With the demise of Blaseball I wanted to write a bit about a pitcher the Canada Moist Talkers had from Season 1 to 9, named Ortiz Morse.
Ortiz Morse was a half-star pitcher in a world of 2 to 7-star pitchers, making him one of the worst in the league. This was not helped by his incredibly low Ruthlessness score which made him terrible at striking out the opposition team's batters. Whenever Morse was pitching we didn't really expect much, but we never let the crowd get them down, always reminding folks that Morse was 'doing his best'.
I graduated in May 2020 having concluded my educational career online, not realizing I would leave campus for the last time unexpectedly in March. I was then unemployed until September 2020. During those few months between graduation and employment, I was a wreck just trying to get through each day. I was isolated, with friends hanging out remotely and family several hours away. I was forcing myself to take care of myself through it all but had little motivation for anything.
I was trying my best, just like Ortiz Morse was. I was living a life where I didn't know if I could do 'well' or 'excel' like people expected me to, but had to accept 'what I could do' as enough. So, I became an advocate and unofficial fan club president for one of our team's worst players. Any talk of buffing, removing, trading, or shadowing Morse was met by me with a firm attempt to advocate on his behalf. It was a bit, something to play along with, and I was happy to commit to the bit for as long as Morse was in the game of Blaseball. I was always afraid we would lose our kind-hearted terrible pitcher and fought for him through every win, loss, and buff-providing party time moment he ever got. He threw a no-hitter once, and I never let anyone forget it.
I remember where I was when Morse was swapped for the iconic player Jaylen Hotdogfingers, and remember taking the night to write a morse-coded message to the Moist Talkers team letting them know I would follow him to their new team on the Seattle Garages to continue my role as an advocate. It's still one of my proudest pieces of creative writing, and I still go back to read folks' reactions to the puzzle I snuck in through dashes and dots asking them to forgive me as I left the team to follow him to Seattle.
My Discord avatar was, and still is, the art of the character by Aves (@ avery_helm on twitter). I did my very first ever cosplay as the character for Halloween that year. I paid an artist to make a fake Tlopps card for the pitcher and got a few dozen printed in hopes I could give them out one day for an in-person blaseball meetup. I printed the classic 'Ortiz Morse is trying his best' sign beside my computer monitor, then added a sticky note with 'and so am I' on it.
Saying goodbye to Ortiz Morse, and blaseball, is also me saying goodbye to who I was in 2020 when I needed the blaseball community most. Im in a better place, happily employed, able to reconnect with friends and family more, engaging in my hobbies more, taking better care of myself, the whole nine yards. My best now is a lot better than it was three years ago.
Im doing better now and I hope
whoever you are, wherever you are, I hope that just like Ortiz Morse
You're doing your best
RIV Blaseball