Now this is unusual in this set. Two posts after Ed Herrmann
we get one of his battery-mates with an action shot of Jim Kaat. Sometimes this
happened when an off-season trade occurred and they got wind of it early enough
to change the team designation on the card but not the card number. But in this
case Kaat had changed hands in the prior season. Just an anomaly I guess. This
trade certainly had a silver lining for Jim as can be told by his seven-game
record for the ChiSox. It got even better as he became a 20-game winner the
next two seasons for the first time since his big ’66 year. I would guess that
happened at least partly as the result of the influence of Sox pitching coach Johnny
Sain. Jim gets an honorary card in ’74 and unless Topps was incredibly
prescient the guess here is he was awarded it since he was on the cusp of his
200th win. Here Jim gets it on probably warming up in Chicago, given the less
than prepared status of the first baseman behind him; my guess is it’s Tony
Muser. I like this action shot, but not as much as Jim’s ’73 one: about to run
to first base after just stroking a ball to the right side.
Jim Kaat grew up in Zeeland Michigan
where he pitched all through high school and then attended nearby Hope College
where he continued to do so as a freshman. Following the season he was signed
by the old Senators for $4,000. DC wanted to give him more but that would have
pushed him to bonus-baby status and Jim wanted to pitch in the minors. That
summer of ’57 he had a middling year in D ball, going 5-6 with a 3.70 ERA. His
coach suggested he add weight to help get his fastball cranking – though he did
K 95 guys in his 73 innings - so Jim lifted in the off-season and came back 15
pounds heavier. The immediate returns were pretty good as he went 16-9 with a
2.99 ERA and 245 strikeouts in 223 innings in C ball. He cooled off a bunch in
Double A the next year but did get his DC debut that season with his highlight
being 19 strikeouts in a game at the lower level. In ’60 it was all Triple A
and DC and his first Topps card. The next year when the franchise moved out
west to Minnesota Jim went with them.
After a tough first year with the Twins in ’61 Kaat settled
down and for the next decade put up consistently good numbers. Excluding an off
year in ’63 he would average 17 wins, an ERA just over 3.00, and excellent
control for the rest of the decade. In ’65 he pitched the pennant clincher and
then did pretty well in his three Series starts, each one against Sandy Koufax.
In ’66 he probably would have won a Cy in his big 25-win season if one was
offered back then in both leagues (Koufax won it in his final season).
Beginning in ’62 he had an annual monopoly on Gold Gloves for a pitcher,
winning one every year through ’77 and in ’62 and ’66 he was an All-Star. He
also could hit pretty well for a pitcher, posting a decade-high .247 in ’65. In
’69 he was again playoff-bound but he got shut out of any post-season play. In
’70 he won 14 for the third consecutive year and again went to the playoffs,
but this time was bombed in his only start. In ’71 he posted his first losing
season since ’61 though his ERA was much better. Then in ’72 he was on a tear,
putting up probably his best numbers ever – he was on a path to a 21-4 season –
when he broke his wrist sliding back to first base on July 2, ending his
season. In ’73 he started off a bit handicapped still from the injury with an
ERA a run over his career average. In six mid-year starts he gave up 40 hits
and 27 earned runs and was then placed on waivers, although many thought the
true reason for that move was to jettison his $60,000 salary. The Sox bought
him for $25,000 so miserly owner Calvin Griffith must have been tickled pink at
his new $85,000.
After his strong run to end the ’73 season, Kaat worked with
Sain, who had previously coached him in Minnesota,
on reviving his screwball and his mechanics. Something certainly clicked
because in ’74 Jim went 21-13 with a 2.92 ERA and in ’75 was 20-14 with a 3.11
ERA and was an All-Star. After that season, fresh off a sale of the team to
Bill Veeck, Jim was sent to the Phillies with Mike Buskey for Alan Bannister,
Dick Ruthven, and Roy Thomas as the Sox began their youth movement. For the
Phillies Jim didn’t quite match his ChiSox years, but he went 27-30 in the
rotation the next three-plus years and gave them a quality start in the ’76
playoffs. In May of ’79 he went to the Yankees in a sale to help shore up their
beleaguered bullpen and got a couple wins and a couple saves the rest of the
way. In late April the following year he moved to his last stop, St. Louis, where he
finished out the season as a swing guy. From then on it was all relief: he went
6-6 with a 3.40 ERA with four saves in ’81 and 5-3 in 62 games with a couple
saves in ’82. That year he finally got to be on a Series champ at age 43 and got
into four Series appearances during which he pitched pretty well. After the ’83
season he was done, finishing with a record of 283-237, a 3.45 ERA, 180
complete games, 31 shutouts, and 18 saves. He hit .185 with 16 homers and 106
RBI’s. In the post-season he went 1-3 with a 4.01 ERA in nine games and hit
.222. He is pretty much on the cusp as a HOF
guy and could get there via a veterans vote in the next couple years.
Kaat turned to coaching after he finished playing, in ’84
and ’85 working with Pete Rose in Cincinnati.
Then he turned to his next true career path: broadcasting. He worked for
various stations, mostly associated with the Yankees, from ’86 to ’87 and then
from ’88 to ’93 did color for the Twins. In ’94 he returned to NY where he was
a regular broadcaster through 2006 when his initial plan was to retire. But he
got dragged back in – mostly at the behest of friends who thought he’d be happier
working after his wife passed away in ’08 – and currently does color for the
MLB Network.
Star bullets don’t get much better than that one.
Let’s try an old catcher:
1. Kaat and Larry Bowa ’76 to ’79 Phillies;
2. Bowa and John Bateman ’72 Phillies;
3. Bateman and Norm Miller ’67 to ’68 Astros.
John Bateman was a starting catcher with the Colt
.45’s/Astros in the Sixties who had some occasional pop: 17 homers in ’66, his
best offensive season. In ’69 he got drafted by the Expos and was one of their
first starting catchers, retaining that job through ’71. He spent his last
season with the Phillies.
He won a Gold Glove in 1969 with a fielding percentage of .826. In fact, his lifetime fielding percentage was just .947. How did he get a reputation as such as good fielder?
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