OK, now cover one eye and try to play tennis. Or throw a small ball in the air and try to catch it. (no really, try it)
This is particularly striking since batting involves judging the ball that comes at you with some speed. His previous judgement and muscle memory might be useful of course. But I'd love to read about any research on this, if anyone is aware...
Unfortunately, despite this, they weren't willing to let him go back to flying fighter planes, which is why he got into space suit research...
They do it by moving their head - watch for a while, they almost always run a little bit along the branch before jumping. Sort of like synthetic aperture radar.
Know what's really hard? Grab a flashing/blinking bouncy ball, and try to play catch with it (or juggle) in the dark.