Honest-Abe-kun is a bit suspicious that the decisive ball of the match arrives so soon after it has started…you know, with there usually being a minimum number of innings required or other regulatory impediment to a speedy conclusion. But even he can’t be sure, with this level of writing based in ignorance, so he’ll take what he gets.
This naturally requires careful consideration, so he goes through his internal list of all of the pitches he knows…and since he’s a baseball idiot, that’s a very long list and it takes him a long time to go through it. See? That why Blitz Chess was invented. Very smart people with a lot of knowledge sometimes need a little kick to help terminate their decision processes, no matter whether they’ve stuffed their minds with baseball pitches or chess openings…
As far as I’m concerned, though, he can take as much time as he wants. It’s always the same panel, after all, so there’s no meaningful extra effort.
But then it turns out he went through all of it only pro forma, actually. He knows he has the Pitch of the Gods (TM) at his disposal, he know he and Mihashi went on a quest to acquire it – so he should know that there’s precisely 0% chance that the ultimate choice wouldn’t involve the Pitch of the Gods (TM) and a flashback to the quest. Because, disregarding the awesome power of the Pitch of the Gods (TM), no B-movie could skip a flashback that offers itself that openly. That’d be malpractice.
More on Monday.