Jim Kaat won 283 games in his major league career, won 25 games in 1966, won 20 games in 1974 and 1975, but he isn’t in the Hall of Fame in large part because he wasn’t perceived as a big game pitcher. In fact, his record in Big Games is great. He made 53 Big Game starts in his career—more than Jack Morris—and was 27-15 in those games, 2.84 ERA. He just missed making my list of the ten best Big Game pitchers of the last 60 years.
Let me run some of those down for you. . .sorry to take the time out of your day if you don’t care about this, but
a) Kaat is a viable Hall of Fame candidate,
b) He deserves to have his credentials aired,
c) It is an important issue in that case, whether he was or wasn’t a Big Game pitcher, and
d) If I don’t spell out the facts, people will ignore and dismiss my contention that his Big Game record is outstanding.
In 1962 the Twins were in a pennant race for the first time ever. The Twins until 1959 were the Washington Senators, and they had been among the worst teams in the American League for a quarter of a century. Kaat had made his major league debut with the Senators in 1959. In 1961 they moved to Minnesota, but still lost 91 games. In 1962, with a young team, they were in the pennant race for the first time.
August 28, 1962, the Twins are three and a half games out of first place, facing the White Sox (also in the race) in Chicago. Kaat pitches a shutout, 2-0.
September 2, 1962 (his next start); the Twins are in second place, four games out. Kaat faces the Red Sox in Fenway Park—and beats them 5-2, complete game.
September 7, 1962 (the next start). The Twins have closed to three games back of the Yankees. Kaat pitches another complete-game victory, beating Detroit 6-4 to keep pace with the Yankees.
September 15, 1962. The Twins are now four games behind with 12 to play, still alive but needing to win. Kaat beats Cleveland with a complete-game six-hitter. Unfortunately, the Twins lose five of the next seven (including a loss by Kaat), and drop out of race, but Kaat’s 18 wins on the season include four big wins in the closing weeks of the season.
August 26, 1965. The Twins, after struggling for a couple of years to consolidate the breakthrough of 1962, are trying to win their first pennant in Minneapolis, the franchise’s first pennant since 1933. The White Sox and Tigers are their closest pursuers. August 26, Kaat beats the Yankees, 9-2, pitching a complete game.
August 30, 1965, Kaat starts against the Tigers, and Twins win 3-2 in 11 innings (bullpen getting credit for the win.)
September 3, 1965, the Twins are still in first place, the White Sox in second. The White Sox are in Minnesota to begin a crucial three-game series. Kaat starts the first game, and beats the White Sox 6-4. The White Sox win the other two games of the series, beating Mudcat Grant and Jim Perry, but Kaat’s victory in the opener limits the damage.
On September 9, 1965 (Kaat’s next start. . .he has been held out of the last game of a series against Kansas City so he can start against the White Sox.) The Twins still in first place, the White Sox still in second. The Twins go to Comiskey. Kaat beats them again.
September 14, 1965. Kaat wins again, beating the A’s to effectively end the 1965 pennant race. The Twins win their first American League pennant, Kaat winning five straight starts in late August/early September, three of the five against the Twins closest competitors.
August 27, 1966. The Twins (67-61) are trying to hang in the race against the Orioles. Kaat pitches a 3-hit shutout against the White Sox.
August 31, 1966; Kaat beats the Red Sox, 11-2, with another complete game victory.
September 4, 1966. Kaat beats the Yankees, 9-2, ten strikeouts, another complete game victory. It isn’t enough; the Orioles continue to win almost every game, and the race is over by early September despite Kaat’s 25-win season, leading the American league in starts, complete games, innings pitched and wins. But in Kaat’s three biggest games of the 1966 season, he pitched three complete-game victories.
September 1, 1967. A fantastic four-team race is shaping up among the Twins, Red Sox, White Sox and Tigers. On September 1 the Twins are a half-game behind the Red Sox, and all four teams are within a game and a half. Kaat has struggled most of the season. He enters September with 9 wins, 13 losses, 3.55 ERA.
September 1, Kaat goes all the way and beats the Tigers, 5-4, also hitting a double and scoring one of the Twins’ runs. He is 10-13, 3.53 ERA.
September 5, 1967. The Twins are now a half a game in front. Kaat beats Cleveland, another complete game, keeping the Red Sox a half-game ahead as the Red Sox also win. Kaat is 11-13, 3.46.
September 9, 1967. The Twins are now tied for first with the Tigers, the Red Sox a half-game behind. Kaat beats Baltimore, 3-2, a complete game 5-hitter. He is 12-13, 3.41.
September 13, 1967. The Twins and Red Sox are tied for first place, both teams 83-63 with 16 games left. Kaat strikes out 9 batters in 8 innings to beat the Senators, 3-2. He is 13-13, 3.37 ERA.
