| Don Kessinger | |
|---|---|
 Kessinger in 1973 | |
| Shortstop /Manager | |
| Born: (1942-07-17)July 17, 1942 (age 82) Forrest City, Arkansas, U.S. | |
Batted: Switch Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| September 7, 1964, for the Chicago Cubs | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| July 31, 1979, for the Chicago White Sox | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .252 |
| Home runs | 14 |
| Runs batted in | 527 |
| Managerial record | 46–60 |
| Winning % | .434 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Managerial record at Baseball Reference | |
| Teams | |
| As player As manager | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Donald Eulon Kessinger (born July 17, 1942) is anAmerican former professionalbaseball player andmanager.[1] He played inMajor League Baseball as ashortstop from1964 to1979, most prominently as a member of theChicago Cubs, where he was a six-timeAll-Star and two-timeGold Glove Award winner. He ended his career playing for theSt. Louis Cardinals and theChicago White Sox.[1]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Kessinger was considered one of the best shortstops in baseball.[2] For nine consecutive seasons he formed a productive middle-infield partnership with second basemanGlenn Beckert. He is also notable for being the last player-manager inAmerican League history.[3]
A four sport All-State and All-America athlete for theForrest City High School Mustangs, Kessinger graduated high school in 1960 and went on to theUniversity of Mississippi.[4] During his collegiate years, he earned All-Conference, All-SEC, andAll-America honors in both basketball and baseball for theRebels, and was initiated into theSigma Nu fraternity.[5] Kessinger also played for the Peoria Pacers, of the Central Illinois Collegiate League (a summer league for collegiate players) in its founding year, 1963.[6] He was signed by theChicago Cubs as an amateurfree agent on June 19, 1964.[1] Kessinger was assigned to play for theDouble-AFort Worth Cats before making his major league debut on September 7,1964.[1][7]
He returned to the minor leagues with the Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs for the1965 season, but was brought back by the Cubs in June of that year and became their starting shortstop.[8] The 1965 season would mark the first of nine consecutive seasons in which Kessinger would work alongside Cubs'second basemanGlenn Beckert.[9] He ended the season hitting for a .201batting average and led theNational League shortstops inerrors but, showed some promise by leading the league inrange factor.[1][10]
As the1966 season got underway, Kessinger continued to struggle with his hitting when, new CubsmanagerLeo Durocher encouraged him to become aswitch hitter.[2] With the help ofcoachPete Reiser, his hitting began to improve, in posting a .304 batting average during the second half of the season.[2] Durocher made Kessinger hislead off hitter, a spot he would hold for many years. He ended the year with a career-high .274 batting average and led the league's shortstops with 474assists.[1][11]
Kessinger continued to improve his fielding and in1968, he was recognized as one of the top shortstops in the league when he was voted to be the starting shortstop for the National League in the1968 All-Star Game.[12] At the end of the season, he ranked first among the league's shortstops in range factor and, led the entire league in assists.[13] While he also led the league in errors, he attributed this to the fact that he reached moreground balls than the average shortstop.[2]
Kessinger repeated as an All-Star in1969, in a year which saw the entire Chicago Cubs infield join him on the1969 All-Star team, with Kessinger and Cubs'third basemanRon Santo in the starting line-up.[14] In1969, he set a major league single-season record for shortstops by playing in 54 games without committing anerror, breaking the record previously set byChico Carrasquel in1951.[15] The Cubs were in first place in theNational League Eastern Division for 180 days of the 1969 season, before going 8–17 in their final 25 games, while theNew York "Miracle" Mets went 37–11 in their final 48 games to clinch the Eastern Divisionpennant.[16] Despite the Cubs' late-season collapse, Kessinger scored 109runs, hit for a .273 batting average with a career-high 181hits, including 38doubles; second-most in the league.[1] He led the league's shortstops inputouts, finished second infielding percentage and once again led the entire National League in assists.[1][17] He finished in 15th place in balloting for the 1969 National LeagueMost Valuable Player Award and won his firstGold Glove Award.[18][19] In his book,The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, baseball historianBill James cited manager Durocher's method of using his regular players everyday without any rest days as a factor in the Cubs' collapse.[20] On September 9, 1969, Kessinger was in the batters box at Shea Stadium when a black cat emerged from under the stands. After staring at Kessinger and Santo (in the on-deck circle), it headed toward the Cubs' bench, where Durocher received a raised tail and hiss.[21]
During a July 4 interview in 1969 with then St. Louis Cardinals sportscasterHarry Caray, Cubs pitcher,Ferguson Jenkins, gave a name to Kessinger's trademark play at shortstop—"The Down Pat". Children from throughoutWGN-TV's viewing audience widely copied it on playgrounds and in Little League games, and his fellow players typically stood in awe. Carey noted that Kessinger would regularly go to his right, toward left field, spear the ground ball and then, demonstrating a unique agility, reverse while in the air as he whipped the ball toward first base. "Do you think it might be because Don was a great basketball player?" asked Caray. Without hesitation, Jenkins responded, "In the past five games he's made many great plays to his right. Don has this play down pat."[22]
