In 2025, Jim Kaat was interviewed by Jon Paul Morosi for the Baseball Hall of Fame podcast “The Road to Cooperstown.”
Here are excerpts:
Being enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame:
Kaat: “I’m probably the only pitcher inducted based on longevity, dependability, accountability (rather than) dominance … There are a lot of guys who are there because they’re thoroughbreds, but there’s room for a Clydesdale as well.”
The secret to pitching 25 years (1959-83) in the big leagues:
Kaat: “I didn’t play Little League baseball. I didn’t really pitch organized baseball until I was about 15 _ American Legion ball in Michigan. Before that, we just had neighborhood kids, you’d get eight, 10 kids together, and go out and play … My sports were fast-pitch softball and bowling. Little did I know that those two exercises are great for the pitching arm … because your arm is going underhanded. I didn’t abuse my arm. Lucas Giolito (2019 all-star) threw 90 mph when he was 14 years old. He’s probably suffered through some injuries because of that. I probably threw 90 in my early 20s. There wasn’t an emphasis on velocity. It was movement and control.”
On youth baseball today:
Kaat: “It’s become so competitive. There is so much pressure on these young kids that I think a lot of times, by the time they’re 16, they’re probably burned out. A lot of it is the coaches and the parents … When I see the parents nowadays, they’re hanging on the fence, screaming at their kids, ‘Get the ball over.’ They’re paying big money to send these kids to these schools. They’ve taken the fun out of it. I never had to go through that. I think that’s a big reason I was able to pitch for a long time.”
On his father, John Kaat:
Kaat: “I have a picture on my desk of my dad standing in front of the Hall of Fame in 1947. He went to see Lefty Grove’s induction. That was his favorite player. He was an avid fan.”
On what he might have done if he didn’t become a big-league pitcher:
Kaat: “I’d have loved to have been a small-town high school basketball coach. You’d have a lot of influence on kids.”
On Twins teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew:
Kaat: “Harmon kind of set the tone for the behavior of the Twins … If you look at his penmanship, it’s the most immaculate, perfect, and he taught all the Twins players … He insisted, ‘Don’t you want to write your name so people know who you are?’ (Today) the Twins’ top-paid player, Carlos Correa, (signs) C.C. You don’t even know who it is.”
On Twins teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Rod Carew:
Kaat: “He took batting practice with us the end of 1966 and he was hitting some home runs. Then I think he found out that we didn’t care about exit velocity or launch angle … He was a magician with the bat. He changed his stance pitch to pitch. He moved all over the place. He got about some 30 bunt hits a year.”
On Twins teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Tony Oliva:
Kaat: “American League catchers in those days … would say the one guy we feared coming up in a clutch situation was Tony O. because Tony was that blend of power, average and speed.”
On Sandy Koufax, the Dodgers starter who opposed Kaat in Games 2, 5 and 7 of the 1965 World Series (Koufax won two of the three):
Kaat: “Happy to say he became a friend. He’s one of the (congratulatory) calls I got when I (was elected to) the Hall of Fame. We’ve stayed in touch. We’ve had some dinners together through (ex-Cardinal) Bill White, who was my broadcast mentor. He and Sandy live close to one another in the summer in Pennsylvania. I cross paths with Sandy a fair amount.”
On White Sox teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Dick Allen, who came up to the majors with the Phillies:
Kaat: “Had he been brought up in the Cardinals organization, where they had more black players, (Lou) Brock and (Curt) Flood, (Bob) Gibson, Bill White … it would have been easier for him … Dick suffered a lot in Philadelphia … It was tough for him as a black star in Philadelphia.”
On pitching for the Phillies (1976-79):
Kaat: “The end of my time in Philadelphia in 1979, I wasn’t pitching much. Danny Ozark was not a manager that had much confidence in guys who didn’t throw hard. I used to tell him, ‘Danny, Walter Johnson’s not around anymore.’ ”
On pitching in 62 games for the 1982 Cardinals at age 43 and being a part of a World Series championship team:
Kaat: “That was the most exciting team … The most enjoyable year I ever had … We hit 67 home runs as a team, stole 200 bases, had Bruce Sutter at the end of the games … To see that team play every day and the havoc it created for the opposition … Willie McGee would get on first. Boom! He’s on third … That was such a rush for me, waiting that long and to be a part of a team that … was totally foreign to the way the game is played today … Baseball came from the words base to base, and that’s what we did … That was the kind of baseball I was raised on.”
