He's behind the batter (but will he overtake him?) (7)
I believe the answer is:
catcher
'he's behind' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'the batter but will he overtake him?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found in the answer.
'he' could be 'che' and 'che' is found within the answer.
'him?' could be 'car' and 'car' is located in the remaining letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for catcher that I've seen before include "fisherman maybe" , "Famous Salinger novel ''The . . . . . . . In the Rye''" , "booked in the rye" , "J D Salinger write ''The . . . . . . . in the Rye''" , "Baseball player - in the rye?" .)