The people in Dillontown disagree about everything, even the direction the wind is blowing. The one thing everyone agrees on is that the mysterious Cruz de la Cruz, who showed up when there was going to be an important baseball game, is the person who saved not only the town but also the game of baseball itself.

Tom Gallagher, a 12-year-old baseball player, walks next door one morning to convince Doc Altenheimer not to sell his 300-plus acres to developers. The sale would mean that the local 100-year-old baseball park will become a lake. Extremely introverted, Tom searches for the right things to say, realizing he should have spoken up sooner.

Tom reads the sports pages to Doc, who can’t read the box scores due to failing eyesight. Eventually, Doc begins to talk about his plan to sell to the developers, hoping it will bring new life to Dillontown. Distressed to hear this, Tom says the existing ballfield, which Tom’s grandfather built, is as good as the new up-to-date training facility down the road. The players from the new training facility, the Vikings, always soundly defeat the Dillontown Wildcats. Tom says that if they really wanted to, they could beat the new team because the Dillontown kids have heart.