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Jim Kaat

Position: Pitcher
Bats: Left  •  Throws: Left
6-4, 205lb (193cm, 92kg)
Born: November 7, 1938  in Zeeland, MI
High School: Zeeland HS (Zeeland, MI)
School: Hope College (Holland, MI)
Debut: August 2, 1959 11,676th in major league history)
vs. CHW 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 SO, 3 BB, 1 ER, L
Last Game: July 1, 1983
vs. PIT 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 SO, 0 BB, 0 ER
Full Name: James Lee Kaat
Nicknames: Kitty
Pronunciation: \cott\
View Player Info from the B-R Bullpen
View Player Bio from the SABR BioProject

 

Notable Events and Chronology 

Biography

In 1965, Jim Kaat helped Minnesota to their first pennant, and his 189 wins for the Twins are a franchise record. Later he won twenty games twice for the Chicago White Sox, helped hurl the Philadelphia Phillies to three straight National League East titles, and won his only World Series ring with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1982, pitching out of the pen at the age of 43. Kaat was a tall lefty with great athletic ability, which helped him log 283 wins, 16 Gold Glove Awards, and 16 home runs.

Unform Number

#21 (1959-1960), #36 (1961-1975, 1979 Yankees, 1980-1983), #39 (1976-1979 Phillies)

Quotes From

“I believe low and away is better than high and tight.” “I believe the fastball is still the best pitch in baseball because it’s the only pitch you can throw to all corners of the strike zone.” “I believe in throwing every day. The arm is a muscle, and you strengthen a muscle by using it. I go by the adage that it will rust out before it wears out.”

Best Season

Koufax won the Cy Young, of which there was just one given for both leagues. Otherwise, Kaat would have garnered the AL honor. He was 25-13 with 19 complete games, three shutouts, a 2.75 ERA and 55 walks in more than 300 innings. The Sporting News named him AL Pitcher of the Year. He was excellent at home, going 14-4 with a 2.33 ERA in 19 starts. Left-handed batters hit a paltry .154 against him, with just four home runs. Kaat’s other top seasons were 1972, when he went 10-2 with 2.07 ERA before breaking his pitching hand on the basepaths in early July, and 1974-1975 with the Sox, when he won 21 and 20 games for a mediocre team.

Factoid 1

Jim Kaat pitched in four decades, and set a major league pitching record in 1982 when he appeared in his 24th season.

Factoid 2

Young Jim Kaat, growing up in Zeeland, MI, listened to broadcaster Harry Heilmann do Tigers’ games in the 1940s.

Transition

June 17, 1957: Signed by the Washington Senators as an amateur free agent; August 15, 1973: Selected off waivers by the Chicago White Sox from the Minnesota Twins; December 10, 1975: Traded by the Chicago White Sox with Mike Buskey to the Philadelphia Phillies for Dick Ruthven, Roy Thomas, and Alan Bannister; May 11, 1979: Purchased by the New York Yankees from the Philadelphia Phillies; November 1, 1979: Granted Free Agency; April 1, 1980: Signed as a Free Agent with the New York Yankees; April 30, 1980: Purchased by the St. Louis Cardinals from the New York Yankees; July 6, 1983: Released by the St. Louis Cardinals.

Strengths

Durability. Kaat had a healthy arm for nearly a quarter of a century.

Weaknesses

Early in his career, Kaat struggled with control, leading the league in wild pitches and hit batters in 1961 and 1962.

Milestones

Had he started for just a couple more seasons, he probably would have reached the 300-win mark.

Feats

Kaat’s 16 Gold Gloves established a record for a pitcher.

Commissioner Kaat

In the 1963 off-season several rules were adopted by Major League Baseball to help curtail offense, which was seen to be out of control Other rules were passed to help speed up games. First, the strike zone was re-defined to stretch from the top of the shoulder to the top of the knees. Secondly, batters were instructed to be in the batters box and ready to receive the pitch, or risk being called for a strike. Kaat, at the time a 24-year old pitcher for the Twins, had his own ideas for speeding up the game and cutting down the runs. “Make all parks standard: 350 feet down the line, 390 to right and left-center and 425 feet to dead center,” Kaat said. “That will mean that only the Mantles, Killebrews, Colavitos and Marises will be hitting the long ones. And that’s the way it should be.”

Snow Bound

On April 12, 1965, the Twins opened the season against the Yankees at Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis. An ice and snow storm kept thousands of fans away, but the game was not cancelled. Kaat was scheduled to start for the Twins, but was stranded in the storm outside the city. The Twins sent a helicopter for him, he landed in the stadium parking lot, and started the game, which Minnesota won 5-4 in 11 innings. The Yankee starter was Jim Bouton.

Notes

Kaat never placed higher than fourth in Cy Young voting (1975). In 1966 he was fifth in American League Most Valuable Player voting, and was the top ranked pitcher in the voting… Kaat started and won the 1965 pennant-clinching game, on September 26, 1965, against the Washington Senators… After his playing career, Kaat became an announcer, and as of 2005, he was broadcasting for the Yankees on television.

 

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