Human Race Theatre Company in Dayton tackles a sports controversy that never seems to go away — whether the Hit King of baseball should be forever banned from it, as he is now, because his gambling on the game compromised its (and his) integrity. The theater company opens its 32nd season with the world premiere of Patricia O’Hara’s Banned from Baseball, September 6-23, at its Loft Theatre.
"The Human Race Theatre Company takes us back to 1989, when the battle for the soul of Major League Baseball hit its peak as Commissioner Bart Giamatti and Pete Rose, the reigning Hit King, lock horns in the world premiere performance of Banned from Baseball, by Patricia O’Hara," the theater company said in a press release.
The synopsis on the theater company's website explains the plot this way: "Rose is accused of betting on baseball — even on his own team — an allegation he denies despite the mounting evidence. The intellectual Giamatti wants Rose’s confession, while the larger–than–life Rose wants the Commissioner to believe his denials. This collision of wills comes to a head as they meet face to face. If the charge proves to be true, 'Charlie Hustle' could be banned from the game — for life — leaving a black mark on the sport both men love and forever tarnishing a living legend." (Spoiler alert — this didn't turn out so well for Rose.)
This is the first play written by O’Hara, a professor of English Literature at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Penn. She teaches Nineteenth-Century British Literature, creative writing and Baseball in American Literature and Culture.
The director will be New York-based Margarett Perry, making her tenth appearance at to the Loft. The cast of five features Brian Dykstra as Rose — he has appeared on Broadway with Tom Hanks in Lucky Guy. Chicago actor Doug MacKechnie plays Giamatti; Scott Hunt is Fay Vincent, the deputy baseball commissioner who replaced Giamatti after the latter's untimely death; Marc Moritz is Rose's attorney Reuven Katz; and K.L. Storer is baseball's attorney, John Dowd. Marty Brenneman provided special recorded passages for the "Sportscaster," who is called upon for voiceovers in the script.
The preview performance is Sept. 6; opening night is Sept. 7. For tickets, visit humanracetheatre.org.
