Philip Roth was always first

The Wall Street Journal has a piece on unconventional baseball thinking. I really like the idea of putting pitchers in the outfield for positional matchups. At the end, the Brewers owner complains that he can't get people to try the idea of starting with a relief pitcher, then switching to the starting pitcher later. Wonder if he got the idea from the Great American Novel? From page 368:

Start with a "relief pitcher" who works approximately two innings . . .