James Lee Kaat (/kɒt/; born November 7, 1938), nicknamed "Kitty", is an American former professional baseball player and television sports commentator.

He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a left-handed pitcher for the Washington Senators / Minnesota Twins (1959–1973), Chicago White Sox (1973–1975), Philadelphia Phillies (1976–1979), New York Yankees (1979–1980), and St. Louis Cardinals (1980–1983).

Kaat won 190 games with the Senators/Twins (winning all but one with the latter), second most in club history and most since the team moved to Minnesota; he also has the most Gold Glove Awards of any Twin with 12.

[1] After a brief stint as a pitching coach for the Cincinnati Reds, Kaat became a sportscaster and for the next 22 years called games for the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins.

[2] Kaat was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Golden Days Era Committee as a part of the class of 2022.

[5][6] Kaat attended Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and pitched for the school's Flying Dutchmen baseball team, before being signed by the Washington Senators as an amateur free agent in 1957.

He had been traded with Mike Buskey from the Chicago White Sox to the Phillies for Dick Ruthven, Alan Bannister and Roy Thomas on December 10, 1975.

Kaat also set a 20th-century record by playing during the administrations of seven U.S. Presidents — Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jr., Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan.

[6] Upon retirement as a player, Kaat served a short stint with the Cincinnati Reds as the club's pitching coach.

When Pete Rose took over in 1984 as the Reds' player/manager, he made good on a promise to Kaat, his former Philadelphia Phillies teammate, and hired the former hurler for his coaching staff.

[14] Kaat's role is "to help assist Twins president Dave St. Peter in business, marketing and community initiatives".

[16] He has written a best-selling book, Still Pitching, and has started a sports management company, Southpaw Enterprises, Inc., solely representing pitchers.

Following his stint as pitching coach, he went into sports broadcasting full-time starting out as the chief baseball correspondent for Good Morning America from 1984–85.

[24] He only lasted one season as the Yankees replaced him with Billy Martin, who was between managing stints and who was purposely brought in to second-guess Lou Piniella.

[26] As a result, Johnny Bench had to come over from the CBS Radio booth and finish the game with Dick Stockton as a "relief analyst".

In 1993, he filled in for Lesley Visser until late August as CBS' primary field reporter after she suffered injuries in a bizarre jogging accident in New York City's Central Park.

In addition, he was on the team which won the "Outstanding Live Sports Coverage – Single Program" New York Emmy for covering Dwight Gooden's no-hitter on May 14, 1996 and David Wells's perfect game on May 17, 1998.

However, the following day, Kaat did announce one full inning of the first game of Saturday September 16's doubleheader on Fox along with Tim McCarver and Josh Lewin.

During Game 2, he attempted to make a joke, saying that the team should "get a 40-acre field full of them" in reference to White Sox third baseman Yoán Moncada, who is Cuban.

[34] The next day, Cortés tweeted about Kaat, "He reached out to me and apologized for his remark last night, but he didn't need to.

"[35] After a four decade broadcasting career, Kaat announced his retirement on August 18, 2022 effective after that day's Yankees-Blue Jays game.

Kaat created a memorial fund in her name to put lights on the baseball fields in his hometown of Zeeland, Michigan, in her honor.