Luis Tiant won 122 games over eight seasons with the Red Sox and is one of the best pitchers not enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
Luis Tiant, the flamboyant Cuban right-hander who spent more than 50 years as a Red Sox fan favorite, has died at age 83.
The news, confirmed Tuesday by Major League Baseball, comes as a stomach shot to an organization that welcomed “El Tiante” as an ambassador and link to the colorful 1970s clubs that caught the region’s imagination without ever quite winning a championship.
Tiant served as the staff ace for most of the ’70s, winning 122 games over eight seasons in Boston while compiling a 3.36 ERA. Overall, he won 229 games with a 3.30 lifetime ERA and is one of the best pitchers not enshrined in baseball’s Hall of Fame.
He retired in 1982 and spent the following two decades coaching in various minor league systems and managing the Div. III Savannah College of Art and Design until returning the Red Sox in 2002 as the pitching coach at short-season Lowell.
He spent the remainder of his career in the organization, and was a common sight riding a golf cart at spring training in Fort Myers. He was also a frequent clubhouse visitor in Boston, where he had a locker and became a personal favorite of ace Pedro Martinez.
With his Fu Manchu moustache, love of Cuban cigars (Sports Illustrated once famously photographed him smoking one in the shower), and unpredictable corkscrew gyrations on the mound, the unconventional Tiant married a sharp sense of theatrics with a killer instinct.
Luis Tiant perplexing Pete Rose. #RIP pic.twitter.com/BqewCZg79t
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 8, 2024
He was one of the best big-game pitchers of his or any generation. He never lost a playoff start, beating the Reds twice in the memorable 1975 World Series. When the Red Sox needed a win against Toronto on the final day of the 1978 season to force a one-game playoff with the Yankees, they knew where to turn.
“If we lose today, it will be over my dead body,” Tiant stated. “They’ll have to leave me face down on the mound.”
He threw a two-hit shutout, and Red Sox fans will always be left to wonder how the Bucky Dent game vs. New York might’ve played out had Tiant been able to start instead of Mike Torrez.
Tiant’s resume included four 20-win seasons, two ERA crowns, and three All-Star selections. His 1.60 ERA with the 1968 Indians remains the lowest among qualified American League starters in over 100 years.
He had hoped to complete his career with the Red Sox, but they only offered him a one-year deal in the winter of 1978 and he joined the Yankees in free agency. Tiant’s resignation was the first in a run of painful exits for ownership, which would include Fred Lynn and Carlton Fisk, and the team required nearly a decade to recover.
“When they let Luis Tiant go to New York they tore out our heart and soul,” Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski told The Boston Globe.
The two sides finally made apologies, and for the final two decades of his life, Tiant was a consistent presence around Fort Myers and Fenway Park.
“Proud to call New England home,” his Twitter bio states, and the affection was returned. When Tiant visited the Legends Suite, he typically received wild ovations.
