Twins players Jim Kaat and Tony Oliva, who it was announced over the weekend have been voted into baseball's Hall of Fame, possess opposing claims to the honor. Kaat was on a level below such contemporaries as Koufax, Drysdale, Gibson, and Seaver, but he was a reliable, top-line pitcher for most of his 25 big league seasons, finishing with a 3.45 career ERA, 283 wins, and 4530 innings pitched. The innings-pitched figure places him 25th on the all-time list. The players who pitched more innings than Kaat are all either already in the Hall (20 of the 24), or from a different era (pre-WW II), or tainted by steroids (Roger Clemens), or named “Tommy John.” Knee injuries shortened Tony-O's career and kept him from compiling eye-popping numbers on his bottom line at BaseballReference. The bookends of his productive career are the 1964 and 1971 seasons. He was a rookie in '64, and I'm not sure any rookie has ever had a better year: he led the American League in batting average (.323), doubles (43), total bases (374), hits (217), and runs scored (109). Of course he was Rookie of the Year. The question is why he wasn't the league MVP (he placed fourth, behind Brooks Robinson and two Yankees, Mickey Mantle and Elston Howard). In 1971, his batting average (.337) and slugging percentage (.546) both led the league. The next year, 1972, he required season-ending surgery after playing in just ten games, and he was never the same after that. But during those eight brilliant seasons, he led the league in hits five times, in doubles four times, and in batting average three times.
Back to Kaat. Scanning his career numbers at BaseballReference, I'm surprised by a few things. For one, I was under the impression that his career was in eclipse when the Twins traded him to the White Sox during the 1973 season. Au contraire! He won 21 games for the White Sox in 1974, and 20 more in 1975. He had won 25 games for the Twins in 1966, and at the time his 20-win season in 1974 set a mark for most seasons between 20-win seasons (with none in the intervening years). This record was subsequently broken by David Cone, who won 20 games for the first time in 1988 and then not again till 1998. It's a quirky little stat but indicative of Kaat's effectiveness over a long period. I'd also forgotten that back in the mists of yesteryear there was only one Cy Young winner each season, a fact that prevented Kaat from claiming the award in 1966, when he finished second to National Leaguer Sandy Koufax. He might have had another chance in 1972, when through the first half of the season he sported a 10-2 record with five complete games and a 2.06 ERA. Then, in a July 2 game in Chicago, his season ended when he broke a bone in his pitching hand while sliding. It's not surprising that Kaat was on base. When he wasn't pitching the Twins often used him as a pinch-hitter, and in fact he was 13-for-45, a .289 average, when his 1972 season abruptly ended.
Oh, yes, Kaat also won the Gold Glove Award an astounding sixteen times.
There will be six new inductees this summer, and Kaat and Oliva, both 83, are the only two still alive. On hearing the news, Kaat said, "This is truly a gift. I truly never thought this day would come. But the added happiness I have is I get to share it with my teammate Tony Oliva, who I have known for so long since he came up as a kid and developed into a Gold Glove outfielder. For us Minnesota Twins, it's going to be a great summer." Another thing I'd forgotten!—Tony O earned a Gold Glove for his outfield play in 1966. He also batted .307 that season, with 25 homers, 32 doubles, 87 RBI, and 99 runs scored, but leave it to a pitcher to hone in on his fielding.
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