The Pitch

Orval Sheckard is starting yet another season with the Keokuk Westerns, the bottom-dwelling team in the lowest single-A league around. He's about to give up on baseball, but when Rube Tyler-an overweight, 40-something factory worker with a miraculous knuckleball-shows up in his parking lot the season starts to look brighter. Sheckard and the Westerns soon take a back seat to Tyler's pitching and it's clear that Rube's heading up the ladder. With the big league club contending for a playoff spot, all eyes are on the improbable pitcher as he gets promoted-but Tyler has made some sacrifices to get as far as he has, and ominous signs begin to show as the season nears its close.