It all starts when Oliver Perriman, a die-hard Reds fan organizes an exhibit of memorabilia to honor the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, baseball's first professional team. Having grown up hearing stories about that legendary ball club, Mickey Rawlings volunteers to help Perriman with the grand opening of the display. But before you can say "Batter up!" Perriman gets shot to death and puts Mickey in the line of fire. Among the artifacts Perriman collected for the exhibit are the explosive clues to a fifty-year-old mystery: the death of a Red Stockings fan and the disappearance of "substitute" player Dick Hurley - the Mickey Rawlings of his time. Mickey's efforts to solve both the old crime and Perriman's murder are sidetracked when he's drawn into a modern day gambling scandal. Soon he finds himself sitting on a hotseat in summertime Cincinnati, embroiled in a mix of conspiracy, lies and murder that can end his career ... and his life.