Twelve-year-old Casey lives with his father and grandfather at their family-run umpire school, and as he deals with middle school and his mother's unwelcome return, he stumbles on a sensational story that has him questioning his dream of becoming a journalist.

Malcolm loves baseball and science, but his teammates are not always pleased with the ideas he comes up with--until he uses science to come up with a winning pitch, the knuckleball.

Joey, who is still taking medication to keep him from getting too wired, goes to spend the summer with the hard-drinking father he has never known and tries to help the baseball team he coaches win the championship.