Fox aired 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. Little girls are shown at the game and outside the stadium with dreams of being in the Major Leagues. The fictional pitcher doesn’t have the power like the men, but her variety of pitches, including her screwball, lets her compete. Sexist comments and unaccepting teammates relate to the real problems in the world today. One commentator on the pilot says, “She can’t throw to the mound, but her pretty face gets her a starting spot as a pitcher.” Her woman manager isn’t taken seriously either. The fictional show is realistic with the limitations of women because Ginny’s pitch maxes out at 85mph. It wouldn’t be realistic for the woman pitcher to throw 98mph like most male pitchers. 

Pitch is unique in its storyline (besides the female pitcher) because FOX can show the behind the scenes of the Major League Baseball. Fox own a large portion of the sports media market, so the show is able to feature many of their high-class 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, Kevin Burkhardt and insider expert Ken Rosenthal.

The show’s live baseball scenes make the audience feel like they are watching a real baseball game, and not a scripted show.  Co-creator Dan Fogelman told Sportsgrid.com,“[MLB’s] main ask, honestly more than anything, was that we get the baseball world authentic. When we do something, we consult with god knows how many people and it’s a lot of work to say, ‘how would this happen?’” 

More and more, people are finding themselves questioning long-held traditions. As we are currently faced with a potential first female president of the US, Pitch is another example of a woman breaking into a formerly men’s only club and shows us that the hypothetical universe isn’t so far away after all. “I think it’s aspirational, but is that a realistic possibility? “I personally think so,” Chris Tully, MLB’s executive vice president of media, told The Post after the show aired of the prospects of a female pitcher making it to the big leagues. Watch Pitch on Thursdays evening to witness the groundbreaking show yourself.