Evening star., 1960-06-01
THE BASEBALL
BEA T
BY BURTON HAWKINS
Cotchers' Like Koot
BY BURTON HAWKINS

BOSTON, JUNE l-Bill Dickey whose gray head con-
tains much baseball wisdom perched stool inside his
spacious opentront locker in the Yankees clubhouse
drew deeply cigarette The former great catcher,
who handled batted against of the games superb
pitchers exhaled and said, Jim Kaat is major league
pitcher right now. I like him"
There are who believe the 21-year-old Kaat
should be pitching in the minors Not Dckey THE kid
has all the physical equipment Dckey said A he needs
Is experience He get the experience pitching in the
majors, and he get confidence with it.
His motion is terrific" Dickey continued "and his
fast ball jumps in righhanded htters. You have to
like the boy don't know that he reminds of anybody
caught hit against but he's going to be wonderful
The sentiments expressed by Ralph Houk,
another excacher who is heir apparent to Yankees
managerial job. Eston Howard, current catcher said,
"Hs fast ball is rough righthanded hitter 1t fools
you The ball leaps right in on your wrists"
ID
KAAT WAS BEATEN by the Yankees Saturday night,
but he earned their respect He banked them for hve
innings then came apart at the seams when Mickey
Mantle cracked mighty home Three walks, triple
by Gil McDougald and couple OF hit batsmen followed
before Kaat famed Mantle the who started it ALL
Four had cascaded the plate and it seemed
that the young efhander being asked to take cruel
punishment. Kaats composure lad vanished with Man
ties blast, but Manager Cookie Lavagetto summoned no
help from the bupen. . ..> - --.~E
This is Kaat'S year of experience" Lavagetto ex-
planned later Il have two choices Do Try to save the
game or do try to make pitcher out OF Kaat? Well
figure right it's important to make pltcher
of Kaat left him in there because wanted to see
him work himself out of trouble He has to learn to do It,
THE kid is going to be all right" Cookie continued
"He could overnight Suppose get him five or six
couple of times in row? We haven't been scoring
for him. but if get him and he wins couple
he'll get the confidence he needs"
KAAT, WHO HAS IA record is getting nothing but
announcement It's not unusual to see Cookie wrap an
arm around Jis shoulder in friendly fatherly manner
and attempt to the pressure boy OF limited ex-
perience but of magnificent potential.
Il tell him to think positively" Cookie Said II ne
thinks about bases balls he'll walk 10 in row. He has
been intent on trying to do job all by himself for
getting that there players behind him. Right now
feel that it's disgrace to lose because ne IL
be learning when he loses want him to relax to
take things in stride.
"JIM is IN THE PROCESS of learning his trade Df-
ferent things develop in every He has to adjust to
them and he will We're not going to win the pennant but
if bring along this year thefuure will be
lot brighter What he's going through is necessary for his
development" ~
And what did Kaat learn from his experience with
Mantle the other night? He nice and loose before
Mantle Jared him. After that Kaat said tried to
overpower the hitters and lost my rhythm"
His next time out it might be something else but
eventually the crewcut redhead will be a sparkler-or
many aStute baseball men will be wrong
Sooner later Cookie said "the pieces will At to-
gether When 1t happens we'll have something special in
Kaat" :.