Long gone

the long version

"Stud Cantrell is the sour old maverick manager of the Graceville (Florida) Oilers of the Alabama-Florida League, Class D, in the summer of 1956 - a man and a team in last place, literally and figuratively. But suddenly Stud's path crosses that of a yearning second baseman named Jamie Weeks, a determined young woman with the improbable name of Dixie Lee Box, and a black catcher masquerading as a Venezuelan in order to avoid retaliation by the Ku Klux Klan - and the Oilers amazingly begin to win. Stud Cantrell senses a last chance for love and glory."--BOOK JACKET.