On what he told rookie pitcher John Stuper, who, with the Cardinals on the brink of elimination, pitched a four-hitter to beat Don Sutton and the Brewers in World Series Game 6:
Kaat: “I was kind of like a mentor to Stuper. I sat with him on the plane (after Game 5). I said, ‘Stupe, nobody expects you to win tomorrow. We’re facing Don Sutton. He’s going to the Hall of Fame. (Pretend) it’s a 10 o’clock in the morning exhibition game. Have some fun out there. Don’t worry about it.’ ”
On Cardinals teammate Keith Hernandez:
Kaat: “I don’t think there was ever a player I played with that was more intense on every play of the game … He kind of personified our team in that every play, every day, there was an intensity that’s hard to have over 162 games.”
On what he’s most proud of in his broadcasting career:
Kaat: “I learned from Tim McCarver to be honest and objective … Not being a homer.”
RetroSimba 
Where to begin? What an amazing read about such a thoughtful human being. His answers helped me better understand why I’ve lost interest in today’s game – the obsession over exit velocity and homeruns what not and the kind of team that the Brewers were this year – gritty and always thinking station to station, 90 feet at a time. I’m glad he mentioned 1982 Series and how loved being on that Cardinals team. Me too as a fan. Had to be the most exciting Brewers team though they didn’t bunt much, relying heavily on the homerun so I guess i’ll have to make that my one year exception. I don’t understand why so many players can’t bunt and why so many teams don’t use it as a strategy. It was the first thing we learned when we stepped in for batting practice.
Jim Kaat practiced what he preached regarding baseball fundamentals. From 1962-77, he won 16 Gold Glove awards for fielding excellence _ 14 in the American League and two in the National League.
In his autobiography, “Still Pitching,” Kaat said, “Shortstop Luis Aparicio once paid me a nice compliment. Looie was a great bunter and he told Cesar Tovar (Kaat’s Twins teammate) that I was the only pitcher he wouldn’t bunt against.”
Wow, that’s some kind of praise by Aparicio. I love the strategy involved in bunting and I especially love it when a batter looks at the whole infield, where each defender is standing like a stare down and like the batter knows he can hit it in the holes or make an out trying to.
One of my favorite pitchers ever, Mark. I heard of this interview when it was mentioned on MLB Network but forgot to dial it up. Nice to see it featured here. Always enjoyed his analyst work as well.
In his 2003 autobiography, “Still Pitching,” Jim Kaat said, “After 17 years in the major leagues, I finally made it to the city of my father’s favorite team, Philadelphia. It wasn’t the Athletics, but it was close enough. I enjoyed my time in Philly … We had a good team and a good group of guys … While my time with the Phillies was good personally, it was a disappointment professionally … I was not one of (manager Danny) Ozark’s favorites.”
Two anecdotes from Kaat on his Phillies days:
_ “To try to keep sharp, I’d get up every night in the bullpen with Bob Tiefenauer, our bullpen coach, looking on, and I’d throw to Dave Rader, our backup catcher. I’d pitch a simulated game … That was the only time I could get any work to try to stay sharp.”
_ “We had a bridge club in Philadelphia _ Tim McCarver, Jim Lonborg, Mike Schmidt, Garry Maddox, Davey Johnson and me. We kept a record of the points. Schmidty was always behind. If he was minus-350 points, he’d have to put $350 in the pot and we’d all go out and have dinner. That’s what we did on my last night as a Phillie.”
Another reason why the HOF is a joke. The guy had 2 great seasons and was average basically his whole career. He hung around well into his 40’s trying to get 300 wins and was absolutely awful.
Great guy. Great interview. Not a HOfer.
