Jim Kaat’s L o n g Road to Cooperstown

It took the 16-time Gold Glove Winner more than 40 years to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Jim Kaat played MLB baseball for 25 seasons. A consistent and underrated hurler, Katt used every strategy and skill at his disposal to win in the major leagues.

​Born in Zeeland, Michigan, Kaat excelled at baseball and basketball during his high school years. He continued to play baseball in college at D-3 Hope College while studying speech and journalism. He signed with the Washington Senators in 1957 and made his debut with the Senators in 1959.

Before long (in 1961), the Senators moved to the Midwest and became the Minnesota Twins. Kaat established himself as a big league pitcher almost immediately. In 1962, he won 18 games and posted an American League-best five shutouts.

Kaat with the Twins (photo courtesy Baseball Hall of Fame)

Kaat gained national prominence during the 1965 World Series when he went up against another southpaw, Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers won the Series in 7 games.

​Kaat’s best season came in 1966. He led the league with 25 wins, had 19 complete games, and pitched over 300 innings. Still, he didn’t win the AL Most Valuable Player Award, finishing fifth. Kaat continued playing with the Twins until 1973, when he was traded to the Chicago White Sox.

There, Kaat had back-to-back 20-win seasons in 1974 and 1975, and that success paved the way for his next stop–with the Philadelphia Phillies. Kaat achieved there as well, appearing in the postseason three times with the Phillies — losing in the NLCS to the Reds in 1976 and back-to-back to the Dodgers in the 1977 and 1978 NLCS.

It wasn’t his last stop either. Kaat spent 1979 and 1980 with the New York Yankees, and then migrated to the St. Louis Cardinals. In his 24th season, he notched two saves to help the Cardinals win the 1982 World Series. Kaat retired after the 1983 season.

​Overall, Kaat appeared in 898 games, won 283 games, pitched 4,530 innings, had 2,461 strikeouts, and was a three-time All-Star. The length of his MLB career set a record in this way; he played during the administrations of seven U.S. Presidents, spanning from the Eisenhower to the Reagan administrations.

Jim Kaat behind the mic (photo courtesy YouTube)

After playing baseball, Kaat had a brief coaching career as the pitching coach for the Reds in 1984. He then turned to broadcasting with the Yankees and Twins, widely known for his insightful analyses and distinctive Midwestern dialect.

​Kaat shifted from local broadcasts to national broadcasts in the 1990s. He worked baseball broadcasts for CBS, NBC, ESPN, ABC, the MLB Network, and TBS. In addition to working telecasts during the Major League Baseball season, he also worked the ALCS, the World Series, and the College World Series. He also covered the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

In 2022, Kaat had his number 36 jersey retired by the Twins. A few days after his Twins jersey was retired, Kaat was finally honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame, elected by the Golden Days Era Committee. Kaat was 83 years old. A month later, Kaat retired from broadcasting after more than 40 years of service.

Jim Kaat is one of baseball’s all-time greats.