Jim Kaat

[MFS62]

Tomorrow night will be his last game as an announcer. He will retire after the Yanks/Red Sox game.

He was a very good pitcher and has been a fair and honest sportscaster. He served as a great counterpoint to the rest of the Yankee crew.

If you have a chance to tune in and listen to him one last time, do it.

Later

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I didn't even know he was a Yankees announcer!

If he was fair and honest I can understand why he had to leave.

[Guest cooby]

Didn't he used to do Phillies games? I seem to remember them calling somebody "Kitty Cat"

[metirish]

50 Years in Game Is Enough for Kaat

[seawolf17]

I always liked Jim Kaat as a kid, because his baseball card had reeeeeeeally tiny print on the back, and he looked like he was about 80 years old.

[Guest cooby]

I don't think that link works, but I could be wrong

[MFS62]

I remember hearing his first victory - against Whitey Ford and the Yanks - on the radio. I caught the end of the game after school.

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

Threadjack: I'm thinking about Jim Kaat's 247 Gold Gloves and I've been reading a book about scouting and it strikes me that advance scouts would be more qualified than coaches to vote on Gold Gloves.

[MFS62]

Why? What did the book say that makes you think that?

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

MFS62 wrote: Why? What did the book say that makes you think that? Later

Nothing. I'm just thinking about them.

My thinking is based on what I know. Coaches watch their own players closely. Advance scouts watch everybody else's closely. If Roberto Alomar loses a step, advance scouts know it before coaches and journalists.

[stevejrogers]

Good point, alot of GG and SS are based on rep (Ratty Palmeriod's one at first despite majority of year as DH aside) alone, not everyday seeing Player A and understanding exactly what Player A does that makes him a great defender

Pudge (and by extention Benito Santiago who got too much press for being a great thrower out of runners) is another example. The throwing runners out thing gets way over blown, though it was usually in relation to Piazza's troubles, but that percentage seems to be the only way a catcher's defensive skills are judged by media and coaches

[G-Fafif]

In 1985, while serving as Reds' pitching coach, Jim Kaat had breakfast with his old manager Whitey Herzog. Told him the Reds were looking to get rid of Cesar Cedeno and that Herzog should try to pick him up for the Cardinals, that he still had something left. Herzog listened and Cedeno had a monster September (batted .434 in 28 games) that may very well have been the difference between the Cardinals and Mets down the stretch, the Cardinals winning by 3 games.

I hate Jim Kaat for that.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I don't think Silver Slugger is based on rep. I think they more or less judge it honorably, because the numbers are there screaming, "Kent had a crap year!" Few coaches know what numbers to trust in fielding, there's certainly no consensus on what numbers are meaningful, and they certainly haven't seen the whole league equally over a long period of time.

There'd be biases among the scouts, but they'd certainly go further in cancelling each other out than coaches.

[stevejrogers]

BTW, to further that point, you can make the case that the voting is probably done much like an All Star Game ballot. David Ortiz is listed as a Red Sox INF, so Palmeriod must have been listed as a Ranger INF and voters must have said "Hmmm, I don't remember him playing 1B against us, well he must have played more than a few games at 1st"

There is no listing for DH's on official team rosters and generally they are ex-OFers and ex-corner INFers. Of course MLB WANTED Ortiz to have a shot of being in the ASG as a starter but thats another story, but the bottom line is that Ortiz, the 2006 AL starting 1Bman played a total of 10 games at First (probably all road interleague games) at first this season

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

G-Fafif wrote: In 1985, while serving as Reds' pitching coach, Jim Kaat had breakfast with his old manager Whitey Herzog. Told him the Reds were looking to get rid of Cesar Cedeno and that Herzog should try to pick him up for the Cardinals, that he still had something left. Herzog listened and Cedeno had a monster September (batted .434 in 28 games) that may very well have been the difference between the Cardinals and Mets down the stretch, the Cardinals winning by 3 games. I hate Jim Kaat for that.

I never knew that Kaat was involved -- but I always hated Cesar Cedeno for being good, and I never had anything against him until then.

[Guest cooby]

According to that article, which I can see now, he played for the Phillies, maybe that is why I can picture the Phllies announcers calling him Kitty Cat

[stevejrogers]

With the rain out today, I wonder if he'll be persuaded to stave off retirement for one more day?

[Frayed Knot]

Well the day part of the D/N DH is a network game so he's def not working that one. I suspect he won't work the night game either. He's said he wanted to go out with little or no fanfare so disappearing like this would be just perfect. He may already be on a plane home.

Mushnick had a nice piece on him in Friday's NYPost.
Kaat was always one of my pavorites. He deserved a bigger audience but I'm sure the likes of ESPN probably thought he was too old, not a glamorous enough name, and not loud or "gimmicky" enough.

[seawolf17]

Interesting trivia question in Jim Caple's column today:

Q: If Ted Williams were still alive, he could walk up to an active player and say, "I got two hits off that guy one game. How did you do when you faced him?'' To which active player would he be talking and to which pitcher would he be referring?

A: The active player, naturally, is Julio Franco. And the pitcher would be Jim Kaat. Williams batted against Kaat the final day of the 1959 season and had two hits against him. Kaat walked Franco in 1982 when Julio was a rookie. In other words, there still is an active player who faced a guy who faced Ted. Is that a great bit of trivia or what?

[Valadius]

That's incredible!!