Commodore Dewie Donovan, is known to everyone by the name 'Skip', which comes from him being the manager of a big league baseball club known as the Panthers. Two years ago, the Panthers finished seventh, and last year they were in the cellar, so things were really tough. Then one day, about mid season, Skip got a report about a kid pitcher that one of the scouts had his eye on. His name was Lefty Partlow, he was nineteen and he lived in a whistlestop down in Arkansas at a place called 'Scratch Gravel'.