Novel featuring a baseball bat and a talking duck

Question

I picked this book up at a used bookstore around 2005, but it was clearly older than that. It felt like late 70's or early-to-mid 80's. It may have been part of a trilogy or series, but I'm not sure. What I know for certain:

• Main character was an adult man, sort of an everyman character in a fish-out-of-water situation. Might have been a football player, since I'm pretty sure he's described as fairly large.
• The book begins with him opening either a pantry or a fridge and being attacked by a large monster that comes out.
• He fights the monster with a baseball bat, which I'm pretty sure he breaks.
• I think he opens the fridge/cabinet/whatever again and a a beautiful woman comes out.
• She convinces him to cross into her world to save it- typical hero stuff. I don't remember whether he is somehow chosen, or foretold, but it's likely.
• He crosses into the fantasy world, and it's fairly standard medieval stuff. Leather, swords, fair maidens, etc.
• He and the woman go to a town (maybe located on a bridge?) to get supplies and weapons.
• He asks a wizard or weapon-monger for a bat, and gets a response along the lines of "well I can't promise it will fly"
• There are "giant dwarves"
• Pretty sure there was some kind of evil overlord or encroaching dark power

Here's the thing: the McGuffin was a talking duck. The duck might have been a person, and it might have been someone that Our Hero knew from his home world.

The whole novel was very tongue-in-cheek, a fairly respectful send-up of high fantasy. It felt like it was borrowing a lot from Thomas Covenant, so I may be confusing details. I am almost certain the author was male.

The cover art was mostly yellow, I think, with Our Hero beating up the first monster with a bat. Now that I think of it, the monster might have been part bull or part horse. The art style was fairly classic- felt like the Hildebrants but more angular.

Answer 1

While I have never read the book, I came across this in a google search, and I'm fairly certain it is the one you are looking for. (Google search term was fantasy novel pantry bat duck)

Blood River Down - Book One of the Quest for the White Duck

Points that match:

• Ex football player protagonist
• Meadow in the pantry
• Beats a monster with a bat
• Lovely damsel in distress
• Quest to find a white duck
• Original publication date of 1986*, reissue as Kindle 2012
• Cover art matches description

*The new cover art and the new author name are due to it being reissued as a Kindle edition, and the "new" author name is the actual authors name. Wikipedia lists Lionel Fell as a pseudonym for Charles Grant

Point that doesn't match:

• Publication date of 2012

First paragraph of the synopsis on Amazon:

Gideon Sunday, an ex-semi-professional American Football player, goes to his pantry to retrieve an awful bottle of his (dead) sister's fruit preserves. When he gets there, he discovers a meadow in his pantry. He closes the door, takes a few breaths, and begins to investigate with as much sanity and candor as Sherlock Holmes. Upon discovering that A) no one is playing a trick on him, B) there really IS a meadow in his cupboard, and C) there is something three-quarters of ugly coming out of it, he decides to beat a monster to death with a baseball bat.

2012 Cover art:

1986 Cover art: