This hypothesis could be tested, now that major league baseball tracks the positions of players in games. In the MLB app they show animations of good outfield p

This hypothesis could be tested, now that major league baseball tracks the positions of players in games. In the MLB app they show animations of good outfield plays with "catch difficulty" scores assigned, based (in part) on the straight-line distance from the fielder's initial position to the position of the catch. The "routes" on the best catches are always nearly-straight lines, which suggests that high-level players have developed exactly this intuitive sense. Certainly what I was coached to do, what outfielders say they do, and what I see watching the game, is to "read" the ball, run towards where you think the ball is going, and then track the ball on the way. I was and am a shitty outfielder, in part because I never developed a fast-enough intuitive sense of where the ball is going (and because, well, I'm damn slow), but watch the most famous Catch[1] caught on film, and it sure looks like Mays knew right away that ball was hit over his head. [1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7bLt2xKaNH0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7bLt2xKaNH0