Released from prison on parole, the "Gas-Pipe Kid" returns to his home in the slums to find his mother dead and his father evicted. He is arrested for beating up the landlord but escapes with the help of Ida Hunt, his sweetheart. Years later he is a baseball star known as Bat Shugrue and is widely idolized by boys who read about his clean living. When Shugrue realizes his influence, he refuses to "throw" a game for blackmailers who threaten to reveal his past, and he goes to Judge Drury to tell the whole truth. The judge decides that Shugrue is more valuable free than in jail; the star is reunited with Ida.—AFI