The D.C. Statesmen are holding a pre-season workout at National Stadium. Veteran pitcher Conan "The Barbarian" Jones warms up, but he's starting to suffer physically at age 40. Manager Harold Gray wants Jones to keep practicing while new hitting coach Alvin Huebner thinks Jones should rest. Bench coach Craig Glover tries to make peace and get Huebner to be more respectful on his first day on the job. Starting catcher Savoy Bishop works with Jones. Two younger players, Mario Gay and Ajax Cloud, work with third base coach Terrence Kimbell shagging fly balls in the outfield. Second baseman Derrick Speck catches for Kimbell. In the bullpen, closer Clint Youngblood works with backup catcher Haywood Doman, pitching coach Vernon Howell and bullpen coach Justin Tannehill.

Cam Kendricks, a stranger, walks onto the field uninvited. Glover tells Kendricks that the practice is closed, but Kendricks grabs a bat and says he's here to try out. Glover asks him to leave and Jones refuses to pitch to him. First base coach Chris Lawthon answers a phone call from the team owner Leah Owens telling them to let Kendricks try out. Gray steps out onto the field and stares down Owens, who is in the owner's box above the field. He relents and tells Jones to pitch to Kendricks.

Head scout Ferd Langwieler and the other coaches pay close attention to Kendricks. Jones throws two brush back pitches, but Kendricks ignores them and gets under Jones' skin. Jones concentrates and does his best to get Kendricks out, but Kendricks repeatedly hits Jones' best pitches, most for home runs. Jones puts Vaseline on the ball and Kendricks still hits a home run. Jones walks off the field. Gray calls for his star closer, Clint Youngblood, who led the league in saves last year. Kendricks hits home runs off of Youngblood, too. Kendricks says that he can pitch well, too. Gray invites Kendricks to join them in Florida for Spring Training.

Jones appears in an ad for Meat Heat.

Inesta Morgan and Major Sumrell host Sports Central. The Sports Central Crawl reveals: The Statesmen are the second least valuable team in the league. There is a missing teen epidemic being investigated by DOJ. This world is different, where Jim Palmer is a famous golfer, Mookie Betts is the star of the Mission Impossible film series, Chris Pine is a star pitcher, Chipper Jones is a Grammy-nominated musician, Hank Aaron is a Superbowl-winning QB.

Reporter Sharon Alligood does a preview of the D.C. Statesmen. The team are perennial cellar dwellers. They went 61-101 last season and have lost 90 games or more each of the three seasons before that and only regularly finish ahead of the lowly New Jersey Titans. The Statesman have dumped their pitching and hitting coaches and hired Alvin Huebner and Vernon Howell to replace them. Huebner previously was an assistant for the New York Hawks, the team he played for before becoming a coach. Conan Jones has been a stalwart of the team, but he's getting old.

Alligood explains that the pitching staff is revamped, with a lot of new and unproven arms. But they could be very good if healthy. The team signed star pitcher Skipper Westmoreland, but he starts the year on IR. Pitcher Harrell Flowers is fully healthy and should be productive. New pitcher Frank Lassiter won 17+ games each of the last two years with Philadelphia. Other pitchers in the mix for starting jobs are Grady Duhart, Kit Riggins, Chaka Purvis and Melvin Rodgers.

Notably, D.C. is the 51st state in this world. The Statesmen's mascot is Barney Baseball, a big floppy dog in a Statesmen uniform. Gray has a contentious relationship with umpires like William Smith.

Alligood explains that the bullpen is a question mark. Closer Clint Youngblood is the best in the league. His set-up men, Shawn Derby and Tommy Shotwell look to be very good, too. The bullpen includes castoffs like Eddie Parker and Omar Wheeler and young guys like Krishna Malay and Hector Delarosa.

Alligood reveals that the Statesmen's hitting is suspect, as they finished last in the league in runs scored last year. They are expected to do better this year with a healthier team and some upcoming prospects on the horizon. Leadoff hitter/center fielder Jason Doster is a legit speed threat. Second baseman Derrick Speck is a defensive specialist. Right fielder Stan Lombardi was rookie of the year, but has struggled in the three years since. Left fielder Ronnie Pitts is a power hitter. Albert Whaley and Chuck Chester are fighting for the starting third base job, but neither has proven they can do the job. Savoy Bishop is a great catcher, but has trouble with hitting. Shortstop Alfredo Brito is almost completely a defensive asset. The bench includes rookies Ajax Cloud and Ivan Pasco. Reserve Mario Gay is a good pinch hitter.

NBS Anchor Jeffrey Brack reports on graffiti on national monuments in D.C.

