The program states that Toni Stone was the first woman to play as a regular on an American big-league professional baseball team, while at the same time parenthetically admitting that the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League preceded her achievement. Huh? I guess they meant to say to play on a men’s professional baseball team.

According to a plaque in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Stone, while first, was one of twelve Black women who played in the Negro Leagues because they were denied the chance to play in the women’s league. It’s Toni’s story, so we never heard about the others.

Except for the audience’s imagination, the set was the infield and scoreboard of a baseball diamond, which starts out as a nice visual, but then mostly provides the backdrop for a series of interspliced scenes attempting to depict game action, while actually adding nothing. As with movie monsters, things that aren’t seen are often the most powerful depictions.

Of course, the play isn’t really about baseball, and the second act provided some needed visual variety by ingeniously using the bleachers to simulate the bus used by the team, with home plate as the steering wheel.

And Stone’s interactions with Millie, conceptualized as being away from the field, were the best thing in the show.

If the object of the play was to make me curious about Toni Stone, it succeeded. If it was to add to the conversation about the various issues it addressed, then I would suggest that it worked the pitcher to a full count, but struck out swinging, with the bases loaded. Wait til next year.