Review: UNDER A BASEBALL SKY at Old Globe Theatre

Pitchers and position players are taking their swings in Arizona in anticipation of the 2023 Major League Baseball season which runs parallel the World Baseball Classic. Fresh off their upstart post-season victories last year over the New York Mets and rival Los Angeles Dodgers, the big-spending San Diego Padres look loaded for 2023. Baseball is coming and spring is in the air, although truthfully when you're dealing with mid 60s temperatures in February, when is spring ever not in the air in San Diego, AKA America's Finest City.

Granted, a large segment of the theater-going population probably won't care a whisper what the Padres - or any baseball team - are up to. But playwright Jose Cruz Gonzalez (AMERICAN MARIACHI) is clearly hoping that the themes of his new play, UNDER A BASEBALL SKY - along with the historical circumstances that inspired it - will be enough to entice some non-sports-averse playgoers into The Old Globe Theatre. Also into various neighborhood venues in San Diego where BASEBALL SKY will tour after the conclusion of its world premiere run at The Old Globe.

Consider me dubious. The roots of BASEBALL SKY are indeed fascinating; the Logan Heights neighborhood of San Diego was a hub of baseball talent in the Mexican community in the early 1920s before neighborhood gentrification and escalating racism pushed them out. (One of baseball's greatest hitters, San Diego native Ted Williams, apparently hid the fact that he was half Mexican because he was told it might hurt his chances of turning pro.) Gonzalez has set his play in Logan Heights in 2016, at the start of the Trump administration, but the production of BASEBALL SKY, directed by James Vasquez, is a message-heavy, odd coupl-y tale that feels like a Latinx mash-up of THE KARATE KID and FIELD OF DREAMS. Apart from an entertaining performance by Laura Crotte at its center, this one feels like it should be rejiggered for schools.

Crotte's Eli Maria O'Reilly is a neighborhood scion who, back in her younger days, taught baseball to the neighborhood kids and allowed the vacant lot adjacent to her house to be used for games. A baseball worshipper, Senora O'Reilly passed on her skills to her daughter Paloma (Ana Nicolle Chavez) and adopted son Santiago (Cesar J. Rosado) both of whom had plenty of talnt themselves. Santiago got drafted and ultimately moved to Colorado while Paloma became a labor organizer, and eventually disappeared under unsavory circumstances.

In 2016, the lot has fallen into disrepair and Senora O'Reilly has just received news that, after decades, Paloma's remains have finally been found. Already facing the potential foreclosure of her house, Senora O'Reilly basically shuts down. Into this already difficult circumstance comes a shot at redemption. Chava Torres (Joseph Morales), another former neighborhood kid who is now a guidance counselor, brings Teo Fernandez (Diego Josef), a hugely troubled 16-year-old who got kicked out of school for threatening a classmate. As part of his community service requirement, Teo is instructed to clean up the vacant lot and repair the adjacent shed which houses all sorts of cool baseball stuff. After a rocky beginning that includes Eli attacking the kid with a broom, the good-hearted truant and the little old lady strike up a bond. Turns out Teo played baseball in school and now he's starting to experience visions in his sleep of a female baseball player from the past.

Between the specter of Trump policies and the persecution of the community, there are certainly hints of darker themes within the backdrop of this story. Gonzalez (AMERICAN MARIACHI) may have more on his mind than the warmth that this production radiates, but overall it plays pretty safe. If you have ever seen a feel-good tale and think you have a sense where all this is heading, then you're probably correct.

Between plenty of tried and true baseball quotes and counselor-ly advice offered by Chava, Teo and Senora O'Reilly realize what they have to do to figure things out. "You got to know the score," Chava tells Teo. He also says "You need to step up and channel your situation," "Stick a fork in me. I'm done." "Adversity can either crush you or make you stronger." "Sometimes when you're down in the count, you still got to step up and take a swing" and "People are good." The guy positively puts the bro in bromides.

Speaking more than half her lines in Spanish and with a low-key feistiness that makes her tremendously appealing, Crotte is splendid. As written, the character is a bit of a sketch, but Crotte makes this ageless offbeat matriarch break through the stereotypes. (Crotte seems like she knows what she's doing wielding a catcher's mitt as well; pity we never get to see her take some swings). Crotte and Josef's Teo build a nice rapport (we are to believe that the two need each other equally). Josef's charisma shines through from the outset. Bespectacled and floppy-haired, the actor is more credible as a mixed-up kid than as an angry hooligan.

The play fits snugly in the Globe's smaller Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, an in-the round configuration. Scenic designer Anna Louizos has fashioned a nifty rust-strewn gone-to-seed lot that transforms almost effortlessly and with the help of Rui Rita's lights, into a baseball diamond.

It's all enough to make a baseball fan hungry for the first pitch of MLB 2023, but it doesn't make for an especially memorable play.

UNDER A BASEBALL SKY plays through March 12 at The Old Globe Theatre's Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre in Balboa Park.

Photo of Laura Crotte and Diego Josef by Rich Soublet II

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