[1] He played in Major League Baseball as a shortstop from 1964 to 1979, most prominently as a member of the Chicago Cubs, where he was a six-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove Award winner.

[4] During his collegiate years, he earned All-Conference, All-SEC, and All-America honors in both basketball and baseball for the Rebels, and was initiated into the Sigma Nu fraternity.

[1][7] He returned to the minor leagues with the Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs for the 1965 season, but was brought back by the Cubs in June of that year and became their starting shortstop.

[1][10] As the 1966 season got underway, Kessinger continued to struggle with his hitting when, new Cubs manager Leo Durocher encouraged him to become a switch hitter.

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 sportscaster Harry Caray, Cubs pitcher, Ferguson Jenkins, gave a name to Kessinger's trademark play at shortstop—"The Down Pat".

Children from throughout WGN-TV's viewing audience widely copied it on playgrounds and in Little League games, and his fellow players typically stood in awe.

[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 by Tony La Russa.

[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 the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award, presented annually to the Major League baseball player who both on and off the field best exemplifies the character of Lou Gehrig.

[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.

[38] Ole Miss finished on the verge of its first College World Series appearance since 1972, placing second at the NCAA Atlantic I Regional behind host Florida State.

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.

[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.

"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.