Sign in with Facebook
A Drive into the Gap
“A Drive Into the Gap” is a story about baseball. About fathers and sons. It’s about memory and identity, and an insidious illness that can rob a person of both.
It’s also a detective story, an investigation into the improbable journey of a baseball bat from one of the most iconic moments in baseball history to a 12-year-old boy’s bedroom.
It’s also a detective story, an investigation into the improbable journey of a baseball bat from one of the most iconic moments in baseball history to a 12-year-old boy’s bedroom.
ebook, 66 pages
Published
August 2nd 2012
by Field Notes Brand Books
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
160)
This book, a short one about the duration of long-term memory, centers on the relationship between the author and his father, a one-time executive at the Baseball Hall of Fame museum, also a late-stage Alzheimer’s patient.
There's a memorable story in chapter 5. It's a throw-away account of a practical joke that Jerry Ruess, who worked for the L.A. Dodgers, once played on Tommy Lasorda, the team’s general manager. Here’s what Ruess did. He took a game ball and wrote a message to Frank Pulli, the...more
There's a memorable story in chapter 5. It's a throw-away account of a practical joke that Jerry Ruess, who worked for the L.A. Dodgers, once played on Tommy Lasorda, the team’s general manager. Here’s what Ruess did. He took a game ball and wrote a message to Frank Pulli, the...more
A quick read and I liked the way the author explained Alzheimer's - Time is the thing that keeps everything from happening at once..To my dad, I am five years old and also a novelist. I am forty-three years old and also an undergrad at the University of Notre Dame...I am a Little League coach in La Grange, Ill, and a Little League player in Bethel Park, PA...To him I am all of these things at once."
A bittersweet story of a father who loved stories but can no longer unravel the story of his own l...more
A bittersweet story of a father who loved stories but can no longer unravel the story of his own l...more
From http://weeksnotice.blogspot.com/2013/...
I am an absolute sucker for good baseball stories. Kevin Guilfoile's A Drive into the Gap is a great one. It's a short non-fiction piece that connects a mystery about which bat Roberto Clemente used for his 3,000th (and last) hit and Guilfoile's father, who worked for the Pirates but now has Alzheimer's. There is some beautiful writing about baseball mingled with the difficulty of watching a father in decline. A father who no longer always recognizes...more
I am an absolute sucker for good baseball stories. Kevin Guilfoile's A Drive into the Gap is a great one. It's a short non-fiction piece that connects a mystery about which bat Roberto Clemente used for his 3,000th (and last) hit and Guilfoile's father, who worked for the Pirates but now has Alzheimer's. There is some beautiful writing about baseball mingled with the difficulty of watching a father in decline. A father who no longer always recognizes...more
Field Notes and a lovely short book on baseball and memory - a great combination. I've never been a Pirates fan [ go Braves! ], but I've always respected Roberto Clemente. The story about memory, about fathers and sons, and a mystery surrounding a bat that hit the 3000th hit, the last hit of Clemente's career is so well constructed. It's short, it's punchy, it's funny, it's melancholy, and regardless of the final truth of which bat was which, it's true. It rings true to emotion, to faith, to lov...more
It's rather slight and sort of feels like a test run, to see if Field Notes want to publish books for real or if this is just a curiosity... but I hope it's the former. Guilfoile is a wonderful writer - I need to get his actual novels now - and the story, simple and unbelievable as it is, is the sort of true tale that needs to be told well in order to transcend that moment of "that can't be true!" Because, hey - the truth is stranger than fiction, isn't it?
More about it at RB, if you're interest...more
More about it at RB, if you're interest...more
While I know next to nothing about baseball, I really enjoyed reading Kevin's new mini book. It is a love story to the sport and the mythology surrounding sports artifacts, but more importantly to his father, who is suffering from Alzheimer's and can't remember the wonderful Hall of Fame stories Kevin grew up with.
I'm a big fan of baseball, Field Notes, and Kevin Guilfoile's writing ... this little book did not let me down! It was a perfect distraction for the night I'm spending in the ER with my ill husband. I liked how the themes of memory and identity are told through baseball anecdotes.
Writers often say that if they can provoke a visceral reaction—if they can make the reader laugh, or cry...or vomit—they've succeeded. A Drive Into the Gap is likely to make you laugh, and maybe cry, within the first ten pages. It's a wonderful story. Read it.
It comes to no firm conclusions and dances around what feels like it ought to be the central premise--bat as way to connect son's life with dad's, but I enjoyed the hell out of this. Something about simple baseball stories tugs pushes the Field of Dream buttons.
A sweet and engaging little book about stories and memory and baseball. And about the bat Roberto Clemente used to get his 3,000th major league hit. Though undeniably nostalgic, A Drive into the Gap is also clear-eyed and pragmatic, with no wasted words. A delight.
This is one of those stories that glimpses the inner world of baseball, allows a man to reflect on his father, and helps one understand that so often there is much grey, even in the black-and-white world we want. Great book - I highly recommend it.
This was a quick, 1 hour read that will stay with me for a long time. It's ostensibly the story of the bat with which Roberto Clemente notched his 3,000th hit, but it's really a story about the bond between father and son. It's beautiful.
A great story that hits the right notes for me. What a special man Clemente was, what a jerk Bonds is, and how devastating Alzheimer's is. A bunch of threads quite skillfully woven together into a solid read.
Short, but effective. The name-dropping can be confusing if you know nothing about baseball, as I do, but that should not deter you from reading this little gem.
Clever memoir about baseball, parent-child relationships and the nature of memory. Started out a bit disjoint, like a collection of anecdotes, but gradually came together with a little suspense added.
So many great perspectives in such a short book. Kevin Guilfoile could really expand the story into so many different short reads. This was fantastic. I'm going to have to check out his other works.
A lithe and beautiful story about baseball, memory and the complicated nature of the truth.
A book about a sport I've never enjoyed, but made me wish, for once, that I did.
Short, sweet, to the point. Super quick, but enjoyable, read.
Jan 04, 2013
Matthew
added it
Beautifully written. A little heartbreaking. In the good way.
Aug 15, 2012
Jason
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
David Large
Recommended to Jason by:
John Green
Great non-fiction title about baseball with fathers and sons.
Very quick read about baseball and memory.
I really liked this book. The book is
Quick, solid read, another nice baseball-related book from Micah, thanks dude.
outstanding story telling.
Aww...
This did such a great job of showing the important of baseball to fans. How it permeates your life. It's about other things, too. Memory and stories. The passage of time. But I think what's going to stick with me is that feeling that sports ARE important to those of us who love them.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Oct 04, 2012 07:36pm