After Astros infielder Grae Kessinger found out last June that he was being called up to “the Show” for the first time, one of his first calls was to the grandfather he calls “Pop.”
Back in Oxford, Mississippi, Don Kessinger caught a lump in his throat.
“He said that he was more excited for me than he was when he got called up [to the Cubs in 1964],” Grae recalled during spring training in West Palm Beach, Florida. “He meant it, too. His family is what brings him joy. He’s such a great mentor, a great role model. I love him a lot.”
Hearing that quote the other day made Pop warm over.
“I did mean that, and I do mean that,” the elder Kessinger said. “We’re kind of living through Grae right now. I’m more excited and nervous watching him play than I was when I broke in.”
It’s a typical family story.
“He watches all my games,” Grae said, “and we talk all the time. He’s always just a phone call away.”
Hearing that made Pop chuckle and say, “I don’t know if he’ll ever call as much as I’d like him to, but he’s been very good keeping his grandmother and me up to date.”
It’s also so much more than typical.
Grae, 26, is the last player on the Astros’ bench. He has all of nine at-bats this season, and no hits. On a struggling team that begins a series Tuesday against the Cubs, his roster spot is anything but set in stone. Don, 81, tells him to keep up his defense and everything will be OK, but who really knows?
“He’s an elite defender, but he’s not getting a lot of at-bats right now,” his grandfather said. “I understand that totally. The Astros kind of remind me of our ballclub in Chicago in 1969 — we had a pretty good infield — and they don’t like days off. They like to play.”
Ron Santo at third, Kessinger at short, Glenn Beckert at second, Ernie Banks at first — those fellas in ’69 liked to answer the bell, too.
Don was the Cubs’ shortstop for 11 seasons before playing two with the Cardinals and three with the White Sox. In 1979, his final go-round in the big leagues, he was the Sox’ player-manager — the last of those in the American League, to be succeeded in the latter role by a whippersnapper named Tony La Russa.
More than a decade after hanging up his spikes, Don became the baseball coach at his alma mater, Ole Miss, where the Kessinger name is iconic. Don’s son Keith played there, too, was drafted by the Orioles in the 36th round in 1989 and made it all the way to the big leagues in 1991, playing 11 games at shortstop for the Reds. Son Kevin — Grae’s dad — played center field for Don and was drafted by the Cubs in the 22nd round in 1992 but didn’t get to the majors. Grae was better than his dad or his uncle, a star taken in the second round by the Astros in 2019.
On July 4 of last year, Grae rang in the holiday with his first big-league home run, a blast to left off the Rockies’ Kyle Freeland on a 76-mph hanger. Pop — suddenly a streaming savant — was watching, of course, beside himself.
The old man hit 14 homers in his entire career, just under one per season. Maybe Grae got his power from his grandmother’s side of the family?
“You could say that,” Don laughed, “because it’s true.”
Don and Carolyn have been married for 59 years, an example for all. Their grandchildren tease Pop sometimes that he should act more like a baseball big shot.
“We wish he’d take nice advantage of it,” Grae said. “He could be involved in so much stuff, but that’s not what he wants to do. He’s certainly proud of himself, and he should be, but that’s not what he’s defined by. He’s defined as a grandfather, a father, a husband, and he does a great job at it.”
In the summer of 2015, when Grae was in between his junior and senior years of high school in Oxford, he played in the Under Armour All-America game at Wrigley Field. The whole family was there.
“We all went,” Don said. “It was really strange for me sitting in the stands — good seats, though — and it was exciting and great for us. I felt like, ‘If he’s going to play in my dirt, I’m going to be there.’ ”
But Grae isn’t the only one who was younger then. Don was still running the family’s real-estate business, as he would until right around the time of the pandemic. Keith runs the business now, and his dad will watch the Astros and Cubs from home while hoping to see that boy doing his thing in the dirt.
“The whole family talked about going,” Don said, “but it just didn’t work out right. Plus, I was a little bit afraid to be cold in Chicago.”
Instead, Don and Carolyn are planning to catch Grae in Houston during the Astros’ homestand that follows this series. After all, Minute Maid Park, not Wrigley, is Grae’s home turf. It’s his career, not his Pop’s.
But the old Cub is watching, and is he ever tickled and proud.