El Tiante

Name: Luis Tiant

Card Company; O Pee Chee

Year: 1982

Team Pittsburgh Pirates

Bats/Throws: R

Ht: 5'11

Luis Tiant, is a legend in his native Cuba, and a legend in Boston where he’s a member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame. But why isn’t he a legend everywhere else, why is he not a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame? Now before I go to ripping apart the BBWAA and their idiocy, I first will shine a light on the career of “El Tiante”.

Luis Tiant was the son of former great Negro League pitcher Luis Tiant Sr. and Isabel Vega. The younger Tiant soon joined local baseball teams as a youth, before being recommended to the Mexico City Tigers by Cleveland Indian scout Bobby Ávila. In 1961, again under the recommendation of Ávila the Cleveland Indians purchased Tiant’s contract for $35,000. However, with the strained relations between the USA and Cuba after the Bay of Pigs invasion Tiant would not see his family for 14-years.

Tiant would make his major-league debut in 1964 with the Cleveland Indians after quickly rising up through their farm system. In his first start he would square off with the New York Yankees throwing a 4-hit, 11 strikeout complete game shutout against the reigning AL Pennant winners. He would finish his rookie season with a 10-4 record with a 2.83 ERA in 19 games. After a few productive but not great seasons Tiant would do something that would change his career. To counteract a previous shoulder injury that caused a dip in his velocity, Tiant altered his delivery turning

his back to the batter creating a hesitation pitch. This motion is very similar to what Johnny Cueto does today, however Tiant did it first and did it best. That season in 1968 Tiant would finish with a 21-9 record posting 1.60 ERA while pitching over 250 innings and tossing 9 shutouts in the process. This season included a game in which Tiant struck out a then record 19 batters. However, Tiant would not receive a single Cy Young vote. Instead all the votes went to Denny McLain of the Tigers who had a 31-6 record and an ERA of 1.96. And as much as I would like to cook the BBWAA here I can’t. Even though this season didn’t result in any awards this was still a historical season that should be appreciated by all.

However, in 1969 Tiant would suffer the worst season (record wise) of his career finishing with a 9-20 record, but still finishing with a 3.71 ERA. It didn’t help that in that season Tiant was hampered by injuries but instead of resting he choose to carry on. While one can respect his toughness, one must also wonder if he would’ve been better suited had he rested himself. The Indians eventually traded Tiant to the Minnesota Twins for Dean Chance, Bob Miller, Ted Uhlaender and Graig Nettles. Tiant would spend one season in Minnesota pitching in only 18 games, finishing with 7-3 record with a 3.40 ERA before being released.

The next season he would be signed and released by the Atlanta Braves before eventually being signed by the Boston Red Sox. Once signed with the Rd Sox he would spend time in AAA before being called back up to the big leagues. It would be a rough 1st season for Tiant posting a 1-7 record with a 4.85 ERA in 21 games that season. However, Boston would not give up on Tiant and the following season they would be rewarded. In 1972, he would bounce back in a big way, finishing the season with a 15-6 record and a 1.91 ERA as he clawed his way back into being a full-time starter. In 8 seasons with the Red Sox Tiant would compile a 122-81 record with a 3.36 ERA while averaging well over 200 innings pitched per year. And in 1975 Louis Tiant had a chance to be a World Series champion.

The 1975 World Series might very well be the best World Series that has ever been played. It pitted the “Big Red Machine” Cincinnati Reds against the AL Champion Boston Red Sox. Toeing the slab for game 1 was Tiant who handed the Reds a rare shutout in 6-0 victory for the Red Sox. In the crowd that night were Tiant’s mother and father who recently were allowed to leave Cuba and saw their son pitch a masterful game. Cincinnati led by Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench and Pete Rose the Reds would take games 2 and 3. Tiant would then go on to pitch a complete game against the Reds allowing 4 runs but still managed to pick up the victory, winning the game 5-4. In that game, he would throw 173 pitches, leaving the Red Sox with a tough choice of when they should pitch Tiant next. That answer would come sooner rather than later, with the Reds winning game 5. The series moved back to Boston which was dealing with heavy rain, that delayed the series 3 days allowing the Red Sox to rest their starters. It started out well for Tiant who cruised through the first 4 innings while Boston spotted him a 3-run lead. That would all change it the 5th as Cincinnati would tie the game in the third, before a clutch two out double by George Foster in the 7th would give the Reds a 5-3 lead. A leadoff single (that would score) in the 8th would end Tiant’s night pitching 7 innings allowing 6 runs. The Sox would respond back with 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th getting Tiant off the hook and tying the game at 6 runs apiece. The Reds and Red Sox would trade zeros, until the 12th when Carlton Fisk hit the iconic “Stay Fair” homerun forcing a game 7. Game 7 started out well for the Red Sox, who clung to a 3-0 lead after 5 innings of play. But in the 6th inning with a man on Boston pitcher Bill Lee wouldfloat an eephus pitch to eventual Hall of Famer Tony Perez who deposited the ball over the Green Monster for a 2-run dinger. The Reds would go on to score 1 run in the 7th and 1 run in the 9th to win the World Series in a thrilling 7 game series.

Tiant after leaving the Red Sox in 1979 pitched for the Yankees for 2 years, before having brief 1 year stints with both the Pirates and Angels. In those 4 years, he would compile a 4.36 ERA finishing with a record of 25-24 pitching a combined 413 innings. Tiant’s career was over and at the end of it stood a great 19-year career. His final career stat-line is (229-172 Record) (3.30 ERA) (3,486 IP) (2416 SO), all while pitching in 573 games.

Now here’s where I rant a little bit. You see Luis Tiant’s stats while great aren’t eye popping and don’t scream Hall of Fame I get that. However, when you compare Luis Tiant’s stats with other Hall of Famers they compare really well. Specifically let’s take a look at hall of Famer James “Catfish” Hunter (CH) and how his stats compare to Louis Tiant’s (LT). The Major difference between the two is that Catfish played 14 years while Tiant played 19 years, so I only calculated for Tiant’s first 15 years.

Win/Loss Record

CH : 224-166 LT: 204-148

ERA

CH: 3.26 LT: 3.16

Games Pitched

CH: 500 LT: 503

Strikeouts

CH: 2012 LT: 2166

Strikeout to Walk Ratio

CH: 2.11 LT: 2.22

So, the main question we have to ask are selves here is not whether or not Tiant has Hall of Fame worthy stats, but are we punishing him for longevity? If that answer is yes, then why do we celebrate longevity in sports? Seriously answer me this, why is it that Ichiro gets applauded for chasing 3000 hits while sacrificing his batting average when Tiant is punished? Both Ichiro and Tiant deserve to be in the Hall of Fame no question about it. However, one will be in on the first or second ballot while the other has to wait to see if he’ll get elected by the BBWAA “Historical Committee” in 2018. Because you know the BBWAA can only screw up acknowledging greatness once every three years.

So, the moral of the story is, retire on top or prepare to get punished for playing the game you love

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