When parents fail to get their disorganized little league baseball team together, themselves, they decide to hire a washed-up former professional baseball player to coach the team. Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) is the hired coach, but his boozing life-style further deteriorates the team. Before he is fired and the team disbanded, an old girlfriend introduces him to her daughter Amanda Whurlizer (Tatum O'Neal) who is not only a talented baseball player, but contends with the old coach like a burr in his saddle to make changes. He not only changes to try to win back his old girlfriend, but to prove to the pint-sized player who prods him that he can get the team ready to face their fiercest rivals.