Twelve-year-old Nikko "Nick" Spirakis wants to become the bat boy for a local baseball team. He practices hard for the tryout, but he finds out it's on the same Saturday he is scheduled to work in his Greek immigrant father's shoe shop. Not only that, he's not a very good outfielder because the city zoo park where he plays with his friends has a 2,000-pound rhinoceros near right field that freezes him with fear any time the ball gets too close to it. To find his own American dream, Nick must stay one step ahead of the rhino, do some things he's not proud of, and face his own fears.