There comes a time when every young man must sever the ties of home to seek his way in the world. For 17-year-old Will Wright, the point of departure comes with the crack of a bat as he makes the cut at Newton Mill. But it's not going to be an easy road. During the late 1920s in South Carolina, "town folk" rarely set foot on "mill hill." Young Will has no problem breaking with tradition but his traditionalist father, Ezekiel Wright, explicitly forbids it. Yet Will feels the call to play ball so deep that he leaves home against his father's wishes and becomes the first "townie" ever to play for Newton. Golden dreams of a baseball career seem within his grasp-if only he can catch the eye of a minor league scout at the league championship. First, he has to survive a summer among the roaring, lint-blanketed world of textile spindles and looms. The clash of cultures is obvious from day one when Pike Spangler, "Big Stick" for the Newton Mill Sluggers, goes out of his way to knock Will down ...