"This is not a team sport anymore," says one character of major league baseball in Itamar Moses' new play Back Back Back, currently performing at Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage II. While the one-act curiously doesn't achieve a thematic resonance beyond the world of sports, it nevertheless scores as an intimate, well-observed take on baseball's recent steroid scandal, credibly depicting an increasingly paranoid environment where teammate distrusts teammate.

Although one needs not even a passing interest in the sport to follow the play, baseball fans are certain to enjoy an added dimension, thanks to a familiarity with the players who are the likely inspirations for the characters: Jose Co[...]