The Divine Comedy And Baseball In Dante's Inferno To Baseball

In class, we have been reading Dante’s Inferno which is the beginning to his poem, The Divine Comedy. While reading the Inferno, I have come up with a question to relate Dante’s Inferno to baseball. My proposed question is, How is going through a slump in baseball relative to Dante going through hell in the Inferno. Personally, I have been playing baseball since I was 4 years old so you can imagine that I have had my fair share of slumps throughout my career. Hell is relatable to a slump in baseball because mentally it feels as the slump is never-ending and you continue to fall deeper and so does your average and confidence. Baseball is a very superstitious sport in which many players have their own superstitions. For example, some people

Dante’s Inferno begins with Dante being lost in a dark wood and he comes across a mountain in which he tries to climb, but encounters three beasts on the mountain that send him back into the dark wood. First Dante encountered a leopard, then a lion and finally a she-wolf. After being sent back into the dark wood by these beasts, Virgil appears to Dante and tells him that he will not be able to climb up that mountain that Dante needs to go through hell and then purgatory to reach paradise. As Virgil and Dante approach the beginning of hell, Dante is skeptical because very few men have went through hell and have come back, but Virgil explains to Dante that Beatrice has sent Virgil to lead Dante. This encourages Dante and he uses Virgil as his mentor/ leader for his journey through hell and

It is just the batter and the pitcher. Most of the times a hitter doesn’t realize that they are slumping until it is too late. When a hitter is slumping they look lost at the plate, lose confidence not only in their self but in their abilities. Personally, being in a slump is one of the worst feelings. You try to tweak your mechanics and even become superstitious to get that feeling of success back. This compares to Dante’s inferno because the longer the slump the deeper you lose confidence in your abilities and you begin to question yourself. A slump is a part of baseball that happens even to the best players. There is no way around it. For instance, this year the New York Yankees record breaking, All-star rookie, Aaron Judge, had a tremendous first half of the season in which he hit 30 home runs, had 66 rbi’s and a batting average of 329. Along the way of a great first half for any player, nevertheless a rookie, and fans were already considering him an MVP. Maybe the sky high expectations got to him in the second half but he went through a very long slump. There is no average time to how long a slump should be but this slump was unusually long. After the all-star break, Aaron Judge slowed down from his tremendous first half and tied an MLB record of 37 consecutive games with at least one strikeout. In comparison to Dante’s categories of hell, Aaron Judge would