On the blog today, my pick for the American League's left-handed pitcher of the 1960s, and I went with Minnesota Twins ace Jim Kaat:
You may be surprised by my pick of Kaat as the American League's
lefty of the decade. But really, as far as a FULL decade goes, he didn't
have much stiff competition. Whitey Ford is the guy who jumps into
everyone's mind, but he really had half a decade
before his career went South.
As for Kaat, all the guy did was win eight Gold Glove awards, a
pennant in 1965 with the Twins, post 142 wins and have five seasons of
15 or more wins, with a high of 25 in 1966, a year he easily would have
won the Cy Young had there been one selected
for each league at the time.
In the case of the American League, it really was about consistency
in this case over anyone with dominant numbers, there just weren't any.
Kaat ended up with a very nice career, moving into the bullpen after a lengthy 20 years as a starter in 1979.
He ended up pitching effectively another five years out of the pen
before retiring after the 1983 season with the Cardinals, finishing up
with 283 wins, 31 shutouts and 2461 strikeouts in 898 games, 625 of them
starting.
He also famously won 16 Gold Gloves total in his career, something only Greg Maddux can relate to (with 18 such awards).
One of my favorite baseball-figures, as a player, a coach, and a broadcaster. The man is a true baseball lifer.
