The documentary was released in four parts:
- Meet Dave
: Tracks Stieb's early career, and his rise to becoming the best pitcher in the American League. - "How can this happen to me?": Stieb continues his quest for a no-hitter but finds his efforts repeatedly thwarted.
- This is how baseball moves: As hopes begin to wane for Stieb, something magical happens.
- One more afternoon: Even after Stieb's retirement, his story doesn't end. And a debate about his legacy begins.
- Award Snub: A running theme. Jon Bois makes the case that Stieb should have won the Cy Young Award several times in the early '80s, as he had better numbers than each year's winner in every statistic—with the sole exception of number of games won. Per Jon, games won is really the least useful stat for judging a baseball pitcher. Yet the sports journalists relied heavily on games won when nominating pitchers for the Cy Young Award, resulting in Stieb barely getting any nominations. Jon can't decide if this was stupidity on the part of the journalists or active malice against Stieb.Jon Bois: Since it apparently bears repeating, the writers in fact did—and this is inarguable—rob him of the Cy Young Award in 1982, and maybe 1981, and definitely 1983 and definitely 1984.
- Chicken-and-Egg Paradox: Discussed in Part 2. Did the sports press
rob Dave Stieb of the Cy Young Award because he was rude and standoffish to them? Or was Dave rude and standoffish because they robbed him of the Cy Young Award? Jon doesn't outright say it, but he does seem to favor Dave Stieb's side.Jon Bois: He's often a standoffish jerk to the press. That's true. It's not nice. And there's certainly a chicken/egg debate to be had over whether the writers' ignorance towards Dave Stieb fueled his rude behavior toward them, or vice versa. - From Bad to Worse: Stieb had a potential no-hitter broken up in the top of the ninth inning against the then-Cleveland Indians with two outs and two strikes. Six days later, in his next start against the Baltimore Orioles, the exact same scenario happened again.Jon Bois: [The first game], he was strong enough to laugh off. This is too much. It's far too much. Slap some postage on this thing and ship it to hell. It has happened to him twice.
- Wham Shot: During Part 3, after Jerry Browne makes contact on the final out of potential no-hitter, the camera slowly pans to follow to ball. The way Jon talks makes you think it will end in yet another broken up no-no, only to suddenly show Junior Felix easily catching it and ending the game.