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Kessinger had another successful season in1970, producing a .266 batting average while scoring 100 runs.[1] He led the entire league in assists for the third consecutive year and claimed his second Gold Glove Award.[23][24] On June 17, 1971, he went 6-for-6, becoming the first Cubs with a six hit game in nearly 34 years.[25] He continued to be one of the cornerstones of the Cubs' infield, earning three more All-Star berths in1971,1972 and1974.[1] In October1975, after 11 seasons with the Cubs, Kessinger was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals—for pitcherMike Garman and infielder Bobby Hrapmann.[26] He was the last remaining Cub from the 1969 season when they almost won the pennant.[26]
The 33-year-old Kessinger still played well in St. Louis, ending the season with a .320on-base percentage and was second in the league in range factor.[1][27] In August1977, he was traded to the Chicago White Sox—for pitcher Steve Staniland—who were seeking to bolster their infield strength.[28] The White Sox held a "Don Kessinger Night" on September 8, 1978, where 31,000 Chicago baseball fans (said to consist, in Baseball Digest, of nearly equal numbers of Sox and Cubs fans) thanked #11 for his years of service at shortstop.[29] On October 19,1978, White Sox PresidentBill Veeck named Kessinger to be the team'splayer-manager (the last in AL history).[3] He was managing at Comiskey Park on July 12, 1979, when the infamous "Disco Demolition Night" took place, and wisely locked his players in the locker room between games, avoiding the near-riot.[30] With the White Sox languishing in 5th place in the standings, Kessinger resigned on August 2,1979 and was replaced byTony La Russa.[31]
| Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games | Won | Lost | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
| CWS | 1979 | 106 | 46 | 60 | .434 | resigned | – | – | – | – |
| Total | 106 | 46 | 60 | .434 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
In a 16-year major league career, Kessinger played in 2,078games, accumulating 1,931hits in 7,651at bats for a .252 career batting average along with 14home runs, 527runs batted in and anon-base percentage of .314.[1] Kessinger however struggled as a pinch-hitter in his MLB career, going 0-for-37 with just one RBI.[32] He retired with a .965 fielding percentage.[1] A six-time All-Star, Kessinger won the National League Gold Glove for shortstops in1969 and1970. In three different seasons with the Cubs, he turned 100 or more double plays. Kessinger had 6,212 assists during his career, ranking him 14th all-time among major league shortstops.[33] In 1977 he was named the recipient of the Danny Thomas Memorial Award, for his exemplary Christian Spirit in Major League Baseball and, the following year he was the recipient of theLou Gehrig Memorial Award, presented annually to the Major League baseball player who both on and off the field best exemplifies the character ofLou Gehrig.[34][35] Kessinger received 0.5% of the vote on theBaseball Hall of Fame balloting, 1985, his only appearance on the balloting.
Kessinger married Carolyn Crawley—also from Forrest City—in 1965.[34] One son,Keith, was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in 1989 and had a brief career (nine years, minors and majors, in the Reds and Cubs organizations) as a professional baseball player.[36] Another son, Kevin, was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 1992.[37]
Prior to the 1991 season, Kessinger was hired as the head baseball coach at his alma mater, theUniversity of Mississippi. Kessinger would spend six years as the Ole Miss skipper, leading the Rebels to four 30-win seasons.[38] His 1995 team produced a school record for wins, going 40–22 and earning the school's first NCAA Regional bid since 1977.[38] Ole Miss finished on the verge of its firstCollege World Series appearance since 1972, placing second at the NCAA Atlantic I Regional behind hostFlorida State. Both of his sons had the opportunity to play for their father at Ole Miss. Following the 1996 season, Kessinger resigned his head coaching position to become Mississippi's associate athletics director for internal affairs, while concurrently serving as chair of the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee. He finished with a six-year record of 185–153.[38]
Kessinger was an honoree at the 1976 Chicago Baseball Writers Diamond Dinner, where he was presented with the Ken Hubbs Award, given for exemplary conduct both on and off the field.[39] He has also honored by theChicagoland Sports Hall of Fame, Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame, Wrigley Field Walk of Fame, Ole Miss Sports Hall of Fame,Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame,National High School Hall of Fame and theArkansas Sports Hall of Fame.[34] He was also recognized as the 12th Best Athlete in the history of the Southeastern Conference in 2007 and named to the Ole Miss All-Century Basketball Team in 2008.[34] Presently, he is the President of Kessinger Enterprises, Inc. and owns a real estate business inOxford, Mississippi.[34]
While writing his 2012 novelCalico Joe—detailing a fictional young player on the Cubs in the early 1970s—authorJohn Grisham drew from Kessinger's memories. "But Grisham gets the baseball right – among the people he consulted while writing the book was Don Kessinger, a longtime friend who was the Cubs' slick-fielding shortstop in the period the flashback portion covers."[40]
Kessinger's grandson,Grae, also became a professional baseball player who made his major league debut for theHouston Astros in2023.[41]
