Ex-baseball player Ed Hamner, lame from an injury and forced to retire early, is given a 1909 baseball card of a player that looks exactly like him, Monte Hanks. The card is magical in that he becomes drawn into it and lives out the life of the player in the past. Hamner must choose between being healthy and playing his favorite sport in the past, or live in the present with his despairing wife who fears he'll never grow up.