Eleven-year-old JJ loves baseball, but ever since his dad died, he feels like he's fallen under an evil curse. As hard as he tries, his game is off, and then his mom takes him away from all his friends and moves him to a little town in Ohio where baseball is king. After striking out for the hundredth time, he's backed up against the playground fence and told by Calvin-the-Creep, and the rest of the Hotshots, that they'd rather have a dead frog on their team instead of him, and then things get worse.