Kaat’s Play

Jim Kaat with his left- and right-handed drivers. Photo: Margie Kaat

Jim Kaat calls from his hotel room at the Westchester Country Club early on a Thursday morning. He is pleased with Matt Fitzpatrick’s U.S. Open victory. “He makes 12 major champions I’ve played with,” Kaat says, and names most of the others on the list: Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Raymond Floyd, Jeff Sluman, Paul Azinger, Ian Baker-Finch, Orville Moody, Charles Coody and Greg Norman.

Baseball is where Kaat (pronounced “cot”) made, and continues to make, his mark. But golf is a big part of his life, too. A round of golf will follow the interview. In the afternoon, he will ride to Yankee Stadium where he and longtime partner Bob Costas will call the evening’s Yankees-Astros game for the MLB Network Showcase. A ceremony will precede the game where Kaat will receive a lifetime achievement award from the Yankees, for whom he was a longtime television analyst (he also pitched...