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The play centers on the controversial baseball legend Ty Cobb, who is split into three differently aged versions of himself: young, middle-aged and at the end of his playing days. Mr. Blessing said of his play, “I wanted to be able to deal with Cobb in a panoramic sense. You see him at ages 19, 41 and 75, when he’s suffering from terminal cancer. All three characters are on stage at the same time and even argue with each other. . . There’s also the character of Oscar Charleston, a black player from the ‘20s who, in the opinion of some, was the best baseball player who ever lived. Cobb didn’t like blacks. He avoided them, even in exhibition games. This was a reality of sports at the time, and I think we’re still the heirs of that old racism.”
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