Jim Kaat

James Lee Kaat was born November 7, 1938, in Zeeland Michigan. He grew up in a family with four children. His next closest sibling was nine years older.

Jim was attracted to sports at an early age playing baseball and basketball as a child. He also really enjoyed the history of baseball. Kaat’s father collected Base Ball Guides going back to 1900. Jim studied those books giving him an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the history of the game which must have contributed to his successful post-playing career as a baseball analyst.

After High School, Jim went five miles down the road to Holland, Michigan, and to Hope College. The left-handed pitcher joined the baseball team. He played a single season and gave up one single run all season. Somewhere around this point Jim had grown from five-foot-ten to six-four-four, and professional scouts started to notice him.

After that first year in college, Jim was signed by the Washington Senators and assigned to the minor leagues. Kaat would spend 1957 to 1959 in the minor leagues.

Kaat had a long and successful career with the Twins, and I am not going to rehash it all here but I’ll highlight a few items.

In the 1965 World Series Kaat had three starts against Sandy Koufax. The Twins simply couldn’t hit Koufax. Sandy Koufax shut them out twice and won World Series MVP honors. Sometimes the other team just performs better.

In 1967, the Twins were in a heated pennant race with the Red Sox and Tigers. Kaat started the second to last game in Boston. He had given up no runs into the third inning. However, he felt something in his elbow and had to come out of the game. It was a tear of the ulnar collateral ligament. In today’s day he would have had the Tommy John surgery immediately and missed at least a year of action. In 1967, the prescribed treatment was to rest all winter and then go out and pitch in 1968.

In August of 1973, the Twins waived Kaat, and he was claimed by The Chicago White Sox. The White Sox not only picked him up but immediately gave him a raise for the following season.

After leaving the Twins, Kaat bounced around a little. As mentioned, he played for the White Sox. From there he went to the Phillies. Those were some of his favorite years of his career. The team was good and improving, and the players were tight with each other, and all got along. Unfortunately for Kaat, he was sold to the Yankees in 1979, missing the Phillies’ 1980 World Series Championship. Then he was sold to the Cardinals during the 1980 season, missing the Yankees’ 1981 World Series appearance. It was appearing increasingly probable that Kaat was never going to the win a World Series despite his illustrious career. That changed with the 1982 Cardinals when he finally was part of a World Series winner.

From the high to the low. Baseball-Reference reports that Kaat was simply released by the Cardinals on July 6, 1983, less than a year after the World Series victory. That was his 25th season.

• Kaat holds the record for the longest period between World Series appearances, 17 years between 1965 to 1982
• Kaat’s 24 seasons played before winning a championship is a record for any of the four major sports in North America
• Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose hired Kaat as pitching coach. Kaat served in that capacity in 1984 and 1985
• Kaat was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022