Pitch 9 p.m., Fox

This new drama imagines what it might be like for the first woman in Major League Baseball. Kylie Bunbury plays a pitcher who faces the sexism of sports culture and the pressure of being a groundbreaker.

Early on, she overhears the guys trash-talking her through the vent system in the clubhouse. “She’s a gimmick,’’ the team captain (played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar) says with contempt. Meanwhile, her super-aggressive agent (Ali Larter) works hard to milk the moment.

I wish this show were better, and less superficial, especially at a moment when another woman may be making headway in another male-dominated institution: the presidency. From Dan Fogelman, who’s also behind this season’s new “This Is Us’’ on NBC, the story relies far too heavily on clichés, obvious points, stereotypical characters, and, despite the approval and participation of Major League Baseball, an unrealistic atmosphere.

That vent system bit, for example. Did the writers really need to give us that scene? Or, if they really had to re-re-emphasize the male players’ resistance to their new teammate, couldn’t they have come up with something better than the old heard-it-through-the-vent trick? It’s network laziness at its laziest.

Bunbury is good enough, in a somewhat muted and interior way, but the script doesn’t ask much of her. And she is surrounded by shallow performances. Each actor seems to be playing only one note.

There’s a twist at the end of the pilot, just as there was a twist at the end of “This Is Us,’’ and I won’t spoil it here. But I will say that it didn’t have its desired effect, which was to make me well up with tears. My eyes did do something, however: They rolled.

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewGilbert.