The Ball Player

About the Book

This book is about my father and his peers who grew up poor in rural North Carolina from the early to the late 1900s. The backdrop of these stories is the Carolina Textile Baseball League where James M. Whittington, Sr played from 1926 to 1954 and then further umpired, coached, and mentored many individual ball-players for another 40 years. He became a local legend in North and South Carolina, specifically the Piedmont Region. James Whittington circumstances molded him and his friends as rough men. He lived his life as a tough man but eventually found God and salvation later in life.

About the Author

William H. Whittington grew up in North Carolina playing baseball as a second generation ball-player. He ventured out of North Carolina to join the military; first in the Air Force followed by 23 years in the Army with a majority of that time as a helicopter pilot where he was rated in the UH-1H, OH-58A, and the UH-60 Blackhawk achieving a variety of ratings culminating as a Blackhawk Test Pilot. Over his 49 years of ball-playing, whether he was in California, Korea, Germany or anywhere in between, he played Baseball, Fast-, and Slow-pitch softball. Whether flying helicopters or playing ball, William has collected real stories about real people and real events.