Long Gone: A Novel

by Paul Hemphill

A story with a heart of gold about love and the loss of innocence at the bottom of the most minor league in baseball―the class D Alabama-Florida League in the 1950s, with a sour old maverick manager, a yearning teenage second baseman, and a black catcher masquerading as a Venezuelan. "A first-rate novel.”― Newsweek . "A sharp, unsentimental portrait of the minor league life...and Hemphill makes it all come to life, believably and memorably.”― Sports Illustrated . "So good, so true, so funny...”― New York Times Book Review .

Genres: Baseball, Fiction, Sports

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Paul James Hemphill was an American journalist and author who wrote extensively about often-overlooked topics in the Southern United States such as country music, evangelism, football, stock car racing and the blue collar people he met on his journeys around the South.

Reviews

[Jerry Grillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite possibly the best baseball novel ever written. And they made a terrific movie out of this book, too.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny. Terrific dialogue and sense of scene. Hemphill is missed.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

The timeframe is 1956 and the location is the area around the Florida panhandle. Stud Cantrell is 39 years old and was a rising star in the Yankees organization until he ended up in Korea with shrapnel in his leg. His potential as a star in the major leagues gone, he has spent his adult life playing minor league baseball. He is now 39 years old and player-manager for the lower Class D Graceville Oilers. While still a good hitter and pitcher at that level, he is a hard-drinking womanizer with no real prospects for advancement. He also knows that his clock is rapidly ticking towards the time when even the Graceville team will be beyond his skills.
Into this mix walks teenager Jamie Weeks with little more than a bat, glove and baseball spikes. Jamie has hitchhiked from Alabama in the hope that he can make the team. When Jamie meets Stud, he tells him that he can help, so Stud gives him a tryout. While Jamie is great with a glove, his hitting prowess is modest.
Furthermore, a black catcher named Joe Louis Brown arrives and wants to play for the Oilers. Even though the major leagues have been integrated for almost a decade, this is the deep south and blacks are not allowed. Therefore, Joe becomes Jose and Venezuelan, lacking any knowledge of English.
The addition of the two players and a tremendous resurgence by Stud leads to the Oilers challenging for the league pennant. It all comes down to the final day of the season where it is win or go home. While this is largely a routine, big game at the end, plot of sports fiction, this ending is quite different. Stud survives to play another season with his hot, young bride, but he sacrifices a great deal.
This is a very adult instance of sports fiction, there is swearing, sex, religious fervor and fierce racism. The best part of the book is when a group of the KKK stop the team’s bus and try to extract Jose. While Stud may have his faults, there is a significant good streak within him. Generally speaking, this book is probably more realistic than most books of sports fiction.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good 'ol sports yarn from a bygone age, with frisky men and women, a Black man masquerading as Hispanic (this is 1956), a shy teenage infielder, a rowdy player/manager. The movie is great too, made in 1986.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice little funny read about a woebegone minor league team in the 50's. Fans of sports fiction will enjoy it

[Nate]

Pretty funny book about the colorful characters on a struggling minor league baseball team in the Deep South of the 1950s. Wish there was more actual baseball though.