September 18, 1967. Kaat pitches a ten-inning shutout against Kansas City, striking out 12 and walking no one. He is 14-13, 3.22 ERA. The Twins move into a three-way tie for first place.
September 22, 1967. The Twins are 88-67, tied with Boston for first place with seven games to go. Kaat beats the Yankees with a complete game 7-hitter (no earned runs, two un-earned) while Boston loses, putting the Twins one game ahead with six to go. Kaat is now 15-13, 3.11.
September 26, 1967, four days later. The Red Sox had moved back into a first-place tie with the Twins, both teams at 90-68, four games to go, with two other teams still within a game and a half of the leaders. The Twins were playing the Angels, a good team, and Kaat started for the Twins. Kaat pitched a complete-game 5-hitter, striking out 13 batters to beat the Angels, 7-3. For the third time in nine days, Kaat has put the Twins back in first place. Kaat is now 16-13, 3.07 ERA.
That was the second-biggest regular season start of Kaat’s career. The biggest was the next one, September 30 at Fenway. Neither the Twins nor the Red Sox had managed to win a game in the intervening three days. The Twins were stuck at 91 wins; the Red Sox still had 90. Kaat injured his elbow and had to come out of the game in the third inning—but he was also pitching shutout baseball until he came out of the game. He ends the season at 16-13, 3.04 ERA.
The 1967 pennant race has been written about by many people—but here is what I did not know, until I took on this project. Jim Kaat in September of 1967 was as hot as Yastrzemski was. Yastrzemski in September of 1967 hit .391 with 9 homers, 24 RBI. Kaat in September of 1967 pitched 66 innings. He was 7-0, with a 1.51 ERA. He won every start except the last one, and he gave up no runs in the last one. Not too shabby.
In 1968 the Twins were never in the pennant race, and in 1969 they won the division in a walk; Kaat did not pitch any Big Games in either season, because of a late-season injury in 1969 and because the Twins didn’t play many big games in either season. (The Twins, who had played 43 Big Games in 1967, played no Big Games in 1968, and only 16 in 1969.)
Kaat didn’t appear in a Big Game again until September 10, 1970. The Twins were in first place in the division, Oakland in second. The Twins were playing Oakland in a double-header in Minnesota. Kaat started the second game, and beat the A’s with seven strong innings (two runs). That race was over not long after that, the Twins winning it by nine games.
The Twins were not competitive in 1971. In 1972 Kaat, off to a 10-2 start, broke his hand and missed the rest of the season. When the Twins failed to compete again in 1973, they hit the re-set button and traded Kaat to the White Sox.
The White Sox were on the fringes of the pennant race. On the morning of September 4, 1973 they were 12 games out, 24 to play. By the Virtual Elimination formula they had not been eliminated. The Big Game system says it is a Big Game, which I agree is a questionable call, but. . .it was September, the White Sox were alive, and they were playing a divisional opponent, the Rangers. They needed a win in the worst way. Kaat pitched a 5-hit shutout.
In his next start, September 9, he faced the Twins for the first time, and he beat them. Despite this the White Sox were unable to hang in the race, and had been virtually eliminated by the time Kaat’s turn came around again.
September 4, 1974, was an eerie echo of September 4, 1973. The White Sox were in exactly the same position they had been the year before—12 games behind, not Virtually Eliminated but in deep trouble. As he had the year before, Kaat pitched a shutout on that day, keeping the White Sox slim chances alive.
By September 8, 1974 (his next start), the White Sox had shaved a game off of their deficit, so the team was still alive. Kaat pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings, beating the Angels 1-0, and keeping the White Sox alive for one more day.
Kaat would pitch another shutout in his next start after that, and would very nearly pitch a shutout in the game after that and the game after that. Those were not Big Games, however, because the White Sox had been virtually eliminated by that time. Kaat would finish 1974 with 21 wins and would win 20 in 1975, but the White Sox were not competitive. He was traded to the Phillies. On September 26, 1978, by this time almost 40 years old and a spot starter, Kaat pitched six strong innings (four hits, one run) to beat the Expos. That was in the last week of the season. The Phillies held on to win the division by a game and a half over the Pirates. That was his last Big Win as a starting pitcher.
Kaat did lose some Big Games, of course, and he had another ten or fifteen wins in Big Games that I didn’t tell you about. But on balance, considering all of the starts, Kaat’s record in Big Games was excellent—better than Gaylord Perry’s, better than Ferguson Jenkins, better than Catfish Hunter, Nolan Ryan, better than Jim Bunning or Phil Niekro or Juan Marichal, and as good as Tom Seaver. That’s all I’m trying to say.