It’s July of 1957 in southern Louisiana and American Legion Baseball is the only game in town. Or is it?
When the Redbirds’ coach quits, the only one willing to take the job is former Negro-league pitcher Scoot Devereux. But Devereux faces being the only African-American in a still-segregated game.
The Rebirds’ talented pitcher, Ronnie LeBlanc, who believes winning the regional title is his ticket out of a hard-scrabble job at a sugar mill, dreams of playing major league baseball – a dream that morphs from fierce ambition to an obsession. Saddled by poverty, shabby equipment and race bias, the Redbirds begin to suffer a series of losses and forfeitures that summer and Ronnie sees his chance to play big league ball evaporating.
And when the Redbirds’ greatest title threat, the ham-fisted Bayou Braves, beat them twice in the week prior to the championship, Ronnie begins to suspect external forces are the cause of his team’s unlucky streak. As he digs for the source of the problem he discovers a greater threat – the town’s banker, bigoted and politically driven Bo Brasseux, and Brasseux’s schemes to kill Scoot Devereux, throw the championship game and ruin Ronnie’s family.