After surviving hardscrabble beginnings in the late 19th century, John McGraw becomes a key player on one of the most successful, most combative and most hated dynasties in baseball history. Hughie Jennings escapes the hard-scrabble life working in the coal mines of Pennsylvania to play pro baseball. McGraw was so despised that opponents said he ate gunpowder for breakfast and washed it down with warm blood. Jennings was beloved by fans in every city he played, and back home in the Lehigh Valley. Their devotion to each other carried through illness, injuries, heart-wrenching tragedies and before the footlights of the vaudeville stage. They learn that the greatest battles are the ones you fight are for friends.