Holy Cow! Former Missoula Timberjack Jim Kaat Reaches Baseball Hall of Fame

Hours after his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame was announced Sunday, Jim Kaat wrote to let me know he's hoping to get his old Missoula manager, Jack McKeon, at the ceremony in July.

What a proud, proud moment for Zootown professional baseball.

Long before Kaat earned legendary status as a Minnesota Twins pitcher, he was a teen sensation for the Missoula Timberjacks. Not an instant sensation, mind you. He was humbled at first, learning lessons the hard way in the spring of 1958.

When Kaat first turned pro, his father steered him to Missoula and a $4,000 contract instead of signing with the Chicago White Sox for a bonus-baby deal of $25,000. His dad believed playing right away in Class C ball was far better than rotting on the bench for a couple years at a higher level.

"Missoula was so pivotal in my career," Kaat told me last year from his home in Florida. "I wasn't pitching very well when I started out that year and my record was like 1-4. I thought, 'Man, this is Class C ball. If I don't start picking it up, I'm going to get sent home.'

"Our manager, Jack McKeon, called me in and said, 'Kid, you're going to go to the big leagues. You're going to pitch every four days. Don't you worry about a thing.' He really put me in the right frame of mind. He was such a good influence. I ended up leading the league in everything for pitching, wins, strikeouts, the whole deal."

Kaat, a three-time all-star who pitched 25 years in the majors and is also member of the Twins Hall of Fame, believes he also honed his toughness in the Pioneer League. He learned the hard way what it was like to pitch a nine-inning game and then throw a few innings of relief two days later.

"We called our bus the Iron Lung, but I wouldn't trade those days for anything," he joked. "Kids today, I don't know if they could take that because the buses guys ride now are like luxury liners.

"We'd be driving through the mountains and all of a sudden we'd get a rock slide. You had to wait for a highway department guy to come by. We'd get the gloves and ball out of the bottom of the bus and start playing catch right out there in the road in the middle of the mountains. When you're 19 years old, you think, this is great."

Back when Kaat was a Timberjack, the season started in April and lasted 125 games. He remembers one white-knuckle road trip in particular when the bus driver had to negotiate a scary snowstorm near Red Lodge en route to playing the Mustangs in Billings.

It's funny what the brain retains. The 83-year-old Kaat, who said recently he never thought he'd reach the Hall of Fame, pitched in Game 7 of the 1965 World Series against Sandy Koufax. He won a World Series ring in 1982 as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. He enjoyed a successful broadcasting career after his playing days.

Yet his memories of Missoula are vivid. Meeting at The Turf cafe before all-night road trips, Stockman's pizza and Double Front chicken, earning coupons for Dairy Queen cones by striking out hitters ...

Then there was that day when Kaat, who loved to go canoeing with teammates near Kalispell, was made "an honorary member of the Flathead Indian Tribe because I was up there so much." Not to mention all those memories pitching in the shadow of Mount Sentinel at rickety Campbell Park.

"From the clubhouse we'd come up through a trap door right behind home plate, like coming out of a cellar, and they'd play that song," he marveled. "You knew all the words to that song. Every time I see Bob Eucker, who played for Boise, he starts singing, "Hurry Back Timberjack." He knows all the words."

Kaat's fond memories of Missoula whet my appetite for another summer of pro baseball at good ol' Ogren-Allegiance Park. What a wonderful 2021 we enjoyed, with manager Michael Schlact leading the PaddleHeads to a Pioneer League championship.

I've dealt with a lot of hall of famers in my journalism career, from Lou Brock and Tony La Russa to Brett Favre, Mike Ditka and Tony Dungy. Kaat and Dungy might be my favorites, for reasons that have less to do with sports and more to do with kindness and class.

Congratulations, Jim. Missoula is proud of you.