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Mariners pitcher Batista working on second novel

Pitcher Miguel Batista throws during the first inning of an MLB baseball game in September in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. Batista, now pitching for the Seattle Mariners, is writing his second novel. PHOTO: AP

Jarrod Washburn is reading a hunting magazine. Other Seattle Mariners are seated at a table in the middle of the clubhouse, working on a crossword puzzle a staffer has photocopied from the morning paper.

And Miguel Batista is seated alone and silent on a stool at his locker.

He's reading inside a three-ring binder with the title Human Cloning, researching for his second novel.

Readings from Leo Tolstoy and the Bible are also handy.

Not quite the standard literary fare of a baseball clubhouse.

"Whenever they see me and what I am reading, they always shake their head and say, `Man...,'" Batista said on Friday.

He squeezed his dark eyes closed. He turned his head from side to side to imitate how his teammates have reacted to him for years, from Seattle to Arizona to Toronto to Montreal.

"Either they are -- or I am -- in the wrong place," he said, laughing.

"For them, it is shocking that a guy is actually interested in something other than the world of baseball," he said.

Batista, 36, is one of three new Mariners starters, an 11-game winner with the Diamondbacks last season who is 68-79 for seven teams since 1992.

While every other Seattle pitcher easily quotes his latest radar gun reading, Batista quotes The Da Vinci Code, Al Capone, Ted Bundy, Wayne Williams and Stephen King.

Batista is voracious reader because he is a writer -- the first Latin American professional player to publish a book of poetry.

"There is a lot more to him than meets the eye," Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said.

This month, he is researching his second novel, which is about scientists and specialists who have been called to Washington and to the UN to repair a secret government project. The project has gone horribly wrong and is threatening to "bring Armageddon to the world behind the scenes," Batista said.

His first novel was published last year. The Avenger of Blood details a 14-year-old serial killer and the US legal system's struggle in defining the concept of temporary insanity.

"Avenger of Blood? That's my kind of book," Seattle manager Mike Hargrove said.

Batista's goal in writing it?

"It was to find out, what exactly is an `insane' person? And, how can we quantify a criminal mind?" he said.

Batista said he learned how US law may actually make it "better" for a person to kill 200 people than just one, because the mass murderer can be classified as insane and not necessarily be sentenced to death.

"I had a defense lawyer tell me the temporary insanity definition changes every day," he said. "I mean I hear voices every day. My ex-wife, I hear her every day. Does that make me crazy?"

Batista went to extraordinary lengths to understand US law for someone with a day job as a US$25 million pitcher. He spent more than five years -- while playing for Montreal, Kansas City, Arizona, Toronto and Arizona again -- researching and writing on road trips, before and after games.

"Between batting practices, you have 45 minutes [before games]," the veteran of parts of 12 major league seasons said. "If you aren't pitching that day or the next day, you don't have much to do. You can take that time to relax, or whatever."

"I would take some of that time to write and then take it home to type," he said.

While his teammates partied late, Batista visited an Arizona prison to probe real criminal minds. He went to a psychiatric hospital.

He also interviewed judges, lawyers, policemen and detectives.

He even consulted with media members he has met around the league. He wanted insight on how to best depict scenes of the media covering the fictitious boy, Thomas Santiago, and his murders.

"A lot of us are protected under the bubble of the baseball life," Batista said of an industry where the minimum major league salary is US$380,000 and an average career pitcher like himself can earn an annual salary of more than US$8 million.

"A lot of people don't believe there is an outside world, another life. Baseball has been such a shield for some people that it doesn't let them see or feel the actual chaos in the world," he said.

"Sadness and catastrophe happen ... we are not as blessed as we thought we were," he said.

"Writing is like meditation. It's something you don't walk away from," Batista said. "The awakening of the mind is the course of being alive."
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