Recently, I started re-reading The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. In some abstract way, the impetus behind that decision was that I wanted to start writing a baseball novel and how else to pump up your ambition than to read the best baseball novel of all time? (Yes, I will consider The Natural an acceptable answer as well.) Instead, I have found myself mostly thinking about Billy Hamilton, the very real, non-fiction centerfielder for the Cincinnati Reds, and not about fictional characters of my own device.
To offer a refresher: In The Art of Fielding, Henry Skrimshander is an otherworldly defensive shortstop, anticipating where balls will end up before the bat has even made contact.