"Crash" Davis (Costner), a veteran of 12 years in minor league baseball, is sent down to the single-A Durham Bulls for a specific purpose: to educate hotshot rookie pitcher Ebby Calvin LaLoosh }}</ref> about becoming a major-league talent, and to control Ebby's haphazard pitching. Crash immediately begins calling Ebby by the degrading nickname of "Meat", and they get off to a rocky start.