[MicroBob]

Kaat was pretty well known before his broadcasting career.

Kaat won 25 games and was A.L. pitcher of the year in 1966.
He would have won a Cy Young that year but they only gave one award for both leagues then and the award went to Sandy koufax.
He started 3 World Series games in 1965 and lost game 7 to Koufax in a classic duel.

He would regularly get around 20% of the votes for Hall of Fame induction (75% needed for election).

He still gets plenty of votes via the Veterans committee.

(note that most people wouldn't really consider him a 1980s player even though he did technically play a few yrs in the 80s).

also is one of the few players to have played in 4 different decades (Ted Williams, Tim McCarver, Willie McCovey, Carlton Fisk, Nolan Ryan, Rickey Henderson and Jesse Orosco being a few of the others)

His 25 yrs in the big-leagues rank him 3rd all-time among pitchers behind Nolan Ryan and Tommy John.