American baseball player (1927-1999)
Baseball player
Ray Katt
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Ray_Katt_1961.jpg/220px-Ray_Katt_1961.jpg) |
Catcher
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Born:
(
1927-05-09
)
May 9, 1927
New Braunfels, Texas
, U.S.
|
Died:
October 19, 1999
(1999-10-19)
(aged 72)
New Braunfels, Texas, U.S.
|
Batted:
Right
Threw:
Right
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|
September 16, 1952, for the New York Giants
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July 21, 1959, for the St. Louis Cardinals
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Batting average
| .232
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Home runs
| 32
|
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Runs batted in
| 120
|
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Raymond Frederick Katt
(May 9, 1927 ? October 19, 1999) was an American professional
baseball
player and
coach
. He played as a
catcher
in
Major League Baseball
during the 1950s, and later became the longtime and highly successful head baseball coach of
Texas Lutheran University
. A lifelong resident of
New Braunfels, Texas
, Katt stood 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) (183 cm) tall, weighed 200 pounds (91 kg), and threw and batted right-handed in his playing days. He attended
Texas A&M University
.
Playing career
[
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]
Katt spent his entire Major League playing career with the
New York Giants
and the
St. Louis Cardinals
, spending two separate terms with each club. Katt originally signed with the Giants and after two brief trials with them in
1952
?
53
, he became the club's semi-regular backstop during its final championship season in New York in
1954
. Playing in 86 games, he split catching duties with veteran
Wes Westrum
,
hitting
.255 with nine
home runs
and 33
runs batted in
.
That year, he set a Major League record with four
passed balls
in one inning, catching
knuckleballer
Hoyt Wilhelm
.
[1]
The record was later tied by
Gino Petralli
of the
Texas Rangers
in 1987, catching knuckleballer
Charlie Hough
, and by
Ryan Lavarnway
of the
Boston Red Sox
in 2013, catching knuckleballer
Steve Wright
in Wright's first big-league start.
[1]
Westrum took over the catching during the
1954 World Series
, won by the Giants in four consecutive games, and Katt did not appear. However, in
1955
, he became the club's regular receiver, playing in 124 games and compiling a career-high 326
at bats
, but his batting average plummeted to .215 and he spent the rest of his MLB career as a back-up.
He was first traded to the Cardinals on June 14, 1956, in a nine-player trade that included notables
Alvin Dark
and
Red Schoendienst
, and batted a creditable .259 in part-time duty for the Redbirds through the end of the 1956 season. During the winter, though, St. Louis shipped him to the
Chicago Cubs
, who in turn peddled him back to the Giants on the eve of the
1957
regular season. Katt was a member of the final New York Giants club before it transferred to
San Francisco
, batting 165 times in 72 games in 1957. He was traded back to the Cardinals in April
1958
, and closed out his active MLB career with them as a third-string catcher in 1958 and a playing coach in
1959
. In all or parts of eight major league seasons (1952?59), Katt appeared in 417 games, and batted .232 with 32 home runs and 120 runs batted in for 1,071 at bats.
Coaching career
[
edit
]
Katt was a bullpen coach for the Cardinals from 1959 through June 15, 1960, and first-base coach for the
Cleveland Indians
in 1962. In between, he
managed
the
Triple-A
Portland Beavers
for the final eight weeks of the 1961 season.
He then returned to Texas ? first as a high school baseball coach in New Braunfels, and then as head baseball coach at Texas Lutheran, where he served for 22 seasons (1971?92), the team compiling a record of 502?362?2.
Katt-Isbel Field
, home of the college's baseball team, is named in his honor.
Katt died at age 72 from
lymphoma
in New Braunfels.
See also
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]
References
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]
Sources
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