One fog-bound night in 1900, the citizens of Port Newton, California, fish a six-foot tall, half-drowned American Indian dressed in a tuxedo out of San Francisco Bay. He turns out to be washed-up, ex-Big League pitcher Chief Dobbs, a boorish but charismatic hustler. The Chief begins to lead Port Newton s ragtag town team to victory but only by employing the dirty ball tactics of McGraw, Jennings, and the Orioles of the 1890s.