“That’s her baby, and she had seen those big dudes in the SEC,” said Hamilton, who talks almost as fast as he runs.

The Reds picked Hamilton, who taught himself to switch-hit upon joining the organization, in the second round of the 2009 draft. While he has fulfilled his promise on the basepaths, Hamilton has also been steady at the plate, hitting .303 through Sunday. He is purely a slap hitter at this stage — of his 40 hits with Pensacola, all but nine have been singles — but makes up for it with patience and a good eye at the plate, and his walk totals have added about 100 points to his on-base percentage, which is .406. He is on track to join the major league club by 2014.

That would put him in the majors 113 seasons after another speedy star named Billy Hamilton hung up his cleats. “Sliding” Billy Hamilton starred for the 19th-century Philadelphia Phillies, as well as the Boston Beaneaters (who became the Braves) and the Kansas City Cowboys, earning enshrinement in the Hall of Fame in 1961.

He was the stolen base king for decades, until first Lou Brock and then Rickey Henderson passed him. But Sliding Billy’s steal totals are ephemeral. Until 1898, players were awarded stolen bases when a hit advanced them an extra base — for example, going from first to third on a single. Some sources credit him with 937 steals, some 914, some 912. For certain, he is one of the greatest players ever from the state of New Jersey, hailing from Newark.

Sliding Billy’s great speed translated into a more valuable aspect of the game than stolen bases. Hamilton scored an otherworldly 198 runs in 132 games for the 1898 Phillies and is the career leader in runs scored per game at 1.06. His namesake is finding that the payoff for all those steals is a little harder to come by in Class AA. After crossing the plate 79 times in 82 games at Bakersfield, he has scored only 26 times in 36 games with Pensacola.

This new model does not know much about the old version, apart from what reporters have told him. Hamilton does not pattern himself after Brock or Coleman or other great base stealers from baseball’s past, either, instead looking to St. Louis shortstop Rafael Furcal, who was starring for Atlanta during Hamilton’s formative years in the South, as a role model.

DeShields, who says Hamilton reminds him of his former Expos teammate Otis Nixon, says he is in the vanguard of a wave of players who are restoring baseball to “its natural state.”