C, Humidity: 60%, Wind: East 4.0m/sec
LAD 4 - 2 SD

The LAD scored 4 runs on 5 hits. While the connectivity of the batting lineup has been pointed out recently, I think being able to score properly when opportunities arose led to the victory. The SD had a home run by Machado, but the LAD had no home runs.
It means they were able to drive in the runners who accumulated due to walks.

As a key point for today, the LAD changed the order of their relief pitching.
Usually, they would bring in Vesia for the first spot that Klein would handle. Scott also pitched across innings, but instead of the 9th, he was moved up to pitch from the 7th to the 8th.
The game was closed out by Henriquez at the end.
Because the score was a narrow 4-2, it was an aggressive relief order aimed at protecting the lead.
Of course, there are risks, but today that aggressive strategy worked perfectly.

As a result, So Taguchi returned to a .600 winning percentage with 6 wins and 4 losses in 10 games.
Sheehan also managed to hold his own, and while Klein was a bit shaky, the bullpen generally held them down well in a game we won.
All's well that ends well.

Starting tomorrow, we have a 3-game series against ATH in Sacramento.
The starting pitcher will be Lauer. The commentator will be Takehiko Kobayakawa. I hope we can keep the winning streak going.

The end.