Harold Gray has been USBL Manager of the Year three times, but not recently. He meets with Alvin Huebner and some tension is clear. Jones retires. Gray talks him into going to Spring Training in Florida with the team, in case he changes his mind. Jones agrees.

Reporter Shirley Muldoon meets with her editor at the Washington Gazette, Simon Meyers. Meyers assigns her to shift from city council to writing about baseball, a thing she knows nothing about, because her cousin is star pitcher Conan Jones. She doesn't want the assignment, but he gives her no choice. Shirley remembers that secretary Rita Thompson has a nephew, Chad, who blogs about baseball and gets his phone number.

Shirley visits a pub, The Pinch, and talks with the bartenders, Dan and Annie, who she knows well. Her cousin, Conan Jones, joins her. She asks him to teach her about baseball, but he declines because he's retiring and is sick of baseball. Since Jones won't help her, Shirley calls Chad and he agrees to meet.

Team owner Leah Owens meets with general manager Jamelle Lewis and team president Lekebra Benjamin. Owens toasts the accomplishment that three Black Howard AKAs are running a professional baseball team. Owens then rudely kicks Lewis out so she can talk with Benjamin alone. Owens wants to sell the team, but recent evaluations have shown it to not be worth much. Benjamin argues that the team HAS to get better than last year, so it will rise in value by the end of the season and Owens should wait.

Game: The Statesmen play the Nashville Blues on a high school field in Largo, Florida, with only a sparse crowd watching. Cam Kendricks is pitching and he strikes out 13 in five innings while also hitting a two-run homer to lead the Statesmen to victory. Jones watches Kendricks dominate.

Officer Cody Paige works in the bullpen for the PDDC, but the other officers ignore her. She goes to visit psychologist Vivian Carlton. Cody explains that she used to be partners with Steven Beck and she used to hang out with Anne Snell, but both ignore her now. She has a strong dislike for officers Bill Tucker and Mitchell O'Reilly. Carlton asks for more information about them, but Cody doesn't answer. Cody says that Captain Alex Levin enables the bad stuff in the precinct.

Game: The Statesmen play the Orlando Breakers during Spring Training. Starting pitcher Frank Lassiter is winning, but he gets hurt and needs Tommy John surgery, he'll be out for a while. Bishop does a rallying speech, but the players mostly laugh at him. Kendricks stands up and supports Bishop and the calls for coming together as a whole team. Whaley calls out Kendricks for being a newcomer. Jones, and then Gray, call out players for not doing enough.

Michael Weisman hosts the Sunday Sports Chat Show with guests: David Tessell, Sharon Alligood, Ricky Womble and Dwayne McDaris. Topics include: Will the Statesmen make the playoffs? Is Conan Jones retiring? Is Jones an all-time great?

Alligood thinks the Statesmen will be better this year, the others scoff. McDaris attacks Gray on TV. Augustus Owens left the Statesmen to Leah when he died, but he put some rules in place, including letting Gray manage as long as he wanted to.

Owens and Gray talk about Kendricks joining the team for all of Spring Training and agree they must do it. They don't think he'll really make the team and they can't find out anything about his past, but they think it would be a mistake to not give him a shot. Owens then talks to Benjamin and she's now excited that Kendricks might boost the value of the team and she might make more off of selling the team. Owens doesn't want to own the team and doesn't like baseball much.

The team manager and coaches meet to decide the 40-man roster. They agree to include Kendricks, but only reluctantly. Scout Ferd Langwieler makes the argument that if he fails, no big deal, but if they pass on Kendricks and he does well elsewhere, they'll look like idiots.

Gray fields tough questions at a press conference. In particular, McDaris badgers him not only about the team's weaknesses and the signing of Kendricks.

Game: At Spring Training, Kendricks pitches for the first time against the defending champion New York Smashers. Third baseman Alda usually kills the Statesmen, particularly Duhart, but much to the surprise of coaches and teammates, Kendricks strikes Alda out three times, leading his team to victory. After watching Kendricks pitch, Jones unretires.

Cody Paige checks out a routine tip by herself. She radios dispatch for backup and goes inside. Once inside, she finds a crime scene with eight dead people, whose bodies have been decapitated, defiled and put on display. Cody vomits and reports the horror of the crime scene.

Shirley visits Chad, who lives at home with his mother. Chad reveals he knew Shirley from when they went to Florida State together, but Shirley doesn't remember him and is a bit creeped out. She offers to pay him to teach her about baseball. He has a police scanner and while they chat, the scanner alerts them to the murder scene that Cody Paige found and how gruesome it is. Chad packs up cameras and things to go to the crime scene. Shirley is reluctant at first, but then decides to join him.