In his 2003 autobiography, which Jim Kaat autographed for me when I went to see him speak for free at a local public library, he said, “It’s not false modesty when I say I don’t think of myself as a Hall of Famer, which I believe should be reserved for the all-time greats. I consider myself an all-time survivor and an above-average performer, but not an all-time great … I didn’t play this game to get into the Hall of Fame. I played it because I had a passion for the game and a love to compete.”
Thank you Mark for posting this. Not only did I enjoy reading what Jim Katt said in this interview, but I couldn’t agree more with his opinions on pitching and the state of today’s game. Let me first say that yes, it would be foolish to place Jim Katt on the same level as a Bob Gibson or a Greg Maddux. But come on. He wouldn’t have played 23 years unless he was doing something right. In today’s game pitching is all about throwing heat. Well, it should be about control, movement and the ability to throw various pitches. I really love what he said about Rod Carew when he first came up. I can’t resist mentioning that in games 4,6 and 7 of the recent World Series the Toronto Blue Jays stranded 41 base runners and went 6 for 38 with risp. My goodness, had they layed down a couple of bunts they would have won the World Series. Whatever advice he gave to John Stupor was magic. Not only did he pitch a great game but if you add on the rain delay John Stupor was out there for 5 hours. I was looking at how Jim Katt fared against various batters. And while it’s true that some hitters got the best of him he also made a few of them look like minor league players. In particular, Reggie Jackson who batted only .137 against Jim Katt.
Your comments cover quite a fascinating gamut of topics, Phillip.
I agree with you about the 2025 Blue Jays. They are World Series champions if they play fundamental baseball rather than sit back and wait for a home run. In addition to what you noted about them, just look at the scoring chances they wasted in Game 7:
_ 6th inning, runner on second, no outs, didn’t score.
_ 8th inning, runner on second, no outs, didn’t score.
_ 9th inning, bases loaded, one out, didn’t score.
_ 11th inning, runner on second, no outs, didn’t score.
That’s crap baseball. The Miguel Rojas solo home run in the ninth for the Dodgers doesn’t matter if the Blue Jays had known how to advance runners in scoring position. Yuck!
In his autobiography, Jim Kaat praises Rod Carew throughout the book, but Kaat also said that Carew “wasn’t as good defensively as Tommy Herr, whom I played with in St. Louis and was an excellent second baseman … good on the double play, a real solid player.”
Another note on Carew and what he did that you rarely see any more: In 1969, when the aggressive Billy Martin managed the Twins, Carew stole home seven times in nine attempts.
Thanks for the stat on how the smart pitching of Jim Kaat stymied Reggie Jackson throughout his career. In his autobiography, Kaat said, “The first time I faced Reggie, I ran a fastball under his hands. He put his hands up to protect himself, and the ball hit the knob of the bat. I struck him out with a curve and I told my catcher, Earl Battey, we had to remember that. That’s what you want to find out with a young hitter, if you can push him off the plate and then throw a pitch on the outside corner. From a personal standpoint, I used my first few encounters with Reggie to my advantage. I’d buzz Jackson inside, then I’d go away with a breaking ball and it frustrated him. One time, he even tried to bunt on me in a tie game. He hit a few home runs off me, but I don’t remember any that really hurt me.”
Seemed like in quite a few of those scoring chances, Toronto hitters were ahead (2-0) on the count. Third pitch: big swing.
Yep. Needing one win at home to become World Series champions, the Blue Jays were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position in Game 6 and lost, 3-1, and 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position in Game 7 and lost, 5-4. In Game 7, the Blue Jays had 14 hits, drew four walks and had two batters plunked by pitches, but stranded 14 runners. Of their four runs, three came on a home run.
Totally agree that the direction children’s sports had taken is a direct path to burnout. I have a son who, as a child growing up played just about every organized sport. The one sport he didn’t play on an organized level was hockey. We lived on a lake and he would send his winter days on the ice playing with friends. No coaches, no standings, no travel teams no tournaments. By the time he was 25 he was only playing one sport and I think you know which one it was.
Thanks for sharing those personal insights, Ken. I am delighted that your son grew up skating on a neighborhood lake. The ability to skate is a gift and I hope it continues to bring him a lifetime of peace, satisfaction and happiness on the ice.