Summerland by Michael Chabon

All that matters is baseball. Of course, Ethan Feld hates baseball, and that's what makes this all so difficult.

In order to save the world from a Coyote (who is more than just a little wiley) and keep the four different parts of the world all functioning, Ethan is going to have to get good at baseball and fast.

Chiron "Ringfinger" Brown, a hero from the negro league days, has recruited Ethan from his bench-warming days in Clam Island, Washington, to play a game he won't soon forget, a game that involves sasquatches, ferishers, shadowtails, changelings and a wide variety of other creatures he never even thought existed.

And of course, Ethan's father has also gotten pulled into the mix, because the pico fibers he used to create his Zeppalina, the first family-friendly Zeppelin balloon, are what Coyote needs to kill end the world. Of course.

Will Ethan, the boy who hates to play baseball, come to appreciate it when he has to save the people to which baseball means everything?

Summerland by Michael Chabon