(Updated April 30, 2020)
At 41, Jim Kaat was an unlikely candidate to be a savior for the Cardinals’ pitching staff in 1980.
Desperate for pitching, the Cardinals bought Kaat’s contract from the Yankees on April 30, 1980.
Before the Cardinals called, Kaat looked to be finished as a player. The Yankees were ready to cut him loose after he posted an 0-1 record and 7.20 ERA in four relief stints for them in 1980.
“I was auditioning for a broadcasting job, cutting a demonstration tape,” Kaat told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Fine fit
The Cardinals were willing to take a chance on Kaat because their bullpen was in tatters. In the Cardinals’ first 17 games, their relievers were 0-5 with a 7.46 ERA. Of the Cardinals’ first 10 defeats, four came in their opponents’ last at-bat and six occurred in the seventh inning or later.
“We want somebody who can put the lid on,” Cardinals manager Ken Boyer told the Post-Dispatch. “Kaat has always had good stuff and he’s a great competitor.”
Said Cardinals pitching coach Claude Osteen: “Age doesn’t apply to Kaat. He’s probably as quick around the mound as anybody in baseball. He has the body of a younger man, certainly not someone in his 40s.”
Kaat told the Post-Dispatch, “I stay in shape. I’ve always treated baseball as a year-round job. With all the weight machines and exercise facilities available to them, there is no reason for baseball players to be out of shape.”
Old reliable
Kaat made an immediate impact with the Cardinals, pitching scoreless relief in his first three appearances, retiring 14 batters in a row and lifting the club’s confidence.
The left-hander made his Cardinals debut on the day he was acquired. Relieving starter Pete Vuckovich with one out in the eighth on April 30, 1980, against the Cubs at St. Louis, Kaat retired five Cubs on eight pitches. Using a slider and curve, he struck out Larry Biittner and got the other four on groundouts. Boxscore
“Kaat comes in and gets five outs in his first game,” Cardinals catcher Ted Simmons said to The Sporting News. “That is reassuring and that can carry over.”
It was Kaat’s first appearance since allowing three runs in one inning to the White Sox two weeks earlier with the Yankees.
“When I keep the ball low and have it sink, when batters are hitting the ball on the ground, I know I’m pitching my way,” Kaat told the Post-Dispatch.
Getting it done
With his starting rotation in disarray because of injuries to Bob Forsch, John Fulgham and Silvio Martinez, Boyer turned to Kaat to help fill the void.
“I still think I’m best as a starter,” Kaat said to the Post-Dispatch.
On June 4, 1980, at New York, Kaat pitched a 10-inning shutout, limiting the Mets to seven singles, in the Cardinals’ 1-0 victory. Ken Reitz hit a home run off Neil Allen in the 10th, giving Kaat his first win as a Cardinal. Boxscore
Under the headline “Stubborn Dutchman Jim Kaat Is Up There With Immortals,” columnist Furman Bisher wrote in The Sporting News, “On the day he was 41 years, six months and 27 days old, Kaat pitched 10 shutout innings and beat the Mets, and he still looked at the end as if he could have pitched until dawn.”
The shutout was the 31st and last of Kaat’s big-league career, but it wasn’t his last impressive performance for the Cardinals.
Four days after Kaat’s shutout, the Cardinals fired Boyer and replaced him with Whitey Herzog. In Herzog’s first game, Kaat started, gave up two earned runs in 6.2 innings against the Braves and St. Louis won, 8-5, in 10 innings. Boxscore
On June 23, 1980, Kaat pitched a seven-hitter in the Cardinals’ 6-1 victory against the Pirates. It was Kaat’s 266th career win, tying him with Bob Feller. Kaat also had a stolen base. Boxscore
“Jim Kaat is doing everything but stitching up the baseballs,” wrote columnist Bill Conlin.
Kaat pitched in 49 games, including 14 starts, for the 1980 Cardinals and had an 8-7 record and 3.82 ERA.
Kaat became a key setup reliever for closer Bruce Sutter in the Cardinals’ 1982 World Series championship season. In four seasons with the Cardinals, Kaat was 19-16 with 10 saves and a 3.82 ERA.
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[…] Comments « Jim Kaat revived both his career and the Cardinals […]
John Fulgham and Andy Rincon: two Cardinal “what if” careers from that era.
Yep, both were productive until injuries derailed their careers. John Fulgham was 10-6 with a 2.53 ERA as a Cardinals rookie in 1979. A rotator cuff injury was too much to overcome. Andy Rincon was 3-1 (2.61 ERA) in 4 starts for the 1980 Cardinals and 3-1 (1.77 ERA) in 4 starts for the 1981 Cardinals. A line drive by Phil Garner fractured Rincon’s throwing arm and he wasn’t the same after that. In 1982, the year the Cardinals won a World Series title, Rincon was in their starting rotation early in the season and outdueled Ferguson Jenkins of the Cubs in a 3-1 win on April 14, but he hit the skids after that and was sent to the minors in late May.