On Thursday, FOX aired the second installment of its new series Pitch, profiling the life experiences of the first woman ever to play in Major League Baseball. Although the story is fictional, San Diego Padres pitcher Ginny Baker, played by Kylie Bunbury, has the ability to inspire young women everywhere to pursue their athletic dreams. She is strong, driven, confident — all the qualities found in a major league ballplayer — but her gender makes her one-of-a-kind. 
Using her “secret weapon,” the screwball pitch, Baker is able to overcome her lack of velocity and compete with the rest of the league; however, our heroine is not without her faults and challenges, and the show does a masterful job of portraying a complete picture of the life of what many in the show refer to as “the next Jackie Robinson.”
In her first start, Baker is overcome with anxiety and fails to even throw a strike. She is pulled after just 10 pitches. While Baker manages to rebound from her rough debut in her next start, she is faced with a greater problem that becomes the defining conflict of the show: Can she embrace her role as a barrier-breaker and icon in the sport without jeopardizing the chemistry of the team and clubhouse?
Contributing to the story of Ginny Baker is Mike Lawson, played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar, the grizzled, witty, veteran catcher and team captain. While Lawson and Baker clash initially, Lawson comes to respect Baker for her work ethic and commitment to the team, and he takes it upon himself to unite a squabbling locker room. 
Pitch takes the viewer behind the scenes of a baseball front office. The show captures the dynamics between Padres owner Frank Reid, played by Bob Balaban, and team general manager, Oscar Arguella, played by Mark Consuelos, as they wrestle with the effect “Ginn-sanity” has on the Padres organization. Several flashbacks occur during the show to draw light to Baker’s tumultuous history and road to success. 
Pitch is unique in its storyline and production style. Because FOX also owns a large portion of the sports media market, the show is able to feature many of their prominent sports personalities such as Colin Cowherd of the TV/radio show The Herd and Katie Nolan of Garbage Time. In addition, the show includes baseball broadcasters Joe Buck, John Smoltz, and Kevin Burkhardt, and insider expert Ken Rosenthal.
The live game scenes are hyper-realistic, as the scenes were shot as if the game were on television, using the same graphics and techniques as a real broadcast. All these factors help to make the viewer feel as if the story is taking place in real time instead of a scripted show.
The series finds a culture more and more able to question long-held traditions. As we are faced with the potential of the first female President, Pitch is another example of a woman breaking into a formerly men’s-only club and shows us that a hypothetical universe isn’t so far away after all.
Pitch airs Thursdays on FOX and streams online at http://www.fox.com/pitch
Watch the trailer for Pitch here: